Just received my very first humidor, have a couple questions.

[FireFighter 227]

Okay, so far I have wiped down the inside of my humidor with a sponge using distilled water only. Next, I need to fill my humidifier. What do I do, simply fill it up until it starts to overfill? Also, should I use distilled water, or the 50/50 solution I ordered along with it? The instructions suggest either, but I figured I would see what the preferred method is.

Should I wipe the humidor down with the 50/50 mix?

This is a Don Salvatore humidor and they suggest that the proper humidity is 70-75%, however, I have read elsewhere that proper humidity is roughly 68-72%, which is correct?

Thanks in advance.

 

[smokintexas]

Okay, so far I have wiped down the inside of my humidor with a sponge using distilled water only. Next, I need to fill my humidifier. What do I do, simply fill it up until it starts to overfill? Also, should I use distilled water, or the 50/50 solution I ordered along with it? The instructions suggest either, but I figured I would see what the preferred method is.

Should I wipe the humidor down with the 50/50 mix?

This is a Don Salvatore humidor and they suggest that the proper humidity is 70-75%, however, I have read elsewhere that proper humidity is roughly 68-72%, which is correct?

Thanks in advance.

Some say to wipe it down, and some say to avoid wiping it down, having wiped down my humidor myself I saw no problems that arose. What kind of humidifier came with your humi? I would suggest to only wipe it down once (I did it with distilled water) and leave a shot glass of distilled water in the humi for the first few nights. The humidity will be pretty high after day one, but the goal is to get that extra humidity to seep into the wood. Once the humidity levels out to around 70 I would then add your humidifier, again giving it a few days to stay at around a humidity of 70%. Once you have it around 70, I would take out the shot glass and give it a day or two to see what it does. Assuming it stays around 70 I would say your safe to put your cigars in. The biggest piece of advice anyone could give is don't rush it! Oh, and Rod has put together a great how to right here. Good luck and I hope this helped.

 

[FireFighter 227]

Okay, so far I have wiped down the inside of my humidor with a sponge using distilled water only. Next, I need to fill my humidifier. What do I do, simply fill it up until it starts to overfill? Also, should I use distilled water, or the 50/50 solution I ordered along with it? The instructions suggest either, but I figured I would see what the preferred method is.

Should I wipe the humidor down with the 50/50 mix?

This is a Don Salvatore humidor and they suggest that the proper humidity is 70-75%, however, I have read elsewhere that proper humidity is roughly 68-72%, which is correct?

Thanks in advance.

Some say to wipe it down, and some say to avoid wiping it down, having wiped down my humidor myself I saw no problems that arose. What kind of humidifier came with your humi? I would suggest to only wipe it down once (I did it with distilled water) and leave a shot glass of distilled water in the humi for the first few nights. The humidity will be pretty high after day one, but the goal is to get that extra humidity to seep into the wood. Once the humidity levels out to around 70 I would then add your humidifier, again giving it a few days to stay at around a humidity of 70%. Once you have it around 70, I would take out the shot glass and give it a day or two to see what it does. Assuming it stays around 70 I would say your safe to put your cigars in. The biggest piece of advice anyone could give is don't rush it! Oh, and Rod has put together a great how to right here. Good luck and I hope this helped.

Thanks for the reply.

I ended up filling the humidifier with 50/50 and adding it to the humidor. I also placed the sponge and a small dish of distilled water inside the humidor. Now I guess it's the waiting game. I will wait 24 hours and then remove the sponge and dish, wait another 24 hours and see if the hygrometer show's a consistent reading. I ended up going with that $6 digital meter from walmart.

On a side note, I have both Madelaine's and Griffo's mix, is there really any difference?

 

[tomthirtysix]

1 - I hope that sponge isn't directly on the wood.

2 - 24 hours? If your humidor is bigger than a 4 count, you will probably need to wait longer than that.

3 - Most, if not all, of you questions can be answered via search.

 

[CyBeRDiVeR]

I didn't wipe mine down, I heard too much about warpage and stains to your cedar lining. I put a couple of small glass bowls filled with distilled water in my humi, but before I did, I put them in the microwave just long enough to warmt hem up and cause a small amount of steam to come off of them. The heat this creates inside the humi causes the pores of the wood to open and allow for quicker absorption of the moisture. It only took me 3-4 days to totally stabilize my 300 count humi.

As others have said though, don't rush it, give it time. Sometimes it takes longer.

 

[Seavita]

http://www.cigarpass.com/humidor_care.shtml

 

[pmp]

I put together a cigar primer that has some info on selecting and seasoning a humidor. Hope this helps!

Humidor Info