I'm having trouble getting my humidor to the proper humidity. It seems to be stuck at 60%.

I live in Phoenix, but I keep my humidor in an airconditioned room in the shade. The air conditioner thermostat is set at 78 degrees.

I have a 50 cigar humidor I bought on CB of average quality. I seasoned it with cigar seasoner. Currently I have about 12 cigars in my humidor.

I have a Humi-Care digital humidifying gauge and thermometer, that I think I bought on CB as well. It perennially reads 60% humidity and low 70's temperature.

I don't recall any instructions with the gauge mentioning the need to calibrate it.

From Boveda I bought a dual pack holder, made of wood, where I have placed two 75% packets. Since it can be really dry in Arizona I thought I would error on the side of over humidifying and then adjust down as needed.

One last thing. The instructions on the Boveda packages say no activation is needed. I simply open the clear plastic wrapper the Boveda comes in and put them in my humidor. Is this correct?

At this point I just don't want to have to jump through any more hoops than this to keep my cigars in reasonably good condition.

Any help would be great appreciated.

Thanks.🇨🇮

PM CelticBomber he is really knowledgeable on all things including humidity. He should be able to help you out

+1

Thanks for the reply.

I hope I hear from him.

After I made my original post I took my humidity gauge and thermometer outside and placed it on a table on our patio.

Within a few minutes it read 20% humidity and 103 degrees (I know, pretty sad) and I'm guessing this is pretty much an accurate reading.

So it appears my gauge is working correctly.

ok I'll play nice... get a bottle cap, fill it to the top with table salt... add drops of distilled water until you've got yourself a damp slurry going... place the cap and the hygrometer in a sealed ziploc bag in close to 75 degree conditions... after 24 hours it should read 75.5 (i think... something like that)... calibrate accordingly... and pm your results to celticbomber...

I wouldn't be concerned with 60% humidity.That old tale about 70/70 is just screaming for mold and or beetles.I would be more concerned about the AC being set on 78.I live in West Texas........dry as a popcorn fart right now and hot as two mice **** ing in a wool sock.My humi temp,which is a converted walk in closet on the east side of the home,runs about 75 F and under this time of year.However I run my humidity 58-63%.Cigars smoke well at that RH and they age well also.

One other thing I would do living in that hot climate is beetle proof every cigar you now have and every cigar you plan on placing in the humi in the future.This is easily accomplished.Place cigars in a zip lock bag and freeze(below 0 F) for 72 hours.Some upon removal go to the fridge for a day or so.I have not had trouble skipping this step and going straight to the humi.As long as you do this with every purchased or gifted cigar a beetle outbreak will be the least of your worries.I learned the hard way bout 12 years ago........NEVER AGAIN!!!


Ron

Probably all those nasty lfd's and coobans you stored in there...

Yea dat's it.LOL

Perfect.

Thanks for all the advice.

Thanks for playing nice.

I knew I was taking a chance asking a question that has probably been asked a million times.

Any nasty LFDS that you have just send to me I will properly get rid of them for you Ron.

Give up on the nice wood box humidor. I too am in Phoenix and have tried for years to get wood box humidors to keep a decent humidity. It's just too dry here and the near year round AC naked it even harder. They just don't seal well enough for us dessert dwellers.

Jump ship and go tupperadore and never worry about it again. Get a decent one with a seal, Toss in a few bovedas and some beads if you like and enjoy your smokes.

Thanks Stogie 1020.

Sadly, I think I'm coming to the same realization.

So, I got a brilliant idea, or not.

What if I simply take my wooden humidor that I'm having issues with and simply store in in an air tight Tupperware-like container?

Why don't you take the humidor and throw it away and just store your smokes in a tupperware container ? I have 3 105qt tupperdores that I store cigars in works great.

Agreed... the humidor is just for looks so once it's hidden it's just taking up valuable cigar space... no matter what you end up doing, pm your decision to celticbomber... he keeps track of active members storage situations....

Here's a better idea. keep all your cutters, lighters, dirty fleshlights and breath mints in your pretty humidor, and get your arse to the container store to buy a weather tight (means it has a seal) plastic storage container for your cigars.

I have this (can't remember the size) and bought some cedar trays from Amazon to stick inside with a few Bovedas and some beads:

https://www.containerstore.com/s/storage/plastic-bins-baskets/clear-weathertight-totes/12d?productId=10026213 

Once again, thanks so much for all the help.

I may be slow, but I usually come around in the end.

I just ordered a plastic container from Amazon.

I must not have been the first one to do this. On the same page as the plastic container was a link to a Spanish Cedar tray that fits into the plastic container. I order that as well.

Both of these things together cost less than the wooden humidor that is giving me fits.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sistema+klip+it+1870&language=en_US&linkCode=sl2&linkId=10bbe6fa5a13d0e9603f669a89a3fcad&tag=bespokeunit_bespokeunit-20&ref=as_li_ss_tl 

Thanks again.

50 count humidor? What a pedestrian noob. Get a cabinet, you commoner.

I've been called worse.

Okay, so here is a follow-up to the tuppordore and humidification issues that I've been having in Phoenix. It appears that it finally has a happy ending (not that type of happy ending).

Following the recommendations in this thread, I purchased a tupperware-like container and two Spanish Cedar trays to fit in it. I was using two Boveda 75% packets stored in one of their wooden packet holders.

I was able to get the humidity to 65% and I figured that was about the best I was going to be able to do living in super dry Phoenix.

Then, on a whim, I removed the packets from the wooden packet holder. The humidity almost immediately climbed to 70%. I couldn't believe it.

So, I'm guessing the relatively porous wood packet holder acted like a sponge and absorbed the humidity emitted by the packets and was preventing the moisture from circulating through the container.

I find this very interesting.

As a pedestrian noob commoner I've really appreciated all the advice I've received on this website, and I hope my experience might help someone else, possibly another pedestrian noob commoner.

Thanks so much.

I am also a noob commoner in Phx. One bit of advice ... if you are keeping the temp at 78 and RH at 70 you will eventually have beetles.

Keep the RH closer to 60.