Do you really need to season a new humidor?

[El Presidente]

I was asked last week the process that I go through in seasoning a new humidor. 

I casually said that I don't bother and that it works itself out within a month or so. 

Well......the response I received would have made chicken little proud 

The cedar will suck the  moisture out of the cigars/the cigars will crack/the humidor risks warping (?) etc etc etc. 

Now I know that needing to season a humidor is something that has been ingrained within the cigar community. I am not saying that the thought process is wrong. My preference is only to allow the humidor to reach the required point of equillibrium naturally over a month or so as my own experience has been that by moistening/seasning the timber creates its own set of challenges. 

Are you a seasoner?

 

[NSXCIGAR]

the humidor risks warping

What, through space time?

That's a new one on me. Maybe if your humidor is made entirely out of the divider sheets.

[MrBirdman]

All depends on the ambient humidity the humidor was in beforehand. If it’s the dead of winter and it was in 30% humidity, then yes I would season it. If it’s over 50% it’s probably not necessary. 

Also it would depend on how much moisture you’re making available - eg how many boveda packs you put in. If you load a humidor up with them, the cigars will probably be fine no matter the starting point. But I wouldn’t start the “resting clock” until the humidity had stabilized. 

By seasoning, I mean throwing in my boveda packs a week or two before any cigars. Nothing more beyond that. IME humidor with a lot of cedar that doesn’t seal very well can spend two weeks below 50% RH if it’s very dry in your house. 

Tupperdor, even with some cedar planks, it’s not really necessary. 

[Chibearsv]

I doubt that my tupperdors require any seasoning 😁

Since most of the cigars I receive are over humidified, I'd agree that seasoning any humidor isn't necessary at all.  I only use the cedar humidor to carry my "what am I smoking this week" stash anyway.  No seasoning required.

[LordAnubis]

I think the difference is, that you're both talking about different things i suppose El Pres. Seasoning in your sense it sounds like you're referring to rubbing down the internal of the humidor with a damp cloth etc. You are 100% correct in that its probably better to let that process happen over time. I also agree that a dry humidor will absorb moisture out of the cigars you have in it. Also, as already mentioned, it depends where the humidor was stored beforehand. If you're in FNQ (tropical climate), then the new humidor is probably already too wet. 

So in summary, do you need to wet the humidor down? I don't think so. Does the humidor need to have enough moisture in it already before oyu put cigars in? I think so. Ideally i'd put the desired humidity system in there and leave it for a month or two before i put any cigars in it. 

And no i don't have a wooden humidor.

[El Presidente]

Just now, LordAnubis said:

I think the difference is, that you're both talking about different things i suppose El Pres. Seasoning in your sense it sounds like you're referring to rubbing down the internal of the humidor with a damp cloth etc. 

That was his question Mus. I wasn't clear. 

[Fuzz]

Seasoning your humidor is a must. I use a mix of salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili flakes, ground thyme....

[mprach024]

Just now, Fuzz said:

Seasoning your humidor is a must. I use a mix of salt, pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili flakes, ground thyme....

You’re crazy if you don’t use Cumin

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

That was his question Mus. I wasn't clear. 

I do not season a humidor.  For my desktop humidors I just put a steel bowl of water set in it for a few days to “help” start it up a bit, then I remove and use 75 Boveda packs for a week before swapping in my 65s.  Then I just wait until it hovers where I want it.  Usually 3 weeks.  

My cabinet humidor was much more work, it took me roughly 6-8weeks to have it seasoned how I wanted, using multiple locations and short term timers for a series of fans.  Trying to balance out the seasoning took daily review of each shelf for me, and adjusting accordingly.   I did that before adding any sticks to it.  

[dragn270]

I don’t have a wooden humidor but if I did I probably would just throw in whatever RH boveda I intended to use in there and let it sit for a month or so. Wiping down the insides with any damp cloth just seems like too much hassle and you can’t evenly cost everything. 

[Fuzz]

37 minutes ago, mprach024 said:

You’re crazy if you don’t use Cumin

It's further down the list.

[Meklown]

From my experience (5 wood desktop humidors), putting in cigars and humidification devices in immediately won't do any sort of damage to your cigars. You'd find the wood absorbing a lot of the moisture very quickly but that will stabilise over a few months. I have never used a cloth to wipe it down. 

You could even use a brand new humi without humidification devices as a dry box

[Tdm_86]

Like some said, I guess it depends on the ambient humidity it was in. What I have always done is in a very dry humidor, put a bowl of distilled water until it reaches about 5% over desired rH, then remove bowl and put in your desired humidification method. Then when it’s been stable for a few days at desired humidification level, load up with sticks.

Could you put your sticks and humidification in directly and the cigars would be perfectly fine? Probably

[BrightonCorgi]

How about the answer that always is correct; depends?  How fast can the humidification element disperse water?  What is the initial capacity of the humidor when filled?

I would "season" the humidor by putting in the element ahead of the cigars; 2-10 days ahead.  Either way it'll work out though in the long run.

[Cigar Surgeon]

I believe the official climate of Alberta is semi-arid. If you try to use a humidor without bringing the humidity up to where it should be, you're going to have a bad time for a long time.

[leebert]

2 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

How about the answer that always is correct; depends? 

This.

Just for laughs, one can build a simple model of a humidor stuffed with cigars. To simplify calculations, assume a cube kinda like this guy:

Darling little communist, no?

 

Anyway, the interior volume is ~2.7l (14cm x 14cm x 14cm) and the volume of the cedar is ~294ml(14cm x 14cm x 0.25cm x 6), or roughly a tenth of the total volume. Now, assume the humidor is 50% full and you've got the two masses at play in the humidity tug-o-war: 1.3l of humidified cigars vs. .3l of dry-as-saharan-desert-that-will-suck-the-life-out-of-your-cigars cedar.

Who wins the battle?

(And this case doesn't include the humidifying element that's fighting valiantly on the cigar's behalf. )

Team Cigar sports a 5x advantage in mass. If one's so inclined to plug in relative humidities and crank out the equilibrium humidity, be my guest, but this is good enough for me. And, in general, reveals the dynamics of the battle: volume is ALWAYS larger than surface area (in this case, volume = length^3 and surface area is l^2 x 6, which limits to ~l advantage - similar to a sphere, and a rectangle, and a dodecagon, and a...).

Now, what happens if you have one cigar in this dry beastie? Well, it changes, likely against the interests of our beloved cigar. A poor bastard in need of friends...

So the answer does depend, but there are a few things we can pull from the model:

• If you have a new humidor, fill it up with properly humidified cigars, and don't worry about it
• If you have a new humidor and you put one or two sticks in it, you've been warned

Finally, these little things are your friend when it comes to knowing where you're at in the humidity tug-o-war: 

 

There are all kinds of brands/devices that do this for ~$15US a pop - sorta like a humidity security cam for your cigars!

 

Lee

[Ginseng]

Exactly. It depends. But I don't think that folks realize that at least one factor can sort of be determined or measured to inform the course of action. The moisture content in the wood. Wood moisture meters: Wood moisture meters. There's even an article that shows the relationship between equilibrium moisture content in the wood and the environmental RH. See this link: See the relative humidity and wood moisture content table. Now that table doesn't quite reach up to the 60-70% range that our humidors and storage operate in, but it's close and suggestive. A bit more googling might come up with an exact number but the eyeball says an equilibrium moisture content of 11-12% should be in the range to deliver 60-65%