Humidor Temperature

[heatmiser]

How important is it to keep the inside of a humidor in the 75 degree range? I live in San Diego and my house is always hot. The inside of my humidor ranges between 80 to 85 degrees. Is this going to be an issue?

I purchased 65% humidity Vipers beads and have them going right now. With that high of heat should I reduce the humidity?

 

[Mark Twain]

Depends on how often the temp rises to 80-85. If this is the average then you may encounter beatles that hatch from the tobacco leaf. The beatles eat the tobacco in their larval stage and destroy the cigar.

My advice is to find a closet or a small area away from windows and direct light that is close to the ground and an air vent (as hot air generally tends to rise.) You may want to research a Coolior that is insulated to store the majorty of your cigars in say the bottom of a closet, while only keeping a handful of smokes in your desktop Humi ready to smoke (Which probably won't develop beatles if you smoke often enough.)

 

[Xav]

It also depens upon the types of cigars you have, all cigars have a chance for beetle problems, but if you have habanos you are more likely for beetle problems. I would say if you have cubans in there you might be in a little trouble follow Mark Twains advice and you will probably be ok. Maybe if you are into spending money you might get a refridged winecooler.

 

[xprinter]

I've found blue ice to work well and it dosn't mess with your humidity.

 

[bigvinnysd]

You must live in East County
I heard it hit 113 yesterday !!!

 

[AVB]

You don't want it in the eighties all the time for sure but if it spikes on particularly hot days I wouldn't worry too much. As was mentioned the Cubans suffer from bug problems a bit more then others so be sure to check your inventory pretty regularly.

 

[heatmiser]

I live out in Rancho Bernardo and man it has been hot out here the last few weeks. Our house doesn't have air conditioning and there is really no "safe haven" place where the temp is cool. How long does it take for the tobacco beetles to develop?

 

[Mark Twain]

Beatles generally need both high heat and high humidity to form. If you live in a high heat, low humidity area then you maybe better off than most. I recommend buying a small fridge at walmart in the $100- 150 range to store your smokes because cigars need humidity to burn properly. Keep the smokes cool in your fridge and keep the humidity inside fairly constant and you shouldn't have trouble with beatles.

Also keep a few in your humidor that you want to smoke quickly and be careful transfering your cigars from the fridge to a high heat area. Temp shifts can be tramatic on cigars and i've had a few split wrappers to prove it.

 

[heatmiser]

I have the Viper beads and the humidity is holding fast at 65%. With that in mind, is that to low of a humidity for beetles to form?

I have heard nothing but bad things about storing cigars in a refrigerator. Won't this dry them out?

 

[Strayvector]

It also depens upon the types of cigars you have, all cigars have a chance for beetle problems, but if you have habanos you are more likely for beetle problems. I would say if you have cubans in there you might be in a little trouble follow Mark Twains advice and you will probably be ok. Maybe if you are into spending money you might get a refridged winecooler.

90% of my collection consists of Cubans. Living here in AZ, the temp in my humi would vary between 76-82 degrees. I've never had a problem with beetles, but I thought I was pushing my luck just a little too far, so I bought a wine fridge. Now most of my cigars are in a constant 66 degrees environment and I keep a handful in my "ready to smoke" desktop humi.

My vendor just recently returned from Havana and was told that for the past 18 months, all cigars out of Habanos s.a are now frozen in a new state of the art freezing facility at the Habanos s.a warehouse. This process was introduced to eliminate any issues of tobacco beetle. If this is true, then Habanos produced since early 2005 should have little to no chance of developing beetle outbreaks. Great news for people in hot climates like me. I will, of course, continue to use my fridge to age cigars produced prior to 2005.