Rich, Robin did get in some PAM '26 maduros. They didn't
put them out until today, but they are going FAST. Don't
expect them to last beyond Tuesday.
MDSPHOTO, starting a new humidor is a pain-in-the-neck
no matter how many times you've done it. Here's my
best advice...
Don't keep valuable stogies until the box is established
and stable. Usually that takes about 6 months depending
on the humidor's quality your local climate. You can begin
stocking cigars after the initial wipe-down period, but just
keep everyday cigars for now.
Since you are having problems, you may want to temporarily
borrow a little space in a friend's humidor. Hopefully you
don't have too many cigars yet. If that isn't feasible, you
can place them in an air-tight plastic container with a
humidity device until the main box is stable. In fact, some
enthusiasts keep their collections in "Tupperdors" full time
and open them up once a week for air exchange.
For a brand new humidor, wipe the entire interior and
trays with
large amounts of water every day for a full week.
Don't be scared to use too much water, and don't add
cigars to the humidor yet! The spanish cedar is initially
very dry. The humidor's air won't maintain 65% to 70%
RH until the wood is saturated to about 40% moisture
content, which is similar to freshly cut "green" cedar. For
my first few humidors, I carefully wiped down the interior
with paper towels. Now I just pour tap water from my
kitchen faucet directly in the box, quickly swish it around,
then immediately wipe away the excess with paper towels.
After a few days, the cedar no longer feels bone dry and
your hygrometer should read anywhere from 60% to 80%
overnight. You can then add cigars to the humidor.
The cigars are the main repository of moisture, not the
humdifier device or the cedar (although both are vital).
An empty humidor won't hold stable humidity and
(surprisingly) neither will one that's overly full. For a
humidor that's intended to hold 75, you need at least
about 15 cigars. You can keep fewer, but don't be surprised
if the RH swings a few points throughout the day and
easily gets pulled low in dry winter.
Even after your humidor is fully conditioned and stable,
you must still wipe down the cedar interior with water
to "recharge" the wood. How often depends on the local
climate. I damp wipe any time I can't seem to maintain
the desired RH no matter how much water I add to my
humidifier devices. In Winter, I must wipe down the
interior about once a month to maintain 67% RH (which
I prefer). But I only need to recharge the wood once or
twice per Summer. In both cases, I use a damp paper
towel and methodically dampen the cedar lightly. Do not
flood the wood with water like when first conditioning the
box. That would shock the cigars with a large RH change.
Always use
distilled water to fill humidifier devices. It's a
myth that this prevents mold or fungus. Proper RH and
air exchange prevents mold and fungus. Green florist foam
(that's what's in humidifer boxes), wicks, and silica beads
all work basically the same way. They're porous material
which absorb and release moisture at a fixed rate. Tap
water contains minerals which quickly clogs the pores.
Clogged pores means you have to buy another gadget.
Don't overfil the green floral foam. Shake out excess
water and use a paper towel to wick out as much water
as possible. As you discovered, better to be a little too dry
than too wet.
Unless you spent big dollars, humidors always come with
really crappy humidifer boxes filled with green florist foam.
My personal favorite humidity device is now
silica beads.
I also use
Drymistat tubes for travel and supplimentary
moisture.
