A humidor's most important function in life is to preserve your cigars in their original fresh condition. You want your cigars to look and taste as fresh as possible for as long as possible. The cigar's design and systems will determine how long that is.
Some folks may suggest that keeping your cigars in a Ziploc bag with a damp paper towel will do the trick. It won't. Cigar humidors are essential for anyone who is serious about keeping their cigars at the peak of their quality for as long as possible. The most critical aspect of a humidor is it's ability to control the climate within the cigar container. A Ziploc ain't gonna do that. Sorry.
All good humidors will track the air inside the container with a hygrometer, an instrument used to measure humidity. Current devices are not like they used in the old days with dry and wet lightbulbs inside the box. Today's instruments measure temperature of condensation, changes in electrical resistance, and changes in electrical capacitance to measure humidity changes. Quite sophisticated actually.
Types of Hygrometers
There are a couple of different kinds of hygrometers: analog and digital. While the analog types are groovier looking, much more retro and almost nautical, the digital hygrometers tend to be quite a bit more accurate.
Analog hygrometers are typically less expensive and YOU cannot calibrate them, but the retailer where you guy the instrument should do that for you. If you're buying online, make sure to find out before you buy. The readings tend to be +/- 20%, which is quite a bit of variance.
By contrast the digital hygrometers are +/1 2% -- a BIG difference. Most read temperature and humidity, and they are self calibrating, a definite plus.
Humidity Setting
An ideal humidity setting in a humidor is between 65-75% of relative humidity. The fewer cigars you keep in your humidor the faster the humidity will drop, and a good hygrometer will let you know when this begins to happen.
Check out the latest in cigar humidor hygrometers in our store.
(There's a lot more about the technical aspects of hyrogmeters here, if you're interested in the nuts and bolts of how they work.)