Dryboxing and ambient climate

[rowdy]

It is hot and humid in Florida. RH fluctuates from 90 in the morning to 60 in the afternoon. I'm having issues with tunneling and wrapper not burning often enough that it can't be a construction issue. Tupperdor is 65% at 70-78F with bovedas, CC and NC alike.

Would dry-boxing in the house where RH is less than 65 (generally about 50) make anything better or worse?

Would "wet-boxing" out on the porch where I smoke be suggested to bring sticks up closer to the smoking climate?

 

[Kantucky]

At 78 degrees, their temp is too high. I'd definately fix that first. But that's just me.

I don't normally dry box, but I'd think dry boxing in your house will help some.

 

[Diesel57]

How long are you letting the cigars rest at the 65 RH before smoking? I live in Houston which has high humidity and ran into the same issue, I've found that letting the cigars rest for a minimum of 2 weeks at 65 RH has really helped.


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[rowdy]

At 78 degrees, their temp is too high.

True, but I haven't been able to convince the wife to let me set the AC at 70 during the day when we aren't home, and haven't gone the wino route yet. I'm relying on 65%RH and manufacturer freezing to keep the beetles away. No issues yet. I'd love to have a wineador at some point, but I just can't get past the price yet vs. the tupperdor.

How long are you letting the cigars rest at the 65 RH before smoking?

Doesn't seem to be too related for me. Anything from ROTT to many months of rest.

 

[AUotto]

They say the general rule is cigars go up or down 1% per week when acclimating to a certain humidity. Not sure how accurate this is, but it has certainly helped me.

 

[cbohyn]

It is hot and humid in Florida. RH fluctuates from 90 in the morning to 60 in the afternoon. I'm having issues with tunneling and wrapper not burning often enough that it can't be a construction issue. Tupperdor is 65% at 70-78F with bovedas, CC and NC alike.

Would dry-boxing in the house where RH is less than 65 (generally about 50) make anything better or worse?

Would "wet-boxing" out on the porch where I smoke be suggested to bring sticks up closer to the smoking climate?

I'm having the same issues, should i put the humidor in the fridge for a while?


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[Metallifan33]

I'm having the same issues, should i put the humidor in the fridge for a while?


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** I'm a geek and tend to overthink stuff... but have come to accept it**
I would not put the humi in a fridge. You could ruin your sticks. Cooling cigars needs to be done carefully. For example, even when you get a wino, make sure it's thermoelectrically cooled.
I have a new air cc 100 cigar cooler that works well for me (65deg F and 65% RH maintained easily). The problem is it's expensive and I outgrew it. I live in Phoenix, AZ and deal with relatively higher temperatures. The house is kept around 78 deg F. I recently got a cooler and put my cigars in there. The temp stays around 77 deg F and the RH (with 70% beads) stays at 70% RH. The plan is to use the coolidor for long term storage (I hear cigars age better around 70 RH). I'm still going to use the New Air for sticks I smoke currently. (basically, a month before I smoke something, it's going from coolildor (77/70) to the New Air (65/65 ... where I like to smoke them). Budgeting for around 1% RH correction per week makes up for the change.
In FL, I would think two-way humidity is a must (HF beads work well here in my opinion... just don't spray them with water otherwise they will be saturated and can't do their job). How much water you need to start depends on your ambient RH. They will absorb the excess humidity. If they get saturated, you'll have to dry them back out. I don't know how humid it is there, but in AZ, it's super dry, so I have to add water to the beads (but even then, it only takes a little every couple of months or so).

Besides the possibility of cigar beetles hatching, I'm not sure why a temp of 78 deg F is bad... maybe someone could educate me here.
I do know that most cigars manufactured today are frozen during the manufacturing process (Padron, pretty much anything made at General Cigar, etc.). This in effect prevents cigar beetles, but there is no guarantee. Quarantining new sticks for a few weeks may help here (however, I don't have experience with beetles).

 

[cbohyn]

** I'm a geek and tend to overthink stuff... but have come to accept it**
I would not put the humi in a fridge. You could ruin your sticks. Cooling cigars needs to be done carefully. For example, even when you get a wino, make sure it's thermoelectrically cooled.
I have a new air cc 100 cigar cooler that works well for me (65deg F and 65% RH maintained easily). The problem is it's expensive and I outgrew it. I live in Phoenix, AZ and deal with relatively higher temperatures. The house is kept around 78 deg F. I recently got a cooler and put my cigars in there. The temp stays around 77 deg F and the RH (with 70% beads) stays at 70% RH. The plan is to use the coolidor for long term storage (I hear cigars age better around 70 RH). I'm still going to use the New Air for sticks I smoke currently. (basically, a month before I smoke something, it's going from coolildor (77/70) to the New Air (65/65 ... where I like to smoke them). Budgeting for around 1% RH correction per week makes up for the change.
In FL, I would think two-way humidity is a must (HF beads work well here in my opinion... just don't spray them with water otherwise they will be saturated and can't do their job). How much water you need to start depends on your ambient RH. They will absorb the excess humidity. If they get saturated, you'll have to dry them back out. I don't know how humid it is there, but in AZ, it's super dry, so I have to add water to the beads (but even then, it only takes a little every couple of months or so).

Besides the possibility of cigar beetles hatching, I'm not sure why a temp of 78 deg F is bad... maybe someone could educate me here.
I do know that most cigars manufactured today are frozen during the manufacturing process (Padron, pretty much anything made at General Cigar, etc.). This in effect prevents cigar beetles, but there is no guarantee. Quarantining new sticks for a few weeks may help here (however, I don't have experience with beetles).

Thank you for this information. My humidity is at 70-78 and temp is 80-82, I have an empty wine cooler that I could set a little lower than 80 to start and then gradually lower it to 70, that would be my best option, right? As to the humidity, I guess that will come down over time if I don't add any water , right? At one point in time without adding water I assume that humidity will drop to controllable levels.
Another problem is those freakin meters, they are all over the place, my digital reads a higher degree of humidity than the mechanical one.
I welcome anyone's feedback


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[IronW]

Thank you for this information. My humidity is at 70-78 and temp is 80-82, I have an empty wine cooler that I could set a little lower than 80 to start and then gradually lower it to 70, that would be my best option, right? As to the humidity, I guess that will come down over time if I don't add any water , right? At one point in time without adding water I assume that humidity will drop to controllable levels.
Another problem is those freakin meters, they are all over the place, my digital reads a higher degree of humidity than the mechanical one.
I welcome anyone's feedback


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I'm no expert, but that humidity of 70 to 78 is way high, as is the temp of 80 to 82. I don't necessarily think that 70/70 is ideal either but getting closer to that would probably help your issues. I keep my sticks right around 65% RH and a temp of 68. The way I look at it is that it doesn't matter quite as much as a lot of people think, but anywhere from 65/65 to 70/70 or so should keep everything fresh, tasty, and burning well

 

[Cigary43]

Some of us live in very humid climates in the summer but that doesn't mean we have to let our cigars suffer. Getting our cigars at the right RH is most important and using a media that is easy like beads or KL is the way to go esp. if you have a larger capacity humidor. Ambient temps can be controlled by using your AC or even a portable AC in a room in your house if you can't afford to keep temps in the mid 70's. I have a big house but I still use portable AC in a couple of rooms...have zoned cooling as well but I don't need to cool off the entire home.

Dryboxing is getting too popular these days as if it's a cure all in fixing cigars that have too high of a content of RH...just ensure that your humidor/coolerador/tupperador have the correct RH to begin with. Dryboxing won't get the entire cigar at a RH point you're looking for...it's just an action that 'dries' out a portion of the cigar.

 

[cbohyn]

Some of us live in very humid climates in the summer but that doesn't mean we have to let our cigars suffer. Getting our cigars at the right RH is most important and using a media that is easy like beads or KL is the way to go esp. if you have a larger capacity humidor. Ambient temps can be controlled by using your AC or even a portable AC in a room in your house if you can't afford to keep temps in the mid 70's. I have a big house but I still use portable AC in a couple of rooms...have zoned cooling as well but I don't need to cool off the entire home.

Dryboxing is getting too popular these days as if it's a cure all in fixing cigars that have too high of a content of RH...just ensure that your humidor/coolerador/tupperador have the correct RH to begin with. Dryboxing won't get the entire cigar at a RH point you're looking for...it's just an action that 'dries' out a portion of the cigar.

Thanks, I definitely have to stop humidifying the humidor until it drops to below 70, that's my conclusion.


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[Metallifan33]

Thank you for this information. My humidity is at 70-78 and temp is 80-82, I have an empty wine cooler that I could set a little lower than 80 to start and then gradually lower it to 70, that would be my best option, right? As to the humidity, I guess that will come down over time if I don't add any water , right? At one point in time without adding water I assume that humidity will drop to controllable levels.
Another problem is those freakin meters, they are all over the place, my digital reads a higher degree of humidity than the mechanical one.
I welcome anyone's feedback


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Yeah... 70 to 78 is RH is too high (you'll know this because they won't burn well).
The wine cooler will work, but just make sure it's a thermoelectric one (just google the model to find out).
To lower the humidty, you can remove any water or humidity adding elements you are using, but if the ambient humidity is higher than what you are looking for, it won't help. Again, dry HF beads will help remove the humidity. What helps a lot in removing humidity is adding some cedar. Dry cedar will suck up moisture like a sponge (up until it gets saturated/seasoned of course).
As for the meters... the mechanical ones are pretty much useless. Get a couple of digital ones (I see you already have one). Measuring humidity is a very difficult thing to do correctly... as such, the equipment has to be constantly calibrated (I calibrate mine every few months... just google how to do that). If you haven't calibrated them, then you can't rely on them at all... they can get quite a bit off.
In the end, with HF beads and a properly sealed humi in a constant temp, I've noticed that the beads are actually a good measure of humidity instead of the meters! For example, if my meter starts reading higher or lower than what I regularly see, I calibrate the meter instead of add/remove humidity... more often then not, the meter is off as opposed to the HF beads not doing their job.
To add humidity, I spray some distilled water to the HF beads.
To remove humidity, I add some cedar wood that has been sitting out (read: dried).
The more cigars you have in the humi, the more stable it will get.

 

[cbohyn]

Yeah... 70 to 78 is RH is too high (you'll know this because they won't burn well).
The wine cooler will work, but just make sure it's a thermoelectric one (just google the model to find out).
To lower the humidty, you can remove any water or humidity adding elements you are using, but if the ambient humidity is higher than what you are looking for, it won't help. Again, dry HF beads will help remove the humidity. What helps a lot in removing humidity is adding some cedar. Dry cedar will suck up moisture like a sponge (up until it gets saturated/seasoned of course).
As for the meters... the mechanical ones are pretty much useless. Get a couple of digital ones (I see you already have one). Measuring humidity is a very difficult thing to do correctly... as such, the equipment has to be constantly calibrated (I calibrate mine every few months... just google how to do that). If you haven't calibrated them, then you can't rely on them at all... they can get quite a bit off.
In the end, with HF beads and a properly sealed humi in a constant temp, I've noticed that the beads are actually a good measure of humidity instead of the meters! For example, if my meter starts reading higher or lower than what I regularly see, I calibrate the meter instead of add/remove humidity... more often then not, the meter is off as opposed to the HF beads not doing their job.
To add humidity, I spray some distilled water to the HF beads.
To remove humidity, I add some cedar wood that has been sitting out (read: dried).
The more cigars you have in the humi, the more stable it will get.

Added the cedar that I had laying around in empty boxes and already dropped 2RH in 2hrs, adding the dry HF beads now and will check back tomorrow! Thx for the advice


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