How To Pick The Very Best Cigar Humidors? Reason #984

[FrankJScott]

6 Cigar Humidification Methods

Now that you have a solid understanding of what a hygrometer does and everything can occur if your humidity is too high or too low, let us talk about how to actually control the humidity in your humidor. Regrettably, you can not just use a moist paper towel in a ziplock bag...

1. The Hockey Puck Humidification Method
The unofficial hockey puck system was my first means to control the humidity in my humidor and boy, was it trying. This is the"puck" which is included with humidors the majority of the time and needs one to boil it into propylene glycol. I found it for a bit of a guessing game because you have to make sure that your"puck" does not run out of juice. It was mostly stressful since I used the free version from my humidor so results may vary. I found that I had to soak the puck every 15 days or so using a humidor of 30 cigars. I only had to re-soak every 30-45 days and found it to be much more consistent. Soaking a humidor puck is quite simple. It takes approximately 30 minutes and you simply buy the propylene glycol individually. This solution is odorless and only replaces water as a more pure form of moisture. Using tap water can cause issues due to chlorine or other substances, and distilled water will not stay moist as long as propylene glycol.

2. The Tubes or Mini Jars Cigar Humidification Method
Xikar and Drymistat make quite easy to use products which you may merely open and pop it in a humidor such as this
tower of power humidor. These have a much more controlled way of handling humidity than the puck technique. The only bad thing is that you need to replace these completely most of the time each 3-6 months completely. I don't recommend attempting to"re-soak" them with the propylene glycol. The attractiveness of them, particularly the tubes is they don't take up much room in your humidor. But, depending on the size, the jar format may work better:

3. The Boveda Packs Cigar Humidification Method
Like the tubes or jar from Xikar and Drymistat, you can go with a very controlled method of Boveda humidity packs. These are my favourite cigar humidification method and ones that I utilize for my tupperdor today. But they could err a bit on the high side in terms of humidity if you use them in a tupperdor. I would like to go several percentages lower than your preferred humidity as a consequence when you have a tupperdor. (These packs are available in all different humidity levels.) Otherwise they do a fantastic job of consuming humidity if it's too high and increasing if it is too low. Once your package is stiff, then you simply throw it off. That being said, many claim to be able to recharge these quite easily simply by soaking them for a few days once they become stiff. Although this may be a terrific way to spend less, the recharged packs definitely won't be as precise as an original. To discover more about how to recharge, take a look at this YouTube tutorial. For me personally, I really don't recharge because if I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on cigars, I don't want to cut corners to save a few dollars on Boveda packs.

4. The Heartfelt Beads Humidification Method
Heartfelt beads are a frequent humidity method that many recommend across java forums. This provider revolves around these beads and they've a great deal of diehard followers for their product. These are popular with larger humidors or even wineadors. These are probably one of the costlier options but continue forever. They do require spraying of distilled water after two or week though so you have to stick to a program. This way is a bit more geared towards the advanced cigar collectors. Typically, cigar collectors will have a pouch of those a layer at the base of their wineador.

5. The Electric Cigar Humidification Method
There's nothing greater than the place it and forget of an electric humidifier, especially in the event that you have a large or precious set. All these are a bit expensive compared to the other choices such as
arc-14s but there is the advantage of very little upkeep. The units work great if plugged in -- so you'll be required to run a level cord to the exterior of your humidor. However some of these units have a few really cool features like wi-fi capacities and can humidify around 1,000 cigars! (That would be a good deal of Boveda packs...) You really do need to replace the cartridge every 6 -- 12 months but it's relatively cheap.

6. The Kitty Litter Cigar Humidification Method
To get a larger wineador installation, many advocate kitty litter as a viable option to control humidity. I've personally never done this but many swear by it. This is a very similar technique to this Heartfelt beads strategy outlined previously. The key is to obtain a kitty litter with no fragrance and spray distilled water every two to three weeks as needed. I have seen very positive testimonials out of Exquisicat Crystals with very low dust nor scent.