damaged cedar

ironhorse

So trying to make it through my first winter in the northeast with my new hobby, when I notice the humidity getting below 62 or so, I have been dabbing very lightly the inside of the lid and around the lips where the lid opens and closes with a moist towel of distilled water. It works like a charm, or so I think, and keeps the humi up in the 65 to 70 range for close to 3 weeks before i'll have to do it again. However, I have noticed that the cedar, especially on the lips appears too dry, a good deal drier than when I bought the humidor before I seasoned it, even though my humidity is holding somewhat steady. Did I damage the cedar somehow? It's not warped or moldy or anything that would suggest too much water, just dry. Any advice? Humidor not ruined I hope

camgfs

I doubt that you ruined your humidor. I would NOT use the cedar of the humidor as a secondary humidification device! Stop wetting the wood, please.
The Spanish Cedar lining of the humidor is designed to help regulate the humidity by absorbing some humidity when needed and giving it back when needed. Wetting the wood on a regular basis will dry it out because it's the most readily available source of moisture. Eventually, it will warp, chip or mould.

Try using a couple water pillows, or even a secondary (or upgrade to a larger) humidification device. Use one that has beads or crystals and a proper mix solution (I use Madelaine.inc Propylene Glycol Solution for cigar humidifiers along with their humidification crystals. Works great, but yes the humidity does drop in winter months in the north.

One thing to remember is that 62% is not really that bad. It won't ruin your cigars to spend a month or more at that HR level. When the weather warms up, you will have 70% again. Your humidor is only 3% off a target of 65% that a lot of people try to achieve.

If you really believe that damp cedar helps the humidity, break appart an empty cedar cigar box and dampen pieces of that instead of the cedar from your humidor. Just be carefull not to put damp wood against your cigars and that might help with the dry winter months.

Good Luck

kuzi16

to add to that, in the winter months the air is so dry that even with way more beads than are recommended i have to recharge my humidor every 3-4 days.

and along the lines of what camgfs said...
wood breaks down faster when it gets wet, then dries some then wets some then dries some. it will break down faster than if it is kept either 100% dry or 100% wet. wood under water will keep for quite some time. you will be doing more harm than good by wetting it down often.

Hugemoose

Second to what all of these gentleman have already said. We keep out house cold to keep down heating costs.....but in turn my humidor has a lot of slack to pick up.

As I mentioned in another thread, I actually have a small measuring cup of just strait distilled water in my humidor. It is now maintaining around 66-68% along with the beads. Even when I was just recharging the beads they had a hard time keeping it above 60%. It is just too dry and too cold for the humidity to stay up otherwise.