Well, here's the story on my humidor.

I've had the humidor for several years. In my mind, it's a rather large, rather nice humidor, a good buy at $250 (discontinued with a cosmetic blemish). It has a top level with glass lid (20-30 cigars), a divided lower level with a glass door (3-4 boxes + 2-3 boxes), and a slide out tray at the bottom of that level (30-40 cigars). It has two large humidifiers, one I keep on the top level, along with an analog and a digital hygrometer, and one which I keep in the lower drawer. The top lid and the front door have a loose rubber seal, rubber still supple, and the interior has slots to allow air to circulate between the levels.

It kept normal humidity for the 2 years I had it living in Southern California. Last year I moved to Portland, and now I can't seem control the humidity. In California the humidity would go up when I filled the humidifiers and slowly go down over time. Normal behavior as far as I'm concerned. But ever since I've moved up here, maintaining humidity seems impossible. I'm always in the 50-60% range, no matter how much water/pg I use. With the amount I've used at times I would expect the humidity to hit 80% or more if I was still in CA (once it did in CA, and I quickly let it air out to compensate), but up here it never goes above 60. To add one more odditiy, the analog hygrometer has diverged from the digital upon moving here, apparantly "stuck" at a higher humidity, but since I consider the analogue merely cosmetic I haven't bothered to recalibrate.

I'm struggling to deal with this climate. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

1) Is your hygrometer accurate?

2) Have you tried putting a shot glass full of distilled water in the humidor to boost humidity?

I would think that the Pac. NW would be more humid than S. Kalifornia, but I guess not. . . .

I posted a query over a month ago regarding my humidor and moving to the East coast. Since then, my humidor is stabilized, and from the sounds of it, you could have several problems. If there is a disparity between the digital and analogue hygrometers, I am led to believe one or both are not accurate: check them both, yet separately, using the table salt and distilled water method in a ziplock bag (each should read exactly 75% when left in a hermetically-sealed container/bag with a small dish or beer cap full of damp table salt and distilled water). Also, your humidor may be leaking. Glass-top humidors make me cringe because there's too great a chance that the hidden seal may be breached. Despite the climate where you are living, the humidor should hold 70% RH with PG solution that is chemically structured to do so (as long as the humidor it is kept in can maintain a stable RH with controlled air flow). Check your hygrometers and post back.

As an aside, are your cigars extremely dry, cracking/splitting, burning too fast? One or more of these symptoms are indicative of a low RH, as I'm sure you know. But, I have to ask.

Good luck,
Bob B

How did you ship the humidor? Is it possible that you need to re-season it after shipping? A long ride in a hot truck could be hell on a humidor. I also agree with the others, it looks a little suspicous that the hygros are suddenly reading differently and would take Bob B's suggestion for checking them out.

Let us know what you find out.

Don't use too much PG as it is NOT the stuff that keeps your cigars moist, rather it will actually prevent mositure from being released.

PG will actually clog your humidifier. Use only a 50% solution once every 6-months. After that use distilled water.

I spent yesterday recalibrating the hygrometers. The analag is definately worthless. Any little bump and the needle jumps 5-10 points in either direction, so I can just disregard it. The digital I reset and sealed in the salt solution for 8 hours and received a reading of 71%, so I can assume it's off by 4%. Returning it to the humidor, I get a reading of 63% in the bottom tray and 60% on the top tray (haven't tested the middle shelves). So I guess the humidity is 64-67%. That a little low for my taste, though some will find it perfect.

My continuing issue is, it never rises above that. I think Docbarry might be onto it, I uses 50-50 quite often, so perhaps when I don't it is still "clogged". I always though 50-50 was the prefered solution, so I use it all the time. I only use distilled water to prime a new humidor and on the rare occasion I run out of 50-50. I never knew that PG will clog a humidifier. Perhaps I should buy some ones, that might be the culprit.

I have tried the cap of distilled water awhile ago, and as I recall it didn't do anything, maybe 2%, maybe. But then again, if my humidifiers are clogged with PG perhaps they are sucking the extra humidity out.

I should also add a new hymogrometer to my shopping list. Time I replace the cheap analogue anyways.

As for the climate up here, it is quite a bit more humid than southern california. Rather ironic. As for my cigars, they are not brittle, if anything they have been burning rather slow and with a tougher draw than normal, perhaps a sign it is my hygrometer.

As for reseasoning, I did not do that upon arrive, but I would think that after a year the humidor would be fine. At first I thought that that might be the issue, the humidor absorbing all the moisture, but after so long it has to be something else (right?).

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to buy some new hygrometers and humidifiers. We'll see how that works.

If you are going to invest in some new humidifiers you may want to consider going with a set of humidification beads instead. People on these boards rave about them and in my short time using them I have been very impressed. Check it out here:

http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/Beads.htm

I've also read that you can use a certian brand of kitty litter... Pearl something, just do a search to find it. I plan on trying this for my next humidor.

If it's been a year already then I'd say that you probably don't need to re-season it. Dry brittle smokes would be the first indication of that.