Expert: James Yee - 2/28/2011

Question
Hi, James I recently got a  cedar wood desktop humidor (25-50 cigars) and I've decided to control humidity with boveda packs, after your advice to other readers. I guess i´ll need one because I never get to store more than 25 (in fact, it only holds 10 right now).
The thing is that after 3 days that I changed the sponge humidifier for the pack, the RH inside the humi got from 71 to 68 and its a 75% pack... Does this have to do with the seasoning of the box? Because I've already seasoned it and it worked fine to my knowledge...
More importantly, can I rest assure that the pack will handle humidity levels while I'm away on business for two weeks?

thanks in advance, Fede.-

Answer
Hi Fede,

Usually after swapping out or recharging a humidifier, the humidity in your humidor will temporarily drop.  The good news is that this drop is short-term, and the humidity should climb and recover within a day or two. If the humidity still doesn't recover properly, it may be necessary to have two Boveda packs in your humidor.  Boveda suggests that you should have two Boveda packs in a 25-50 count humidor.

Here is Boveda's guide on how many packs you should use based on humidor size:
http://www.bovedadirect.com/company/quantity.cfm

If the humidity still doesn't improve even with two packs, it could be that your humidor needs to be re-seasoned as it has lost moisture in the wood (this is a common occurrence with humidors during winter as the dry heat in our homes wicks away the humidity from humidors.)  Re-seasoning your humidor will correct this.

Boveda is very reputable and reliable so it should easily handle the proper humidity level while you're away on business.

I hope this helps! As always, if you have any more questions, please feel free to just ask and I will be happy to help.

Regards,
James