Seasoning...

[Deucer]

Hey all,

I searched "seasoning" and couldn't come up with any info specific to my situation, so I"m throwing this out there.

I got my 1st humidor a week ago and loaded it up with a few dished of distilled water.

I calibrated my hygrometer using Vipers beads (threw it in a baggie with a bunch of 65% beads overnight - in the morning it read 65 exactly), and put it in the humidor. It's been reading above 85 and climbing toward 90 for the last 3 days.

A couple questions:

1) With the humidity holding that high, can I safely assume that the seasoning process is done?

2) I"m concerned is that I might leave the thing sitting at high humidity for too long and mold could form. It this something that could happen?

-Deucer

[Old Sailor]

I would say it's still seasoning by those readings. You may want to salt test that hygro just to make sure of the reading though, never did a calibrate by beads.

[wharfrathoss]

yes
yes

time to put cigars in it

[Deucer]

Originally Posted by Old Sailor

I would say it's still seasoning by those readings. You may want to salt test that hygro just to make sure of the reading though, never did a calibrate by beads.

Originally Posted by wharfrathoss

yes
yes

time to put cigars in it

Sorry guys, but I'm even more confused now!

[Old Sailor]

Originally Posted by wharfrathoss

yes
yes

time to put cigars in it

I wouldn't be puttin any cigars in there with the humidity that high.....don't understand your reasoning there wharfrathoss??????

[weetone]

Do a salt test to confirm that your hygro is correct. I haven't ever heard of using beads to do it, although, theoretically it ought to work.

But do a salt test anyhow, confirm that your hygro is, in fact reading correctly.

If it is-->take out the dishes, put your regular humidification device, chuck in your hygro, let it sit for a couple days. If it stays steady at whatever RH you like, then you're good to go.
If it isn't-->note the difference (the deviation from 75% RH I believe) and do the above anyhow.

[Deucer]

Originally Posted by Old Sailor

I wouldn't be puttin any cigars in there with the humidity that high.....don't understand your reasoning there wharfrathoss??????

I"m going to put the 65% beads in 1st which should bring the humidity down.

[Deucer]

Originally Posted by weetone

Do a salt test to confirm that your hygro is correct. I haven't ever heard of using beads to do it, although, theoretically it ought to work.

But do a salt test anyhow, confirm that your hygro is, in fact reading correctly.

If it is-->take out the dishes, put your regular humidification device, chuck in your hygro, let it sit for a couple days. If it stays steady at whatever RH you like, then you're good to go.
If it isn't-->note the difference (the deviation from 75% RH I believe) and do the above anyhow.

Thanks, this sounds like a good plan.

[Twill413]

Originally Posted by weetone

I haven't ever heard of using beads to do it, although, theoretically it ought to work.

I have tried this with a reliable calibrated hygro, because I was curious as well. Used one of the 70 bead tubes, and it came out just right after 24 hours. Still, I would recommend the salt test as well in the interest of thoroughness.

[montecristo#2]

If it is at 85-90% - you are definitely done seasoning. You just need the wood to absorb enough moisture so that the wood does not suck moisture out of your cigars. If it is at 90% already, you are more than fine. When I have seasoned my humidors, they never got above 70% and that was totally fine for me.

I would take out the dishes and throw in your beads, once it is close to 65-70%, I would add the cigars. It may be a little unstable since the humidor is empty, but once you put in cigars it should level out.

Just make sure the beads are not completely wet as you want some dry beads to absorb the excess moisture. I might start with 50:50 clear to white and see if that works.

[montecristo#2]

I just noticed you are in San Francisco, do you actually live in the city?

I live in the sunset and in terms of storing cigars, it is very easy around here (at least for me).

The RH in my apartment ranges from 60-70% depending on the time of year (it is around 67-69% today), so maintaining RH is pretty easy. I hardly ever add distilled water to my beads, maybe once every three months during this time of year. The humidity actually goes up if I leave my humidor open too long.

[Deucer]

Originally Posted by montecristo#2

I just noticed you are in San Francisco, do you actually live in the city?

I live in the sunset and in terms of storing cigars, it is very easy around here (at least for me).

The RH in my apartment ranges from 60-70% depending on the time of year (it is around 67-69% today), so maintaining RH is pretty easy. I hardly ever add distilled water to my beads, maybe once every three months during this time of year. The humidity actually goes up if I leave my humidor open too long.

I live in the Presidio. I"m on the edge of the fog bank so it's not so consistently wet out here, but I have lived in the Sunset and I know what you mean.

I actually added some cigars (that I"m not too concerned about) and a 1/4 pound of beads. About 1/2 of the beads were wet. I'm going to see what happens.

At least I know the darn thing seals well. I never expected the humidity to get above 85%!

Any good recommendations on smoke shops in the city? There's one in the Marina on Chestnut that's pricey (what do you expect for the Marina), but has a cool guy working there.

I"ve also been to Burlingame Tobacconist a bunch of times, since I grew up in Burlingame and I work in Burlingame now. They a have a great selection, but unfortunately I get a bad vibe from the staff there and their prices aren't the greatest either.

[montecristo#2]

Originally Posted by Deucer

I"ve also been to Burlingame Tobacconist a bunch of times, since I grew up in Burlingame and I work in Burlingame now. They a have a great selection, but unfortunately I get a bad vibe from the staff there and their prices aren't the greatest either.

I might check with some of the other Bay Area BOTLs for good cigar shops.

I have only been to a couple, I have walked past Burlingame Tobacconist a couple of times but have never actually been in the store. I always get there right around closing time.

The shop I have the most experience with is Grant's on Market. I believe they are off of the Montgomery station, but you might want to check to make sure. They have a great selection and the prices are not too bad for CA (except for stuff like opus). The owner is really cool and so are most of the guys that work there.

There is also Smoker's Haven (I think that is what it is called), which is farther north and closer to the embarcadero. The selection and prices are not as good as Grant's, so I have only been there once or twice.

The only other real cigar shop I have been to is Telfords which is just across the Golden Gate bridge going north. It is a good size stand alone shop with a smoking lounge. They have a huge inventory of cigars and pipes, but the prices are a little high. I have only been there once or twice.

I know there are a couple of shops in the east bay and in the south bay, but I have not had a chance to check them out.

[ChokeOnSmoke]

Testing your hygro using beads sounds like it would make sense, but I did some experimenting and never got it to work right. I first ran the test for 24-48 hours in a sealed tupperware and it always read too high (in the 70% range using 65% beads). OK, so I thought I got the beads too wet. Then I dried the beads out a bit and put in a second dish of totally dry beads, so if it was still too wet, the dry beads would absorb. Still didn't work. Readings were still in the high 60's, low 70's.

Maybe it would work if you tested it this way in a properly seasoned humidor, but conventional "salt testing" environments don't seem to work. At least it didn't work for me. By the way, I then did the salt test on my new hygro, when all this testing failed, and the hygro was dead on at 75%. Guess I'll continue to use the salt test.

[wharfrathoss]

Originally Posted by Deucer

Sorry guys, but I'm even more confused now!

deucer-the "yes" & "yes" were my answers to your 2 ?'s in your 1st post

old sailer (& deucer)-i recommended putting cigars in because of my limited experience w/seasoning humis-i'm definately not an expert, i've only seasoned 5 or 6, but here's what happened w/mine-the high (80%/90%) reading is mostly caused by the dish of water being in the humi, the cedar is not actually holding that much moisture-once i put in beads & cigars, the rh rapidly dropped to the rh of the beads-i did stop seasoning when mine held at 75%, so your's may take a day or 2 longer to drop, but the concept is the same-if you want to be "xtra safe", just remove the water sources & leave the lid open at regular intervals until it reaches 70% & holds there, then add your smokes

it would also be good to salt test the hygro-beads have worked great for me, but i had mixed results when trying to use them for calibration