How to Activate Your New Humidor
Before you put your fine collection of cigars inside your new humidor you must “prime” or activate your new humidor. First when you get your new humidor you need to get it ready to store your collection of cigars.
Follow these steps below to activate your humidor.
1. First open your humidor, get a soft cloth and dampen it with distilled water, use the damp cloth to wipe the inside of your humidor. Make sure you do not soak the inside, just wipe it down.
2. Close the lid and leave it for a few hours. Take the humidifier and place it in a bowl of distilled water or Tropical Humidity humidor solution and allow the inside sponge to absorb the water, remove it from the bowl & give it a shake to remove excess water, place it inside the humidor.
3. Repeat the soft cloth process and leave the humidor closed over night. Next day check the hygrometer for a reading of around 70% humidity.
4. Keep your humidor away from direct sunlight or anywhere it may be subject to unnecessary heat. All Cigar Star humidors come with instructions on how to activate your humidor.
Check out our video that will show you step by step instructions on how to season your new Cigar Star Humidor.
Video Transcript
Hello. Today we’re gonna shoot a video on how to season your cigar humidor. When you get your brand new cigar humidor, first thing you wanna do is throw your cigars in there. No. You don’t wanna do that. First thing you wanna do is you wanna season it because you want your cigars to be aging perfectly. And the best way to do that is to get your brand new cigar humidor, open it up, and remove basically everything inside of it. Now, this humidor is our showcase Cigar Star humidor. It’s one of our best-selling humidors and it is a very good humidor. So, basically, you’re gonna take your humidor, like I said, remove everything out of it and basically, you want to fill up a bowl with distilled water, get yourself rag and basically take the rag, wring it out. You don’t want it saturated, but you wanna make sure that there is no dripping water on there. Take the rag and basically wipe down the inside of the humidor. Now, you wanna basically get all the wood inside the humidor. One of the reasons you wanna do this is because when your humidor seasons properly and you put your cigar humidifier inside your humidor that your cigars are actually receiving the humidity and the wood isn’t robbing it from your cigars. So, you don’t wanna have it saturated and soaking because what could happen is with any wood that gets wet, it can warp and ruin your seal and that would basically ruin your cigar humidor. So, basically, you just wanna take the rag, wet it down, it’ll turn a different color.
Second thing with a brand new humidor is you wanna test its seal. Now, if you notice when I dropped this lid on the humidor, it gets a nice swoosh and that ensures that it’s a vacuum seal and that your humidor is gonna keep that humidity inside the humidor for your cigars. Now, if you get a humidor and I’m just gonna remove the hygrometer there and you hear that, that means that there’s definitely an issue with your humidor and it’s no good. And even no matter how many times you season your humidor, it’s not gonna keep the humidity inside for your cigars. Make sure that your seal is perfect. All Cigar Star humidors come with a perfect seal. Now, all your components that come inside, we like to really give these cedar dividers a good soaking because it really doesn’t matter if you warp these, but it’s a good thing to have these saturated or a little bit more moisture than you would the inside of the actual humidor because these pieces here, you wanna just basically get every piece of the wood. So, this specific model comes… Now, you can see the difference in the color because when your…that wood is actually absorbing it inside. So, the reason it’s absorbent, you want it to absorb it before you put your cigars in there. Again, you don’t want, when you put your humidifier inside your humidor, the wood could be taking your humidity away. You want it to be stuck inside the humidor going to your cigars. So, again, if your humidor comes with a Spanish cedar removable tray, you wanna do the same thing with that as well. You basically wanna wipe it down really nice. Make sure you get all pieces of the wood, front and back. And again, you do not wanna soak it, you don’t want any dripping water or running water on any of these components or the inside of the humidor.
Now, once you’ve basically gotten all the components done, you wanna place it back inside the humidor itself. So, I’m gonna put everything that we just did, put it back in there. And what you wanna do is you wanna take the humidifier that comes with it and you wanna soak this as well. I like to get a Tupperware dish and submerge it under and just allow it to absorb all the distilled water. And you wanna give it a good shake a couple times to remove any of the excess water and place that inside. Now, once you’ve done this, you’re gonna have to do this process three to five times. And we recommend that you do it before you go to bed, that way you can leave in the morning and it’ll be ready.
So, after you did it two or three times, you wake up the next morning, what we suggest, this tropical humidity by Cigar Star. Now, this is a propylene glycol solution mix. And what it does is it helps fight the formation of mold and bacteria on your sponge-based humidifier. And it also regulates relative humidity to about 70%, which is ideal conditions for your cigar humidor. So, for a small price, it equals peace of mind and we highly recommend it when you purchase a brand new cigar humidor. So, you’ll have to repeat this process three to five times. And before you go to bed for your last and final time, what you wanna do is you wanna give it a final wipe down and you can take a plastic bag or some form of plastic, leave your rag in there as well with the humidifier. Place everything overnight, wake up in the morning. Make sure your hygrometer is reading around 70%, 75%, then take out the plastic bag and the rag. Use the propylene glycol solution, tropical humidity by Cigar Star. And even though there’s already water in here, take it and just put a small amount inside the cracks there and let it absorb and basically put a film over that sponge inside to fight off any bacteria or mold. Once that’s ready to go, your cigars are ready to age perfectly in you’re brand new cigar. We hope that this video has been helpful for you seasoning your brand new cigar humidor, and we hope that you visit frequently at www.cigarstar.ca. Thanks and have yourself a great day.
Using Propylene Glycol Solution to Set Up Your Cigar Humidor
Cigar Star makes an optimal solution mix called Tropical Humidity. This solution actively prevents the formation of mold and bacteria, absorbs humidity at humidity levels over 70% and emits humidity at humidity levels below 70%. This way, the humidifier is self-adjusting. Automatically stabilizing the humidity level of your humidor at an optimum level of approximately 70%.
Follow the above steps using a Propylene glycol solution. The reason you need to do this is to make sure that the Spanish cedar inside will not absorb all the humidity from the humidifier, but keep the humidity from the humidifier for your cigars. You are seasoning the wood inside to keep the right humidity for the cigars.
Humidors should keep 65-72% humidity to ensure proper aging for your cigars.
If your hygrometer is still showing less than 62% humidity repeat step 1 process for a few more days. Many times, the wood in a humidor needs to be prepared more than just once. Also check the seal to make sure it is tight. If your humidity is above 80% just open your lid while keeping an eye on your hygrometer, this will allow some humidity to escape from your humidor.