Talk about feeling like an idiot...I went to a cigar shop/lounge with a friend of mine last Friday after work. I talked with the owner about my humidor problem. He asked me if my sticks were drying out, and I told him they weren't - but that I left them in the plastic bags I got from the cigar shop because I wasn't sure how well my humidor was working. He suggested starting with a digital hygrometer to make sure my humidity was as low as I believed it was. Upon completing my smokes in a very comfortable lounge, I bought a high quality digital hygrometer. When I got home my analog hygrometer was showing a humidity of 35 percent. I was soon to find out how far off this thing was.

I put the digital hygrometer in and let it sit overnight. In the morning I checked it: Temperature 70.4 degrees, humidity 69 percent - pretty much ideal conditions for cigars. At the time my analog was showing 30 percent. This also means that when my analog hygrometer earlier showed 55 percent my actual humidity was probably 90+ percent - explaining why I started to get some mold growth inside the humidor (fortunately not on my sticks). I checked it just now while I was posting this: digital says 68 percent, analog says 36-37 percent.

I learned a vital lesson: Never do anything based solely upon the reading of an analog hygrometer.