Getting the humidity right in your humidor is critical for maintaining your cigars and preventing them from either molding up or drying out and cracking. The hygrometer is the device in a humidor that displays the humidity, allowing you to adjust the environment inside to optimal levels. The problem is, they're rarely accurate! Even fancy, ornate ones and digital electronic ones are almost always "off" in our experience. So calibrating it, or understanding by how much its readings are off will allow you to dial in your humidity to proper levels (70% is considered optimal); don't believe your hygrometer is accurate without testing it for yourself!

Here's a simple but remarkably effective way to test your hygrometer. It's called the "salt test" and all you need is a plastic zip-style bag, some plain table salt, and a bottle cap or similar object. It just so happens that when salt is saturated and placed in an enclosed container, the humidity will always stabilize at 75%. So, put some salt into your bottle cap and moisten it with water. Don't dissolve the salt or get it slushy, just get it to the point that it's nice and damp. Put the cap into the plastic bag with your hygrometer and seal it all up. After about 8 hours, check your hygrometer reading. If it reads 75% then your hygrometer is perfectly accurate. If not, take it out of the bag and immediately adjust it to 75% by turning the adjustment screw - don't wait or else the reading will change quickly since it's now out of the bag. If your hygrometer cannot be adjusted, then simply take note of how far off it is and factor that in when you use the device in your humidor. For instance, if it reads 82% in the bag, then it's overstating the humidity by 7%. So, if you're shooting for 70% in your humidor, you'd want to adjust your humidifier until your hygrometer reads 77%.