A milestone in cigar smoking career

[SiriusBlack]

I had noticed a few cigars had a little dusting of this power like substance and i didn't really pay it too much mind at first. Then i found a few others. So today I decided to do some research in order see some picture and read some descriptions of what mild would look like. Then i came home and took everything out of the vinotemp. Sure enough there was a mild but no less alarming mold problem brewing. I removed everything and wide down the vinotemp, drawers, and I even wiped down the celo of the smokes that weren't infected just in case (before putting everything back). I then tried to see if I salvage any of the infected smokes and put them outside outside of the vinotemp (in order to watch for a few days).

I know exactly what the problem is. I don't have anything pushing the air around in the vinotemp. My lower level in running in the high seventies and the upper level is running in the low sixites. I had an oust fan but that just a waste of time. I actually have to CPU fans on order and am just waiting for them to arrive. I think that will definitely do the trick. In the meantime I am just moving the drawers around and so no one group is sitting to long in the higher humidity area.

 

[haguc]

That really sucks. As long as the mold isn't too severe you should be able to brush them off and salvage them though. Like you said, I would try to keep the infected sticks away from the other ones so that there isn't as much of a chance to spread.

How much wood do you have in your Vinotemp? I know that there can be some deviation in a humidor for humidity, but low sixties to high seventies in two areas seems like quite a big spread. Also, where are your beads/pucks/etc. located? If you relocated them to another area in the humidor that may also help. The fan should be used and like you, I have found that the oust fans are not that effective. It's just good that you caught it in time!

 

[SiriusBlack]

That really sucks. As long as the mold isn't too severe you should be able to brush them off and salvage them though. Like you said, I would try to keep the infected sticks away from the other ones so that there isn't as much of a chance to spread.

How much wood do you have in your Vinotemp? I know that there can be some deviation in a humidor for humidity, but low sixties to high seventies in two areas seems like quite a big spread. Also, where are your beads/pucks/etc. located? If you relocated them to another area in the humidor that may also help. The fan should be used and like you, I have found that the oust fans are not that effective. It's just good that you caught it in time!

You may be right on the ranges of humidity. I moved some things around again this morning and swapped out a couple the digital hygrometers and realized that clearly one of them was not malfunctioning. That said obviously there is still an airflow problem but maybe not the extremes in humidity that I thought. The bulk of my beads (probably 2 lbs) is in the bottom of the unit in a big pan. I have some smaller containers up top. My plan this weekend is to break the 2lbs down into smaller packages using some nylons. That should help balance it out too. I think I did catch the issue early and I was able to clean of the ones that had signs of mold but will still keep them out of the vinotemp and just watch them for a few days. If nothing else all of the suspect smokes are on death watch. They are in the queue to be smoked as soon as possible (assumely that none of them are too damaged). I also had my Opus 22 coffins in the vinotemp but I had already moved them out and put them into my cooledor last week just becuase I knew I was having some humidity issues. They were kept on the higher levels in the vino so they appear to fine. A girlfriend got a big laugh. I send her text yesterday saying "CIGAR EMERGENCY...had to pull everything out of the vino and clean".

 

[haguc]

What percentage beads are you using? Unless the beads on the bottom were oversaturated with water you should not have had an issue with the humidity getting that high. Having more cedar in the unit would also help to even out the humidity somewhat since it ends up storing up water across its whole surface. I would definitely make sure that your beads are not overly wet since this type of problem shouldn't happen, especially with the beads in the bottom where you said the highest humidity was.

 

[TugBoat]

Take a deep breath and be calm. Mold is not as big a deal as it is sometimes made out to be. What color was it? It was white you should be fine if it had color to it then you can worry.

Test your hygros and like haguc said more cedar would help. Another thing to consider is what temp. are you running the vinotemp at? You may want to drop it down a few degrees, if its cooler mold may have more trouble growing.

 

[twizz]

A girlfriend got a big laugh.

Now that's the right idea...my hero!!!

 

[SiriusBlack]

A girlfriend got a big laugh.

Now that's the right idea...my hero!!!

Hey in the words of the late Ray Charles..."I make it do what it do".

 

[COBuckburn]

Take a deep breath and be calm. Mold is not as big a deal as it is sometimes made out to be. What color was it? It was white you should be fine if it had color to it then you can worry.

Test your hygros and like haguc said more cedar would help. Another thing to consider is what temp. are you running the vinotemp at? You may want to drop it down a few degrees, if its cooler mold may have more trouble growing.

Good idea. Are you sure that it isn't just pume? If its white....it may be possible that it's nothing more than pume.

 

[Wurm]

Take a deep breath and be calm. Mold is not as big a deal as it is sometimes made out to be. What color was it? It was white you should be fine if it had color to it then you can worry.

Test your hygros and like haguc said more cedar would help. Another thing to consider is what temp. are you running the vinotemp at? You may want to drop it down a few degrees, if its cooler mold may have more trouble growing.

Good idea. Are you sure that it isn't just plume? If its white....it may be possible that it's nothing more than plume.

LOL Buck please do a search here of "Plume" and you will see that it wasn't Plume at all. You'll also learn what to avoid while out buying cigars in B&Ms

Plume are CRYSTALS that sparkle, anything else is either mold, mites or dust.

Sorry to hear about your problems SB, glad you caught it in time!