Temperature&Humidity

[dtrud0h]

I'v been up and down the search feature really. It's been said numerous times that when your temp drops that you should maintain an adequate humidity. My question is this. I keep my Humi's in a relatively un-heated basement, temp is usually 55-65 degrees. When the temp drops, which way should I go with the RH? None of the posts say to either raise, or lower the humidity. I notice as the temp goes down here this winter the RH is dropping along with it, sounds like everyone elses situation but where the temp is relatively low in comparison to most of yours should I let the humidity go along with it or should I try to keep it up. My drymistat tubes are not drying up quickly and judging by the weight of the sponge creedos they are not drying up too fast either so I'm stumped.

[zemekone]

Butch posted this 11-16-2004 I hope it helps...

Not that I am an expert with this stuff, but I think that it is the manner with which it holds the water and slowly releases it into the surrounding atmosphere. A regular foam wwould not hold it as long or as well. Most all store bought disk (etc) hymidifiers have the same type of foam as florist oasis foam.
But if you look below i think you can do pretty much whatever you want if the hygrometer reads the range that you are looking for:

Taken from Jeeves website:

SUBJECT: Storage and Humidity/Humidification:

As we buy our cigars, we expect them to be ready to smoke as we leave the tobacconist's shop, and we are usually not disappointed. However, many of us buy our cigars in quantities, by the box or at least several at a time, and proper storage becomes a matter of concern.

It is generally accepted that cigars should be stored in an environment that permits the cigar to be smoked at it's best. Many authors have suggested that this "ideal" environment centers around 70 degrees F and a relative humidity of 70%. If we let our cigar get too dry, it will smoke hot, fast and unevenly. If we get our cigars too moist, they will tend to go out frequently, draw will become harder, and the cigars can run the risk of molding in storage. Either of these extremes are undesirable.

Thus, it is recommended that cigars be stored in humidors, boxes that are designed to (hopefully) maintain a constant environment for our cigars to rest, and be maintained at their peak condition for smoking.

Humidors range from Igloo (registered trademark) coolers and other inexpensive containers with humidification devices all the way to works of art that showcase the wood workers skills, and cost in the multiple thousands of dollars. Which one is best??? If the humidity and temperature is controlled appropriately, either the budget version or the "break the bank" version will perform equally well. The "break the bank" version is best suited for ostentatious display of cigars and cigar storage, while the budget version is perfectly fine for those who do not want to put their cigar storage on display.

The one thing both extremes of price have in common is that they all contain some kind of device to regulate the humidity inside the storage container. These humidification devices have one goal in mind, and that is to maintain the humidity in our humidor at a constant value at a given temperature. These devices range in complexity from low tech (a sponge soaked in water at the bottom of the humidor, brass containers with a clay substance to hold moisture and release moisture- ie, the Dunhill system), to devices that use blotting paper to hold and release moisture. These devices low tech devices often require the owner to adjust the humidification device to maintain the desired humidification.

Another device, and in my opinion one of the best, is the Credo System (registered trademark). The Credo System comes in both a small model (the Rondo) capable of handling 25 - 50 cigars, and the larger model, the Precision 70 which is capable of handling 75 - 100 cigars. Obviously, for larger storage requirements, multiple Credo units can be used.

The beauty of the Credo System is that it is Self Regulating. All you have to do is add distilled water to keep the device saturated, and it will maintain a constant 70% relative humidity at 70 degrees F. This is accomplished by the use of special "Credo Juice", which contains both distilled water and a "tensio-active" agent. This tensio-active agent releases moisture when the RH is too low, and absorbs moisture when the RH is too high. It has been determined that the "tensio-active" agent in the Credo units is nothing more or less than propylene glycol, and the units come pre-charged with this agent. You then add distilled water until the unit is saturated with water, and install in your storage. After several months, Credo recommends that you "recharge" your unit with "Credo Juice" (which is for all intents and purposes a 50-50 mix of propylene glycol), due to the fact that the tensio-active agent is slowly consumed when in use.

Many cigar smokers have began to make their own humidification devices based on this information. Sponges are commonly used to hold the propylene glycol and distilled water, but a better choice appears to be the green foam used by florists in flower arrangements (brand name is OASIS). OASIS is available from your local florist, and often from craft shops, and a large brick of this foam is enough to make many humidifiers and can be purchased for a very affordable sum. I recommend soaking the foam with propylene glycol, and then adding distilled water until the foam will no longer accept anymore distilled water. This is them placed (in an appropriate ventilated container) into our storage container, and our cigars will be maintained in peak condition until we are ready to smoke them.

Although humidity levels are almost always referred in terms of Relative Humidity, the actual value that is important is the amount of water vapor present in a given volume of air, known as Absolute Humidity. As air will hold varying amounts of water vapor at different temperatures, no discussion of humidification would be complete without a discussion of temperature and it's effect on absolute humidity. Relative humidity is an easily measured value, that relates the measured humidity to the maximum humidity that is possible at that temperature. Thus, 70% RH at 70 degrees F is not the same as 70% RH at 80 degrees F and neither is the same as 70% RH at 60 degrees F.

Remember, we are aiming to maintain the same amount of water (mgm/liter) around our cigars as seen at 70% RH at 70 degrees F (which is 13.15 mmHg water vapor pressure).

So, to be able to know what is happening with our cigars at temperatures other than 70 degrees F, we must use a table of adjusted relative humidity values to make sure that our humidors keep our cigars in the peak of condition.

So the following holds true:


Temp Water Vapor Pressure Relative Humidity Required
for 100% saturated to equal 70% RH at 70 degrees (13.15mmHg)

60 13.26 99.17%
61 13.73 95.78%
62 14.23 92.41%
63 14.74 89.21%
64 15.27 86.12%
65 15.81 83.18%
66 16.37 80.33%
67 16.95 77.58%
68 17.55 74.93%
69 18.17 72.37%
70 18.79 70.00%
71 19.45 67.61%
72 20.11 65.39%
73 20.81 63.19%
74 21.51 61.13%
75 22.25 59.10%
76 23.00 57.17%
77 23.78 55.30%
78 24.59 53.48%
79 25.40 51.77%
80 26.67 49.31%

As we can see, it is impossible to attain an absolute humidity level that will keep our cigars from drying out at temperatures below 60 degrees F.
This observation will put to rest the fallacy that the refrigerator is a good place to store cigars. Not only do we have to worry about our premium cigars beginning to acquire the flavors from our left over foods, but the cigars will dry out and become essentially unsmokable. The freezer is an even worse place to store cigars. The humidity becomes virtually zero, and the lost of moisture from our cigars will accelerate to produce a dry as a bone smoke.

[dtrud0h]

Thank you very much, I guess I have to move my humi's upstairs where there's some heat. That is exactly what I was looking for.

[Redman]

SO this is saying at 64 degrees my humidor is not at 68% as the hydrometer says but at 86%? Oh crap now I am confused, just when I thought I had it where it needed to be!

[GOAT LOCKER]

Originally Posted by Redman

SO this is saying at 64 degrees my humidor is not at 68% as the hydrometer says but at 86%? Oh crap now I am confused, just when I thought I had it where it needed to be!

It's not so bad as the table suggests. There's a lot more to it and hey, your cigars are not getting moldy and still smoke ok, right? I saw this link posted on another forum. The final conclusion is that temperature really does not matter, just keep the RH around 70%. I would still try to keep them in a reasonable temp range, say 60F to 75F.

Oh yeah, here's the link:

http://www.cigargroup.com/faq/#5.0a

The cigar smoker who wrote this is a Phd in Physics, and his conclusions seem to hold up in the real world in my (very limited) experience.

GoatLocker

[zemekone]

Originally Posted by GOAT LOCKER

It's not so bad as the table suggests. There's a lot more to it and hey, your cigars are not getting moldy and still smoke ok, right? I saw this link posted on another forum. The final conclusion is that temperature really does not matter, just keep the RH around 70%. I would still try to keep them in a reasonable temp range, say 60F to 75F.

Oh yeah, here's the link:

http://www.cigargroup.com/faq/#5.0a

The cigar smoker who wrote this is a Phd in Physics, and his conclusions seem to hold up in the real world in my (very limited) experience.

GoatLocker

HAHA! I was looking for that link too, buut couldn't seem to remember where i saw it! Good looking out bro!

[Redman]

Thank you very much!! I was about start trying to figure out how to keep that sucker right at 70. It stays pretty consistant at 65 degrees and 68-69% and nothing is moldy and that is without any humidification device in it most of the time or one with very little solutionin it.

[Eichen]

I'm with GoatLocker -- that's a good reference. I've kept my stash in the basement for several years w/o problems. Temps are more consistant down there anyway over the long haul. Avoiding the swings in temp that you get with heating/AC might be something to consider as well.

http://cigarnexus.com/counsel/cigarstorage/index.html

Steve Saka wrote this. The advice seems sane to me. I've used it with some changes for personal preferece for a while. Check out the introduction and the third to fourth paragraphs of "Maintaining your Humidor".