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Can't lower humidity

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Beads and most humidification devices assume that the humidor will be higher in humidity than the room it sits in. What if every time you open it up you get a blast of 85%. Sure if the humidor was low the beads will suck up some moisture, but soon they can't and each time you open it, you go higher. Damp Rid will take care of this, the over seasoned humidor, etc.

Seems to me like humidors that are kept cold, like a vino temp, tend to add humidity when you open it due to the warmer moist air hitting colder drier air. Remember that 70% humidity at 80 degrees has a lot more moisture in it than 70% at 65 degrees. It's relative humidity we measure, not moisture content.
Mitch, that is a very appropriate point, it holds where I live as well. My storage device gets wet due to opening it (the RH in my house is higher than in my temp controlled cabinet), and the introduction of new boxes of cigars that are over hydrated.

bwhyte, I didn't notice in your posts what size humidor you are having trouble with wrt %RH.

Regarding the dehumidification of a large cigar storage device:

Here is an effective manual technique that you can use any time your RH stubbornly stays higher than you desire. Obtain 2 containers with screw on lids that will fit in your coolerdor/wineador (*dor). Fill them with water and freeze them solid in your refrigerator freezer (leave a bit of room at the top for expansion, so the bottle keeps its shape): I use (2) one quart gatorade bottles. Place them one at a time in your *dor, sitting in a bowl, with a folded towel under the bowl. The water vapor will condense on the exterior walls of the bottle, run down the bottle and pool in the bowl. Swap the bottles out every 12 hours (between *dor and freezer) and toss the condensate after measuring the volume. If you have a fan in your *dor, run it during this process. You will soon learn to correlate removed condensate volume to %RH reduction. I use this technique in my unit with great success whenever the RH stays above 65%. It works very well, no need to purchase any equipment (such as a mini dehumidifier), and I always love a simple, practical solution that uses the laws of physics to solve a problem. This process can remove 1 cup of condensate in 4-5 days from my *dor.
 
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So I got some damprid and I am curious as to how much I need to use for my humi. Its about a 75 count. Also do I need to remove the cigars from it?
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RonC

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seems like a lot of work for a 75 count humi. heres what i would do. take the cigars out, and put them in tupperware. you wont need any humidification. put the damp rid in, and get it dried out a bit. not too drastic , try to get it too about 60%. once its holding at 60% with no damprid in the humi, load your cigars in there. put in 2 - 65% bovedas. thats it.
 
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Thanks Ron. Hopefully that works. I had started noticing that some my cigars were a bit on the squashy side. I finally pulled them all out and it seems they are all like that. My humi has been reading about 72% and between 70-75 degrees. Hopefully I can fix it so my cigars don't get ruined. I am pretty nervous now. How can I fix them? I really don't want them all to be ruined. I can't afford to replace them now.
Thanks guys

Bill
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Mitch

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Just FYI you can have cigars in the humidor with the damp rid and it's not an issue. You can always start with a little damp rid, or a slightly cracked lid and move it up from there. If you take your cigars out, don't be suprised when the humidity jumps when you put them back in, the cigars will act like a wet sponge until they equalize with the humidor.

Don't worry about them being OK, unless you got moldy you should be fine after they settle for a few weeks.
 
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I took the cigars out and left it sit over night with the entire thing of damprid. Only lowered it maybe a percent or 2. i am letting it sit all day while at work to see what it does. I may put the cigars back in and same with the damprid just so I don't have to do the process again after the cigars are put back.
 
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Well I believe I fixed the problem. I put my cigars back in, put in damprid and also put in a cup with a couple of ice cubes to help lower the temp. Now my humi is holding at 65 or 66 which I am fine with. 66% is not going to make a difference!
I will let everyone know how it's holding up in a few days. it's been good all weekend so we will see. I am going to get some beads so I don't have to worry about it any longer.
 
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I've been having great issues with the humidity of my humidor as of a couple of days ago. I had beads and wet half of them with distilled water, since then my humidity has been at 80%! I took out the beads thinking that my humidor would dry out, but it's still at around 80% with nothing but cigars in there. The weird thing is, my digital hygrometer reads 80 while the regular one reads 70%, which has me confused.
 

dpricenator

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I've been having great issues with the humidity of my humidor as of a couple of days ago. I had beads and wet half of them with distilled water, since then my humidity has been at 80%! I took out the beads thinking that my humidor would dry out, but it's still at around 80% with nothing but cigars in there. The weird thing is, my digital hygrometer reads 80 while the regular one reads 70%, which has me confused.
try the salt test on your digital. they are not always accurate.
 
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I did the calibration test to my digital and it reads +1. I have been leaving my humidor propped open just a crack and it stays at a constant 68%, so I guess I'll just leave it propped open like that for now.
 
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