Humidification tubes - top or bottom of the humidor?

[nicwing]

I have a variety of gel and crystal tubes to maintain the correct humidity in my humidors and yesterday as I was restoring them to the bottom of my humidor after a little light maintenance I fell to wondering whether they should, in fact, be at the top or the bottom of the humidor.

I know we have our fair share of pointy headed techies on here so I thought I would ask.

At the right temperature does the water vapour created by these tubes rise or fall ?

[daverave999]

Theoretically, moister air should rise but this only applies if the temperature remains constant. I've experienced it both rising and sinking depending on how full my humi is. I suspect convection, the specific heat capacities of dry and moist air, minor temperature fluctuations, etc. all come into play.

What I've done in my humis to minimise this is have them at both the top and bottom.

[Lee Nub]

Same here, i have one at the top and one at the bottom, just to be sure.

[Lionhound]

Ok, never even thought of this in any detail but here's my take, for what it's worth.

The RH on your hygrometer reading should be the RH of everything inside. The cedar and the cigars buffer each other so in theory I would think that if you put say 5 new cigars of 65 RH into your humi which stands at 70 RH and removed your humidification device, I would expect that the wood and cigars already in there would all bufferthis and the RH would drop slightly as it compensated for the new additions.
What the humidifier does is regulate the RHand so I would think, in a fuller humi that its position won't really matter.. A new addition will draw from those nearest and this will happen throughout.
I would think space for air movement is probably more important.

Usual Warning:- These are my thoughts only and may be bullshit. Feel free to enlighten me, I'm happy to learn.

[stephan]

Humidification tubes - top or bottom of the humidor?

I agree: the humidification unit should be at the bottom with good air circulation


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