HUMIDMETER
Smokindog
Posts: 12 ✭
I'm browsing around looking at gadgets! Don't know if I'd take the plunge even though it looks interesting but what the heck, I just wasted $65 on the most horrific bottle of whiskey I've EVER tasted, High West Campfire! But that's another story.
I was looking at the reviews on the HumidMeter and was surprised!
https://cigarmedics.com/product/humidimeter/
Seems handy enough, and the price isn't going to break the bank. As some have said, if it saves you on just a couple cigars it's a break even. I've wasted more money on worse 
Beyond the, "If you have one do you like it?", I was looking at the calibration device you can also purchase.
https://cigarmedics.com/product/humidimeter-calibration-standard/
Great idea but I don't see any way mentioned on how to adjust the HumidMeter when/if it shows out of calibration!!!!!! Seems like it provides pretty worthless info other than, "go buy another" which I probably wouldn't if it can't keep calibration 
Anyway, time to go set tonight's smoke out on the table from the Whynter. I've discovered in the past week that this was great advice from y'all!
Comments
or you could put it in a glass jar with a Boveda for a few days and note how far off one is from the other....
never mind, just looked at the device and see it is a probe, what you are showing above is different from what the link shows.
I have one of those things. It works as advertised. It's not scientific. It has two probes that must be in contact with The material you are testing. In the case of hand rolled tobacco, the density of the pack affects the moisture reading, which may not seem like a big deal, but you cannot effectively poke a cigar twice in the same holes that you created and get an accurate reading. If you're wanting to measure the RH in the head of your cigar, that means multiple holes if you don't like your first reading. That means you will damage the outer wrapper.
I did use it to figure out a lot of cool stuff that I now use in the maintenance of my collection. For instance, cigars left outside of the humidor will generally achieve the same RH in the room in about 5 hours. Of course, that is for me in Las Vegas with a 20% RH and I only tested a few cigars. Additionally, dry sticks take about 9 hours inside a humidor to rise to the Rh inside the humidor. Again, that's going from about 15% to about 60%.
I also found that the RH inside of the head of the cigars while lit increases dramatically while you smoke the cigar. By the time I was halfway dome with a toro, The RH inside the head was pegged at 99%. It didn't matter if I blew through it, smoked it regularly, or took great care and only inhaling to minimize the effect of my moist breath.
overall it is not a necessary item and I haven't played with mine in a few weeks now. I like to use it on stuff right off the truck to see what the humidity is like as I receive it. I don't know what this tells me, but I have some thoughts. Maybe it will tell me the conditions in which they were stored at the online merchant. Maybe it will tell me how high or low temperatures drawn moisture out of solids like tobacco leaf. Maybe it will tell me how much I need to rest cigars before I smoke them, assuming RH is the only quality factor in smoking shipped cigars.
However, If you're looking to get this thing so you can double check the relative humidity of a cigar before you smoke it, you are completely wasting your time. Completely. The reading you get will be accurate only at the two very points of the probes and that's it. That may not represent the mean or the median of the entire stick, which could have a 10% relative humidity swing in either direction.
Ya, I was just showing the current state of my Whynter as I had included links to the HumidMeter earlier in the post. I can now see the confusion and deleted the picture
I wonder how much the smoke affects the reading on a lit cigar, it probably uses capacitance between the probes to measure moisture.
I bet a good amount @Yakster but I also bet the environment under the fireball is moisture saturated. As the material combusts, the moisture released is trapped under the fireline. Some of it evaporates at the high temperature of the ember itself, which depending on how big the cigar is can be in excess of 500°. The rest, as I imagine it, passes down through the cigar as the stick is drawn upon.
Just a hypothesis, the only evidence that I have that I could be right is that when I measure the humidity in a leftover nub The next morning after it has cooled, the RH is in the 70s, even in my 10 to 20% environment.
I've found every cigar I've check to be almost 10% higher reading at the head versus the foot. This one was 58% at the foot, probably still needed dry boxing to prevent the cracked wrapper.
Don't let the wife know what you spend on guns, ammo or cigars.
I put some pipe tobacco on my little drying dish next to the exhaust fan of a laptop to help dry it out. Maybe something like this could be done with the head of the cigar facing the fan.
Or someone could come up with a USB powered, Bluetooth enabled smart dry box device that would fit a couple of cigars and maybe it would have a fan that would point at the head of the cigar and of course it would take water activity readings once equilibrium relative humidity of the container was reached and notify you when the cigar was ready to smoke. You could program it with different profiles depending on how soon you want to smoke your cigar.
Have one.
Works great.
Never use it.
Welcome to it.
Fi can find it.
This stick has been in my humi since Sept.
Don't let the wife know what you spend on guns, ammo or cigars.
Honestly, I'm guessing that some of the discrepancy could be attributed to a slightly looser pack at the foot of the cigar due to it being open and having more give when the probe goes in.
I'm guessing that the true RH of the environment inside that cigar is closer to 66