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How do you mantain your Farenheit temperature in your humidor?

kyanmyson

kyanmyson

King of the ring
Joined
Jun 9, 2013
Messages
34
Hey guys,
I've read that you should keep your cigars around 74f to 75f. I live in New York and it's been extremely hot these last couples weeks. My digital hygrometer was at 85f. So I decided to put my beautiful humidor in my bedroom closet to get the temperature down. It's worked so far, I'm at 73f right now after one night. My real question is does the farenheit tempertire matter and if so how do you guys manage it?
 
Yes it matters. 70 degrees is around the temperature that cigar beetles begin to hatch, IIRC.

Moving them to an inside closet is a good choice, it's not really practical to have your A/C set that low. Another option a lot of members go with is a Vino-Temp wine fridge, the gaskted seals help it hold humidity constant. If you need up going that route do some research here at CP. There are multiple threads detailing their setup and modifications, just make sure you get a thermal - electric model.
 
I'm warm blooded to begin with, so I keep my AC at around 72F. All I do is open the humie for a few minutes till the temp drops, if it gets warm enough for that to happen.
 
I built my own walk in and put a window AC in it. 69 degrees, 24/7. 
 
Well it gets hotter than hell here in Texas in the summer so I have a wine fridge that I keep most of my prized cigars in. My coolers I keep in a closet in the northern part of the house away from the sun and I've never had a problem. 
 
I keep my cigars in my bedroom in which I have a portable a/c unit. It is one on wheels, with a hose going out the window.  I keep the house between 72 and 74 and the bedroom at 67. Not too much work for the portable as it is only dropping the room temp another 5 or so degrees. I have to sleep at 67 for medical reasons so, it works out great. My electric bill is none the worse, and Me and my cigars are happy. If you have a substantial collection, the cost is well worth it. I paid around 300 for the unit a good 7 yrs ago, and it was a hell of alot cheaper, and more reliable than a peltier unit. Plus, it's multi-tasking keeping me cool.
 
Temperature does matter, a warm humidor (>80F) can cause the cigar beetle larva to hatch.
 
Honestly, I pray. 
 
In California, it often gets hot and turning on the centralized AC is too expensive. When its bad, I will get a bucket of ice and put it on TOP of my cabinet. Otherwise, its up to the gods. 
 
 
 
Danforz said:
Honestly, I pray. 
 
In California, it often gets hot and turning on the centralized AC is too expensive. When its bad, I will get a bucket of ice and put it on TOP of my cabinet. Otherwise, its up to the gods. 
 
 
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Amen. I figure the cigars were fine for a couple hundred years before climate control, so mine will manage for a couple hot weeks a year.
 
I'm with the last two guys! No A/C here, so I just keep them in a downstairs part of the house and don't worry about it. Luckily it rarely gets very hot here.
 
My humidor is regularly 70+ degrees. I have never had mold/beetle issues. I think humidity comes into play quite heavily. 
 
Danforz said:
My humidor is regularly 70+ degrees. I have never had mold/beetle issues. I think humidity comes into play quite heavily. 
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You can think about it all you want, but it's well documented that temps much over 70F will cause beetles to hatch.  Humidity has little to nothing to do with it.  Now, the truth is that the tobacco farmers and cigar manufacturers have gotten much better about controlling the pests, but if you allow your storage to regularly head above 70F, you'll find out, someday.  Hey, by all means, don't take my word for it.... :whistling:
 
BlindedByScience said:
My humidor is regularly 70+ degrees. I have never had mold/beetle issues. I think humidity comes into play quite heavily. 


 
You can think about it all you want, but it's well documented that temps much over 70F will cause beetles to hatch.  Humidity has little to nothing to do with it.  Now, the truth is that the tobacco farmers and cigar manufacturers have gotten much better about controlling the pests, but if you allow your storage to regularly head above 70F, you'll find out, someday.  Hey, by all means, don't take my word for it.... :whistling:
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I agree 100%!
 
I keep mine in the basement.  In the summer it is ~65 degrees in the winter 58 or so.  I put an air duct re-director thing on the furnace vent to prevent the furnace air from blowing toward the stash, but that was less than $10 for the magnetic quarter circle piece of plastic.
 
BlindedByScience said:
 
My humidor is regularly 70+ degrees. I have never had mold/beetle issues. I think humidity comes into play quite heavily. 
Click to expand...
 
You can think about it all you want, but it's well documented that temps much over 70F will cause beetles to hatch. Humidity has little to nothing to do with it.
 
 
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Here's the, probably, most authoritative document. http://www.tobacconistuniversity.org/faq/faq-tobacco-beetle.asp
 
And here is, probably, the most scientific document: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/stored/cigarette_beetle.htm
 
That and wikipedia, which needs a citation. The rest of the hundreds of pages of search results are just ordinary Joes passing around information they heard from another source that also heard it from another source.
 
And humidity does have a little more than you allude to. As is stated in the links above. 
 
:whistling:
 
I love this beetle shit. I have a pest company so I know a little about beetles. You can google pheromone traps. They come in different varieties. We use pheromone traps to monitor all type of beetles from cigarette beetles to indian meal moths in food production facilities. You can purchase some cigarette beetle pheromone traps and put them in your humidor. It's basically a glue trap with a small capsule containing a sex pheromone that that lures the beetles in. They are good for a couple of months at a time. If you find a cigarette beetle in the the glue traps - then you know that you have a problem. Consider it an early warning system. Well worth the money in my opinion. Here are a couple of links:
 
For info about how pheromone traps work:
http://insectslimited.wordpress.com/tag/pheromone-trapping/
 
To buy some:
http://www.pestproducts.com/phecig.htm
http://www.indfumco.com/products/insect-traps-pheromones
 
 
You can do a search on where to buy these but a lot of the better traps are sold thru distributors that will only sell to pest companies.  They are a little pricey but if there is enough interest I don't mind getting these thru my distributor for the community as a group buy.
 
edit to add: I will but the traps and ship them before receiving any payments.
 
I've had beetles twice this summer.  Once in  a baggie of Johnny-O's in my coolidor and then a few in my primary desktop.  I didn't see any damage in the desktop.  I cleaned it out and am keeping an eye on it.  The house stays at around 78.
 
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