Transition to different humidor (mushy cigars?)

[jebloom22]

Okay, so I had about 55-60 cigars in a humidor that holds 75-100. I received 20 sticks about two months ago, which went into a separate humidor to level out since I wasn't sure what condition they had been in before arriving on my doorstep. After I was comfortable that they were in good shape, and consistently reading 65-68 humidity, I moved them to the main humidor with the rest of my sticks.

After a week, I went to pull a few out, and they seem spongy. The other cigars in the humidor are fine. The one cigar (of the 20) that I had removed from the wrapper seems even spongier than the others. What gives here? Both humidors were set at the same temp and humidity?

Any thoughts? What happened, and what can I do?

 

[Jwrussell]

The standard questions: are your hygro's calibrated and if so, how long ago did you do so for each (they are digital right?)? Both humidors kept in the same environment (temperature)?

The situation you describe is certainly odd...especially if you are saying they did not feel spongy when you had them in the other humi and that none of the rest of your sticks feel the same way.

 

[jebloom22]

Hygrometers (digital) were calibrated maybe just outside of six months ago. One of them is the Calliber III. The smaller humidor (that the 20 sticks came from) was at the same temperature as the larger one. The sticks felt pretty normal before the switch. I'm definitely confused with this one..

 

[dpricenator]

Hygro must be off, maybe the batteries are low. if your humi is too moist, then all the sticks will be too moist, not just the new ones.

 

[CigarNut]

Six months is a long time for those little batteries. Change the battery and recalibrate the hygrometer.

The good news is that even though the sticks are spongy now, they can be save with a little time and effort.

 

[Jwrussell]

What Dave said. I can't fathom this one. I suppose it is possible that these sticks need less humidity than the others, but for it to be that drastic is strange.

OK, a few more questions. What's they humidification media look like? Is it chock-full of moisture to the point it can't pull any more in possibly? I ask because prior to you putting the sticks in the humidification media had to control all that extra air space and keep it at the right RH. When you added in the new sticks, we are assuming they were properly hydrated. Now that they have reduced the amount of empty air space in the humidor, I would expect that your humidification media probably needs to pull some moisture out of the air. If it can't, that could lead to over-humidified and 'spongy' cigars.

I'm kinda reaching above, and really, again, it should affect all of your cigars, not just the new ones.

I would check the hygros for calibration just to be remove a variable. As Dave said, you could have some dying batteries or some such...

 

[jebloom22]

Interesting points. Both hygros are differently branded, and have had batteries replaced at different times, but I will certainly put new cells in and recalibrate. It's just odd because everything was fine until I merged them. I do currently use Xikar crystals with the PG solution, and hadn't refilled them in at least a month and a half. I'm hoping to switch to the beads soon. Sounds like they make life easier once everything adapts to them. I'm going to light up one the semi-spongy sticks in about 2.5 hours. I'll post an update.

 

[jebloom22]

Put two in my travel humi for a day, and smoked them with a friend yesterday evening. They were a tad squishy, but both smoked and tasted just fine. They lit up without problem, maintained a great burn line, and had no issues with draw or needs for re-light. Beats the heck out of me!

I still plan to replace batteries and recalibrate the hygros.