Help with testing hydrometer and seasoning humidor

I recently purchased a 25 cigar humidor off of cheapcigarhumidors. It came yesterday and reading the instructions, it told me to put a shot glass full of water along with the humidifier in the humidor. I did that and then followed the directions for calibrating the hydrometer. When I slipped it in the bag it registered 57% humidity and when I woke up this morning it read 59% humidity. I left it in there until noon today and it registered the same so I turned it up to 75% and took it out of the bag to see if it would go down. It went down slowly but not by much, right now its at like 72% sitting in my dry house. I went to walmart and picked up a digital hydrometer and thermometer for $6.50 just to check this one. The package said it could be +/-5% humidity in its reading, is that okay? Now should I salt test this digital one even though its non changeable?

Yes, you should salt-test the wally world hyrgrometer. Once you identify the variance you can mentally correct for it when monitoring and adjusting your humidity.

I just want to clarify if I did this correct...I got a little dish, put i teaspoon of salt in it and added a little distilled water to make it into kind of a paste, then placed that mixture along with my hydrometer in a bag and waited 6 hours. Does that sound correct or do you have any changes to it?

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Originally Posted by malibuboats91

I just want to clarify if I did this correct...I got a little dish, put i teaspoon of salt in it and added a little distilled water to make it into kind of a paste, then placed that mixture along with my hydrometer in a bag and waited 6 hours. Does that sound correct or do you have any changes to it?

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I've heard you should double bag it and wait overnight. The rest sounds ok. The one time I did it, I used the cap to a water bottle, and packed it with salt, then made the paste as you described.

Will
PS Welcome from Bitterville

Alright thanks! I just put it in the baggie with the mixture and sealed it up, then put that baggie inside another baggie.

I have been testing them and came to the conclusion that the one provided from cheap humidors is not consistent at all so they are sending me a new POS hygrometer. Now the digital I think is 15% below what it should be reading. I have had my humidification device in the humidor along with the shot glass full of distilled water since tuesday at 6pm central standard time and I just took a look inside and there is about a quarter of an inch of water gone from the shot glass. Now with my doubtful hygrometers, how do I tell if its seasoned or not? The digital has a reading of 75% and the analog has a reading of 72% after doing the math.

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Originally Posted by malibuboats91

I have been testing them and came to the conclusion that the one provided from cheap humidors is not consistent at all so they are sending me a new POS hygrometer. Now the digital I think is 15% below what it should be reading. I have had my humidification device in the humidor along with the shot glass full of distilled water since tuesday at 6pm central standard time and I just took a look inside and there is about a quarter of an inch of water gone from the shot glass. Now with my doubtful hygrometers, how do I tell if its seasoned or not? The digital has a reading of 75% and the analog has a reading of 72% after doing the math.

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Judging by the content of this thread, I'm going to assume you're new to cigars and humidors. Now that that's outta the way a here's some thoughts:

1) Analog hydrometer suck IMO
2) If the humidor is apparently sucking water, it's either air leaky, or it's not seasoned.
3) Don't worry about it
4) Get some humidity beads
5) Regularly smoke cigars outta this humi. If they burn black, and taste like ash, they're too dry. If it feels like you're sucking a golf ball through a garden hose, and the wrapper split all the time, it's too wet.
6) Don't worry about it
7) Get a coolerdor made up and hoard shitloads of smokes. If this humidor is running dry, use it as a dry boxer, just for decoration, or keep your macanudos in it.

Will

PS "they are sending me a new POS hygrometer" made me laugh

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Originally Posted by badwhale

PS "they are sending me a new POS hygrometer" made me laugh

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That cracked me up, too. It's awesome when you call customer service somewhere and tell them, "This _____ I got from you...well, it's kind of a piece of shit." and you hear, "We're so sorry to hear that sir, we'll send you out another piece of shit immediately."

My thought is to spend the money on a good hygrometer/thermometer combo that you can calibrate. You can get this all over the web or in a B&M.

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Originally Posted by Daigz

My thought is to spend the money on a good hygrometer/thermometer combo that you can calibrate. You can get this all over the web or in a B&M.

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Or, you could just pick up some beads and throw the hygro's away.

I pulled the shot glass out 3 hours ago and they still read within 2% of my inital readings. Now this sounds like a dumb question but I'm curious to know if I have had cigars in a ziplock for 3 months and are probably dried out, if I put them in my humidor and got them back up to humidity would they be good again? Or are they done for?

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Originally Posted by malibuboats91

I pulled the shot glass out 3 hours ago and they still read within 2% of my inital readings. Now this sounds like a dumb question but I'm curious to know if I have had cigars in a ziplock for 3 months and are probably dried out, if I put them in my humidor and got them back up to humidity would they be good again? Or are they done for?

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Search is your friend. :smiley2:
http://www.cigarsmokers.com/threads/...ight=rehydrate

That's just one link; try rehydrate as your keyword.

I just bought some Madelaine crystals from the local tobacco supplier and put those in the humidor and took out the supplied humidifier.

So I put the crystals in the humidor and took out my analog hygrometer and decided to salt test it one more time. This time I put it in a rubermaid container for like a sandwich. Came home and checked it to find a reading of exactly 75%. This meaning my tests in the bag were way off and and there is really 85% humidity in my humidor or something else is going on. This craziness never stops!!!

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Originally Posted by malibuboats91

So I put the crystals in the humidor and took out my analog hygrometer and decided to salt test it one more time. This time I put it in a rubermaid container for like a sandwich. Came home and checked it to find a reading of exactly 75%. This meaning my tests in the bag were way off and and there is really 85% humidity in my humidor or something else is going on. This craziness never stops!!!

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Please refer to notes 3 & 6 on post #7

So after letting my humidor sit for a week with 7 cigars in it, my analog hygrometer has been reading a constant 70%. I had called cheap humidors the day I got my humidor because the analog hygrometer was all scratched up and they were sending me a new one. A week passed so I called them and I guess they sent it to the wrong person. I talked them into deducting the cost of the analog from the digital so I got an adjustable digital for $13. Now I just have to do the salt test to it. Thanks for all they help!

My humidor surely enough has been holding a constant 70% humidity. Now my only questions is what temperature should it be in the humidor? I live in wisconsin and our house in the winter typically is anywhere from 60 at the least to 70 degrees at the most. The few times I have checked the thermometer has registered like 64 degrees in there.

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Originally Posted by malibuboats91

My humidor surely enough has been holding a constant 70% humidity. Now my only questions is what temperature should it be in the humidor? I live in wisconsin and our house in the winter typically is anywhere from 60 at the least to 70 degrees at the most. The few times I have checked the thermometer has registered like 64 degrees in there.

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60 to 70 sounds fine to me :smiley20:

I purchased the digital hygrometer from cheaphumidors and I allografts it. After a few days on my humidor I noticed it reading a humidity level of 65. I have the 70% humidity gel in it now. My cigars seem very firm. What should I do to get the humidity level up? Do you think it wasn't seasoned enough? Or what's going on?

JC. How are they somking?

Refer to note #3 in post #7

Will

To be honest I haven't had one out of the humidor yet.

So I added the humidifier that came with the humidor to it along with the gel. I have been getting a reading from 69 to 71 percent this whole week. Today I decided to smoke a Arturo Fuente 858. It was smoking good pretty good but kind of hard to take a draw. I'm not sure what that means but im assuming its something to do with my humidity.