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A primer on humidification and seasoning

Jwrussell

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OK, so Joshua's thread got me to thinking that this might be a good idea. I'm no expert, but I think I've got the basics down enough to throw something together here. :wink:

The most common questions I see from folks who have just bought humidors tend to be about seasoning the humidor and what to use for humidification. Both are very valid questions, but before you can really address either you have to start somewhere else: an accurate, calibrated hygrometer. If you've purchased a humidor with one of those pretty analog hygros on the front and are planning on using that to guage your humidity, THINK AGAIN! Analog hygros are good for one thing: Looks. That's it. I've yet to see one that was worth a damn. Hell, the one on my humidor has been pegged at 80% since I bought it. Now most analogs can be adjusted via a screw in the back, but even after being adjusted they tend to wander...QUICKLY. Your best bet is to leave that pretty decoration (after all, that's what it really is) alone and get yourself a good digital hygrometer. While the options available for hygrometers are always changing, and there are some reasons for choosing other hygrometers, the standard in our hobby for a few years now has been the adjustable digital hygrometers (they are available from multiple site sponsors). Most come with a Boveda Pack calibration pack, but if not be sure to pick one up. You can also grab a standard boveda pack and use a good ziplock bag or plastic container with a GOOD seal on it. I really can't stress this enough, calibrate your hygrometers regularly![/url] Every 6 months you should check them for accuracy and I recommend changing the batteries once a year. Keep those two points in mind if you ever start running into humidity problems. If you are trying to diagnose a problem and haven't calibrated your hygro recently, do that before anything else (and consider changing the battery as well).

OK, so now you've got yourself a reliable Hygrometer, now what? Well, first of all, go put that rag away, you won't need it. This can be a fairly hot topic, but I'm a firm believer that there is no reason to wipe down the inside of a humidor. Just as with aging cigars, slower is better. Wiping down the cedar of your humidor runs the risk of raising small splinters on the cedar, thus risking tearing your cigars. You also run the risk of staining the cedar. This is obviously only an aesthetic problem, but most of us appreciate good aesthetics right? :eyebrow: Granted, it's a minor risk and plenty of people have wiped down their humis with no problems, but really, why run any risk?

So, how to season your humi then? The easiest, and cheapest way is to fill one or more shot glasses with distilled water, put them in your humidor, close the lid, and relax. If you want to speed things up a bit, add a clean, new sponge to whatever container you are using. It will add to the surface area and help with evaporation (credit to CigarNut on that one). There's no need to check the humidor very often at this point as this will take 1-2 weeks. In fact, if you have put enough distilled water in shotglasses or other containers, I would recommend not opening the humidor for 1 week. If you have a glasstop humidor, you won't need to open the humidor at all until it's ready so long as you have enough distilled water in there. You will know the humidor is ready for cigars when it has reached your desired humidity or slightly higher. Most folks around here like a humidity of 65% so once your hygro reads 65-70%, take out the shotglasses (or other containers) of distilled water, add smokes and your humidification media and you are done! Almost. :wink: Keep in mind that if the cigars you are adding to your humidor are on the "wet" side, that humidity will rise somewhat until your media can cope. The same with "dry" smokes. Don't go nuts checking your humidity every hour when you first put smokes in. Go have a drink and try and relax. Give your humidor, smokes and media time to equalize.

Now, before moving on to what kind of humidification you are going to put in your humi, a word about the quantity of cigars you are throwing in there. Humidors work best when 75% or more full. So while everyone here will recommend you purchase the biggest humidor you can afford (it's amazing how quickly they fill up) you will want to keep it as full as possible. This doesn't mean you will have a horrible time keeping your humidity stable if you DON'T have your humidor at 75% or more capacity, but it may be a tad more difficult than if you did.

Ok. So on to Humidification media. This can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Most folks getting involved in the hobby for the first time end up scouring their local pharmacies for Propylene Glycol or buying 50/50 solution to add to a Credo style humdifier. This is fine. It's a time tested method. 50/50 PG and distilled water will get you around 70% humidity. Most around here prefer their cigars at around 65% and you can get there with PG. But seriously folks, it's a pain in the ass to deal with. It can be very difficult to find PG. It's somewhat messy to deal with. And there are MUCH better alternatives! So, hopefully you are reading this before you've taken the plunge on your humidifcation media, and I've saved you some money and time. I've been down the PG route. I speak from experience. I've never even used the PG that I finally found after 2 weeks of searching. Before I could use it I had found what most consider to be the holy grail of humidification: BEADS. Be they HeartFelt Industries or HCM/Shilala (the two major suppliers at this time), 65% beads are the easiest, cleanest, simplest way to go. I'm partial to HeartFelt (our very own Viper139) and they are a supporting vendor for this site, so obviously I'll recommend them. Great pricing, absolutely STELLAR customer service and top notch product. These beads can be had in 60%, 65% or 70% and come preconditioned. You can buy the beads loose or in a variety of humdifiers. See here for frequently asked questions and how many you will need for your size humidor (or simply send Viper139 an email/PM, he'll be happy to help you out). HCM/Shilala beads are a different animal, but have become very popular as well. They can be had at just about any imaginable RH % you want and you can change their set-point if you change your mind as to what kind of RH % you want to keep your cigars at in the future. If you have any questions you can get a hold of Michael (CigarNut on the site) who is also very knowledgeable, happy to help and who has great customer service as well. You can't go wrong either way. I won't go into any more pro's/con's or differences other than to say they both seem to be high quality products provided by high quality brothers. :thumbsup:

One last note on Boveda Humdipaks. I prefer them for testing and calibration over humdification, but they will work just as well for humidification if you want to go this route. The downside of going this route is that the packs last only 3-4 months whereas the Heartfelt and HCM/Shilala beads will last indefinitely. There are a number of other humidification options out there including gel-style tubes, jars, etc. To each their own, but I've recommended what I believe to be your best options above.

Good luck and remember, be patient and try not to stress out too much about all of this!
 
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tubaman

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JW thanks for this post. I agree with everything that you said. BUT, do not overlook the importance of temp. Temp control is very important, especially if you want to keep an outbreak of those little bastards known as beetles from happening. 70 degrees or less is very important imho.
 

Jwrussell

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OK, so I wanted to update my post above with some more information, but believe it or not, the software told me I was too damn wordy :wink:, so here it is in another post:

*update 9/11/06* Wow, hard to believe it's been over a year since I posted this. How quickly the time goes by, huh? At any rate, I watned to add some things, so here goes:



First, as mentioned by the great Tubaman below, temperature is very important when dealing with cigars. Your ideal temp is somewhere at or below 70 degrees F. Everyone has their own opinion on this (kind of like humidity) with some prefering right around 70 F and some prefering as low as 60 F. I tend to try for the 65-68 range as I *should* be safe from beatles in that temp range. Too much lower and I seem to start having trouble keeping my humidity where I want, but again, it's whatever works for you. 65/65 is pretty standard. If you live in a part of the country where basements are normal then you probably have the perfect place to keep your smokes. If you live in the deep south or somewhere else where it stays very hot for most of the year, you probably want to look into a cooled cabinet or Wine Cooler-dor.



As mentioned earlier, most who join in on this hobby of ours quickly find that storage SPACE is a difficult issue. The difficult part? It always seems to disappear so quickly! So, for those who are noticing this annoying habit with their humidors, following are a few options:

1: The ever popular and easy Cooler-dor

Head out to your local Sams, Wally-World, Target, etc. and scout out deals on large "marine style" coolers. These can be had in any variety of sizes from 48 quart on up through and past 120 quart. Do enough searching and these can be had for a steal. Without searching for the best deal at this particular moment i can say you can expect to spend anywhere from $25-70 for the middle size ranges. You can either stand them on end or set them up in their normal orientation. Some will have ridges on the sides wich will allow you to stand them on edge and add makeshift shelves, others will not so make sure you do your research if you plan on setting one up vertically with shelves. Once you have your cooler grab yourself some beads (quantity based on inside dimensions of the cooler), throw your excess boxes into the cooler with the beads and you are good to go! It's really that simple. The addition of a remote hygro to the set up will allow you to monitor your stash without constantly opening and closing the cooler.



2: Don't need quite as much storage as a cooler-dor provides? Enter it's smaller, cheaper cousin, the Tupper-dor! This is about the most inexpensive makeshift humidor out there. And the steps are just as easy as the cooler-dor. Head out to any of your local big-box stores mentioned above, peruse the Rubbermaid/Storage aisle and choose the size you are looking for (the Glad and Ziplock style throw aways work well for small quantities that you aren't going to be storing for a long time). Check for a good seal (it doesn't have to be burpable like true tupperware, but it doesn't hurt) you are off! Get yourself some beads (again, quantity based on inner dimensions of the container), throw the beads and excess smokes into the tupper-dor and you are good to go! Another plus for the Tupper-dor is that most are clear, so it is very easy to read a hygro without opening up the container. Of course you want to keep these out of direct sunlight.

I personally used this method when I was starting out and I can tell you from experience that these suckers hold humidity like a champ. In fact, the most stable set up I ever had was my tupperdor when it was a half or more full.



That about covers it for now. I'll update again as needed.

*update*
 
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JW - thanks for taking the time to put all this down! No for a no bones dictum on cigar varieties and we're off....
 
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Great information for a novelist. I'm new to to the hobby, however, been involved in the family tobacco business for 30 years. Striving to enjoy a good smoke. This forum will help me begin the venture properly and hopefully avoid some of the bumps along the way.
 

Moro

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Great information for a novelist. I'm new to to the hobby, however, been involved in the family tobacco business for 30 years. Striving to enjoy a good smoke. This forum will help me begin the venture properly and hopefully avoid some of the bumps along the way.
We will do our best. Now why not go to the Introductions forum and tell us a tad about ye?
 

dpricenator

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Great information for a novelist. I'm new to to the hobby, however, been involved in the family tobacco business for 30 years. Striving to enjoy a good smoke. This forum will help me begin the venture properly and hopefully avoid some of the bumps along the way.
WELCOME!!!

We will do our best. Now why not go to the Introductions forum and tell us a tad about ye?
Do what he says, we'd all like to say hi.
 

cashedash

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Great post Jason! :thumbsup:

Just to reiterate...BE PATIENT...resist the urge to open the humidor everyday.
Yes yes this is truly difficult. I have just impulsively bought a humidor out of excitement and I knew it was a bad deal when I bought it but I just had to buy it. Buy I am carefully planning my next humidor purchase that will definitely have a window on the lid.
 

SkinsFanLarry

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"Buy I am carefully planning my next humidor purchase that will definitely have a window on the lid."

To each his own and I may be the only one here on this site, But I'm not a fan of "glass top humidors." Glass is pourous.....and the only one that I ever found that held great humidity is the Savoy glass front humidor....just my opinion!
 

RonC

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i really like glass top humidors. it makes seasoning a breeze. dont have to keep opening the lid to check humidity. same with everyday use, much easier to check humidity through window as opposed to opening humidor. if your humi is big enough, a remote hygro is awesome.
 
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