It may just be the time of year. I have been having an issue with my cigar wrappers starting to crack and start to unravel part way in. I'm using Heartfeld beads.Humidity level is steady around 68. Any thoughts on this?
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How many cigars are you storing in your humidor? Do you have any active circulation?

Almost sounds like a dry spot in your humidor.
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I suspect you may be smoking outside. If so this is a common occurrence this time of year. You will find many similar posts. When moving from a warm inside storage to a cold smoking area this often results in a cracking wrapper. Sometimes you may find that your cigar may even seem to "explode" as the filler/binder expand in the cold. :-) How to prevent this occurring? I dont know as I live in a relatively warm house and smoke inside, sorry.
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I agree with all the fore mentioned posts. I smoke in the garage with the roll up door half open so I get some warmth but still can excuse the smoke out.
One out of three cigars I will see the wrap lift up. But it is always in the last third. So seems keeping the band on long as possible helps.

I also had a lot of intermittent unwrap problems year round when I kept my humidors at 68. I moved them down to 64% and I only experience the unwrap issues in the last third of the cigar, twice a week, when smoking in the cold.

If you are hesitant to drop your global RH settings to 64%, simply get a secondary cigar box and store the soon-to-be-smoked cigars in there. I would say try this, with a few right away, as it will take time for the cigs to respond properly. Might be easier to just get some new cigars home, and store them at 64% for a trial, using the same brand you know currently are giving you issues.

I also do not smoke inside, so just some thoughts there to consider.
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I do the same, just wanted to comment on how classy I found your phrasing of "excuse the smoke". Well played Sir.
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Indeed. And Thank You as well, Sir

Image

:-)
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Rinse the cigar in water for a second or two before cutting. Make sure not to get water into the foot. If you are worried about the cigar not smoking right, try just rinsing the head for a second and for sure the cigar won't crack when cutting.

I rinse the head of any cigar I even remotely think could crack when cutting.
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I have found that some wrappers are more susceptible to this than others -- thinner wrappers are more fragile and tend to crack and break more, so I avoid those during the temperature extremes (winter and summer).
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I avoid Cameroon wrapped smokes during the winter. Those things pop like fire crackers. I'm a winter "garage smoker", so I generally have wrapper issues during that time of year no matter what cigar it is.
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Good, I was hoping it was just weather related
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I smoke outside when its -10 out and i have yet to have issues like this , maybe im just a noob :S
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My hat is off to you sir! I don't do ANYTHING outside when its -10, let alone smoke a cigar! :-)
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I work outside when its -45. The oilfield stops for nothing.
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+1, have seen the same issues before and they were almost always due to going from 70-75%RH @ 65 degrees down to 5-10% RH in the cold. Best solution is to lower RH% in the humidor. Ive even had filler expand and crack wrappers when it was warm - if the cigars were either shipped to me wet or were in a higher RH coolerdor.
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Just a thought, but if the issue is taking your cigars out to the garage where it is colder to smoke and the temp is an issue. Why not put a small humi with the cigars you going to smoke that week in the garage, thus no drastic temp change.
I live in NY but stay in the house to smoke so no issue here.
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