As you know I built a humidor a while back, and I’ve had cigars in it since it was finished. When you read about seasoning humidors (that is, getting them humidity-stabilized) folks generally recommend leaving the humidifier beads or foam or whatever in the humidor with NO cigars for about a week to let things stabilize. The cedar lining can evidently take a while to get up to the proper humidity level.
Well, when I finished my humidor I wiped the inside down with water and let it go for an afternoon, and then put the cigars in. I’ve been monitoring the humidity, which should be 65%, and I’m finding that it keeps dropping. Now, it could be that the humidor isn’t sealing well, but it’s pretty tight. I’m thinking instead that the thirsty lining is still soaking up the humidity. So my solution has been to put a small container with a wad of wet paper towel in it in the humidor. The humidity will go up for a while, but when it gets above about 73% I pull it out. Since I’m using beads, which will absorb excess humidity, the idea is that the beads will bring humidity back down to the target 65% level. the humidity then starts to drop, and when it drops too much (say, down to 62%) I end up putting the wet stuff back in. None of this is really difficult, it’s just a pain to do it and there’s a risk that I’ll forget about the little pot of paper towel and inadvertantly let the humidity level get too high.
I think this is what people call “doing it the hard way” 8-)
My only message here is that when you get a humidor, follow the advice of others - get it stabilized before you put the cigars in.