On the verge of giving up! Humidity problems.....

So i'll start from the begging, i wont be anything out and any help will be appreciated.

The problem is, all my sticks are F**king up, i buy them, put them in the humidor and they practically never smoke again.

A few months back i purchased a 25 stick desktop humidor, a digital hygrometer and two lots of 65% beads from heartfelt. So what on earth has gone wrong ?

I seasoned the humidor, left if for two weeks and the humidity never droppped, it stayed up at 78% so i opened it up for over a week to which it finally dropped to 63%, i added the 65% beads closed the lip and the humidity would and still will continue to rise to plus 73%.

i didnt add cigars for months, when i finally did the humidity just wouldnt drop, so i found myself opening the lid for days at a time only to close it and the humidity rise.

I have salted tested my hygrometers several times and they are correct. i added two lots of 65% but nothing would bring it down.

What i dont understand is my sticks...the bands slide up and down as if the cigars were dried out yet when i smoke one the draw is so hard its as if they are too moist and its plugged the cigar, also the taste of the cigar is bitter.

Whats going on please, are they too dry or too moist, what the bloody hell is my humidor doing to them, i havent had a successful smoke in weeks and i dont want to buy anymore sticks as i dont want to destroy them.

Someone please help me.

regards
Owen

i have just noticed i have a specially made hygrometer just for exterior mount humidor models.

What does this mean, i have it inside the humi just sitting on the bottom.

Could this be the route of all my problems.

Are your beads totally saturated? They would look all clear, without any white. What kind of cigars, or do you have a variety of cigars? If you have all one kind, maybe they have construction issues.

I can't see where the position of the hygrometer IN the humidor makes any difference.

When you smoke the cigar, is the draw very hard, like it's plugged? Does the ash look especially dark / charcoal colored insted of more white? This could indicate too dry.

From what I read, my money is on poorly constructed cigars, not the humidor. Just my analysis.

i had never had the beads in there but it still read 70% but after a while i didnt trust anything so i just completely saturated the beads, threw them in and left it.

The ash isnt all that white and yes its as if the cigar is plugged, i thought this was from over humidifying the cigars yet like i say the band on the stick slides up and down and is really lose.

Completely saturated beads isn't what you want. You want about a 50 /50 mix of white and clear beads.

Do you live somewhere that is extra humid? My stuff goes up in the summer here in Pennsylvania when it gets really hot and muggy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Owen_

i had never had the beads in there but it still read 70% but after a while i didnt trust anything so i just completely saturated the beads, threw them in and left it.

The ash isnt all that white and yes its as if the cigar is plugged, i thought this was from over humidifying the cigars yet like i say the band on the stick slides up and down and is really lose.

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This may be the issue. I had similar problems of over saturating. Beads not only give humidity but they take it in (regulate) so should only be half wet. Also I found through advice on this forum that cigars must be in the box. You need to have those sponges in there to help the process. At the point you are at your box may be too wet. This is a spanish cedar box..yes? If your box is too wet you may have to take the beads out for a bit and dry the box again.
I actually bought a new humidor and redid the entire process. And I use the other box that I screwed up to throw my bands in

Dry your beads until they are completely white........put them in the humidor and leave it alone for a couple of days, don't open it.
After a couple of days, check your beads to see if they are pulling humidity in and turning clear to one degree or another.
As mentioned above, keeping your humi somewhere around 75% full will help both to absorb RH and regulate normal fluctuations as you open / close it.
Above all, patience is the key. You don't want changes in your humidity to be drastic or fast.

something else i was thinking. How many beads did you put in the humi? You said you picked up two lots. For a smaller humi you dont need a ton of beads

Never mind...

I asked you where you live then found a previous post where you said you're from the UK. I thought your humidity problem may be a function of your climate however I see you've had this problem in the winter and the summer months in the UK. Your climate is essentially the same as mine in the northeast United States and in Nova Scotia so I don't think that's a contributing factor in your case.

Small humidors are like small salt water aquariums, they're a pain in the a$$ to regulate. It sounds like you have a fair amount of beads. How about trying to set up a small cooler as your humidor and seeing if you have any luck with getting the humidity to stay between 65 and 70%?

Just an idea....

Personally, I've never had a problem using beads but my humidors are located my finished basement where the humidity down there is almost 60% to 65% at all times. I have two large coolers set up with beads and I haven't added water in the past seven years.