Conditioning a solid ceder humidor?

[Breaddrink]

I've had mine going for 2 days now, and the humidity seems to be slightly stuck at around 55-60.

The seal on the box seems first rate, requires a slight push to close it nice and tightly...

Am I just jumping the gun in thinking that this should come up to 75 in only 2 nights?

I did as read...wiped the inside down with distilled water, and left a shot glass full of water in there...the humidifier itself was pretty dry after the first night, so perhaps I just need to give it some more time and keep it filled up with 50/50 solution?

The Humidor is solid cedar and veneered and lacquered, as opposed to being a mahogany wood box with a cedar lining or whatever.
Thought that might explain it slightly...

Any thoughts would be very much appreciated.

Rob.

[Breaddrink]

Well...seems to have ticked up to 65 during the course of today.

I gave it another very brief wipe down with water on the inside, and that seems to have helped...

Theres an oshkosh humidifier on it's way to me, so hopefully that will also help.

Thought I'd keep you updated.

Rob.

[sgoselin]

Be patient. Personally, I do not like the idea of wiping the interior surfaces or using the shot glass method. I have seasoned dozens of humidors and usually it just takes time, perhaps even 5 - 7 days for some. Some thoughts. What type of hygrometer do you have and is it accurate. Also I think that 75% is high. I would shoot for 69 - 70% for non-Havanas and 65 - 67% for Havanas. IMHO.

[poker]

Agree 100% with sgoselin. Be patient. Cedar is very good at absorbing moisture, and being solid cedar, thats a lotta wood. The reason for not wiping down the wood interior directly is the extreme possibility of warping.
Humidors are usually only cedar lined due to:

1) the exterior box is usually coated with waterproof sealer on the inside to prevent absorbing moisture and warping.

2) the cedar liner is usually "slip fitted" due to when exposed to a 70%RH environment, it can and will expand slightly.

[Breaddrink]

I have noticed that the lid is now more tightly fitting than it was when dry.

The box rim itself seems to be a loose slip fit as you mention, so really it's just made it close a little more securely.

It seems to have stoped at 70 percent, which means about 65 with that hygrometer...

Theres a more reliable digital one on it's way to me as we speak.

Thanks for the info guys.

Rob.

[ESP]

By the sound of it, you've already calibrated your hygrometer (salt test),, even the digital ones are only accurate within +/- 3 % ,,

[Breaddrink]

Yeah...the salt test left it reading 80 percent on the dot, and it's not a calibratable meter...

...So I bought the digital which will hopefuly be a little more on target.

Rob.

[Lamar]

Just another encouragement to be patient. After wiping it down as you have, you may want to give it a couple of weeks to settle in at a RH before you start making your fine adjustments.

Just a suggestion.

[Breaddrink]

Thanks Lamar...
Any advice is very much appreciated over here. I need all the help I can get.

So the latest is, I got my digital Hygrometer through, and tried out the salt test again on it.

The hygrometer was a steady 72 after 12 hours of being sealed in it's box (I used tuppaware for this so I could actualy watch what it was doing...It didn't seem to budge from 72 after 5 hours or so.

In the humidor, it's reading a steady 62, and has read that now for 2 days (61 after todays regular checks).
It's got a high and low readings memory on the hygrometer that claims the highest it's gone is 62 (more likely 65 if the salt test is anything to go by) so I've got a very steady 65 percent humidity humidor going here, only it's using 70 percent solution.

Amusingly, this means the regular hygrometer I was replacing with the digital that I didn't give much credit to, is likely to be reading on the dot. It's been claiming 65 for some time now.

Is 65 too low? I've got a few sticks in there, but I'm really wary to begin using it full time before I'm certain I won't ruin 100 bux of smokes.

My oshkosh humidifier will arrive some time next week hopefully, so I can at least find out if the humidifying unit is too small for this space etc etc...

Any thoughts?

Rob.

[Breaddrink]