humidity level in humi

AQUADGIO1200

Im relative new to cigar smoking....i live 1 mile off the coast line in Souther California...my humi constantly reads around 75-76 humi all the time....unless i have the heater on it may drop to about 72-74% with a humi temp of being 66f-71f again depending on if i have my wall heater on. Is that a good level to be at? Maybe its due to living to close to he coast line? I keep my humi alway from direct sunlight and away from the wall heater. Its a 150 count humi with 3 humi-cartriges that i fill with distilled water & the hydro-meter is built in & is digital. I have had the Humi for about 1 month singe being bought new. I seasoned the humi per the manual it came with (used a damp clothed that i dipped in distilled water and lightly moistened all the internal ceder and charged up the humi-cartriges and left them in place for 24 hours and then repeated the same process...minus the re-dampening of the cedar w/cloth. When i finally placed my 125 cigars in place...the humi would read 65 and would increase every other day a point or to. Then about its finnaly reached it point @ 75-77 and thats were its been the last 2-3 weeks. So is that a safe temp & humi level for my cigars?

madurofan

The industry standard is 70%/70*, but most people prefer between 65 -70%. 75- 76% humidity is definetly too high you're running the risk of mold and cigar beatles. Not too mention your cigars will burn poorly and may even taste bitter with the RH that high. The temp between 66 and 74 is fine, you just don't want it over 75 degrees really.

It very well could be that you live close to the shore and have a naturally higher RH but its really irrelevant. I suggest you buy some beads www.hearfeltindustries.com, take the humi-cartridges out of your humidor and place the beads in there WITHOUT charging them. The beads will soak up the excess humidity and stablize the RH at the level of the beads you buy.

AQUADGIO1200

Madurofan: Well it appears that i might of fixed the problem....i went to my local cigar lounge and bought a jar of Zykar Crystal Gel and i placed it in the hum last night and took out all 3 standard humi cartriges and the RH level is now @ 70 on the spot. Does it really matter where you place the jar? I have it on the bottom row of the humi. Thanks for your help brotha

Jetmech_63

I have one of those exact same jars in all of my humi's. I know you hear a lot about Beads on this forum but i 100% swear by gel crystals. I usually place mine in a corner but you can put them wherever you want really. I'm always spot on 68-70. I refill them with distilled water and they work great.

madurofan

The Jars are ok. I've used them in my smaller humi before. A lot of us use the beads because they are the only thing on the market that will both let off humidity AND absorb any excess. No other product on the market does that. So if you live somewhere like I do that is naturally a more humid place, especially in the summer, you need to absorb more humidity than you need it to let off. In the summer I place my beads in my humidor completely dry and usually have to dry them out once a month or so.

All that said I'm not a huge fan of the beads. They work great at absorbing excess humidity but in my experience are terrible at maintaining a consistent level when you are relying on them to provide humidity. In my coolerdor I have a cigar oasis AND beads and in my small humidor I keep a jar just like you are talking about as well as beads. Except in the summer when I remove the jar from the small humi.

sodomanaz

Like the others, I too swear by the crystal jars.  I have two 300 count humidors, and have 2 larger jars going below and a smaller one on top, and keeps mine at a good 64-67%.  Beads just always seemed sort of pricey to me, but then again the jars ain't cheap either at $5-10 a pop.