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How to season your new humidor - step by step guide

For CHICYA pure cedar humidor box, it’s a litter bit different from other cigar humidors, it was made of all cedar without paint. So it will be a litter different to season it. A quality humidor is the key to aging cigars gracefully. It’s not a complicated science, either. But it does require a bit of patience and care, and it all begins with seasoning your humidor.

A humidor is designed to keep your cigars humidified. In order for a humidor to perform this essential function, an equilibrium of perfect humidity for cigars must be achieved. Otherwise, your humidor will absorb the humidity in your cigars and cause them to dry out, instead of providing the optimal conditions for storage that premium handmade cigars require. That’s why does a humidor needs to be prepped? The reason is simple.

First
Although we are addressing humidification, temperature is also an important consideration. Store your humidor at a comfortable room temperature (roughly 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit) and not too close to a direct source of heat or under direct sunlight.

Second
Fortunately, CHICYA built with a precision digital Thermo-Hygrometer, so you don’t need to calibrate the hygrometer again, but if you want, you can put another Thermo-Hygrometer into the humidor for checking.

Due to the high humidity absorption capacity of the cedar wood. When you’re seasoning the cigar humidor, cedar wood absorbs water quickly, so it can help us shorten the season time.

Fill the humidification unit into the humidor, at this step, you can use humidity control pack, or normal humidifier with distilled water(1. Do not use tap water as it maybe creates mold on your cigar. 2. Do not wet wood.)

Third
Pay attention to the humidity, when the humidity reaches a stable value, maybe 70%, 80%(it depends on your humidifier), this is a little higher than the desired range for storing cigars normally, however, your cigars will draw in a lot of the excess initial moisture once placed inside.
Once your hygrometer is reading 75% to 80% RH, we can fill the box with cigars. Don’t forget put a 69 humidity control pack at the bottom. We recommend filling the box at least to half of its total capacity and keeping it half full in order to maintain consistent conditions on the inside. Also, don’t overfill your humidor with cigars. It’s best if you can leave some space of the interior. Air and humidity will move around more readily to access all of the cigars you’re storing with a bit of extra space.
Finally: regular maintenance

In the interim, it can be easy to forget you have a humidor. Just like with a house plant, your humidor and your cigar collection need attention and they need to care. You want to maintain a regular equilibrium of 65% to 72% RH.

Rotate your cigars! This is also an important, often overlooked step. You don’t want the same cigars always resting in closest proximity to your humidification source. Rotate your smokes. Move the cigars from the top row to the bottom and vice versa. Doing so once every week or two is a great idea. It’s also a great excuse to check on your collection and, of course, to smoke a cigar!

Finally
You can get this pure cedar cigar aging humidor from https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JL2GM57
Free shipping by amazon, good service and warranty.
View attachment 51583
Hey look! It’s like a regular humidor but worse! Neat 😁
 
I would probably be okay for Gurkhas.

Matter of fact, if you buy a Gurkha at the gas station, they will throw in this piece of shit for free! A $84 value!
 
Hi,

New to forum. Posted intro earlier tonight. I purchased a Diamond Crown 90 ct humidor. I used a plain craft sponge purchased at Michaels with distilled water to wet down all of the cedar. I then put 4 boveda packs in. An hour later I realized I hadn’t taken the boveda packs out of the plastic wrap. I opened the humidor and the inside top (underside of lid) was warped with some waves. Did I mess my up my new humidor?
 
Ahhh jeez... That's not good, sounds like the veneer finish separated from the box material. May want to let I'd dry out and try to re-season it without applying water directly to the finish.

Just put a shallow dish of distilled water in it for a couple days and then switch to boveda.

90 count? As in a measurement of 12x10x4 ish?
 
Distilled water first? As in take the boveda out?
Yes. There are conflicting opinions, but most people will tell you not to wipe down a humidor. If its all solid wood then you are normally ok, but if there is veneer then this can happen. Remove the Boveda packs and just use the dish of water. Check it every day or two to make sure the water isn't gone. After a week or so remove the dish and put the Boveda packs back. If this turns out bad, I'd recommend using Tupperware until you decide where you are going with this hobby.
 
There are some real handy guys on here that might be able to offer fixes too, if you post some pictures. Yeah, don't wipe it down though, bowl of distilled water with a sponge sitting in it.
 
Hi,

New to forum. Posted intro earlier tonight. I purchased a Diamond Crown 90 ct humidor. I used a plain craft sponge purchased at Michaels with distilled water to wet down all of the cedar. I then put 4 boveda packs in. An hour later I realized I hadn’t taken the boveda packs out of the plastic wrap. I opened the humidor and the inside top (underside of lid) was warped with some waves. Did I mess my up my new humidor?
You may need to back up a couple steps and try to fix the warped veneer first.
  1. I would first find or make something that sits perfectly inside that lid and is heavy (or stack something heavy on it)
  2. Remove the lid if possible (should be small screws)
  3. After you find or make something to fit inside the lid, I would dampen it again (carefully) and place a layer of saran wrap over it and then set whatever you found/made in the recess of the lid.
  4. Stack sufficient weight on it to fully compress the veneer back to it's original shape.
  5. Let it sit for a couple days and check to see if the veneer is better.
  6. The sustained dampness may reset the glue and hold fast? ....... Maybe?
  7. Then start over with humidification.
 
You may need to back up a couple steps and try to fix the warped veneer first.
  1. I would first find or make something that sits perfectly inside that lid and is heavy (or stack something heavy on it)
  2. Remove the lid if possible (should be small screws)
  3. After you find or make something to fit inside the lid, I would dampen it again (carefully) and place a layer of saran wrap over it and then set whatever you found/made in the recess of the lid.
  4. Stack sufficient weight on it to fully compress the veneer back to it's original shape.
  5. Let it sit for a couple days and check to see if the veneer is better.
  6. The sustained dampness may reset the glue and hold fast? ....... Maybe?
  7. Then start over with humidification.
If it doesn't hold, then do the same but use some wood glue. C-clamp and wax paper, snowboard scrapers 😉, or something else the glue won't stick to might work well to hold it while it dries.

I just fixed a snowboard basically the same way, but with epoxy. Don't use that...
 
Thank you for the advice - there’s a couple of light bubbles on the inside top - shown in picture above is the biggest one.

Do I need to go through all those steps?
 
Thank you for the advice - there’s a couple of light bubbles on the inside top - shown in picture above is the biggest one.

Do I need to go through all those steps?

If you're not wanting to try @CigarStone's advice, and that bubble above your thumb is the biggest one, you may be well enough to not tinker with it more. I haven't seen a DC humi before, but if that little cosmetic blip is your only concern I'd just start filling it and be happy with what you have.

If the hygro is accurate, it'll do what you need it to. You'll know the bubbles are there, but doubtful anyone else would in the few seconds it takes to open and grab a stick. Is it under warranty? Did instructions mention seasoning?

If there's even a hint of seasoning mentioned in its booklet, I'd exchange it. Would you mind posting a few more pics of it in general? Personally, I'd just like to see it... especially the hygro.

Can I also ask what you paid?

Welcome from WI btw!
 

Holy hell... all the 90ct DC humis I just searched are all $350+... I take back my earlier post... return that fucker, buy a $30 cooler, use rest of the $300 to buy a box of DC to start it off with.

Seriously, when people start wanting humis with capacity for almost triple digits.. you're gonna blow right past that limit to needing a cooler(s). I have 4 desktop humis.. empty and stacked in a closet.

It's easy to get caught up in the purdiness of a nice humi... especially a branded one from a great cigar maker. But unless you can't return it, I'd maybe check out a coolidor thread and see if that sounds like a more practical solution.
 
Based on that pic, here is another idea.

Get a hypodermic needle and mix some wood glue and water 50/50. Poke the needle into two or three spots and inject some watery glue, wipe any excess off, cover the area with Saran wrap, and put some weight on it. The holes will usually swell back closed and you will never see the them.

All that being said, if you are even 20% in love with cigar smoking, buy a marine cooler at Walmart for $60 and I'll explain how to mount it on a wall.

If I had the money back that I wasted on cheap and expensive wood humidors, which don't work anyway, before I went to the below set-up, I could buy a couple of really nice boxes of cigars.

Humis 5 reduced.jpg
 
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Update,

I took it back. They were hestitant. Manager said I over watered it and that I’m not supposed to wet it down. I said that’s what employee who sold it to me said to do and what’s in the instruction booklet. Manager said that’s why they give a boveda starter pack. She goes to the back to call owner and I’m walking around looking at humidors. I open a Diamond Crown on the floor and what do you know. There’s bubbling. I guess it’s a thin veneer bc they have a piece of metal underneath to magnetize some humidifier that I wouldn’t even use. Anyways. They took is back and I bought a Savoy by Ashton.
 
Update,

I took it back. They were hestitant. Manager said I over watered it and that I’m not supposed to wet it down. I said that’s what employee who sold it to me said to do and what’s in the instruction booklet. Manager said that’s why they give a boveda starter pack. She goes to the back to call owner and I’m walking around looking at humidors. I open a Diamond Crown on the floor and what do you know. There’s bubbling. I guess it’s a thin veneer bc they have a piece of metal underneath to magnetize some humidifier that I wouldn’t even use. Anyways. They took is back and I bought a Savoy by Ashton.
Don't wipe it down! 😂
 
Hey guys -

I was wondering if any of you could suggest a Bluetooth hydrometer that you could check from your phone. I had Boveda Butler but it wasn’t useful at all. Never would update me and just would die after 30 days. I just want one that I could be notified if I need to adjust the humidity levels. Also I realize that this product doesn’t really exist that works well so you won’t hurt my feelings if you tell me that there isn’t a good option for that.
 
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