Lowering humidity in pumidor?
Hey folks! I have been working on setting up my pumidor from a broken, recycled mini-fridge (slowly, as I’ve been traveling for work quite a bit), and had a quick question. I know how to increase humidity in a pumidor by adding either a cup of water or some hydrating thingies which are made for cigar humidors, but how might I lower it if it gets too high?
The obvious answer seems to be open the mini-fridge to air it out, but this is a bit of a problem for me, see. The room I have my set up in right now has no A/C. Thus, in the summertime, it gets quite hot and humid, with humidity often getting over 75% during the heat of the day. Using this website – http://www.dpcalc.org/ – I’ve calculated that the humidity and temperature of the room in summer can easily reach mold-risk levels.
So, wondering if anybody has any experience with lowering pumidor humidity levels. Are there any ways to do this besides opening the door to let air circulate? Maybe adding a bowl of salt or something? I get the feeling I’m going to have to be decently careful with this during the summer for now.
Or, in another vein, should I be worried if the tea is subjected to decently high humidity/temperature during the summertime? The rest of the year, the room’s temp/humidity aren’t a problem.
Obviously the tea will be in the (at least slightly) controlled pumidor, but opening it a few times a day seems like it could jack up the humidity on me when the room it’s in is at 75% or higher. Thanks, puerh-heads!
If you have these humidity levels in the room, you don’t need a pumidor. The room itself is a pumidor. Keep the tea in the open and use a fan in the room.
Even if it’s reaching 90 degrees F and 75% humidity? The tea won’t get moldy? And did you just mean a ceiling fan or like a box fan pointed at the tea?
Yes, you have no need for a pumidor. You’re in a place where you have good conditions for natural pu erh aging. Where in the world are you? 90 degrees and 75% humidity is what I have here in Hong Kong right now and there’s no way in hell I’d be sticking my tea in a pumidor here!
I’m in upper Midwest, and we frequently have this weather and humidity June through September. By December though my house is at 20% only…
In that case I’d reserve pumidors for the dry part of the year. The dryest days here in HK are around 40% humidity and that’s usually only for a few days a year!
WHen I felt that my pumidor had too much humidity, I just took the water out and it dropped from 70% to about 55% within a day or two. Of course, the room it was in was at about 45% at the time! Your profile says you’re in Michigan, so I have to believe you’ll have at least a few days of dry weather. Just pick those days to open the door.
Yay for another Michigan pu-lover! :-) whereabouts are you in the state?
Southeast! Small town about 15 mins from Ann Arbor. I do go up north a lot in the summertime though ;)
Ahh nice! I’m in Kalamazoo for the next two years, but will definitely be up in the TC area quite a bit on the weekends. If you’re ever around let me know and we can meet up! :-)
Near Ypsi! I went to EMU in Ypsi, but I live in a really little town called Milan :P
@Whispering Pines – Cool! By TC do you mean Traverse City?
Haha thought so, just wanted to make sure. I usually hang closer to Alpena up there, sadly ;(
If I’m up more to the west or you’re more eastern (or whatevs), I would love to meet up though :)
@Matu Oh, never been to Milan :(( but Ypsi has a special place in my heart! First town I ever visited in the US.
I use desiccants in all my shelves containing non-puerh teas to keep the moisture away. You can pick up something like these if you wish:
https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Packs-Dehumidifier-Moisture-Indicating-Canister/dp/B00IT6NDTC/
They can be heated and reused any number of times.
As others have mentioned, for your pu, during your high humidity season, you can probably just store them in the open/cardboard boxes and maintain some occasional air circulation and not worry too much about their humidity.
Maybe you could also retain them in your humidor all year round and replace the hydrants with desiccants as required.
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