Humidor Care — Humidity & Temperature

Purchasing a humidor for your cigar collection is just the beginning of ensuring your cigars are fresh and tasty when you want them. Here are our best tips to help you learn how to properly care for your cigars and your Vigilant humidor.

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How to Care For Your Cigar Humidor

Temperature and humidity are the most important factors to consider when choosing a cigar cabinet humidor. An unfit environment can result in the loss of flavor, mold growth, drying out or dampness. Even though it is important to know how each of these factors affect your cigars, you also need to be aware of how they affect each other.

Relative Humidity

There are multiple ways to report humidity levels. The two most common are Relative Humidity (RH) and Absolute Humidity (AH). RH is the most common because it is used in weather forecasts and therefore more widely observed. To explain relative humidity you first have to understand that humidity is water vapor trapped in the air. If you take the greatest density of water vapor that can be in the air at any given temperature and divide that by the density of water vapor that is actually available you get the RH percentage.

Actual Humidity

AH refers to the actual amount or density of water vapor. This moisture is what comes into contact with cigars and in turn preserves or destroys them. The AH level increases as the temperature increases. If you have the same RH reading for two different temperatures, one low and one high, you have two different AH levels. This means you can easily dampen cigars when your hygrometer reads 50% humidity or dry out cigars when it reads 70% humidity. To keep a consistent, healthy environment in your cigar humidor, the relative humidity level should decrease as the temperature increases and vice versa.

The 70/70 Rule

The rule of thumb for your cabinet humidor climate is commonly referred to as the 70/70 rule. Keeping a temperature of 70°F and a RH of 70%, means that you will have the right level of AH or water vapor pressure to store your cigars. Each temperature has a corresponding RH level that helps maintain the correct AH to keep your cigars aging nicely, as displayed in the chart below. If your temperature changes from 70°F to 72°F the RH should read 65% in order to keep an AH comparative to the standard of 70/70.

There are exceptions to the rule, though. Once the temperature goes below 60°F, there is no corresponding RH level that will give you an appropriate AH. The air simply can not hold that much moisture.

Our analog and digital humidity and temperature systems are the most sophisticated technology in the industry and are sure to keep your cigars stored at their freshest until they are ready to be smoked.

Cigar Storage Humidity

Many problems can arise from having the wrong humidor environment. When your humidity is too high, a cigar will swell and be hard to smoke. You may also experience mold growth, which will lead to the death of the cigar. If your humidity is too low, you’ll find the cigar wrapper more brittle and smoking the cigar becomes difficult due to a faster burn. It will also have a strong and undesirable smell when smoked.

An incorrect humidity level is not the only potential problem to monitor. Temperature extremes affect cigars too. If the temperature is too high and humidity stays constant, you may encounter tobacco beetles, small insects that can devastate your collection. If you notice small holes in a cigar or a reddish residue in your humidor, larvae have hatched and now beetles have started devouring your collection. Dispose of these cigars immediately! Your remaining cigars that seem unharmed should be:

1. Removed from the humidor and placed in freezer-safe, zip lock bags.
2. Placed in your freezer at the coldest setting for about 36 hours.
3. Slightly warmed in your freezer and left for an additional 48 hours.
4. Moved to your refrigerator after the 48 hours have passed.
5. Refrigerated for an additional 24 hours.
6. Ready to be placed back in the humidor and warmed slowly to prevent cracking.

Cold conditions dry out cigar wrappers and lead to the loss of oils, and thus flavor. Below a certain temperature, in the low to mid 60s, the cigar will dry out. However, collectors who want to age their cigars for a long time will often go a few degrees and percentage points lower to retard the aging process. This is okay as long as you don’t go below the 66 +/- temperature degree and 67% +/- humidity range.