Dried Out Cigar Need Advice?

[Cartierusm]

SO My Cigars are a little dry because of some experimentation in my humidor. Now every thing's all right and the humidity levels are right. I've got about 15 boxes in there and was wondering how long it would take to get the cigars back up to the right humidity levels. Right now they are not too dry actually almost smoke-able. The humidity is at 70 and has been for about a week or so.

[mosesbotbol]

A month of consistent temps should be fine. Just go easy on them until you they taste right. With 15 boxes, how much of a dent could you put in the humidor without going nuts? Sounds like your all set.

I guess it kinda depends on how long they have been drier than you desire. If not for too long, you should be close to smokable now. I prefer mine at 65%, so anywhere around 65% should work, but maybe another week or so if you want them back up to around 70% (assuming they have not been dry for a long period - say over a month or so)

[Da Klugs]

What was your experiment? Hypnosis to help forget you have them in order to get some age?

[Cartierusm]

LOL, i wish Klugs, BTW Da Klugs you owe me a keyboard, in the other thread the pic of your humidor made me drool so much it shorted out my keyboard.

No, the experiment was when I built my new temperature controlled humidor out of a True commercial refrigerator I had the main fan on all the time. I called Cigar Oasis, as I was using their product, and asked if it's all right to have a powerful fan blowing all the time. They said you need circulation all the time in a humidor that big. So using logic just because you have a fan blowing all the time won't dry out cigars because it's just blowing 70% air and not introducing new air to dilute the existing air. BTW the cigars are all in boxes, so they're covered. Now with the fan blowing all the time it would keep a humidity at about 68-70%, then when the frig turned on the humidity would drop to 55-60% over the course of about 3-5 minutes. Then the fan still being on would disperse the condensed water on the cooling coils and bring the humidity back up to 68 in about another 5 minutes. The frig would turn on every 15 minutes or so. The frig of course I rewired with a new digital Honeywell Thermometer and other electronics, so it has consistent temps between 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit. The drain tube going from the condensing coils in the top inside of the unit has all the new electrical wires going through it so I don't needlessly damage or lessen the valve of the frig and I left that open because this would allow, something almost completely sealed, a way to exchange air and the way it was installed I thought was enough to lend some restriction anyway. I noticed that my Cigar Oasis was needing to be refilled every month instead of every year like they claim. I chalked this up to being a huge humidor and air exchange. But I kind of thought in the back of my mind that it's a sealed environment and should last longer. Anyway I've been conserving my intake of cigar for about a month as work is crazy, to much to do and low on cigars I'm willing to smoke as opposed to age, I finally have a ton of boxes coming in. So I had a free day about a week and a half ago and started thinking it's winter and cold why is the frig still kicking on so much? The built in fan is generating heat, I also checked the cigars and they were a little dry. So Now I plugged up the drain tube so no air gets in or out. The built in fan only goes on when the compressor does, which now is about 1-2 times a day. The temp goes from 71 to 68 and that's it, it doesn't drop anymore 10 degrees. The humidity never drops, maybe when the compressor turns on 1-2% at the most. When you open the door it feels humid. SO now I think every thing's fine but still a little dry. I got one of those Dry-Damp gauges as it was on sale and I'm using it as a gauge, GOT one of the moldy wet ones free from Davidoff and it said it was a little wet and the cigars I have say they are almost dry all the way, needle moves a little. SO I was wondering how long to bring them back, seeing as the tobacco has to absorb the moisture I didn't know how long before worrying that something else is wrong in the humidor.