How To Select The Very Best Cigar Humidors? Reason #571

6 Cigar Humidification Approaches

Now you have a good comprehension of exactly what a hygrometer does and everything can occur if your humidity is too high or too low, let's talk about how to actually control the humidity in your humidor. Regrettably, you can not just use a damp paper towel in a ziplock bag...

1. The Hockey Puck Humidification Method
The unofficial hockey puck method was my very first means to control the humidity in my humidor and boy, was it stressful. This is the"puck" which is included with humidors most of the time and requires one to boil it in propylene glycol. I discovered it for a little bit of a guessing game because you need to make sure your"puck" does not run out of juice. It was mainly stressful since I used the free version from my humidor so results may vary. But once I updated to a Xikar puck, it was smooth sailing. I only had to re-soak each 30-45 days and found it to be much more consistent. Soaking a humidor puck is quite simple. It takes about 30 minutes and you just buy the propylene glycol individually. This remedy is odorless and only replaces water as a more pure form of moisture. Using tap water may cause problems due to chlorine or other substances, and bottled water will not stay moist provided that propylene glycol.

2. The Tubes or Mini Jars Cigar Humidification Method
Xikar and Drymistat make very easy to use products which you may just open and pop it in a humidor such as this
arc 14s. These include a much more controlled method of managing humidity than the puck method. The only bad thing is you have to replace these entirely most of the time each 3-6 months completely. I don't recommend attempting to"re-soak" them with the propylene glycol. The beauty of them, especially the tubes, is they don't occupy much room in your humidor. But, depending on how big the jar format may work better:

3. The Boveda Packs Cigar Humidification Method
Similar to 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. However, they can 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 desired humidity for a result when you've got a tupperdor. Otherwise they do a great job of consuming humidity if it is too high and growing if it's too low. Once your pack is stiff, then you just throw it off. That having been said, many claim to have the ability to recharge these very easily by simply soaking them for a few days after they get stiff. Even though this might be a terrific way to spend less, the recharged packs definitely will not be as precise as an original. To discover more about how to recharge, check out this YouTube tutorial. For me personally, I don't recharge because if I'm going to spend hundreds of bucks on cigars, I do not wish to cut corners to save a couple bucks on Boveda packs.

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

5. The Electric Cigar Humidification Method
There is nothing better than the set it and overlook an electric humidifier, especially if you have a big or precious set. These are a little expensive compared to the other choices such as humidors but there is the benefit of very little upkeep. The units also work great if plugged -- so you will be asked to run a flat cable into the exterior of your humidor. However a few of those units have some really cool features like wi-fi capacities and can humidify up to 1,000 cigars! (That would be a lot of Boveda packs...) You really do need to replace the cartridge every 6 -- 12 months but it's comparatively inexpensive.

6. The Kitty Litter Cigar Humidification Method
For a bigger wineador installation, many recommend kitty litter as a viable option to control humidity. I have never done this but many swear by it. This is a very similar method to the Heartfelt beads strategy outlined previously. The key is to obtain a kitty litter with no odor and spray distilled water every two to three weeks as required. I have seen very positive reviews from Exquisicat Crystals with very low dust nor odor.