dry cigars humidification

*Crunch*

If that even remotely sounds similar what you lot hear upon a light pinch of your cigars – you may have a problem with your cigar humidification…

If you're like me, y'all had no idea that cigars had to be kept under certain weather condition in order to stay fresh.

True story: I actually threw my showtime couple of cigars in an sometime cigar box for a month earlier smoking them.  At the ripe age of xix years one-time, I simply couldn't figure out why my cigars tasted so bitter!   I didn't end upwards picking upward another cigar for 2 years as a consequence.

The moral of this story? Don't exist like the 19 twelvemonth erstwhile me (for many reasons).

Use our guide to figure out how to keep your cigars fresh and age them well to protect your investment.  We'll go through the nuts of cigar humidification too every bit the pros and cons of each mode to humidify your humidor.  There are a lot of dissimilar means to maintain humidity for your option!  Finally, we'll circular it with a couple of our product recommendations for cigar humidification.

  • 1 What Is Cigar Humidification?
  • 2 What Happens If I Accept High Humidity In My Humidor?
  • 3 What Happens If I Take Low Humidity In My Humidor?
  • 4 6 Cigar Humidification Methods
    • 4.1 The Hockey Puck Humidification Method
    • 4.two The Tubes or Mini Jars Cigar Humidification Method
    • four.3 The Boveda Packs Cigar Humidification Method
    • 4.4 The Heartfelt Beads Humidification Method
    • 4.v The Electric Cigar Humidification Method
    • four.half dozen The Kitty Litter Cigar Humidification Method
  • 5 What Is The Best Humidification Method For Cigars?
  • 6 How Do I Dry Box My Cigars?

What Is Cigar Humidification?

caliber 4 hygrometer

The humidification of your humidor and cigar collection is a vital piece to the puzzle that you lot tin can't ignore.  Maintaining proper humidity allows your cigars to age and heighten their season. Cigars are somewhat like wine, they get better with age – but merely nether the correct conditions. Some Cuban cigar aficionados like to age their cigars for at least 3-five years before smoking them!  (I personally don't have the patience for that most of the time…)

A hygrometer is a device that allows you to keep a close pulse on your humidity every bit your precious cigars are stored.  If you lot haven't read our guide all about hygrometers, then nosotros highly recommend checking that out before proceeding any further.

To put information technology simply, a hygrometer helps you proceed a pulse on if your humification method is working well and maintaining the right level of humidity.  As our guide states, ordinarily cigar collectors aim for a 70% humidity and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  All the same, some collectors like to get a chip lower and aim for 65%, particularly with Cuban cigars.

What Happens If I Have High Humidity In My Humidor?

A humidity that is well higher up lxx – 75%, and a respective temperature that is above 65 degrees Fahrenheit or and so tin create some serious mold issues.  A lot of times collectors think that it's just cigar plumage that has graced them with information technology's presence.  Even so, under these conditions, you lot take a humidity trouble.  You tin can figure out if you've got cigar mold within your drove by checking a few of these photos of cigar mold vs. cigar plume.

What Happens If I Accept Low Humidity In My Humidor?

dried out brittle cigars

Remember the 19 yr-onetime me?  I stuck a few cigars in an former cigar box because I thought – "well, if they came in this originally from the factory then they tin can probably last a lilliputian longer for me to smoke them".Incorrect!

If you lot store cigars, fifty-fifty in a humidor with a humidity lower than 62%, you hazard drying out the tobacco.  This volition crusade the cigar to taste biting and potentially burn down also hot.  I tin't brainstorm to describe how bad a cigar tastes that has been dried out.  You lot might also be smoking rolled upwards cardboard.

Your cigar humidity may be too low if your cigar wrappers await to be peeling off or flaky and the cigars seem to be brittle. (Equally seen in the picture above)

half dozen Cigar Humidification Methods

Now that you lot have a solid agreement of what a hygrometer does and what tin can happen if your humidity is too high or too low, let's talk well-nigh how to actually control the humidity in your humidor.  Unfortunately, yous can't just use a damp paper towel in a ziplock pocketbook…

Yous have a couple different options:

The Hockey Puck Humidification Method

cigar humidification hockey puck

The unofficial hockey puck method was my first way to control the humidity in my humidor and boy, was information technology stressful.  This is the "puck" that is included with humidors most of the time and requires you to soak information technology in propylene glycol.  I found it to exist a chip of a guessing game considering you accept to make sure your "puck" doesn't run out of juice.

It was generally stressful considering I used the crummy free version from my humidor so results may vary.  I found that I had to soak the puck every xv days or so with a humidor of thirty cigars. However, once I upgraded to a Xikar puck, it was smooth sailing.  I simply had to re-soak every 30-45 days and found it to be much more than consequent.

Soaking a humidor puck is very like shooting fish in a barrel.  It takes about 30 seconds and yous just purchase the propylene glycol separately.  This solution is odorless and just replaces h2o equally a more pure form of moisture.  Using tap water can create issues due to chlorine or other chemicals, and distilled water won't stay moist as long equally propylene glycol.

The Tubes or Mini Jars Cigar Humidification Method

drymistat cigar humidification tubes

Xikar and Drymistat make very piece of cake to use products that you can just open and pop information technology into your humidor.  These have a much more than controlled way of managing humidity than the puck method. The only bad thing is that you lot have to supersede these entirely nearly of the time every 3-half-dozen months completely.  I don't recommend trying to "re-soak" them with the propylene glycol. The beauty of these, especially the tubes, is that they don't take up much space in your humidor.  All the same, depending on the size, the jar format may work better:

xikar crystal jar cigar humidification

The Boveda Packs Cigar Humidification Method

boveda humidity packs cigar humidification

Similar to the tubes or jar from Xikar and Drymistat, you can become with a very controlled method of Boveda humidity packs. These are my favorite cigar humidification method and ones that I use for my tupperdor today.  However, they can err a fleck on the high side in terms of humidity if you employ them in a tupperdor.  I would aim to go a few percentages lower than your desired humidity equally a upshot if you have a tupperdor.  (These packs come in all different humidity levels.)

Otherwise they do a keen job of arresting humidity if information technology's also high and increasing if information technology's too depression. Once your pack is strong, so yous simply throw it away.  That being said, many claim to be able to recharge these very easily past but soaking them for a few days after they become stiff.   Although this may be a great way to salve money, the recharged packs definitely won't be as authentic as an original.  To find out more than about how to recharge, bank check out this YouTube tutorial.

For me personally, I don't recharge because if I'grand going to spend hundreds of dollars on cigars, I don't want to cut any corners to save a few dollars on Boveda packs.

The Heartfelt Beads Humidification Method

heartfelt beads humidor

Heartfelt beads are a common humidity method that many recommend beyond cigar forums. This visitor revolves around these chaplet and they have a lot of diehard followers for their product.  These are pop with larger humidors or wineadors.  These are probably ane of the more expensive options but concluding forever.  They exercise require spraying of distilled water after week or two though so you have to stick to a schedule.  This method is a bit more geared towards the more advanced cigar collectors.

Typically, cigar collectors will take a pouch of these chaplet or a layer at the bottom of their wineador.

The Electrical Cigar Humidification Method

electric cigar humidification

There'south cypher better than the prepare it and forget of an electrical humidifier, especially if yous take a large or valuable collection.  These are a scrap expensive compared to the other options but there is the benefit of very little maintenance.  The units too work best if plugged in – so you volition be required to run a flat cord to the exterior of your humidor.  However some of these units have some really absurd features like wi-fi capabilities and tin humidify up to 1,000 cigars! (That would be a lot of Boveda packs…)

Y'all do have to replace the cartridge every six – 12 months but it's relatively inexpensive.

The Kitty Litter Cigar Humidification Method

exquisicat crystals cigar humidification

For a larger wineador setup, many recommend kitty litter equally a viable selection to control humidity. I have personally never done this merely many swear past it.  This is a very similar method to the Heartfelt beads strategy outlined in a higher place.  The cardinal is to become a kitty litter without a fragrance and spray distilled water every two to three weeks equally needed. I've seen very positive reviews from Exquisicat Crystals with very low dust nor scent.

What Is The All-time Humidification Method For Cigars?

This is one of those questions where the answer all depends.   Information technology all depends on the size of your cigar collection, your upkeep, and what kind of maintenance that you lot are okay with doing.

boveda humidity packs cigar humidification

My personal favorite method, when you lot have a collection of under 100 cigars, is to use Boveda packs.  They are friendly for all experience levels and last forever in a tupperdor. Y'all can use multiple packs and identify them throughout your drove to ensure that they are all working together.  Generally, you add one pack per 25 cigars.

If you have a larger drove, there's zip like a gear up it and forget electric humidifier. Cigar Oasis makes a peachy model that many cigar aficionados swear by.

electric cigar humidifier

Ultimately, both of these methods require very little maintenance – which I believe to be nearly important for storing cigars over the long term.

How Exercise I Dry Box My Cigars?

cuban tupperdor example

Before I said that yous can't store cigars in a bone-dry cigar box.  However, some people actually like to dry box a cigar.  This is commonly used as a fashion to lower humidity right before smoking and can help with burn issues that may occur.

To dry out box a cigar, simply place it in a box (doesn't need to exist air tight merely should exist if possible) for 12 – 18 hours earlier smoking. If your humidity is around lxx%, 12 hours should do but whatever college you may want to go a bit longer.   Sometimes this tin can be difficult to execute because smoking a cigar tin exist spur of the moment just it can really make a difference if your humidity is a touch too high.

That wraps it up for our guide on managing the humidity for the cigars in your humidor.  As you collect cigars, you'll probably find this guide useful since you'll probable have many different humidors for your drove so be sure to save it to your bookmarks!

Do you take a cigar humidification method that nosotros missed?  Allow us know on Twitter or drop a us a line!

Notwithstanding looking to learn more than of the basics of smoking a cigar?  Bank check out our guide to ensure that you aren't making whatever beginner mistakes while smoking.