Please help!
Through a faulty hygrometer, my cigars have become overhumidified. This has been occuring to one degree or another over the past two or three months, but it's been worse lately. I first noticed that their taste was gone, and some smoked a little bitter. A hard ash cinder forms on the end when they are left to burn out and saved for later in the day. My humidor's humidity ranged from 68 to 78 during this time, but over the past few weeks it apparently got to 80 or higher a few times. The wrappers aren't split and there is no mold growth, but some are a bit squishy,especially at the foot, and some of the larger ring sizes have a little swelling/belling at the foot with a bit of a tobacco "shag" on the end.A few box-pressed have lost the crispness of their square shape.Please tell me honestly:have I ruined my cigars? If I properly humidify them and wait a few months, will their flavour/quality return, or will they never return to their former selves?
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I personally haven't had an experience like this one but I believe that if you take care of them and get them back to proper humi. then they should be ok. It might take some time though. Be patient and just see what happens.
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No need to panic or worry, your cigars will be fine. take the humidifier out of the humidor and leave the lid open for a day or so. While this is going on, calibrate your hygrometer. Then place the calibrated hygrometer back in the humidor, close the lid, see what the RH is after a few hours (note, the humidifier is still out of the humidor). If after 8-12 hours you're still reading over 70RH, open the lid and leave it open for 8-12 hours. Until the humidity gets down to a much more reasonable level, you want to keep the humidification element out of the humidor.

Might want to consider looking into buying humidification beads for the humidor in the future to prevent this sort of situation as beads will both release moisture when the ambient is low and absorb humidity when it is too high. Heartfelt Industries and HCM Beads are both good products to consider.

It will take a little while for your cigars to give off the excess moisture, but they will eventually return to their more normal flavors.

Also, stop on in over at the introductions section and say hi.
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Adam is wise. Follow his guidance and you will be fine. Be patient and take your time! It's usually quick changes in temps and humidity that will give you problems (just my personal experience). Cigars can take a lot of abuse and still turn out to be great smokes. Don't worry.
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Alright, thanks for the advice. I'll be ordering some of the beads you mentioned tomorrow.
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Welcome.

When you get the beads, you can drop them right into the humidor, the humidification element you don't want in the humidor is whatever you were using that caused the high humidity (I'm guessing it was one of the green foam based ones).
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Don't let the spam and jug o' Gallo wine fool you, Adam actually knows a thing or two. Beads are great. I don't like to fuss over my humidors and they are low effort which suits me just fine.
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