Major Humidor Problems

Hey Guys;

I am sure you have been asked a million questions about humidor problems but I can not get mine to maintain. I cant seem to get it above 50-54%RH. I have a Siglo Vibrant Series 75 sticks humidor with about 77 sticks in it. I calibrated the hygrometer with a One Step Calibration Humidipak 75.5% RH. After 30 hrs it read 73% RH. I have The Puck-100/70%. I added the distilled water to The Puck and after a week they are still basically clear. I moved rooms and the same thing. So if my hygrometer calibrated correctly and The Puck beads are not turning white why is the humidor only maintaining a RH of around 50%? Any help would be appreciated.

did you season the inside ???...

Set up the Humidifier

Take the sponge and drown it in Distilled Water and brush all the wood in the humidor. Soak all the walls, be liberal, soak the walls! Don't worry, the wood can take all the water. If you have a tray or dividers soak these also. Once you have completed this; re-soak the sponge and place it in the middle of the Humi on a plastic bag assuring the sponge doesn’t touch the wood. Put your divider/tray in the humi then close the lid and let sit for at least 24 hours. If you have a divider and tray, place the divider in the tray, NOT on the sponge. Leave the lid closed the entire time. The reason you do this is to allow the cedar to soak in water.



If you just put the Cigars in humi without seasoning it, the wood will try to soak in the water and so will all the cigars. This means your humidification device will not be able to put out enough humidity to keep the humidifier stabilized. This can dry out your wood over time and ruin that wonderful humi you just purchased. This is why you season it.

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Originally Posted by tommyb77

Hey Guys;

I am sure you have been asked a million questions about humidor problems but I can not get mine to maintain. I cant seem to get it above 50-54%RH. I have a Siglo Vibrant Series 75 sticks humidor with about 77 sticks in it. I calibrated the hygrometer with a One Step Calibration Humidipak 75.5% RH. After 30 hrs it read 73% RH. I have The Puck-100/70%. I added the distilled water to The Puck and after a week they are still basically clear. I moved rooms and the same thing. So if my hygrometer calibrated correctly and The Puck beads are not turning white why is the humidor only maintaining a RH of around 50%? Any help would be appreciated.

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Im new here also but just wondered, how long did you "season" your humidor ? I let my humi sit about a week with just the cheapo humidifer that came with mine (i also heated up a bowl of warm distilled water & let it sit everyday)

I would also do a search within this site (i read it when i was setting up my humi) on, like bigpoppa said "setting up your humidor" !!

Should go without saying, but store your cigars in tupperware or ziplocks while seasoning the humi. For the -please remove from wrapper before eating folks. What is the temp?

Thanks for all the quick responses. To season the humi all i did was put a warm bowl of distilled water in the box over night and then wiped down the inside with distilled water. The temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius which is about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. So maybe i need to reseason the box. But if the wood was dry wouldnt the RH Beads be losing moisture and turning white?

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Originally Posted by tommyb77

Thanks for all the quick responses. To season the humi all i did was put a warm bowl of distilled water in the box over night and then wiped down the inside with distilled water. The temperature is around 20 degrees Celsius which is about 68 degrees Fahrenheit. So maybe i need to reseason the box. But if the wood was dry wouldnt the RH Beads be losing moisture and turning white?

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When all else fails...read the directions that came with your humidor !

If you put all 77 sticks in and they were a bit dry it's going to take a while for the sticks to absorb the moisture and the humi to equalize, especially with 77 sticks in a 75 stick humi (why does that remind me of an old joke?)

I would suggest that you take some of the sticks out and put them in a Tupperware container. Let the humi equalize at about 1/2 - 2/3 capacity, then add the sticks a few at a time. It's always good to leave some room in the humi to increase surface area. You might want to consider another humi or a cooledor.

Good luck.

What really has me confused it that the RH Beads are not drying out. I thought if the humi (and cigars) were really dry I would have to keep adding water to the beads, but the beads are not drying out at all and it has been over a week.

The beads are there to moisturize the humidor walls as well as humidify the space inside the humidor. With such a small amount of air space inside the humidor and the interior walls being shielded by all of the cigars, the humidor walls will not be able to absorb moisture, and once the moisture from the initial seasoning in the humidor is absorbed into the cigars it can't get replenished from the surrounding air. If the walls can't absorb the moisture it's going to stay in the beads, and the cigars are going to suck up moisture faster than the beads can release it. Remember, we're talking about passive evaporation here.

You really need air inside the humidor for it to work properly. You shouldn't be filling it more than 3/4 or so of capacity. I suspect that unless you have 77 cigarillos in there it's stuffed pretty good.

I think we should make a sticky, "If you have humidity problems, before asking a question, buy the beads. This will solve your question."

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Originally Posted by cls515

I think we should make a sticky, "If you have humidity problems, before asking a question, buy the beads. This will solve your question."

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Generally true, but he said he already has the beads.

Thanks for all the help guys. I have a back-up humidor(this is also not working 100%) so I think I am going to take my sticks out of the Siglo, put them in the back up and re-season the Siglo. Hopefully once it is working right I will re-season the back up and then only put in about 50 of my best sticks or so in the Siglo, leaving the rest in the back-up.

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Originally Posted by tommyb77

Thanks for all the help guys. I have a back-up humidor(this is also not working 100%) so I think I am going to take my sticks out of the Siglo, put them in the back up and re-season the Siglo. Hopefully once it is working right I will re-season the back up and then only put in about 50 of my best sticks or so in the Siglo, leaving the rest in the back-up.

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I think you'll see major improvements. Let us know how it works.

It sounds like you are well on your way to having a seasoned humidor. However, if you don't have a digital hygrometer, then you can't trust what it says. Those analog hygrometers are EXTREMELY unpredictable and I wouldn't trust them for a second. In fact, I bought two digital hygrometers just to ensure I had them properly calibrated.

Now, not all digital hygrometers can be tested all that well. Mine work perfectly now, but they didn't show perfectly when I salt-tested them. I used beads to test them and they were both perfect at 65% with 65% beads....well, one was 64%, but close enough for my taste.

Just some things to think about....

Hey Guys;

Thanks for all the help. I followed these directions http://www.cigarsmokers.com/showthre...etting+humidor
to season my humidor. I only put in about 50 cigars in the humidor and I am using the 75% RH Puck. Everything seems to be working. The humidity is about 73%. I am very happy now.