Outside humidity the issue?

[piperdown]

Last week I was smoking a R&J reserve real torpedo and the wrapper started swelling and popping like crazy. My humidity is right on at 66, hydro's calibrated and other cigars have been okay. However the humidity was very high outside when I was smoking and was wondering if that could have caused what the pictures indicate?
I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to skip days where the humidity is sky high?

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[contract]

I have had sticks split due to outside humidity. I never smoke on highly humid days or in the rain.

[dj1340]

I have had that happen to me, if it's really humid outside I go a shorter stick.

[Schecter30]

looks like they use a real thin wrapper on that cigar

[Tarks]

I was thinking the same thing. That wrapper looks very thin.

[Grammaton]

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that high humidity would make the wrapper softer, not brittle.

[Tarks]

I'm not sure but I'm guessing that the high humidity would cause the binder/filler to swell which in turn would cause the wrapper to split.

[Frinkiac7]

Originally Posted by Tarks

I'm not sure but I'm guessing that the high humidity would cause the binder/filler to swell which in turn would cause the wrapper to split.

This has happened to me before, taking dry sticks and putting them in a high-RH environment.

[Grammaton]

Originally Posted by Tarks

I'm not sure but I'm guessing that the high humidity would cause the binder/filler to swell which in turn would cause the wrapper to split.

I've never had a split, so I'm trying to understand... I know it's just a matter of time.
If differential humidity is the cause, then:
Putting a dry stick in the humidor would be likely to split wrappers.

If it takes a month to rehydrate a dried stick, then a few hours at higher humidity shouldn't cause the wrapper to split unless the leaf had a fault, right?

(I'm in way over my head, but I like to think about these things.)

[ca21455]

My experience is smoking when the RH outside is above 90% is a difficult deal.

A cigar with a thin wrapper can easily pick up enough moisture to swell and split the wrapper.

A thick wrapper will perform better but will have burn issues.

I have found that dry boxing a thick wrapper for a few days (around 50% humidity) seems to help. The cigars I found that performed fairly well in high humidity are:

Edge Toro Maduro
Ashton VSGs
HdM Excalibur Maduro
Indian Tabac Maduro
Any NC Punch
SLR Maduro
Juan Lopez Epicure #2
Trinidad Maduro
Olivia Serie Vs all worked well
Gispert Maduro
CAO Brazila
Camacho 1962 Torpedo

I think most of the Maduros will work for you, some will have some burn issues but you can work with them.

I seem to have better luck in the early morning or later at night when the temperature cools down some.

Hope this helps.

[piperdown]

I was smoking in the evening and it's been unusually cool and wet in Kansas this summer (summer, what summer!?).
Wet enough that night that the fog was rolling it. As you can see from the pictures (or maybe not) the filler swelled like crazy. The diameter of the cigar changed in size to about 1/3 bigger than the rest. Caused the wrapper to split. Thing was is that the swelling followed the burn down all the way splitting the wrapper as it went.
I thought at first that maybe the cigar was too wet but it didn't taste like it was nor did the hydro I use (calibrated) indicate high humidity. I also use 65 rH beads. My humidors don't fluxuate beyond about 3 rH.

Just puzzled.

I will try dry boxing them for a day or so and see if that makes a difference.

Thanks guys!

[Herf N Turf]

The answer to your question is, yes, a dramatic increase in humidity can cause wrapper cracks. However, I dont think this is the culprit in the above pic. That just looks too early in the burn to have been sufficiently humidified to swell fillers and binder. Typically, it takes at least half the cigar to produce this. I think you just got a bum stick. Not so long ago, I had an entire box with this problem. It seems that an entire run of this certain brand had been made during monsoon rains and even though their QC was good, the problem didnt surface until they had been boxed and shipped. In my case, the company replaced the box.

So, what Im guessing is that a) the cigar was new to your humi and hadnt had time to settle down to 66%. or b) there was a problem with the roll.

[e-man]

Originally Posted by Herf N Turf

the cigar was new to your humi and hadnt had time to settle down to 66%.

+1 on needing to rest longer.

Just because the airspace of your humidor reads 66%, that doesn't mean your sticks are at the same rH.

Put some of your sticks in a ziplock with your hygrometer to see what their rH really is. Even so, you may have a wet center, and dry outer. You won't know if the rH is consistent throughout the entire stick, unless they've been in a stable environment for a couple months. I don't smoke anything that hasn't rested in MY humidors for at least 6 months. The day I stopped smoking them the same day I bought them, was the day I stopped having problems with plugged/split cigars.

That being said, there are some sticks that prefer higher rH. Oliva is one...and they also use thin wrappers.


As for the effect of ambient humidity:

I admit that I live in a dry environment, but I've never had a problem smoking in my hot tub with lots of steam rising from the water (visible moisture occurs near 100% rH), so I would doubt that it makes too much of a difference.

Tobacco has much more mass than air, so I would suspect that the total moisture content of the cigars is more significant.

[piperdown]

Been in my humidor for 4 months. Didn't have a problem with 2 of the others that I smoked that came in the same package.

I like the bag idea just to know what's going on.

Having steam rise off a hot tube is a different calculation than having all of the air around you at an rH of 97.
I sure do appreciate all the help. Keeps me thinking!