Expert: James Yee - 12/28/2010

Question
QUESTION: how do you know when your humidor is done seasoning with the cigar oasis? it says to put it in an empty closed humidor for 3-24 hours....How do you know how long to keep it in there? i have a 150 ct cabinet humidor....I have kept it in there for bout 20 hours...But the oasis fan does come on every 5 mins or so still....They don't really give you any details on it....Thanks a lot for your time.

ANSWER: Hi Derek,

With seasoning, you're basically wetting/saturating the wood so that it can regulate humidity more effectively for your cigars.  Technically, it's possible to store cigars in an UN-seasoned humidor but the humidor will absorb all the moisture from the humidification device and your cigars until the wood is fully saturated... this will cause your cigars to be dry and your humidor's humidity to act erratically.  By seasoning the wood, you are prepping humidor so that it can be used immediately.  The humidification element (the cigar oasis) will also perform longer between refills.)

Seasoning a humidor can be done in several hours but to ensure that the humidor is THOROUGHLY seasoned, it's best to season it for 24 hours.  The best way to know when a humidor is done seasoning is by saturating a clean sponge with distilled water and placing it in your humidor.  Place the sponge on top of a sheet of plastic food wrap or a plastic dish to prevent direct contact between the sponge and wood.  Now let the empty humidor sit closed for 24 hours.  If after 24 hours, the sponge is dry (or has lost a lot of moisture), re-soak the sponge and repeat this process.  When the sponge is able to sit in your empty humidor for 24 hours without losing much moisture, your humidor has been properly seasoned and is ready to use.

I hope this helps.  If you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I will be happy to help.  (There are also lots of archived answers on humidor seasoning here on allexperts.com; just use the search function to find them.)

Regards,
James

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Ok sounds good, although I let it run over 24 hours,it was going off every 5 mins or so, i put a reg digital hygro in there too, and it was reading 70% humidity, and the oasis hygro was reading 75.... so I think it was good, I popped my cigars in and it is now turning the fan on constantly after putting the cigars in, is that normal? I'm sure since the cigars are sucking up the humidity, guess it might be....But just curious, seems like the cartridge is gonna drain fast....I have a bead container and stick in there also. Is that ok to put those in there with the cigar oasis? I just want some backup in there just in case the oasis happens to fail while i'm not home, lol.

Answer
Hi Derek,

Yes, it's perfectly normal for the Cigar Oasis to repeatedly turn on and off.  What it does is monitor the humidity level in your humidor and whenever the humidity level drops below the programmed limit (for example, 70% humidity), the unit will automatically turn on.  When the Cigar Oasis detects the humidity is back to normal, it will turn off and remain idle until the  humidity level drops again.

The initial cartridge will indeed deplete quickly due to the seasoning process but once your humidor is properly seasoned and your cigars have absorbed the proper amount of moisture, the water reservoir on the Cigar Oasis will last longer.

With an electronic humidifier, it's not necessary to use the humidity beads.  Having them in your humidor shouldn't be a problem but if the beads are boosting the humidity to dangerous levels (75% or higher), remove them immediately and just use the Cigar Oasis.

I hope this helps!  As always, if you have anymore questions, please feel free to just ask and I will be happy to help. (Will be away for New Year's, back January 3rd.)

Regards,
James