What is the reason a cigar will swell and the the wrapper crack when smoking them?

Are they too wet or too dry?

I seem to be having this problem with some of my cigars. Other from the same humi seem to be ok. Not sure if it could be how close they are to the humidifier or what. These are now cheap cigars that are having this problem.

any ideas

Overhumidification. Water expands as it warms- and in the case of cigars, causes tobacco to expand. Some of the best cigars I have smoked have actually grown in size, although I have had very few that have broken.

I would suggest looking closely to see which of your cigars may be close to your humidification element, as they are probably the ones recieving too much humidification.

Bear

PS- if you have plenty of gar left, (and you don't want to smoke it exploeded), you can always cut off that portion and relight just you would relight a cigar that had gone cold. I have done so several times and never regretted it (except losing that piece, of course)

Bear is correct. Also smoking a cold cigar will do the same thing. If a cigar warms up too quickly it will burst.

You may want to dry boxa few cigars to get them at optimal moisture and temperature levels.

To dry box a cigar place it in a cigar box or humidor without humidification for anywhere from a few hours to a day or so, depending on the ambient humidity. If you live here in NYC, humidity in the summer is higher than inside the humidor. If you live in Colorado it is dry most of the year.

Thanks for the replies...

Humidity is an issue for me because I run a 120 gallon saltwater tank. I get about 3-5 gallons of evaporation per day since I have almost 1k watts of lights on it.

I keep everything on the dry side of the house though.

I'll give the dry box a try for sure.

Thanks

My humidity goes all screwy during the summer when I turn on the Swamp Cooler.

(for those who don't live in a desert, a Swamp or Evaporative Cooler is just like a radiator for your house. Draws air thru water to cool it, thus humidifying the air and creating an AMAZING atmosphere at 1/4 the cost of running A/C)

Good luck with keeping your's drier, if that's your problem. A cigar gone bad is a sin, and should be avoided at all costs

Bear

I'm in Colorado. What is humidity? grin.

To add to the above information, if the cigars are dry when you receive them, and you place them in a humidor, they may crack and split when the internal leaves absorb humidity and swell faster than the tightly wrapped binder and wrapper leaves.

Invest in a good digital hygrometer-thermometer. Csonka makes one that is small enough to fit in a humidor, while Radio Shack has a larger unit that is good for wall mounting.