Snagged a nice 200, glass top Humi on ebay for $26! Because it has some finish blemises.

2 questions....

1. My temp is staying just over 75. I don't want beetles. Any ideas?

2. how do I "prep" my Humidor? It's never been used and has been sitting around a warehouse for a long time.

I tried a search but couldn't get any clear answers.

You've come to the right place. High temps will kill your smokes only if the humidity gets low. Don't sweat it too much. Charge your humistat with distilled water and wait for about 24-48 hours before you start putting cigars in there. You'll get around 68 - 70% humidity and be fine. Don't soak it, use just enough to get it wet. Your cigars will begin to absorb the moisture, and soon it will stabilize. You want just enough humidity for the leaves to expand a little. Keep an eye on the hygrometer for the first week or so and after that, if you need more distilled water, just add some. Your humidor should have came with instructions. Don't worry, you'll get tons of advice here. Check back 15 minutes later and someone else will chime in.

I typed in Humidor into my browsers search engine...

at the top of the page it said this...

Results 1 - 10 of about 350,000 for Humidor [definition]. (0.24 seconds)

Best advise ... don't wet the wood ... water is the enemy of wood and could raise the grain ...

Best method is to place a bowl of water in the 'dor, close the lid and leave it closed for at least a week (I've left it for 2 weeks). Check it with your hygrometer and if it's more than a little bit high, take the bowl out and close the lid again for a day or two or ? until the unit stabilizes ...

Put the cigars and humidifier in and you're ready for business ...

I am getting a new humidor and I was wondering if there is much of a difference between distilled water and the solutions found on the market? One said it has water-propylene glycol mix known as 70/70 to help the humidor stabalize,while a plain water system puts you at risk of swings in humidity. I am getting a barrel humidor holds 125 cigars and it comes with 100 sticks for $119.

Two words DIGITAL HYGROMETER make sure you get one of these. These are a cheap investment considering how much you'll spend on gars. Gunflint

BikerBob ...

In breaking in your humidor, use plain distilled water in the manner explained above. You should NOT put PG on the wood, even in a mixture.

BUT, in maintaining the humidity after it's been broken in and the cigars have been loaded, a 50/50 mix is best to put in the hygrometer since the PG half of the mix will control the rate of evaporation of the water half. It isn't necessary to add more 50/50 every time, since PG doesn't evaporate readily.

An even better suggestion after you're up and running is to consider replacing the OEM hygrometer with a container of Climmax Media that distilled water is added to ... far easier to regulate.

Drop me an email for details if you like ...

fromsteves at hotmail dot com - and yes, 'from' IS part of the addy

SteveS: I have seen the warning about "raising the grain" of the wood if you wet it. I don't understand.

I have wiped down the interior of a new humidor with distilled water before to hurry up the humidification process. Dry wood is very thirsty, so it can take days or weeks for RH to stabilize. So I wipe it down. The grain raises (almost imperceptibly). Then the grain settles back down. What's the harm?

As someone who worked in the wooden business furniture industry at one time, I can tell you I've seen a lot of wood ruined by water ...

Based on that experience, I personally would never deliberately wipe water onto wood ... that said, I will grant you that there is a fairly small chance of your ruining your new humi that way, but to my way of thinking, why take the chance in order to rush the process along by a few days, particularly since you've bought something suitable to last for your lifetime?

Hell, I know one guy who would pour a glass of water into a new humi, close the lid, shake it up, open the lid and pour out the excess ... claimed it never hurt his new humi ... doesn't mean I'm going to adopt the practice ...

Guy asked for advise ... I gave him the best I've got ... but I won't argue with anyone who does it differently ... after all, it's their money, not mine, that they used to buy it.

Why not just use regular water?

Tap water has been treated with additives that can affect the RH of the humi and the taste of your cigars.

It's also chock full of minerals that would ruin the humidifier

I love this discussion.

The perfect (and it is debateable) scenario for cigars is 70 percent relative humidity and about 70 degrees. Some people will go lower on humidity, and it is often said that if you are doing aging, 65% is better.

1. High temps are bad. High temps are what allow eggs to hatch. It doesn't matter if the humidity is high, too, high temps are bad. Did I say that enough? High temps are bad. 75 degrees isn't something to worry about.

2. Don't soak the wood. It can cause it warp and ruin the seal (not the kind that barks) of your humidor lid.

3. Yes, the shot glass full of distilled water is a good idea. Do not bother with PG when trying to get the humidity up as the PG doesn't help with that at all.

4. If you humidity is too high, then yes, us a PG mix solution, but wait until you actually have a problem. Many places don't have near enough humidity to require PG. If you live in Houston where humidity is 120% all the time, then you need PG.

5. Be patient. It takes time for the wood to absorb the proper humidity, and when you add cigars it will impact the level for several days until it stabilizes.

6. Tap water is very bad. No, don't use it. Ever. Tap water is very bad. Do I need to say it again? Tap water is very bad. Use nothing but distilled or distilled mixed with PG (see earlier statements about PG).

7. Don't complete saturate your humidrol with water/PG mix if you have high humidity problems. You should allow enough capacity so that the PG can pull humidity out of the humidor if your humidity is too high and it can't do that if you saturate your humidrol.

OK, let's do this again soon.

which again brings up the virtue of climmax media ... they will absorb excess humidity as well as control the release of humidity when it's needed ...