Boveda 65%RH made my Humidor JUMP to 76% overnight WTF?

[Jaybird]

So I first have to give credit to Boveda as a company. I bought 6, 65% packs online from someone other than them. One of their retailers. and in having trouble I called Boveda to get advise, it is their produce after all. In talking with them they aren't sure whats going on so she is sending me (free of charge, mind you) 6 of the 62% (to get the humidity down), 6 of the 65% and a calibration kit. Regardless if I keep using them or not. That is GREAT GREAT customer service!
Now onto my issue and maybe someone here has some insight. I opened them (all 6) and dropped them in my humidor that was sitting at exactly 68% for the last several weeks. overnight my humidity jumped to 76% Uhhhhh I was really thinking it would go down a few points. Anyone experience this ever with the Boveda packs?

Cheers
Jay

 

[thrasher66]

I am contemplating going to all boveda for my winador. Interested to see how your story pans out.

 

[StogieNinja]

I think you need to calibrate your hygrometer.

 

[SFerrojr]

I think you need to calibrate your hygrometer.

+1. That seems like a crazy big jump overnight. I couldn't even get that big a change overnight with an open dish of Distilled Water when I was seasoning. What did you have in there before the Bovedas?

 

[joe45]

I think you need to calibrate your hygrometer.

+1. That seems like a crazy big jump overnight. I couldn't even get that big a change overnight with an open dish of Distilled Water when I was seasoning. What did you have in there before the Bovedas?

And how big is the humidor?

 

[ZaneG]

Use the calibration kit when you get it. I imagine you need to calibrate. Digital or analog?

 

[jonboy]

Boveda user here. Never an issue. Always rock steady.

 

[ZaneG]

Boveda user here. Never an issue. Always rock steady.

Same here. Never ever had an issue.

 

[atbat82]

I use Boveda 65% and my humidor has been rock solid at 68% (easily chalked up to a calibration error - I used the salt test, but eh...). It literally hasn't moved off 68% in two months.

 

[Xavier Dredo]

I think you need to calibrate your hygrometer.

+1. That seems like a crazy big jump overnight. I couldn't even get that big a change overnight with an open dish of Distilled Water when I was seasoning. What did you have in there before the Bovedas?

And how big is the humidor?

Right, I use 5-6 in a cooler along with some KL and it's rock steady.

 

[Jaybird]

Hygrometer has been calibrated and sat next to a calibrated digital hygrometer and they read the same I am going to trust that the hygrometer is solid as a rock, for now. I have been using the Foam that came with the humidor and the Glycol solution. It has been solid at 68% +- 1% since I seasoned it. It is a 100 ct humidor and it has about 65 sticks in it right now.

I am really at a loss. I pulled the 65% Boveda packs and left my humidor open for several hours and the hygrometer is now reading the 68% it was before I put the packs in there. I am going to put my foam pillow back in there until the package from Boveda gets here.

Is there a place in the humidor they NEED to be placed? I would think anywhere would be OK as its an emit and receive kind of thing, right?

Thanks for the feedback guys..

Cheers
Jay

 

[Zmilin]

Have you tried cutting back to 2-4 packs? Based on the size and quantity of cigars you have six packs is a bit much.

 

[ZaneG]

Hygrometer has been calibrated and sat next to a calibrated digital hygrometer and they read the same I am going to trust that the hygrometer is solid as a rock, for now. I have been using the Foam that came with the humidor and the Glycol solution. It has been solid at 68% +- 1% since I seasoned it. It is a 100 ct humidor and it has about 65 sticks in it right now.

I am really at a loss. I pulled the 65% Boveda packs and left my humidor open for several hours and the hygrometer is now reading the 68% it was before I put the packs in there. I am going to put my foam pillow back in there until the package from Boveda gets here.

Is there a place in the humidor they NEED to be placed? I would think anywhere would be OK as its an emit and receive kind of thing, right?

Thanks for the feedback guys..

Cheers
Jay

You can lay them directly on the cigars. I imagine you removed the puck before adding the boveda?

 

[StogieNinja]

Hygrometer has been calibrated and sat next to a calibrated digital hygrometer and they read the same I am going to trust that the hygrometer is solid as a rock, for now.

HANG ON.

I'm guessing that means you're reading the analog hygrometer that came with the humidor? If so, that's your problem. It may have read the same as your digital hygrometer, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

 

[ShaneG]

You can lay them directly on the cigars. I imagine you removed the puck before adding the boveda?

Did you not remove other media? Boveda are self regulating- you could fill the box with 40 of them and add a dozen cigars and they would still maintain the stated RH. Something is weird here and I'm also assuming a mis-calibrated hygro. How long did you have them in for? Put them back pull all other sources and let it sit for a few days- it will fix itself.

 

[Jaybird]

You can lay them directly on the cigars. I imagine you removed the puck before adding the boveda?

Did you not remove other media? Boveda are self regulating- you could fill the box with 40 of them and add a dozen cigars and they would still maintain the stated RH. Something is weird here and I'm also assuming a mis-calibrated hygro. How long did you have them in for? Put them back pull all other sources and let it sit for a few days- it will fix itself.

Yes I did remove all other media. I understand a the clock analogy but come on. When you salt test a hygrometer and its good. You set the hygrometer next to a known calibrated and good working digital hygrometer AND the hygrometer seems to act as it should with all other media. Even coming from an industrial electrical and IT career I am not doubting the hygrometer at this point. When I pulled the Boveda packs and left it open for a few/several hours it came back to where it has been reading. I am going to do yet another salt test tonight but I am as of right now not doubting the hygrometer. This is not to say its not right! But right now I am thinking there is something else wrong in the mix. As for adding too many Boveda packs. They say you cant add too many. I was testing that out. I bought 6 knowing I only needed 4 for my 100 and then 2 for my 50 count. But when they say you cant have too many they mean I can toss 100 into a 1 SF air tight container and it will still stay at 65%. Don't get me wrong guys it could always be a calibration or bad meter as they do go bad, hell even the digital ones can go bad. Only time will tell at this point.

Cheers
Jay

 

[Jaybird]

salt test is under way......
Thanks for all the feedback and ideas guys!

Tomorrow is yet another day! We will see...

Cheers
Jay

 

[danmdevries]

I had high humidity issues with Bovedas as well, but that was because they reached saturation fairly quickly in the summer. I had similar issues with HF beads, I need to periodically dry them out.

In my experience, Bovedas come shipped pretty close to saturation and if placed in a higher humidity environment (which I HIGHLY suspect is your humidor with foam) they will not be able to keep up. Also, I've noticed an early spike in rh when I put em in, but its usually settled after a couple days. Though when saturated, they struggle to keep up.

However, once I let em dry a bit (stick my beads and Bovedas in the fridge for 10-12 hours) they worked just fine. In a sealed container like tupperdors or a cooler, I've never needed to mess with them. Cigars smoked just fine.

How do the cigars smoke? Do they smoke wet or dry? That, in the end is what matters.

 

[JustinThyme]

Don't bother with the salt test. Wait for the calibration kit to arrive.

Bovedas are well known for being pretty much spot on what the package says. Is it possible some got mislabeled? Well yes. What Im having difficultly swallowing is that big of a shift overnight from any media let alone boveda. I use bovedas sparingly in travel humis and one desk top and one thing i have come to terms with is a certainty that boveda packs are very slow to react.

 

[CPRSquared]

Hygrometer has been calibrated and sat next to a calibrated digital hygrometer and they read the same I am going to trust that the hygrometer is solid as a rock, for now. I have been using the Foam that came with the humidor and the Glycol solution. It has been solid at 68% +- 1% since I seasoned it. It is a 100 ct humidor and it has about 65 sticks in it right now.

I am really at a loss. I pulled the 65% Boveda packs and left my humidor open for several hours and the hygrometer is now reading the 68% it was before I put the packs in there. I am going to put my foam pillow back in there until the package from Boveda gets here.

Is there a place in the humidor they NEED to be placed? I would think anywhere would be OK as its an emit and receive kind of thing, right?

Thanks for the feedback guys..

Cheers
Jay

You can lay them directly on the cigars. I imagine you removed the puck before adding the boveda?

Hey Jay, I'm the Business Development Director at Boveda, I thought I'd help you out. 95+% of our customer service calls are solved by calibrating your hygrometer. "But I just did that!", you say. There are a number of subtle ways it won't be reliable. The only 100% sure way is to use our Calibration Kit (which I'm going to send you for free). In 24 hours, you'll know how accurate your hygros are to 75.5% RH. Once that's done, the hygro in your humidor for a couple days will tell you what really going on. There's a 0% chance that Boveda can humidify beyond the RH on the pack, with the one exception of "recharging" them beyond the max they can absorb (about 15% of their starting weight), throwing the water/salt ratio off. In that case though, they just need to give up moisture to bring the ratio back in line and then it'll be 65% (+/-1%) again.

So my hunch is that your humidor has actually been running low with the PG solution and now that the Boveda have brought the RH up where it needs to be, your hygros are saying it's too high. We'll get you all squared away by sending a free calibration kit, if you'd fire a link to this message and your shipping address to info at bovedainc dot com. Thank you very much for your business, let me know if I can be more help. Cheers! Charlie