Newly seasoned humidor is waaaaaaay too humid

JohanTheMighty

Let me first start out by saying that I am completely new to cigars and humidors; however, when I do develop new interests and hobbies I do a lot of research, and this is no exception.

I bought my first humidors, the Man O' War and another that I received as part of a sampler. I seasoned the Man O' War this weekend and I've only completed the first step with the glass top humidor, but both are showing rh's around 80%.

When I seasoned them, I only really wet the wood enough to make it change color, I was more conservative than I was liberal as I applied the water. I salt tested the hygrometers twice, the second time because I figured I must have done it wrong the first time, and after the second salt test I was able to confirm that they were reading properly (both at 75% in the bag).

Is this something that happens often? I watched several videos before I did this and the hygrometers in the videos always read right around where they should at the end of the process, so I am stumped.

Bob Luken

Welcome to the cigar.com (ccom) forum Johan. You seem to be doing it right but still may have gotten it too wet. Hard to say for sure. Can you be specific on the RH percentages during your process? The preferred method of most members here is a non-wipe method. It takes longer but is easier to control. If you feel like you Want to start over, be sure to let your over humidified humi dry out slowly to avoid warping the wood. Look for the thread, " how to season a humidor using kitty litter". (Pretty sure that's the title.) there's a lot of Kitty Litter info but also great info on the non-wipe method. I have a question for you. Are you using the hygrometers that came with your humidors or have you upgraded to digital hygrometers? It's one of the first things a new cigar lover needs in their tool kit. Hygroset & xikar make good ones. If you have not upgraded then you really should do that. Analog hygrometers are OK sometimes but usually unreliable.

JohanTheMighty

Thank you so much for replying. I thought I was being very conservative, but this being my first time doing this, I am willing to accept the probability that I made a mistake. Last night I kept my humidor open for a couple of a hours, closed it, and then this morning I did the same. I put the hygrometer back in, and the needle is not moving up towards 80% as rapidly as it did last night. Last night after taking it out and keeping the humidor open for a couple hours before putting it back in, the rh reading rose 3% points after only a very short time. I took it back out, let the needle drop, then redid the salt test and then after I confirmed it was properly adjusted this morning after 12 hours back in the bag with the salt (reading of 75%) I kept it out in the air for a few hours until it read 68%, I put it back in and it's now reading 70% after being back in there for about 90 minutes. As it's rising more slowly it might be that the wood is that much drier now.

Yes, I am using the hygrometers that came with my humidors. On the smaller 50-count glass-top unit the hygrometer actually plugs the humidor, but not so in the 100-count Man O War. I did not realize that reliability was an issue until I had to start looking for answers for this issue. Additionally, I have refrained from any additional wiping down of the glass-top humidor and I have simply left a damp cloth in a plastic baggy and the fully charged humidity unit in there.

Lee.mcglynn

For seasoning you doing good! What should happen is the humidor goes over humidity buy 80-85 then you and your two way humidifiers to bring the humidity to it's desired level. This can take a few days so don't rush it! You'll be ok I do suggest you get either boveda 65 or 69 packs for your humidor

JohanTheMighty

Thank you, Lee. I think the next time I get a humidor I am going to try a different seasoning method, but it's good to hear from you and Bob and to get that reassurance that I have not ruined my humidors or purchased faulty units. Thank you both so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with me.

Lee.mcglynn

Not a problem you should stick around here a lot of info and great people on these boards

onestrangeone

Welcome, Your in a good place. Be patient and let it stabilize 80+ RH is not unusual for a humi that has been wiped. It has been my experience that this method only SEEMS to be faster, it actually takes longer to stabilize. A lot of people like me tend to be impatient and put there smokes in to soon and it's much harder to adjust and stabilize the RH

JohanTheMighty

Oh! Good to know! I was actually going to make that same mistake myself! I figured, if it stabilized around 75% that it would be okay to toss 'em in while it drops. I will wait until it stabilizes around 72% and put them in then. Thanks for stopping me from making another newbie error!

Bob Luken

OK you are not bad off at all. 80 to 85% is not a problem. Your wood is still absorbing the moisture. The key is patience. Don't rush to put your cigars in there. I'm guessing you may have some in ziplocks that you are anxious to get in there? Don't worry. They are better off in a ziplock than in a humi that is still trying to season itself. You've got the right idea. Let it drop down to usable RH levels and See if you can get it to stay there before adding cigars. We should assume your cigars are shipped or purchased in a properly humidified state. Therefore the cigars themselves will not need to draw any additional moisture from your humidor's wood. But the same idea applies to your humidor's wood. You want to know for certain it's stable before adding cigars. If it's too dry, your wood will draw moisture from your cigars. If it's too moist it will cast off excess moisture onto the cigars. You want harmony from the start. And upgrade to digital as soon as you can. Two things new guys need to invest in first is a good cutter ( xikar Xi2) and a good digital hygrometer. Oh yeah! Lee mentioned Boveda packets. They are the best and easiest way to keep proper humidity. Especially for a novice. The humidification devices that come with your humidor are junk. They will get you by for now but they can bd hard to regulate RH and they'll probably get moldy at some point. Upgrade to Bovedas as your first and easiest opition. There are many different ways/devices to keep proper humidity but by far Bovedas are the easiest. Good luck and keep us posted. And stick around. I have learned ten times more info and sound knowledge about cigars here on this forum than I could have ever learned without it.

JohanTheMighty

Yeah, I was in a bit of a rush to get them in because this company for some reason actually sent my top-tier sampler that came with the 50-count humidor INSIDE of the unseasoned humidor. There is a part of me that is somewhat panicked because for 4 days they were inside of an unseasoned humidor with nothing but a paper thin, dried out humidor pillow. I have since placed them in a plastic baggy after recharging the humidor pillow.

I will definitely upgrade as I continue to learn as I go along. I think everything is going to be alright. As of now the hygrometer is only reading about 74%, and that's after a good 7 hours since putting it back into the big humidor and closing the lid. I'll open it up for another couple hours again before bed, close it, and check the reading in the morning. As for the 50-count glass-top humidor, it's still holding strong at 80, but I had not taken steps to dry it out any as of yet.

Again, your advice and experience has saved me a lot of time, worry, and probably money as well, so thank you so much. I really do appreciate you all having taken the time to share with me.