Expert: James Yee - 1/12/2009

Question
I was given a 50 cigar humidor as a gift and went through all the process of seasoning it.  I wiped the walls down several times and I am using a 50% Propylene Glycol/Distilled Water solution.  I have the sponge in there as well as a shot glass full of the solution but am unable to get the humidity over 58%.  I went out and bought a seperate digital hygrometer and calibrated it.  It has confirmed the 58%.  Its not a terribly expensive humidor and fear that is the issue.
Any Suggestions?

Answer
Hi Doug,

It's possible that the humidor has construction defects or damage that may constantly cause the humidity to leak out and prevent a proper humidity level.  Examine the humidor's construction and look for construction flaws such as gaps or cracks in the corner joints or a flimsy humidor lid.  The lid should be heavy and have a good "vacuum seal" whenever you close it.  The corner joints should also appear seamless.  If the humidor is damaged or flawed, you should have it replaced or repaired by a professional carpenter/humidor builder.

When you were seasoning it, did the humidity reach 70% at all?  If yes, continue to season the humidor.  Be sure to season the humidor so that it can hold at 70% overnight without losing much moisture in the sponge.  If the humidification device/sponge continues to lose a lot of moisture overnight, you will need to repeat the seasoning process.

If the humidor doesn't have any construction defects and was seasoned properly but for some reason, still can't hold around 70% humidity, try running the humidor without propylene glycol and see if the humidity improves.  PG is only useful when you have uncontrollably high humidity but most humidors don't have this problem and don't require it.  If the humidity improves without PG, don't use it anymore.  If the humidity is now too high without PG, add a few small drops of PG to lower the humidity to a reasonable level.

If nothing seems to work, try adding a second humidification device.  Normally a 50-count humidor should require only one humidification device (ie: 1 round humidifier) but two humidification elements will be more effective.  As an alternative, you could upgrade to one larger humdification device in lieu of the one that came with your humidor and this will easily boost humidity.

Hopes this helps.  If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I will be happy to help.

Regards,
James