Expert: James Yee - 2/25/2008

Question
I live in Toronto. Our winters are cold and very dry. My humidor works fine 9 months out of the year but during winter no matter what I do it stays around 62. I've even placed a glass of distilled water in it and that doesn't help. Is this normal or is there something I should do to bring the humidity up?

FYI. It's sits on a table away from any heating vent, window, etc. The house temp is set at 67 and we use natural gas heating.

Answer
Hi Mike,

Don't worry, this is quite normal and many people do experience this humidity drop with their humidors during winter.  Because our home environment can be extremely dry during cold winters, our humidors will react to the surrounding environment and drop in internal humidity.  When the environment is naturally warmer and more humid (such as in the summer months), our humidors will be able to hold humidity more effectively.

To increase your humidity during winter, move your humidor to a room that is less dry or keep a humidifier/vaporizer running in the room.  Don't keep a humidifier directly next to the humidor but instead, just keep it in the opposite corner of the room.  This should provide more ambient humidity to the room which will help boost your humidor's internal humidity.

You may also need to recharge your humidification device more frequently.  During winter months, it's not uncommon to recharge your humidifier every two weeks or even every single week in order to maintain an ideal humidity level.

Also, using a dish of water inside your humidor can cause tobacco mites to thrive so you should consider using a secondary humidity source such as humidor crystals, gel pillows or even a second humidification device.

Hopes this answers your question. If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I'll be happy to help.

Regards,
James