Expert: James Yee - 11/12/2009

Question
Dear James,

Love your work. Thanks so much.

I wanted to ask you about placement of the humidifier and the cigars in the humidor. I am relatively new to cigar smoking, and purchased a $35 50-capacity humidor from Amazon.com, and currently use two humidifying devices: one cigar-savor (crystals), and the foam one provided with the humidor. My digital hygrometer consistently states the humidity at about 70%, and I have about 40 cigars inside right now. I had mostly been smoking the ones that are at the very top, but yesterday, I smoked one that lay in the middle of the pile. I found that the end that was exposed was nice and moist, but the part that was covered by the other cigars was dry! I checked the others in the middle, and they were the same way. The ones at the top were fine, but the middle and bottom ones were dry and somewhat cracked.

So my questions are these: 1) should the humidifying device be placed in any particular way?; 2) should the cigars be placed in any particular direction?; 3) should I not keep the humidor at maximum capacity for best effect?

FYI, just today, I purchased a Daniel Marshall, just to take that out of the equation now.

Thank you so much for your advice.

Sincerely,

Steve

Answer
Hi Steve,

The placement of your humidification devices in your humidor can be anywhere as long as they are not blocked by humidor components, fixtures or cigars themselves.  Keeping your humidifiers/crystals in an obstructed position can cause the humidity ouput to be restricted and ineffective in certain areas in your humidor.  Try keeping your humidification devices in an open and centered location underneath the lid or at the base of the humidor.  You can also keep your humidification devices at the corners or sides of your humidor as long as they are not obstructed by anything.  It's also best that you do not fill your humidor to maximum capacity because this will obstruct humidity flow.  I would say that you shouldn't exceed the 3/4 capacity mark in your humidor.  If more than 3/4 of your humidor interior is full of cigars, you should upgrade to a larger humidor or split up your collection to 2 or 3 smaller humidors.

Directional placement of cigars is also entirely up to you.  Just try to store all your cigars in the same direction so the humidity flow is not compromised.

Your humidor setup sounds fine and it's not uncommon for some cigars to be slightly dry.  What you need to do is periodically rotate your cigars and this will improve their condition.  Move your cigars in the bottom layers up and your top layer cigars to the bottom of the pile.  This will allow all your cigars to have an even exposure to humidity.  You should rotate all your cigars at least every 2-3 months.  If your cigar supply is near full capacity in your humidor, rotate your cigars once a month and your cigars will be fine.

Rotating cigars is a common practice for many cigar smokers.  To further improve humidity aeration, you may want to consider building an aeration platform for your cigars.  This is basically a thin, perforated cedar platform that elevates your cigars above the base of your humidor and allows humidity to flow beneath your entire cigar collection and humidify cigars at the bottom of the pile.  This allows you to rotate your cigars less frequently.  (For more info about aeration platforms, just keyword search "aeration platform" here on allexperts.com and you should find more discussions about them.)

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

Regards,
James