How to Season a Humidor: Boveda or Distilled Water, and How Long It Really Takes

If it is wood, yes. A new wooden humidor is lined with Spanish cedar that left the factory dry and has probably spent weeks in a warehouse or a shipping container since. That wood is thirsty. Put cigars in an unseasoned humidor with a humidity pack and the cedar will soak up moisture faster than the pack can supply it, the reading will crawl, and your cigars will give up their own moisture to the wood. That is how people end up with dry, cracking cigars in a brand new box and assume the humidor is defective.

Once the cedar is seasoned, it flips from a problem to an asset. Saturated wood acts as a buffer, releasing a little moisture when the air dries out and taking some back when it gets damp, which is a large part of why a good wood humidor holds steady.

If it is not wood, no. Acrylic, glass, and plastic do not absorb moisture, so there is nothing to season. Put in a humidity pack at the level you want, close it, give it a day to stabilize, and add your cigars. The same goes for a tupperdor or a coolerdor, unless you have lined it with cedar trays or sheets, in which case those wood pieces benefit from a seasoning of their own.

There are really two methods, with a few variations. The modern one uses Boveda's 84 percent seasoning packs: open them, put them in, close the lid, wait. The traditional one uses distilled water, either in the humidor's own humidifier, a small dish, a damp sponge on a plate, or sometimes a light wipe of the wood first.

Both work. The packs are cleaner and almost impossible to overdo, which is why they have become the default advice. The water method costs next to nothing and works just as well if you are patient and keep the water in a container rather than on the wood. Here is how they compare.

Boveda's own instructions are simple, and I would follow them exactly. Use the 84 percent seasoning packs, not the regular cigar packs. Use one Size 60 pack for every 25 cigars the humidor holds in total, so a 100-count humidor takes four. Peel off the clear outer wrapper from each pack, put them all inside the empty humidor, close the lid, and leave it closed for 14 days.

The hard part is the instruction Boveda stresses most: do not open it during those 14 days, no matter what the hygrometer says. People see the reading jump to 80 and panic, or see it barely move and assume something is wrong. Both are normal. The wood is drinking, and opening the lid just lets the moisture out and resets the clock.

After 14 days, take the seasoning packs out and throw them away; they are not reusable, and you never want an 84 percent pack in with cigars. Then switch to your regular maintenance packs at the level you want to store at. Boveda's default suggestion is 69 percent, and the humidity guide covers how to choose between 65, 69, and 72.

Two small notes. Put the packs on the bottom or in a tray, not resting on a hygrometer. And if your humidor came with a foam or bead humidifier, leave it dry and empty during Boveda seasoning so you are not running two systems at once.

This is the traditional method, and it works fine if you keep the water in a container. Here is how I would do it.

Use distilled water only. Tap water and most bottled water carry minerals that can clog a humidifier and leave deposits. Distilled water is cheap and sold everywhere.

Fill the humidor's humidifier with distilled water, and add a shallow dish of distilled water, or a clean sponge soaked in distilled water and set on a small plate, in the middle of the empty humidor. The dish or plate matters: a wet sponge sitting directly on cedar is how you get a warped panel or a water stain. Close the lid and leave it.

Check every two or three days. Refill the dish if it has dropped noticeably, and keep an eye on the hygrometer. The reading will rise slowly as the wood absorbs moisture. When it climbs past the low 70s and stays there, take the dish or sponge out, leaving only the humidifier, and watch what the reading does over the next few days.

The wipe is where people disagree. Plenty of humidor makers and older guides tell you to start by lightly wiping the inside cedar with distilled water, and done carefully with a cloth wrung nearly dry, it speeds things up. Others say skip it entirely, because a cloth that is even slightly too wet raises the grain, swells the wood, and can leave the lid sticking or the box smelling musty. I skip it. The dish method gets you to the same place a few days later with no risk to the wood. If you do wipe, wipe only the bare cedar interior, never the lacquered outside, never the hygrometer, and never so wet that you see moisture standing on the surface.

About two weeks for most humidors. Boveda's method takes 14 days by design. The distilled water method usually lands somewhere between one and two weeks, depending on how big the humidor is, how dry the wood started, and how dry your house is. A large cabinet humidor or a box that has been sitting in a heated warehouse can take longer.

Can you speed it up? A little. The light wipe shaves off some days, at the cost of some risk. A bigger water dish helps. Keeping the humidor in a stable room away from heating vents helps. What does not work is any method that promises a seasoned humidor in 24 hours. The cedar has to absorb moisture deep into the wood, not just on the surface, and surface moisture alone gives you a reading that looks perfect on day two and crashes on day five once the wood pulls it in.

If you are impatient because you have cigars waiting, the fix is not to rush the humidor. Put the cigars in a freezer bag with a humidity pack while the humidor seasons. They will be perfectly happy for a couple of weeks, and arguably happier than in a half-seasoned box.

The sign is a stable reading, not a high one. A humidor reading 80 percent with a dish of water inside tells you nothing except that there is a dish of water inside. What you want to know is whether the wood can now hold humidity on its own.

So the test is this. Remove the seasoning source, the 84 percent packs or the extra dish, leaving only your regular humidity packs or humidifier. Then watch the hygrometer for at least three days. If it settles at your target and stays within a point or two, the humidor is seasoned. If it slowly sinks day after day, the wood is still absorbing, and it needs more time with the seasoning source back in.

It is normal for the reading to overshoot first. Right after seasoning, a wood humidor often reads several points high, then drifts down over a few days as the moisture evens out through the cedar. Do not start pulling packs out in a panic on day one.

All of this assumes your hygrometer tells the truth. If you have not calibrated it, do that before you start, because seasoning against a gauge that reads five points high is how people end up with cigars in a humidor that was never ready. The humidity guide covers the salt test and Boveda's calibration kit.

Using tap water. This one is easy to avoid and easy to regret. Minerals build up in humidifiers and can leave deposits, and there is no reason to put anything but distilled water in a box that will sit warm and damp for years.

Getting the wood wet. Soaking a sponge and scrubbing the cedar, or leaving a wet sponge directly on the wood, is the classic way to warp a lid, raise the grain, or leave the box smelling musty. Water belongs in a dish, a humidifier, or a pack. If you wipe at all, the cloth should feel almost dry.

Putting cigars in too soon. The temptation is huge on day three when the hygrometer finally looks right. Wait until the reading holds steady for several days without the seasoning source. Cigars in a humidor that is still absorbing moisture become the moisture source.

Leaving seasoning packs in with cigars. An 84 percent pack is for empty wood only. Left in with cigars, it will push them far past where you want them.

Seasoning with propylene glycol solution. Older humidors often came with a bottle of humidor solution, a mix of propylene glycol and distilled water, meant for topping up foam humidifiers so they would hold humidity around 70 percent. It was designed to regulate a humidifier, not to soak wood, and it does not belong on the cedar. Season with distilled water or seasoning packs. If you still use a foam humidifier, follow its maker's instructions on what to fill it with.

Opening it to check. Every time the lid opens, the moist air escapes and the clock partly resets. Check every few days at most, or use a wireless hygrometer you can read with the lid closed.

Trusting an uncalibrated hygrometer. Analog gauges that come with gift humidors can be several points off. Calibrate before you season, not after.

Re-season whenever the wood has had a chance to dry out. The common triggers are a humidor that sat empty without humidification for a while, a humidifier or packs that ran dry for weeks and let the reading crash, a move to a much drier climate, or a box that simply will not climb back to its target no matter how many packs you add.

The process is the same as the first time, usually faster because the wood is not starting from kiln-dry. Take the cigars out and keep them in a sealed bag with a humidity pack, season the empty box with 84 percent packs or a dish of distilled water, and confirm a stable reading before the cigars go back.

If you find yourself re-seasoning the same humidor every few months, the wood is not the problem. The seal is. Close the lid on a dollar bill at several points around the edge; if it slides out with no resistance, moisture is escaping, and no amount of seasoning will fix that. At that point a cheap gasketed tupperdor will hold humidity better than the humidor does.

A well-maintained humidor that always has cigars and working humidification inside rarely needs re-seasoning at all. The cigars and the wood keep each other topped up.