What happened?!

ScottU

So last week I went to a local place and picked up 8 cigars, placed them in my humidor, the next day it had dropped to 60% RH!! So I removed the cap to my ICE Gel Crystals, the next day it was holding 65 (where i keep mine) and has held that consistently since saturday, i wake up this morning (Thursday) and go for my morning "wiff" and rh check, it was up to 72%! I know this isn't a huge deal, as I am in range, but what would cause this?

Vidarien

By "cap" i suppose you mean the divider with the little holes on it, not the turn-on lid. Because if you had the screw-on lid on it, then it wasnt even working. Anyways, assuming you meant the divider with the airholes, my assumption is that the increased surface area airflow to the top layer polymers in that gel caused their quick reduction in size/release of water vapor. Now, as for it jumping to 72% from 65% in the course of one night when it had been constant....has it gotten warmer in your house that day? Did you open up the windows or close the windows to the outside that night? Traditional theory would state that if it did get warmer, that your humidity would go down assuming things all being equal humiditywise. However, the weather such as it is, if it did get warmer or rainy, and you had your house open to some of those ambient conditions, sure...i could see it spiking 7% in a night. But, 7% really isnt a huge deal, temperature fluctuations, again, can indirectly cause that.

smbrink

Vidarien:

By "cap" i suppose you mean the divider with the little holes on it, not the turn-on lid. Because if you had the screw-on lid on it, then it wasnt even working. Anyways, assuming you meant the divider with the airholes, my assumption is that the increased surface area airflow to the top layer polymers in that gel caused their quick reduction in size/release of water vapor. Now, as for it jumping to 72% from 65% in the course of one night when it had been constant....has it gotten warmer in your house that day? Did you open up the windows or close the windows to the outside that night? Traditional theory would state that if it did get warmer, that your humidity would go down assuming things all being equal humiditywise. However, the weather such as it is, if it did get warmer or rainy, and you had your house open to some of those ambient conditions, sure...i could see it spiking 7% in a night. But, 7% really isnt a huge deal, temperature fluctuations, again, can indirectly cause that.

Yeah what he said.