Does it matter how full a humidor is?

[FireDragon]

Does it have any effect on the cigars? Is it OK to keep a humidor less than a quarter full of cigars?

I'm asking because I have two wood humidors. One is 20 count the other is 50+ The 50+ is so big I use a cigar box inside it that takes 3/4 the space, and that box in turn is only 1/4 full. I have a few planks of Spanish cedar taken from cigar boxes stuffed in the humidor too.. The other humidor is not currently being used but it's got a water pillow and hygrometer inside it. Which would be better for cigar storage? I only am smoking a cigar now from my humidor every other day or so.

 

[FH Finster]

I just emptied most of the smokes from my 150 count desktop humidor to the wineadoor. The desktop is meant to keep my ready to smoke sticks. Maybe 10 in there now.

And since....

I'm finding the humidity levels are a bit out of control. 65% beads yet humidity hanging around 72%.

 

[Tim H]

In my tupperadors, the humidity really got stable once they were full. I had one tupperador that was only half full and RH would swing as much as 5 percent over several days. Now that I filled that tupperador, its holding steady like the other tupperadors. I think the more empty space, the harder it is to control RH.

I would try to fill up as much empty space as possible with spanish cedar pieces or cigar boxes.

 

[Cigary43]

Ideally for any humidor is to keep it at 75% full..... otherwise you have RH wanting to bounce up and down.

 

[Ian T]

It's important to remember that the air in your humidor is the least stable component, in that it changes every time you open your humidor. The cigars and any cedar (as well as your humidification device) are what hold the humidity. By this reasoning, the more full the humidor, the more stable the RH. Of course, it is best to have some air flow so 75% (as mentioned above) is usually the recommended "fullness". I have a 120qt cooler that is probably 2/3 full and the humity definitely swings more than I would like it to when I open it... But everything is in boxes so effective RH swing on my sticks is minimized.

 

[Hoshneer]

Yep empty humidor = Unstable Humidity

 

[FireDragon]

the humidity seems fairly stable, maybe I have enough wood in there. When I open the lid, the humidity doesn't drop at all. It's losing about 1% RH every two or three days.

 

[Bondo 440]

WOW ! Quite a topical discussion ! I'm going through this myself ! Think of your humidor as a nuclear reactor. Your cigars are the cooling rods ! I ran my wineador down to "defcon 4" !! Lowest it's ever been. !! Long work days, crappy weather, and some fiscal surprises kept me from doing any thing about it. Man... I'm talkin' a dozen sticks left. Core Meltdown !! woop ! woop ! ewopp ! My number is 65%RH but it dropped 10% to mid 50's ! before I noticed and I pulled the KL silica out and added a small cup of distilled. And yeah there's plenty of lumber in there. Finally added 25 sticks yesterday after my trip to the B&M. So I'm you're lab rat, and yeah. The amount of tobacco volume in there makes a difference. Next is an online order and Bondodor meltdown will be averted !!

 

[FireDragon]

It sounds like I should keep the cigars in whatever humidor keeps the RH more stable? In that case, it's probably the big, heavy Decatur.

Some little humidors are horrible for having so little real cedar in them. A thin millimeter of veneer isn't going to hold much moisture.

 

[Avvatar]

Okayso.
I have a 50+ milk glass humidor. I have noticed that when it's nearly empty, the humidity plunges. Best bet is to order the Po' Boy Sampler from CI. 40 dirty dog rockets for 25 bucks. Put those in your humidor with a little cedar on top. BAM!
This also means that you'll have cheap smokes to give a-holes. Also, if you forget about them, you can see what aged crap is like!

 

[Bondo 440]

Okayso.
I have a 50+ milk glass humidor. I have noticed that when it's nearly empty, the humidity plunges. Best bet is to order the Po' Boy Sampler from CI. 40 dirty dog rockets for 25 bucks. Put those in your humidor with a little cedar on top. BAM!
This also means that you'll have cheap smokes to give a-holes. Also, if you forget about them, you can see what aged crap is like!

Am I going to be one of those unfortunate fore mentioned a'holes to see some of those in the Dog Rocket trade?
I'm actually interested in trying..eh I mean, "experiencing" an Argyle or one of those RP Mulligans !

 

[Avvatar]

I'm not saying you're an a-hole, but there's some disgusting things going into that box.

 

[FireDragon]

hehheh, I actually enjoy some real dog rockets... it's about all I smoke. I save the good stuff for cigar lounges.

I think I'll try the Po Boy sampler. Also, I had the idea of lining the extra space with scrap cigar leaf. A local tobacconist does this, just leaves tobacco laying around in empty boxes everywhere. The smell is heavenly.

 

[SeaGarr]

I remember reading as much as I could about humidor RH and how to keep a stable environment back in the day. The theory seemed to be that the amount of cigars in a humi should make no difference with respect to RH. If the box was seasoned and your humidity device was working, if you had 3 or 30 sticks in your humi, if the RH was 70... it was 70.

Of course, cigars are nothing if not little RH sponges. As such, they contribute (in my mind) to the stability when you open your humi. Having a glass-top, this was easy to demonstrate to myself... which I did.

When I had a few sticks, every time I rooted in my humi, the RH would dip to lets say an RH of 60 (for illustration purposes). To get back up to 70 (that's what I used to keep my sticks at back in the day), it would take hours.

So I bought a bundle of dog rockets over at CI and threw them in the bottom of the humi. After everything stabilized, I tried rummaging through my humi and again, the RH would dip to 60. The difference was, this time, getting back up to 70 took less than half an hour.

I was sold on the "keep your humi stocked" theory to maintain RH.

Of course, none of that matters if you are only going to dig into your Humi once a week or so.

 

[herfdog]

Question is "does it matter how full a humidor is"

BOTL answer is "yes. Too empty and you get bombed cigars. Too full and you get bombed wineadors"

 

[multi-useless]

tagging @luckysaturn13 - Aaron, the info above may explain the problems you've had with humidity lately. Also, we're cross-promoting your launch here.

 

[luckysaturn13]

Okayso.
I have a 50+ milk glass humidor. I have noticed that when it's nearly empty, the humidity plunges. Best bet is to order the Po' Boy Sampler from CI. 40 dirty dog rockets for 25 bucks. Put those in your humidor with a little cedar on top. BAM!
This also means that you'll have cheap smokes to give a-holes. Also, if you forget about them, you can see what aged crap is like!

Am I going to be one of those unfortunate fore mentioned a'holes to see some of those in the Dog Rocket trade?
I'm actually interested in trying..eh I mean, "experiencing" an Argyle or one of those RP Mulligans !

 

[luckysaturn13]

I was sooo thinking the same thing bondo said after reading avvatars post! Lol

 

[luckysaturn13]

tagging @luckysaturn13 - Aaron, the info above may explain the problems you've had with humidity lately. Also, we're cross-promoting your launch here.

that could of had someting to do w it. I was running low when i had my issue but the dry bovedas didnt help the issue! In my experience id say the fuller the humidor the slower the swings. cigars will change about 1% rh a week. They are a verry good buffer as long as ur boveda isnt dry box isnt cracked ect

 

[Avvatar]

Oh gee, I guess I'll have both y'all's addresses too, eh? Hmmm...