I am guessing the steam permiates the wood without warping it. Not sure of the exact science, I just know it has worked for me several times, James. :-)
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Whatever works, works!

Despite the risk of warpage, I must admit that I have used distilled water in a little spray bottle followed up with a soft towel to spread the moisture more evenly. No warpage found and the humidors all came around very well. That worked for me.
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It can and will warp the wood if you do it enough. I never recommend this. Seasoning time may be much longer when you don't wipe down the wood but its worth the extra time to do it right.
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:-) Plus when I got my humidor I was far too excited to wait...guess I am too impatient.
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I have LIGHTLY wiped all 3 of my humidors down along with a couple shoot glasses of distilled water during the seasoning process. Have had virtually 0 issue with them holding humidity even during the freezing cold months here. Who is to say what is right from wrong, isn't it all prefered methods anyway? I say find which way you like best and do it that way.
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First rule of the nut house is never, ever post in public about needing more smokes. Your mailbox may not be able to stand the onslaught.:-)

For my first humi, the 300 ct footlocker, i used the boveda packs. Left them in for a week because I was worried. All future humis I have placed one or two bowls of DW in for 2-3 days, then beads for another day or two and then good to go.

Reseasoning my "chairside" humi now. The dry, winter air killed it.
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I don't think anyone in the thread has said that others' methods are wrong, just what they themselves prefer and why.
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I've kind of went with a active/passive hybrid method. I had a new humi in the basement that I decided to pull out of the box and play with a bit.

I did the whole wipe down thing. After a couple days when the RH started dropping and leveling out, I put a small bowl of steamy hot water in it. I left that in there for about 24 hours until it peaked and maintained a constant level. Now I have a half pound of beads in it. I'm just watching the RH slowly drop. It's been about 12 hours since the beads went in and it's dropped about 3% already.

It's probably overkill, but it's kind of fun to experiment.
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Sofaman pees in his. I'm not gonna sign off on that.
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I live in Edmonton, Alberta, just north of CigarusMaximus. Here it is also many digits below freezing with RH well below 20%. I have done this method with my two new humidors and it worked so wonderfully that I have started to question the need to season a humi at all.

1. Open new humi
2. Fill humi with cigars already aclimated to 65-70% RH (but don't let then touch walls/floor of humi)
3. Fill spaces with little jars of water (I mean as many of those as you can fit in)
4. Throw in digital hygrometer
5. Walk away

When I come back to check (from 1 hr and then randomly throughout the next few days) I find that the RH on the hygros drops to about 60% and then slowly drifts up to 65%. Then, I alter the water containers/bead containers as I see fit vs the weather (with frequent sudden drops in temperature, and concommitent drops in environmental RH...to like 10%, this can be very frequent).

My theory on the matter is this:

The air is by far the easiest element to humidify, then the cigars are probably next easiest, followed by the wood. If I keep the cigars from directly contacting the wood, I have all wood surfaces and all external cigar surfaces equilibrating with the air. The hygrometer will measure the air RH. The cigars and the wood will independantly drift towards the RH of the air. So, keeping the air at or near a proper RH (by the hygrometer), and preventing the cigars from directly equilibrating with the wood, I allow the cigars to be stored in the new humi and the humi to drift to its proper RH all with almost no hassle.

As an aside, I did use the boiled water trick this last time (started about 3 days ago without knowing this thread was started, only boiled the water twice and let sit in humi for about 5 minutes each time), and my new 300 ct humi went from 60% to 65% in about 2 hours and has stayed there, rock solid, since.

Cheers

Cy
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Sorry for any confusion I was not directing that at or toward anyone just simply stating. Thats what it is all about is learning and trying different methods to see which works best for you.
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Agreed, true in many areas, and not just cigar related ones. :-)
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