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O.K. so I get off the phone with this guy who owns a company that makes humidor equipment competing with this site so I will not mention any names. I consider him a good professional source and I want to share his take on cigar storage.

I was looking into building a coolerdor and homemade Credo as well as the whole PG thing and I wanted to know a little about the accuracy of a certain brand of Digital Hygrometer. So I called the 800# and got the owner of this small company that sells only a number of humidors and 3 accessories including the Digi-Hyg. I explained to him that I live on the coast in Santa Cruz, CA where we experience some pretty high rh levels and my humidors all run around 80% or so as represented by decent, salt tested/calibrated, analog hygrometers. He reminded me that the rh in the carribean regularly far exceeds 73% and they don't seem to have too much trouble. As long as the temp. is controlled and proper ventilation is provided, there should be no problem with mold or beetles.

He then asked me how my cigars have been and I told him that I've smoked cigars that have been aged under these conditions (80% rh, 68-70 deg.) over 2 years as well as shorter term cigars and they were all great with no mold or burning problems. His idea is why use a 50/50 solution with PG taking 1/2 your humidifier thus requiring twice the H2O maintenance.

He also relayed a story about a mail order box of cigars he received and tested in a controlled environment with no humidifier, overnight. His tests showed the cigars to be at 82%rh and were some of the best cigars he and his friends had ever had. He wished he could keep them that way but his Las Vegas locale wouldn't have it.

As far as his hygrometer is concerned, I wanted to know if it was adjustable since it is hard to find older, adjustable versions of other Digi-Hygrometers found on this forum. He explained that his latest version is not, for the fact that he calibrates his hygrometers for several days with much more sophisticated means than salt testing and further user calibration only screwed up the original version. I hung up and bought one so we'll see. I will not be posting my experience with the rig for you though, as that will require a name and model.

I'm going to continue with my storage techniques for now since I've had no problems so far.

I'd love to hear your comments.

Thanks,
Kendall

remember that humidity is RELATIVE to the total amount of moisture that the air is capable of retaining. Warm air holds more moisture than cold, so 80% in a col environment 60 deg. or so is not all that much moisture in the air. However, if you are at the 70 deg. mark that is way too high. This also applies if temps go above the 70 mark. At 80 deg. 70 % hum. is a whole lot of moisture and you cigars will probably begin to swell, even though the hydometer reads 70 %. So the rule of thumb is a 70 / 70 balance of temp and hum. My humi is pretty stable in the 68 - 70 degree range and I kepp the humidity aroung 65-68 %, I just add a little more pg to keep it at a lower humidity. That however is a preference and there is some room for variances in humidity. Now, if you let your humi get up around 80 degrees you are putting yourself at risk for beetles hatching, but that is a whole other subject. well that's my 2cents anyways.
-Bill

I've used rice Robby and it works. OK there; I've admitted it (sob!). It all started back when...

Thanks for the info Robby.