Temporary reduction in humidity via silica gel \ desiccant bag

[chr0nic]

Hello friends,

I need a word of advice... I just got a sampler from Rob- all sorts of lovely cigars (one of which will realise its fate tonight).

My humidor has been on the empty side for a few weeks. Being the lazy sod that I am I didn't check the levels BEFORE ordering, and now have 20+ sticks in a humidor at 78ish. Furthermore, I took out a couple of cigars that were sitting in there for AGES (I didn't like the flavour) and they looked to have developed a slight covering of mould.

I need to reduce the levels ASAP. I want to invest in a good humidity control device (whether beads or packs etc.) but for the moment I really want to bring the level down. At work today, coincidently enough, we had a delivery of a chair that contained a large 'silica gel' pack of crystals (see photo). If I keep this WELL away from any smokables, can this be used temporarily to reduce levels? Obviously I will keep an eye on the hygrometer to make sure it doesn't drop dangerously low... just keen to know whether it is hazardous to health, whether I'm wasting my time etc.

Thanks all!!!

Ryan

[Wil]

I'm not sure about the silica gel bag, sorry. But how are you humidifying the humidor? Have you taken it out?

RH in Sydney is 78% at the moment, so maybe wait til it goes down a bit and open the humidor to give it some air.

I have also heard of people using dry, unscented sponges (not used!) to absorb moisture in humidors. Might be worth considering.

Both of these are worth a try, but will obviously take some time. Others might have better ideas.

[El Presidente]

Hello friends,

I need a word of advice... I just got a sampler from Rob- all sorts of lovely cigars (one of which will realise its fate tonight).

My humidor has been on the empty side for a few weeks. Being the lazy sod that I am I didn't check the levels BEFORE ordering, and now have 20+ sticks in a humidor at 78ish. Furthermore, I took out a couple of cigars that were sitting in there for AGES (I didn't like the flavour) and they looked to have developed a slight covering of mould.

I need to reduce the levels ASAP. I want to invest in a good humidity control device (whether beads or packs etc.) but for the moment I really want to bring the level down. At work today, coincidently enough, we had a delivery of a chair that contained a large 'silica gel' pack of crystals (see photo). If I keep this WELL away from any smokables, can this be used temporarily to reduce levels? Obviously I will keep an eye on the hygrometer to make sure it doesn't drop dangerously low... just keen to know whether it is hazardous to health, whether I'm wasting my time etc.

Thanks all!!!

Ryan

Ryan,

Sydney has had a lot of rain. Humidity is right up there.

The pack of Silica won't really cut it but it can't hurt.

Some suggestions:

* Empty your humidor. Wipe it down with an odourless alcohol soultion to get rid of the mold spores.

* Throw out your humidifier.

* Get a 65% Puck (beads) from Diana.

* Don't add distilled water to the Puck. Put it in the humidor. That should bring it right down.

Temporarilly, just have the cigars in the cleaned out humidor.

I hope that helps

Rob

[Wil]

* Throw out your humidifier.

* Get a 65% Puck (beads) from Diana.

That is probably the best bit of advice. I did the same and my desktop holds 65% rh perfectly.

[chr0nic]

Cheers for the advice, I'll call Diana tomorrow... those beads were what I was hoping to get. I've got a digi hygrometer on its way, and have wanted to ditch the pucks from day one. Besides, I really want to try a Cohiba Lanceros (and perhaps some other cigars) so I'll kill two birds.

Thanks Prez, Wil. Appreciate the speedy replies!

[Gubbins]

13 year bump! My 4 drawer desktop humidor was reading around 68 RH a month or so ago, I prefer is closer to 63. I figured I could use desiccant beads to bring the RH down within a week. I am aware this isn't the the ideal method. I used those orange ones, which I found off eBay. I bought them a while ago (see below).

They bring down the RH very fast.  I didn't use water on them as I was deliberately looking to bring down the RH.

Anyway, I put a couple of small peanut bowls of them inside the draws, so there was plenty of beads in there. However I didn't remove the cigars, I know this is not how to go about doing this.  The RH came down from 68RH to about 63RH within a day or 2, before settling at around 64RH.  I left them in there for about a week, to try and fully acclimatise the humidor to this humidity. I took them out a couple of weeks ago and the humidor has been reading about 65rh, since.

I smoked a RyJ Wide Churchill and a Specially Selected on Saturday night, and they tasted pretty much completely flavourless in relation to how they should be. And I'm pretty sure I don't have COVID or anything.

If the hygrometer never showed less than 62RH, is it possible that the humidified cigars were keeping the average RH up inside the humidor whilst the beads were zapping the ambience in there way below the reading on the hygrometer? Regardless, if the hygrometer read 63rh for a full week whilst they were in there, surely this isn't enough to remove all the flavour and oils out of the cigars? I would have put it down to just being a bad stick, but both of them seemed to smoke that way.   The only other thing it could be was that we had just eaten salty stakes and were drinking margaritas.  However the Tatuaje I smoked before them both, from a different humidor was full of flavour.

If the beads WERE capable of doing this (removing all the oils / flavour) despite the RH reading at 62, for only a week... I'm guessing there's not much I can do to get the cigars back at this stage, and the 50'odd cigars in that humidor are now irrecoverable shadows of their former self?

I read somewhere that it would take at least a month for oils to be dried out to the point of destroying the flavour, better still it would need to be under harsher conditions than this. But then I also read that these beads without water can completely dry anything out. So maybe a week of this may have damaged the cigars. 64RH and a week though?

Any experts can shed some light on this?

[cnov]

I'm no expert but a sample of 2 poor Cubans is hardly evidence IMO.

 

[CaptainQuintero]

17 hours ago, Gubbins said:

13 year bump! My 4 drawer desktop humidor was reading around 68 RH a month or so ago, I prefer is closer to 63. I figured I could use desiccant beads to bring the RH down within a week. I am aware this isn't the the ideal method. I used those orange ones, which I found off eBay. I bought them a while ago (see below).

They bring down the RH very fast.  I didn't use water on them as I was deliberately looking to bring down the RH.

Anyway, I put a couple of small peanut bowls of them inside the draws, so there was plenty of beads in there. However I didn't remove the cigars, I know this is not how to go about doing this.  The RH came down from 68RH to about 63RH within a day or 2, before settling at around 64RH.  I left them in there for about a week, to try and fully acclimatise the humidor to this humidity. I took them out a couple of weeks ago and the humidor has been reading about 65rh, since.

I smoked a RyJ Wide Churchill and a Specially Selected on Saturday night, and they tasted pretty much completely flavourless in relation to how they should be. And I'm pretty sure I don't have COVID or anything.

If the hygrometer never showed less than 62RH, is it possible that the humidified cigars were keeping the average RH up inside the humidor whilst the beads were zapping the ambience in there way below the reading on the hygrometer? Regardless, if the hygrometer read 63rh for a full week whilst they were in there, surely this isn't enough to remove all the flavour and oils out of the cigars? I would have put it down to just being a bad stick, but both of them seemed to smoke that way.   The only other thing it could be was that we had just eaten salty stakes and were drinking margaritas.  However the Tatuaje I smoked before them both, from a different humidor was full of flavour.

If the beads WERE capable of doing this (removing all the oils / flavour) despite the RH reading at 62, for only a week... I'm guessing there's not much I can do to get the cigars back at this stage, and the 50'odd cigars in that humidor are now irrecoverable shadows of their former self?

I read somewhere that it would take at least a month for oils to be dried out to the point of destroying the flavour, better still it would need to be under harsher conditions than this. But then I also read that these beads without water can completely dry anything out. So maybe a week of this may have damaged the cigars. 64RH and a week though?

Any experts can shed some light on this?

There's so many variables:

-Are the hygrometer accurate

-Cigars are.as individual as people, even within boxes 

-What you've eaten/drank

Also a pretty safe rule of thumbs is think of drying out/rehydrating cigars a a months long job not days and weeks. When we talk about cigars needing 90 days to settle after being delivered, think about the time needed for drying out/rehydrating tobacco when you're trying to change the r/h of your stock.

[CaptainQuintero]

Plus, cigars are a lot tighter and resilient than we think. Unless there were left in death valley, a month shouldn't really have any effect on them. I've taken a small humi down to around 52% too see how flavour was effected and there was no issue. 

[gormag38]

On 2/12/2025 at 3:11 AM, Gubbins said:

Anyway, I put a couple of small peanut bowls of them inside the draws, so there was plenty of beads in there. However I didn't remove the cigars, I know this is not how to go about doing this.  The RH came down from 68RH to about 63RH within a day or 2, before settling at around 64RH.  I left them in there for about a week, to try and fully acclimatize the humidor to this humidity. I took them out a couple of weeks ago and the humidor has been reading about 65rh, since.

I tried the same thing as you this past summer, but in my NC tupper (mostly loose sticks), large igloo tupperdor with CC's (boxes) and a coolerdor with CC's (boxes with a basket shelf with loose singles). I have not noticed any discernible difference in my stock after doing so. How long did you wait until sampling the two sticks from when you pulled the desiccant beads? 

I poured some of the beads on a 4 inch diameter tupperware lid and placed them in there with the cigars/boxes. Just enough beads to cover that lid without spilling over. I only ever left them in there for maybe 4-5 days. If I had to estimate, I'd say it was < 20 grams desiccant in each of the containers. It certainly did the trick in bringing my rH down 2-3% pretty consistently. 

On 2/12/2025 at 3:11 AM, Gubbins said:

I read somewhere that it would take at least a month for oils to be dried out to the point of destroying the flavour, better still it would need to be under harsher conditions than this.

I also think your logic here seems pretty spot on. I would find it EXTREMELY unlikely that with just a week of that your cigars were zapped of oils/moisture. I'd be curious to see how more examples smoke after some more time has passed.

[Gubbins]

All valid points, and thanks to all for your opinions.

Granted, 2 or 3 cigars may not be a big enough data sample, but the last RASS I had from this box was youthful and a very flavourful cigar, but I guess they are organised according to colour and not a lot else, so I guess this can happen. You are right that there are a tonne of variables, I guess for now I will chalk it up as something else. I will report back if they keep smoking flavourless and this thread can be used as a word of warning if that is the case.

Until then, I will take solace in the fact that I'm not the first to have done this, and the others who did haven't suffered with the outcome which worried me. Point taken that they are resilient fellows, and it would probably take a lot more to evaporate so much oil / flavour in a week or so. Although I did use a lot of beads 😅

Thank you for the helpful input as always.

[CaptainQuintero]

When I went down to 52% the flavours just got more and more intense too, I only stopped as the wrappers started to become brittle. But in terms of smoking experience the drier the better for me so definitely don't worry about oils vanishing.

[Uwiik]

I have used desiccants extensively whenever I bought several very humid boxes at once, thawing frozen cigars or whenever I need to drop RH inside a well worn wooden desktop humidor with cigar in it. Never a single problem with lost oil or flavor reduction, a small packet of desiccant will do nothing as it will quickly be full of water. I used about 1/4lbs oven dried desiccant to drop RH inside the 110-150 capacity Elie Bleu desktop humidor from 68-69% to 58-61%.