Allow us to set the record straight, once and for all. Despite their immense popularity, Boveda packs have never provided the results we were hoping for, at least when it came to maintaining a consistent humidity level inside a standard Klaro humidor.
For as surprising as this may sound to some of you, there has not once been a time when one of these packs has delivered. Every time we began to beta test a new humidor, Boveda packs struggled. We threw everything in their cigar humidor line into the mix, all to no avail. B69 percentage units, B72-grade packs, 320-gram monster packs... nothing could keep up.
Naturally, these results came as quite the surprise to us as well. Boveda is the big name in the humidor humidity game, and it has the reviews and cigar manufacturer support to back it up. But accolades don't make a damn bit of difference if the products themselves aren't maintaining a steady humidity level, especially in a humidor that you are looking to promote and sell. Rushing a product to market, only to find that customers were having issues with humidity levels, and then having to troubleshoot everything remotely was the last thing we wanted.
So, we went back to the drawing board, and eventually came to the conclusion that we were going to have to engineer our own humidification system, the Klaro Hydro System. Naturally, this was accompanied by the development of not one, but two types of proprietary humidor solution, and some crafty humidifier integration engineering. This decision was neither cost-effective nor time-efficient, but it was our only choice, and before long we began to realize why those classic Boveda packs weren't cutting the kimchi...
Klaro Humidors Contain a Ton of Spanish Cedar
Unlike most humidors, which feature a thin veneer of Spanish cedar that is rarely more than a millimeter or two thick, Klaro units come lined with at least 5mm of the stuff inside their interior. Over time, we realized that this was one of the primary reasons why our Boveda packs were struggling to keep up.
Essentially, those thicker cedar walls were absorbing all of the humidity in the chamber faster than the packs could provide it, and to reach the relative humidity (RH) levels that were needed, we were going to have to overload each humidor with multiple packs or the biggest, baddest pack they offer. Even after following Boveda's humidor seasoning steps with their seasoning kit, the problem persisted, with similar results being replicated in every other humidor.
Plant-based humidity packs from other manufacturers performed a bit better, but they too struggled to reach the right RH levels in our larger humidors, and took up a fair deal of real estate. A custom humidification device of some sort needed to be implemented, and our engineers knew it.
Tobacco Nerd Note: As a softer, hygroscopic, permeable wooden material, Spanish cedar excels at both absorbing and releasing moisture. Essentially, the more of the stuff you have within your cigar humidor, the more moisture is required to get it up and running right. The trade-off is that once you properly season a humidor, and it reaches that ideal RH reading, the better the chances are that your humidor will hold a steady humidity level for lengthier periods of time.
Coming Up With a Cost-Effective, Turnkey Humidity System Solution
From the moment we realized that Boveda packs weren't providing the performance our humidors required, and plant-based humidity packs weren't faring much better, Klaro's engineers began to look at different design options and alternative humidification materials. The system needed to be a turnkey solution straight out of the box. Not just because we wanted our humidors to be as plug-and-play as possible for new cigar smokers, but we also wanted it to be cost-effective.
Cigar collecting is an expensive hobby, so providing an affordable, intuitive system that wouldn't intimidate fledgling cigar enthusiasts was vital. What we came up with was a design that bested Boveda on all fronts from a performance perspective, but also from a particular price point. All of those recommended seasoning kits, stabilizing packs, and so forth cost money, and we were hellbent on saving our customers some coin.
Space Saving & Aesthetics Matter
But before we could concern ourselves with ways in which we could offer a superior humidification system for less, we needed to address the issue of aesthetics and wasted space. Placing cigars directly underneath or on top of humidity packs for lengthy periods of time not only promotes over-absorption, but it also looks unappealing. Sure, we could have crafted some hidden pockets for sliding the packs inside. But what's the point if the Spanish cedar is going to soak up all of the humidity and not leave any behind for the cigars to absorb?
When we decided to engineer the Klaro Hydro System, we started with efficiency and space savings in mind. The unit needed to eat up as little real estate as possible, while still providing the cigars inside the humidor with the humidity that they required. It took a bit of brainstorming, but what we eventually came up with was an integrated trapdoor basin design that would hold what would later become known as the Klaro Hydro Tray. A horizontally spread system that took up zero cigar storage space inside the humidor, and consistently distributed the levels of moisture that our Spanish cedar-heavy humidors required to function.
This would later lead to the engineering of the Klaro Hydro Channel. A slim, vertically integrated humidifier that has the footprint of a standard toro cigar, and doubles as a divider and organizer. While the original intention for the Hydro Channel was to include it with our smaller desktop humidors, we have found all manner of use for this high-powered, low-profile humidification device. Not only can you purchase the Klaro Hydro Channel on its own via a 2-pack option, but it is also included with certain larger models as a secondary humidity source, like in our all-new Luca Max electric cabinet humidor.
Not only do Klaro Hydro Systems save space and work extremely well, but they also don't distract from the visual appeal of the interior of the humidor. While internal aesthetics may not be a concern for certain cigar smokers, organization, humidifier effectiveness, and space-savings almost always are a top consideration.
Crafting a Superior Humidor Solution
Another issue that we ran into early on was that even with the most powerful Boveda pack placed inside one of our humidors, it struggled in winter. Even in a warm room with a humidifier running around the clock, the RH levels within our Spanish cedar-lined humidors trickled downward at an alarming rate, and these problems didn't just pertain to Boveda packs either. The proprietary Normal Humidor Solution from Klaro also struggled to offset all that arid atmosphere, even though it performed perfectly just a month or two prior.
The combination of lengthy Midwest winters and the dry air that comes with running a furnace full time had forced us to rethink our humidor solution formula, ultimately leading to the formation of the Klaro Winter + Dry Climate Humidor Solution. A more potent, modified mixture that not only provided the results we wanted in regard to maintaining ideal relative humidity levels within our humidors in winter, but also doubled as a superior seasoning solution for those living in arid environments.
Naturally, this jacked-up version of the normal humidor solution we created is also outstanding for getting a humidor up and running during the colder/drier months of the year, and can be easily substituted for the milder blend when warmer weather arrives.
The Big Breakdown: Boveda Packs vs Klaro Hydro System
So, if you've gotten this far down, you are probably wondering what the breakdown is between the average annual requirements for keeping a humidor properly humidified with Boveda packs compared to a Klaro Hydro System. Well, our chart-loving, stogie-smoking friends, allow us to elaborate...
Parting Puffs
Numbers crunched, and pros and cons weighed, it becomes pretty obvious why we decided to forego using Boveda packs in our humidors and engineer the Klaro Hydro System in-house from the ground up. It was time-consuming, expensive, and challenging to say the least, but ultimately, it resulted in what would later become widely considered to be the evolution of integrated humidor humidity control.
Now, that's not to say that we didn't give Boveda a fair shot at being our preferred humidity solution for our products, for they were our first pick straight out the gate. But years of R&D testing proved that their products were not a good match for our Klaro humidors, and we eventually made the decision to go with plant-based humidity packs from Integra Boost instead. No hard feelings, but sometimes things just aren't meant to be.
All that being said, it's ultimately your choice as to whether you use the Klaro Hydro System that comes with each of our humidors, swap in a couple of humidity packs instead, or use some combination of the two. That product is yours to do with as you please once it arrives, and it is your task to learn how to properly maintain a cigar humidor and its contents. What you opt to place inside that box is your business, and freedom of choice is one of the reasons why we smoke cigars in the first place.
