Humidity Trouble

[Cigarbear]

I have a 150 qt cooler that's pretty full. My hygrometer is calibrated and recalibrated correctly as of last night. I have 1 lb of hearrtfelt 60% Rh beads. I was using 70% but my Rh kept about 71-74%. When I bought the 60% beads a couple weeks ago I put them in the humi without adding any distilled water thinking the Rh would settle better that way since all the sticks were too moist anyway. The hygrometer continues to read 70%. The Rh in the house is aroun 75% so opening the door more often doesn't seem to be the best way to drop the Rh. I can't find anything with search about a similar problem. I also have a desk top humi with 65% beads and it stays aroun 68%. Could the new beads have been mislabled? Am I destined for an active system? I though a pound of beads was a bit more than needed but did I just do the math wrong? I'm tired of slow draws and split wrappers! I can't even dry box with the high humidty. The Fonseca I left out of the cooler for a week still split last night

[TravPSU]

I know when I contacted Heartfelt they said it could take a few weeks for the beads to settle.

The following quote is from the email I got from them.

It takes a while for all of the cigars and the boxes to give of the excess moisture that is stored in them. It can take many weeks for the moisture to come out of the contents of the cooler.

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Are you sure you have a good seal on your cooler? I have a small coolidor but I used adhesive rubber weather sealing around the lid to ensure an airtight seal and no problems but like I said, it is a much smaller cooler.

[Cigarbear]

I'm confident of the seal. It seems like a bit more patience is in order though it's definitely not my strong suit!

[Bluesmudge]

I've only had my humidor a couple weeks. I have one of those "pucks" with 65% RH beads inside and my humidity stays between 67-68% so either the labeling of the beads is only a rough estimate of what RH you get or it will take awhile for the RH to drop. Either way I can live with 68%, it doesn't seem too bad and there is not much I can do about it. The humidity where I live is 47% so at least I can let me cigars sit a bit before smoking them.

[WaxingMoon]

I think that a problem with the coolidors, is that there is no spanish cedar lining in them. The main reason Spanish Cedar is used in humidors is that it helps control the RH. Spanish Cedar likes 70% humidity and will draw from or put back in to it's surroundings to keep it there. It provides more of a stabilization effect than anything.

Your coolidor already provides a good seal - so, making sure the spanish cedar has a tight seal is uneccessary.

However, you may want to find a piece to lay on the bottom or even come up the sides with it.

It can only help the situation.