01-22-2011, 06:47 PM
Hey pt447,
First of all, great question; and welcome to StogieChat!
It's not you or your humidor, which you're probably relieved to hear. The heating system in the wintertime dries the hell out of everything. Between my mouth, lips, and nose, I'm barely making it myself. The furnace is drying out your home, as well as your humidor, so don't sweat it. Just do the best you can to get your humi as moist as you can without encouraging mold.
I have 2 cabinet humidors; one at the office and one at home. The one at home has a HUGE machine in it, so I don't worry about it. The one at the office has 2 Cigar Oasis machines which run out of water all the time during the winter. I regularly find it hovering around mid-50's, which disturbs me! But I wouldn't worry much about mid-60's... like these guys say. (I tend to prefer my cigars around 65% anyway. Cigars smoke much better a little dry than a little moist.) So, I just keep adding water, and I should probably do a better job of monitoring the one at the office.
One thing you can do if you have a cigar that you're unsure of:
Gently squeeze the foot near your ear to see how it sounds. If it crackles very gently, it's probably ideal. If it makes no sound at all, it's probably too moist. And if it crackles like crazy, it's probably way too dry.
If it's too dry, you can clip the head and then blow through the foot before lighting. Your breath is naturally very moist, and will place quite a bit of moisture on the tobacco leaves near the foot. Smoke is mostly steam, so as you smoke the cigar after doing that it will re-hydrate the rest of the tobacco. Just make sure not to put TOO MUCH moisture back into a cigar that suddenly, because it could cause the filler to expand and split the wrapper. If I employ this technique, I usually just do it for a quick spell and then light the cigar.
I agree with Skipper about the whole beads thing. I've actually gotten mold a couple times from the stagnant moisture in those beads/crystals, so I just use active machines in my humidors these days. But if you're using beads/crystals, just make sure to monitor your humidor often and stir things up a bit from time to time, like rotating your cigars and exchanging the air in your humidor by opening the lid regularly and... messing around in your desktop humidor from time to time.
At some point, you may want to get this humidor:
http://www.cheaphumidors.com/p_cabinet-h...-1000.html
This humidor is made with such high quality, I can stand behind this recommendation 100%. I even dumped it over on its back fully loaded in a moving truck one time and nothing broke, it's so strong! If you have or can come up with the money, I wouldn't buy anything else. Then you can get a really good humidification device. Set it and forget it. I have a good feeling that you'll get there one day.
Glad you found us and got some peace. Keep adding liquid during the winter, and feel free to send me any cigars that you think are beyond repair. I will re-humidify and enjoy anything you send me. Cheers!
Brently
First of all, great question; and welcome to StogieChat!
It's not you or your humidor, which you're probably relieved to hear. The heating system in the wintertime dries the hell out of everything. Between my mouth, lips, and nose, I'm barely making it myself. The furnace is drying out your home, as well as your humidor, so don't sweat it. Just do the best you can to get your humi as moist as you can without encouraging mold.
I have 2 cabinet humidors; one at the office and one at home. The one at home has a HUGE machine in it, so I don't worry about it. The one at the office has 2 Cigar Oasis machines which run out of water all the time during the winter. I regularly find it hovering around mid-50's, which disturbs me! But I wouldn't worry much about mid-60's... like these guys say. (I tend to prefer my cigars around 65% anyway. Cigars smoke much better a little dry than a little moist.) So, I just keep adding water, and I should probably do a better job of monitoring the one at the office.
One thing you can do if you have a cigar that you're unsure of:
Gently squeeze the foot near your ear to see how it sounds. If it crackles very gently, it's probably ideal. If it makes no sound at all, it's probably too moist. And if it crackles like crazy, it's probably way too dry.
If it's too dry, you can clip the head and then blow through the foot before lighting. Your breath is naturally very moist, and will place quite a bit of moisture on the tobacco leaves near the foot. Smoke is mostly steam, so as you smoke the cigar after doing that it will re-hydrate the rest of the tobacco. Just make sure not to put TOO MUCH moisture back into a cigar that suddenly, because it could cause the filler to expand and split the wrapper. If I employ this technique, I usually just do it for a quick spell and then light the cigar.
I agree with Skipper about the whole beads thing. I've actually gotten mold a couple times from the stagnant moisture in those beads/crystals, so I just use active machines in my humidors these days. But if you're using beads/crystals, just make sure to monitor your humidor often and stir things up a bit from time to time, like rotating your cigars and exchanging the air in your humidor by opening the lid regularly and... messing around in your desktop humidor from time to time.
At some point, you may want to get this humidor:
http://www.cheaphumidors.com/p_cabinet-h...-1000.html
This humidor is made with such high quality, I can stand behind this recommendation 100%. I even dumped it over on its back fully loaded in a moving truck one time and nothing broke, it's so strong! If you have or can come up with the money, I wouldn't buy anything else. Then you can get a really good humidification device. Set it and forget it. I have a good feeling that you'll get there one day.
Glad you found us and got some peace. Keep adding liquid during the winter, and feel free to send me any cigars that you think are beyond repair. I will re-humidify and enjoy anything you send me. Cheers!
Brently
No Reserve, No Retreat, No Regrets!!!
