water or solution?

[primus67]

hi all, first post here!

i got a new madelaine monet humidor about 3 weeks ago. i did the whole seasoning thing but i still have trouble. when i keep a wet sponge on a dish along with the humidifier, my level stays at 70. when i take the sponge out, it goes down to about 60. now, the madelaine humidifier says to use madelaine solution exclusively, so that's what i've filled it up with. would it really make any difference if i used distilled water only in the puck? could that be why i start losing humidity when i take the sponge out? the humidor holds about 75 but right now i have 10 churchills and about 5 coronas.

[prophetic_joe]

hi all, first post here!

i got a new madelaine monet humidor about 3 weeks ago. i did the whole seasoning thing but i still have trouble. when i keep a wet sponge on a dish along with the humidifier, my level stays at 70. when i take the sponge out, it goes down to about 60. now, the madelaine humidifier says to use madelaine solution exclusively, so that's what i've filled it up with. would it really make any difference if i used distilled water only in the puck? could that be why i start losing humidity when i take the sponge out? the humidor holds about 75 but right now i have 10 churchills and about 5 coronas.

With the sponges I have found that propylene glycol solution works best but what you really need to do is a salt test on your hygrometer it could very well be reading incorrectly. Do a search and you will find many threads on salt tests, just remember to double bag it. Also you may want to look into getting yourself some heartfelt beads, google search will find them for you, pretty idiot proof and maybe buying yourself a digital hygrometer as they tend to stay consistent longer. I say consistent because with these as well you need to salt test, they are not right on the money often but they will be off by the same amount most times. All you do is find out how much they are off by and then mark them so you know. I have one that is -1 and one -8.

[bigwhiteash]

Welcome to Cigarsmokers!

One question I'll ask is, how full is your humidor with cigars? Air is a very poor buffer of hunidity, if you have only a couple cigars stored, every time you open the humidor, you let out all the humidity that your solution is providing. When you keep it at least 3/4 full, there is much less empty air. Cigars lose their humidity at a fairly slow rate under normal conditions, and provide a much needed buffer for rh, allowing humidity to recover much faster after opening.

[primus67]

can't do the salt test. the hygrometer is stuck into the lid with double-sided tape. won't come off.

the humidor is practically empty besides the few cigars i have in there now. i'd say it's like 85% empty.

[Silencei2]

From the fellow BOTLs that I have talked to, most of them have said stick with distilled water. Some of the cons with using solution is that it will wear out the medium you put it on. So if you have a sponge it will make it stiff and unusable after a while.

I had a friend who had me take care of his humidor and he used the solution. I'm not sure how long he took care of it for but it looked like the humidity pack he used had a bunch of crystallization on it.

I'll stick with beads and distilled water.

[bigwhiteash]

can't do the salt test. the hygrometer is stuck into the lid with double-sided tape. won't come off.

the humidor is practically empty besides the few cigars i have in there now. i'd say it's like 85% empty.

So, this is the round analog hygrometer? notoriously inaccurate. Try to find a digital one, even a cheap one from wal mart is better.

Is there any way you can take up some of the space inside with something? Maybe blocks of wood from cigar boxes? Or, even a bundle of inexpensive cigars would do.

[primus67]

some comments i've read swear that the madelaine solution is great. and the bottle says to use it EVERY time you fill the humidifier. i wondered if it was really that big a deal.

plus, i have 2 boxes of cigars on the way from JR, 25 coronas and 25 lonsdales. i wanted to make sure my humidor was ready to go before i put them in, but that may be the solution right there.