What's up with my humidor?

[whodeeni]

Hi Ron,

I bought a Blue Chip Combo from CI when I first started smoking and it was
my first humidor. Initially it held 70% humidity very well, and i noticed over the
last week or so that the humidity has been between 40 & 60 degrees at most.

I made friends with one of the girls in customer service at CI, and she suggested that I recalibrate my hygrometer (analog) with brine solution in
a plastic bag for 8+ hrs. I did that and it finally got back to 70% so i put it back in this afternoon.

I haven't had a chance to check it out because im not home, and i took all of my sticks out and wiped it down with some premade solution.

i noticed that the corners are a little loose but the box closes firmly... do you think that this humidor is trashed or do you have any suggestion on how to bring it back?

HELP!!!

[Treinenwj]

I had a similar problem when I first got my humidor. Turned out it was leaky. Do a search in here for leaky humidor. I can't remember what thread it was, but I found one that explained way better than I could how to check for leaks and how to fix it. It's real easy, though.

[Treinenwj]

Try this thread: Leaky Humidor

[RonC]

the first step toward determining wether a humidor is good or not is a good quality, recalibratble hygrometer. Thats gonna tell me if the problem is your humidor, or humidification

[Mitch]

You might also ask yourself what could have changed beside the humidor. Is your heater running all the time making the inside of your house dry? how often do you open it? how full is it and have you added sticks that may have been dry and are sucking up moisture? Did you move it, in front of an air vent or near a window with sun?

[whodeeni]

Heat is set to 71 degrees around the clock....
it is full of sticks, and most of those were previously in plastic
until one of the guys at my B&M said to take all of them out of
plastic.... so maybe some were dry and are taking up all of the
humidity.... That's a good one bro...!

If that's the case do you suggest i take some out of there? It is
packed pretty densely.

[bigbwalls]

My first winter with my humidor was puzzling to me. It took me awhile to figure out it was the heaters sucking the humidity out of the air and causing the RH in my humidor to dip below 50%.

If you find this to be the problem, then water pillows will be your best friend.