Humidor(s) advice

[Doug B]

Hello Brothers.
I am bugging out a little so I could use a little bit of brotherly advice-

I am new to cigars and I have recently bought a humidor- and then another- and thought that I properly seasoned both. Not knowing that the stock hydrometers that are on the boxes are bunk- I relied on their numbers- both just fine.
I just received shipment of 2 digital hydrometers and I found that both boxes are running at about 50%. I added a glass of water to each box, refilled all of the foam-pack things that came with them- with Dr. Rh solution, and refilled the Dr. Rh solution gel thing that I have as well.
When holding the sticks up to my ear they crackle a little bit...should that be a concern? Are they shot? I have only been collecting for about three weeks if that means anything in relation to the quality/possible drying out.

So. What do I do now? I don't have a friend with a humidor that I can borrow...any help and suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Doug B

 

[FireDoc83]

Ditch the Rx solution and go with the Heartfelt beads 65%... Buy plenty for each and season the humis...

Your sticks should be ok just let them slowly re-humidify

 

[Doug B]

Ditch the Rx solution and go with the Heartfelt beads 65%... Buy plenty for each and season the humis...

Your sticks should be ok just let them slowly re-humidify

Thanks. I can't find the beads anywhere...and where do I put the sticks when I am re-season? Thanks for your help brother.

 

[avantgrade]

Hey friend,

I would say throw your sticks in a tuperware container that is large enough to hold all of them and put in some beads (or the Dr. Rh gel container) to maintain the humidity. Make sure it sticks around 65 to 70 %, and your sticks should be more than fine in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, do re-season the humidor(s) properly and check that the humidity is stabilized before adding your sticks. I see you're from NJ (I'm from Chicago), so the dry air from the heating is likely sucking all of the moisture out from your home. I had to re-season my humidor as it was starting to fail. I found that keeping a humidifier (for example, one of the simple 30 dollar "crane" units that you can pick up at CVS or wallgreens) in the same room as the humi's keeps everything in check, even in the winter.

Hope that helps!

 

[Jwrussell]

Doug,

First things first. Breath brother. You are probably OK, but we need to check some things first.

First thing: take out any glasses of water you put in your humidors. If your cigars are truly at 50% RH or something close, you are going to raise the RH way, way, way too fast and will most likely end up with a bunch of split cigars. If the RH is really that low, it needs to come up slowly.

You say you just received two digital hygometers (hygro, not hydro :wink. Are they the self-adjustable type and have you CALIBRATED them? Don't trust them simply because they are digital. They need to be calibrated to be sure that what they are showing you is reality and not +/- something. For that you can use the salt test if you really have to do it RIGHT NOW and don't have anywhere nearby that sells Boveda products, but I highly recommend you get yourself a Boveda calibration pack. The salt test isn't the most accurate way of calibrating.

I don't know what a "foam pack thing" is. Are you talking about that green foam-style humidifier that comes with most humidors and that you use a combination of distilled water and PG solution with? If so, I highly suggest you check out one of the vendors on the site and pick up some beads (either Heartfelt or RH Beads(cigarmony) or HCM/Shilala).

Check the seals on your humidors. Put a strip of paper across the area that the lid closes on and close the lid. Does the paper slide out easily or is there a good bit of resistance? If it slides out with little or no resistance you may have a seal problem. If they are not glass top humidors you can also test this by putting a small flashlight (turned on) inside the humidor and closing the lid. If you see light, you have a seal issue.

 

[dpricenator]

heartfelt industries for the beads..

Take you cigar and place them in a big tuppwrware for temp storage. You could also ask a local shop for some temporary stroage space while you get your humidors back up and running.

 

[Jwrussell]

OK, I looked up the DR RH stuff. 70% RH gel-type thingy. Be very careful using these to rehumidify your cigars. If they are truly around 50%, jumping the RH to 70% will almost surely cause you to split some wrappers. The other brothers have it right on the re-seasoning deal. Put your cigars in a TIGHT SEALING tupperware type container. Tupperware makes excellent humidors because they seal extremely well holding in humidity. If you have a few local cigar shops, call around and ask if any of them have "Boveda Humidipaks". You can throw one of these in (the lowest you can get at this point, probably 65%) in with the cigars and it will handle the humidity while you are reseasoning.

Again, it's going to be really difficult to gauge how and what you are doing unless your hygrometers are properly calibrated. You will be groping in the dark unless you know for sure that your hygros are reading correctly. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

 

[La Chupacabra]

Hello Brothers.
I am bugging out a little so I could use a little bit of brotherly advice-

I am new to cigars and I have recently bought a humidor- and then another- and thought that I properly seasoned both. Not knowing that the stock hydrometers that are on the boxes are bunk- I relied on their numbers- both just fine.
I just received shipment of 2 digital hydrometers and I found that both boxes are running at about 50%. I am freaking out a little bit because I have about 2 g's of sticks sitting in them.
I added a glass of water to each box, refilled all of the foam-pack things that came with them- with Dr. Rh solution, and refilled the Dr. Rh solution gel thing that I have as well.
When holding the sticks up to my ear they crackle a little bit...should that be a concern? Are they shot? I have only been collecting for about three weeks if that means anything in relation to the quality/possible drying out.

So. What do I do now? I don't have a friend with a humidor that I can borrow...any help and suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Doug B

Wow - after only three weeks into cigars?
Remember cigars are a life long passion. If you miss Pete's newest limited, relax. I assure you he will have 15 more within the next year.

 

[Doug B]

Thanks for all of the advice...I am going to head to the local giant store and get some tupperware to store them.
The foam things I was referring to was, yes, the humidifiers that come with the boxes themselves...
I am not sure if the digital hydrometers are self-calibrating or not but I will have to do a little bit of work/research to find out.
I will do the seal test as well, as suggested- thanks for that...
Do you guys purchase those bead containers that come filled? I found the website but I want to be sure I purchase the right things before finally pulling the trigger...the one box is a 50-count box and the other a 200-count box.

Thanks for your help and suggestions. I will look up the salt test thing now too. Whew...Yikes.

 

[Jwrussell]

Doug, PM incoming.

 

[Doug B]

Wow - after only three weeks into cigars?
Remember cigars are a life long passion. If you miss Pete's newest limited, relax. I assure you he will have 15 more within the next year.

Thanks. Yeah, I learned to chill a little. When I like something I have a tendency to get into it. I have stopped buying as of...well...an hour ago. hahaha! I am a passionate kinda guy. Thanks for the tip though.

 

[Doug B]

Thanks for all of the advice...I am going to head to the local giant store and get some tupperware to store them.
The foam things I was referring to was, yes, the humidifiers that come with the boxes themselves...
I am not sure if the digital hydrometers are self-calibrating or not but I will have to do a little bit of work/research to find out.
I will do the seal test as well, as suggested- thanks for that...
Do you guys purchase those bead containers that come filled? I found the website but I want to be sure I purchase the right things before finally pulling the trigger...the one box is a 50-count box and the other a 200-count box.

Thanks for your help and suggestions. I will look up the salt test thing now too. Whew...Yikes.

 

[Jwrussell]

Doug, check out this post on seasoning and humidification. It may help to clear some things up as well.

Plenty of us have been where you are. We all came out the other end. :thumbsup:

 

[Doug B]

Awesome Brother! You guys are the best.