gummy jones wrote:63-65 RH for me
temp always lower than 70
I was keeping rh 67-69 but I've noticed I have way fewer duds in the lower range
what effect that will have on these sticks 20 years down the road I have no clue
That's the thing, as far as I know, nobody has any clue about that, or at least not any reliable clue.
You just gotta pick a humidity level you like, and roll with it, and wait and see.
Some guys do the two-level thing, where they store at 68-70% RH, then have a "step down" humidor at 65%, 63%, 60% or whatever, that they move sticks into some time before smoking. A week, a month, 3 or even 6 months, whatever. That involves an advance-planning burden, however you retain the freedom to smoke something spur-of-the-moment out of your 68-70% RH box, which usually isn't a problem.
That arrangement maintains 68-70% for long-term aging, but gets some of the benefit of the lower RH, if you believe there is any, for smoking (depending on amount of time spent in the lower RH).
Me, I just "dry box" for 24, 48, 72 or however many hours I feel like when I can plan ahead, and smoke straight out of the 68-70% main containers when I can't.
It tends to work fine either way.
NOTE: smoking cigars, especially certain types, outdoors (or indoors without artificial climate control) on a very humid or, worse yet, rainy day can drastically hurt the cigar's performance (you draw wet air into the cigar with every puff), and if you happened to take that one out of a 68-70% box, you may wrongly associate the crappy smoking experience with that RH storage level. Pay attention to prevent such false correlations from forming in your mind, for example try the same cigar from that same box on a dry day, and you might be amazed how much better it is..