Humidor Care

In order to keep your cigars fresh, you will need to properly maintain your humidor. As covered in Humidor 101, you will want to take care of your wood humidor. When you first get your humidor, you will need to break it in or season it. You will need distilled water for this. You can also use RO water or filtered water that has filtered out all of the chloramines, metals and other contaminates. DO NOT USE TAP WATER.

Not using tap water can not be stressed enough if you wish to have a humidor last you a very long time. Use tap water and you will always be hassling with your humidor, as it won't be able to properly hold moisture. All of the stuff in your tap water will actually seal off the wood and not allow it to absorb and hold moisture as it should.

When you wipe down the inside of your new humidor with distilled water, don't go grab the sponge off of the kitchen sink. It is loaded with, well I won't go into that, but just don't! Get a nice clean new sponge to do this with. Now wipe the interior of the humidor with the dampened sponge. Don't worry about getting it too wet, but don't over saturate it either. Simply wipe it down making sure you have wetted all of the cedar lining. Do not allow any water to stand. If it is remove it. Now take a small plastic tray or plastic lid and place the damp sponge on it in the center of the humidor for 24 hours and then check it. If it is dry, dampen the sponge and place it back inside the humidor for another 24 hours. If it is wet when you check , then the cedar lining has absorbed all the moisture it can hold. Now add a good hydrometer and keep the temperature between 60˚ and 70˚ Fahrenheit and the humidity between 65% and 75% humidity with 70% being the ideal humidity.

Now enjoy!