I'm sure this isn't an uncommon question. I got my humidor last month. I seasoned it with a sponge in a dish with some distilled water.. it sat at about 80% for a week before I took it out. I have since gotten silica beads, which can be trained to maintain whatever I train them to be set for.. When they come they're pretty much clear, and when you spray them down they whiten up. When I first put them in the humidor, I must have over sprayed them as they held close to 80.. I took them out for a day, then it started to hang around 75.. Problem is I get different readings.
The top shelf, has the lowest % (around 68%), a couple shelves down I have the highest humidity sometimes getting up to 73%, and just above my highest drawer (so about 1/3 from the bottom) my humidity reads about 69%.. So for some reason, that middle point reads higher than whats above and below it.. I've tried swapping hygrometers around, no difference. I've opened the humidor and left it unplugged for 12 hours a couple times with the AC on, and it has brought down the average a few points, but I'm still getting a variance in the exact same way between these areas.. It's starting to drive me crazy because I've been very patient with this process, hell, I've been trying to allow it to stabilize and lower it to 65% for 3 weeks now.
So basically my question is.. What do I do?
Also, I have 2 lbs of these beads.. I broke them into 8 4 oz bags. Currently have 3 of the bags on the bottom of the wineador, and distributed the rest among the shelves/drawers.. Is this the right way to be doing this? Should the beads be distributed like this? Or should I have them all at the bottom, or half at the bottom and the other half grouped together higher up? I'm just getting confused. And frustrated, I'm putting off an order of cigars until this thing is stable, but now I'm running out of cigars!
I hope some of the experts here can help me out!
The top shelf, has the lowest % (around 68%), a couple shelves down I have the highest humidity sometimes getting up to 73%, and just above my highest drawer (so about 1/3 from the bottom) my humidity reads about 69%.. So for some reason, that middle point reads higher than whats above and below it.. I've tried swapping hygrometers around, no difference. I've opened the humidor and left it unplugged for 12 hours a couple times with the AC on, and it has brought down the average a few points, but I'm still getting a variance in the exact same way between these areas.. It's starting to drive me crazy because I've been very patient with this process, hell, I've been trying to allow it to stabilize and lower it to 65% for 3 weeks now.
So basically my question is.. What do I do?
Also, I have 2 lbs of these beads.. I broke them into 8 4 oz bags. Currently have 3 of the bags on the bottom of the wineador, and distributed the rest among the shelves/drawers.. Is this the right way to be doing this? Should the beads be distributed like this? Or should I have them all at the bottom, or half at the bottom and the other half grouped together higher up? I'm just getting confused. And frustrated, I'm putting off an order of cigars until this thing is stable, but now I'm running out of cigars!
I hope some of the experts here can help me out!