I have a weird humidity problem

[Scotchman]

I started out running a tupperdor with 69% Bovedas, but my digital hygrometer always read 71%. After reading here and just being borderline OCD, I decided to go down to 65% Bovedas. Now it read 67%.

This was with a cheaper digital hygrometer. At this time I got the Govee hygrometer, and put it alone in a container with a 69%er, and it read 70%. So I believe now I have a decently calibrated hygrometer.

Now I am finding it reads 69-70% in my tupperdor with 65% Bovedas, which would tell me it was probably in the low to mid 70s if I'd been using the Govee. This seems crazy to me since the Bovedas are supposed to absorb excess humidity. The last couple days I have experimented with leaving the tupperdor open, or closed with no Bovedas.

When left open, with no Bobedas, humidity holds around 65%. Ambient humidity in the room is 50%. Closed, with no Bovedas, it holds at 69%. Closed with 65% Bovedas is also around 69%.

I removed all of my B&M cigars thinking they might have been over-humidified, and it helped some, but I still have this issue. For now I am just leaving it with the lid off 1-2" and no Bovedas until the RH drops below 65%. But I am confused how this is happening since the Bovedas are supposed to prevent this situation? How long does it take for "wet" cigars to dry out?

 

[Boudie]

Over what kind of time frame is all this happening?

 

[mjones9630]

Have you tried calibrating your hygrometer? Sounds like it's off a couple points.. but a swing of that size isn't anything to really worry about.

 

[Yakcraz]

The hygrometers that I have came pre calibrated & there’s no way to adjust them. There was a disclaimer on their packaging that said that they were accurate within 2 degrees, I think, of their reading. I run 65 bovedas in my humi, my jar, & tuppers. The Hygros almost always say 66-68. Every now & then the one in the humi will say 65. I trust in the bovedas & as long as my cigars smoke good I don’t worry over it so much.

 

[Boudie]

The reason I asked about the time issue is you probably need 24 hours for everything to settle down before taking readings. Every time you open a humidor you lose the environment and it takes time to recover. Making adjustments to humidity levels should be done slowly.

 

[konmtu]

Temperature matters, too. I don't doubt that your temperature is stable, but constant moisture content in varying temperatures will result in variable rH. My suggestion if you really want to dig into the science of it is to search the forum for posts by Ara (@sofc), he was our resident humidity expert and explained the science behind rH very well.
However, the rH is just a number. I suggest paying attention to how they smoke. If they're fine, then your setup is perfect; if not, then definitely figure out a solution.

 

[Mossome]

Throw out all of your cigars and start over again. Or realize that your cigars have been in a 69RH environment for a while and acclimated to that, and it’s going to take a (probably mostly full to start with) 65RH boveda some time to absorb enough moisture being shed by those cigars to stabilize them at 65. We are talking weeks here. The cigars are slowly shedding the moisture and the boveda is slowly absorbing it. It isn’t an instantaneous process.

 

[cwant]

I've started calibrating my hygrometers to the RH I intend to use and it's seemed to have resolve a similar issue I was having. I used to calibrate all hygros with a boveda 75 calibration kit.

I have 2 sensor push sensors, and when calibrated at 75%, they would read 68% in a 65% container & 65% in a 62% container. I have 2 boveda sensors that would read 69% in a 65%, and 67% in a 62%. Also I have 2 western caliber IV that read dead nuts accurate at all RH. Since I started calibrating to 65 & 62%, the sensor push and boveda sensors have started reading accurately and agreeing with my trusted caliber IVs. All this testing was done with only the packs and hygros in a sealed lock and lock container, no cigars.

Also worth mentioning, I've had one Boveda 62% pack that I am convinced was actually a mislabeled 65%. I no longer blindly trust the Boveda. Ever since that incident, I double check new packs in a tupperware by themselves with my caliber IVs. Extreme?...maybe.

 

[VeLoRoK]

I read that cigars will gain or lose around 1% a week if kept in a properly contained environment. So if you're doing from 69% to 65%, it should take about a month. Leaving your stuff open is going to really get everything out of whack. Just keep it closed, be patient, and trust the boveda.

 

[eazy]

...Also worth mentioning, I've had one Boveda 62% pack that I am convinced was actually a mislabeled 65%. I no longer blindly trust the Boveda. Ever since that incident, I double check new packs in a tupperware by themselves with my caliber IVs. Extreme?...maybe.

Same thing happened to me. Ordered a 4-pack of 65% from Amazon, and for weeks it drove me nuts trying to figure out why the humidor refused to stay below 68%. Finally I took one of the packs and stuck it in a bag with a calibrated Sensorpush, and sure enough, it went to exactly 69%. I tested the other three packs, and same thing. They were mislabeled. I called Boveda, and they acted a little surprised, but sent me out a new 4-pack no questions asked. And the new ones went to exactly 65%.

Along the same lines, I have several Sensorpush hygrometers. I tested the first couple I received with a Boveda calibration bag, and they were both dead on to 75%, so I never bothered to test any of the subsequent ones I bought. Then I noticed that a certain tray in my wineador always seemed to run a bit higher than the rest, at times when it made no sense. So I stuck it in the calibration bag, and sure enough, it was over 1% high.

The takeaway is, if you are going to obsess over 1-2% RH (which obviously many of us do lol), then you should have high quality, calibrated sensors. And test everything.

Finally, in my experience, if you are trying to bring down the RH of a large group of sticks by 2% or more, Boveda packs will take a long, long time (and eventually they just can't absorb any more at all). Just leave the tupperdor open for a few hours or a day, depending on the RH in the room, if you really want to see results.

My $.02

 

[Tyler86]

Patience bro


Stupid Tapatalk

 

[Scotchman]

Over what kind of time frame is all this happening?

Weeks for the original 71 when it should be 69, few hours for everything in between, and two days for it holding at 65% with the lid off.

 

[Scotchman]

Have you tried calibrating your hygrometer? Sounds like it's off a couple points.. but a swing of that size isn't anything to really worry about.

Assuming that the Boveda is reliable (which I was dubious of, but was reassured it is), I put the hygrometer in a container with the Boveda for a couple hours and it read +1%.

 

[Scotchman]

The reason I asked about the time issue is you probably need 24 hours for everything to settle down before taking readings. Every time you open a humidor you lose the environment and it takes time to recover. Making adjustments to humidity levels should be done slowly.

Shouldn't I lose the environment trending down? The ambient humidity is lower than what I'm shooting for. It doesn't really go down when I open it or leave it open.

 

[Scotchman]

Ok so a few people have said that the Bovedas will take weeks to absorb humidity from the cigars. Thats good info. I was under the impression any changes would happen in a couple days. This is especially unintuitive because the Bovedas increase humidity in minutes, like I can watch it happen. Perhaps the Bovedas can absorb just as quickly, but the cigars won't shed humidity that quickly. Thanks for the replies (mostly).

 

[Boudie]

Yep, hours is pretty quick. As far as the Boveda's I've placed 4 or 5 boveda's in the same environment to recharge and 2 or 3 would recharge in a couple of days and the others would take 5 or 6 days. The damn things are magic to me to begin with so I can't explain it.

 

[mjones9630]

Assuming that the Boveda is reliable (which I was dubious of, but was reassured it is), I put the hygrometer in a container with the Boveda for a couple hours and it read +1%.

The bovedas are accurate to around 1%, and most good hygrometers are accurate to around 2%... A couple points in either direction won't hurt anything, and might not even be off, but just reading off..
The cigars have acclimated to 69, and will take some time to shed the excess humidity and drop down to 65. It's not as quick as the free airspace inside your humi, the cigars can take weeks or months depending on the amount, and airflow.
So, it sounds like everything is going just right.. have patience young Padawan.

 

[Scotchman]

Roger that. I will probably keep leaving the lid off a couple inches to accelerate it, but I'll keep an eye on it and once it drops below 65% I'll re-add the Bovedas and close it up.

I did have burning problems at the higher humidities, but not in a large enough sample size to conclude it was that and not just the individual sticks. Really just dropping down to get closer to the average RH I've found BOTLs to use. 69% seems to be at the very high end of the range most brothers are using. Since I'm new and don't know anything I'd like to be somewhere in the middle.

 

[Tyler86]

Roger that. I will probably keep leaving the lid off a couple inches to accelerate it, but I'll keep an eye on it and once it drops below 65% I'll re-add the Bovedas and close it up.

I did have burning problems at the higher humidities, but not in a large enough sample size to conclude it was that and not just the individual sticks. Really just dropping down to get closer to the average RH I've found BOTLs to use. 69% seems to be at the very high end of the range most brothers are using. Since I'm new and don't know anything I'd like to be somewhere in the middle.

Caution with "accelerating" it! You don't want wrappers to dry faster than filler. May cause Split wrappers. Just relax and be patient.

IMHO some NC smoke better at 69-70% than 65%. My humidor was 69/70% for a long time. I took all 69% Boveda packs out and put 65% in while full of cigars. Took about 3 weeks to drop to 65%. What's your rush Bro?


Stupid Tapatalk

 

[Scotchman]

No rush, just slightly OCD. Good point about wrappers vs. fillers. I'll box it back up tonight.