Looking for 1 more tidbit on seasoning

0 That Guy 0

I have had distilled water sitting in my humidor now for over 48 hours and the humidity has held tight at 72% for about 24 of those hours. I decided to break my heartfelt beads out today and gave them a pretty good spray down (probably only around 35-50% clear since my RH is higher) and placed them inside the humidor along with one 69% RH packet to help continue the seasoning process. I figure I'll leave all of this in there for another 24 hrs or so and see where the humidity goes from here. The RH dropped to 63% immediately after replacing the water with the beads but has already climbed back to 67% in 10 mins.

Is it safe to say that by tomorrow at this time, if the RH remains fairly constant that my humi is ready to accept my smokes?

As always, thanks for all the advice and support fellow Ccom faithful!!

xmacro

If it holds constant, then I'd say it's safe to transfer them in; just know that it may very well drop when you first put your smokes in there as the cigars themselves adjust/absorb moisture.

0 That Guy 0

and that drop will be normal and will then correct itself over time?

Also I'm using a puck as well as a tube which combined covers a lot more cubic inches then that of my humidor. When using multiple sources of beads could I soak one or the other and leave the second source dry so they counter each other? For example my tube is just barely under the recommended amount for my size humi. The puck is small but puts me a good bit over the recommended amount. Could I give my tube a good soaking of 75% to almost 100% clear beads but leave my puck completely dry to absorb any sudden humidity jumps?

Russ55

Yeah, a drop in RH is normal every time you open the lid. How long it takes to get back up will depend on the humidor, amount of cigars you have in there, how well seasoned the wood is, ambient temp/RH. But it will climb back up.

My suggestion would be to not buy any expensive cigars until you are comfortable with your humidor and maintaining humidity.

xmacro

I just find that my humidity either dips or spikes whenever I put new smokes in the humidor - seems the cigars emit/absorb moisture until everything equalizes. When cigars are shipped, they never arrive at your door at 65%RH, regardless of how many humi packs they were shipped with, right?

I've heard it takes about a week (maybe less) for the cigars to recover from being shipped; that's been my experience as well for how long it takes my humidor/cigars to all equalize.

As for your idea, that should work; I know there are a few members on the forum that do what your suggesting as an insurance of sorts.

kuzi16

Russ55:

Yeah, a drop in RH is normal every time you open the lid. How long it takes to get back up will depend on the humidor, amount of cigars you have in there, how well seasoned the wood is, ambient temp/RH..

let me add how many beads you have in there as well.

0 That Guy 0

I've got enough 65% beads to handle 3000 cubic inches, my humi is about 1750 cubic inches. That being said, my humi dropped over night from 68% to 63%. Should I go back to the seasoning process or could this be a beads issue in which I need to add more water to them or dry them out depending on how they look?

Russ55

0 That Guy 0:

I've got enough 65% beads to handle 3000 cubic inches, my humi is about 1750 cubic inches. That being said, my humi dropped over night from 68% to 63%. Should I go back to the seasoning process or could this be a beads issue in which I need to add more water to them or dry them out depending on how they look?

It could be, but first, how cold did it get in the night?

kuzi16:

Russ55:

Yeah, a drop in RH is normal every time you open the lid. How long it takes to get back up will depend on the humidor, amount of cigars you have in there, how well seasoned the wood is, ambient temp/RH..

let me add how many beads you have in there as well.

Oops. Forgot that part. Or packs, or whatever else you use.

0 That Guy 0

Tough day for me ........As you all have seen from this thread, I had sustained a constant RH level for over 24 hrs at 72% (seasoned for over 48 hours with a bowl) and decided it would be alright to put the beads in. After replacing the bowl of distilled water with the beads and a 69% humi pack the RH dropped to 62% and stayed there. So this morning I pulled them back out and put a shot glass back in there with distilled water. Eight hours later the RH dropped another 2 percent to 60%.

Our house stays at a constant 70 degrees, and my humi bags don't seem to fluctuate at all so I don't think temp is an issue. It may have been a seal issue as I tried to place the puck under the glass hygrometer so wouldn't be visible and I'm not 100% it was shutting completely. I decided to pull everything out and start over again with a bowl of water since it worked so effectively the first time. I hope since the wood is already somewhat saturated it will take it in much faster. Everything had been so easy thus far I thought I was home free.................

Garen B

Might want to fully charge the beads after it's seasoned, even if it spikes, it's a lot easier to bring the RH down than it is to bring it up.

nsezell

One thing you should think about, you're obviously opening and closing the humi a lot, since you're concerned about monitoring humidity. You have to just let it go and leave it shut for a day or two to let it fully season, or all the water in the air will escape and it will have to build up again from the bowl. When I season, I just put the water in there and wait 2 days, without touching it. That'll help a bunch.

0 That Guy 0

I think I found the problem and it was just another amateur mistake. I realize I am able to pop the top off of my heartfelt beads tube but I didn't realize that this was probably the best method to saturate the proper amount of beads. I had just sprayed distilled water through a sprayer into the tube and figured I had saturated enough to maintain the proper RH. Trying to trouble shoot my issue, I decided to pop the top off of the tube and dump the beads into a bowl and then realized that probably less the 40% of them were clear and the rest were white. This obviously not being enough to cover the cubic area of my humi.

If I understand correctly, you want 70-80% of the beads to be clear or saturated to maintain the moisture (RH) in the humi, with the remaining white beads soaking up any sudden jumps in humidity. Eventually the beads will dry out turning white and the RH will slowly drop or rise based on conditions until the beads are recharged again. This being the reason my humidor lost about 5% humidity in a 30 hour period. I just didn't have enough beads soaked to maintain the RH properly.

Does it sound like I have it right?

Garen B

Yup, you got it man. I don't have a tube, but if you just pour distilled water in there, wait till everything has soaked up, then shake out the remainder, you should be square. With your puck, just put the water in a shallow bowl, then turn the puck over and the beads should soak up what they need from the bowl. Just make sure to shake out the excess, otherwise it'll leak into the humi and your stogies.

jihiggs

if you are using beads, just get it moist inside within 60-75%, load it up with half clear half white beads and put your sticks in. by the next day it will be perfect.

0 That Guy 0

Update on my humi.

I had much better results today! After letting distilled water sit in it again for 20 hours the RH stayed steady at 70%. I decided it was time to play with the beads again so I took them, (which cover 2600 cubic inches compared to my 1700 c.i. humi - more then enough) and dipped the puck half way down into a bowl of distilled water and my tube 3/4 of the way. I could literally hear the beads soaking the water up this time around so I knew I was doing a much better job. I then shook them out real good, dried them off and replaced them with the bowl of distilled water from the humi. The RH dropped about 2% but then quickly shot back up to 69% within a few minutes and has been holding there for 20 minutes now. I'm going to let it sit till morning to make sure the RH stays constant and then I'm going to finally add my cigars.

All credit is owed to the great people from Ccom who reach out to complete strangers everyday with helpful words of advice. Even someone as slow as myself can accomplish the task of properly seasoning a humidor. Seriously thank you everyone!

Garen B

Glad to hear that everything is workin out That Guy (we really need a nickname for you). Now get to filling that thing!

gmill880

Garen B:

Glad to hear that everything is workin out That Guy (we really need a nickname for you). Now get to filling that thing!

Dbl naught guy

madurofan

Garen B:

Glad to hear that everything is workin out That Guy (we really need a nickname for you). Now get to filling that thing!

He's just guy, B.

0 That Guy 0

yup just guy or spoony luv but guy's probably easier.

madurofan

0 That Guy 0:

spoony luv

Wifey's pet name? or after drunken frat party?

0 That Guy 0

another good call - its a after drunken Airforce thing but either way you were close!

madurofan

0 That Guy 0:

another good call - its a after drunken Airforce thing but either way you were close!

Air Farce? I'm scared to ask ...

gmill880

0 That Guy 0:

yup just guy or spoony luv but guy's probably easier.

0TG0 would be my guess-short and sweet