Expert: James Yee - 10/24/2007

Question
Hi,
after your help last time I am back with another question!

I bought a humidor and followed the instructions that came with it to season it properly.  Once this had been done I left the humidor set up but empty to see what humidity its maintaining - At the start it was about 85%!  I have left it for about a week now and its still at about 80%

Is this high humidity because the humidor is empty?  Will it lower if I out the cigars in (they are currently in humi-pouches so they should be ok) or should I leave it to lower more? If so, what is the best way of achieving this?

Thanks again

Matt

Answer
Hi Matt,

What you should do is add a 50/50 mixture of Propylene Glycol (PG) and distilled water to your humidification unit.  Sometimes after seasoning a humidor, the humidity level may be extremely high (more than 75%) and the humidification unit may continue to generate a high amount of humidity even after you've added cigars to your humidor.  The best way to correct this is to add Propylene Glycol to your humidification device.  What Propylene Glycol does is restrict the amount of humidity that is produced to exactly 70%; the ideal level for your cigars.  

Propylene Glycol can last a long time inside your humidor (on average 2 years) so you only need to add this mixture just once.  After this, just add distilled water to your humidification device when needed.  Also, please note that it may take 1 week for the humidity to stabilize at 70% after adding the Propylene Glycol.  During this time, the humidity level may dip and peak wildly but this is perfectly normal.  If after a week, the humidity is still high, fine tune the mixture by adding a tiny bit more PG to the humidification unit (add a few drops of PG at a time).  If the humidity is too low, fine tune by adding a bit more distilled water.  After fine-tuning, allow the humidor to sit another week so that the humidity can settle again.  

Once the Propylene Glycol takes effect and acheives 70% humidity in your humidor, you'll have no problems maintaining perfect humidity.

Propylene Glycol is available at most cigar shops, tobacconists, reputable pharmacies and drug stores.

Hopes this answers your question.

Regards,
James