• Hi Guest - Sign up now for Secret Santa 2024!
    Click here to sign up!
  • Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

Man oh Man

Turk10mm

Turk10mm

Just smokin
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
782
Ok, so I've got my humidor. I've got my first real set of smokes and another set coming thanks to JHawk.. My humi is seasoned and holding an even 69% humidity..

But the darned temp is 73 degrees. Unfortunately, Houston summers are pretty warm and keeping the house at 73 still costs around $300 a month. That's not even mentioning the fact that if I considered turning the a/c to 70, my g/f would freeze her butt off and I'd be in a world of hurt.

so what do I do now? I just bought a nice humidor, so I don't really want to get a fridge-o-dor yet.. How bad is 73 REALLY for my smokes?

I've read this and that posts about temp and humidity, but what is one to do. There's no way everyone with a humidor in the warmer climates has a fridge. Not to mention, 70 degrees is pretty cool for the living area of a home. We don't have basements down here.

Help?!? ???
 
Unfortunately I run my humidors in my house at like 78*. I have no choice..I'm still living wiht my parents, so they set the temp in the house and I deal with it. 73 is above the temperature you want, but honestly, I dont think you run a very high risk for beetles...keep an eye on your humidor, but dnot go nuts, you should be good to go!
 
I agree... My humi sits at a pretty consistent 70* and I have never encountered any problems. Just keep an eye on her... Try to keep them segregated into smaller amounts so if something does end up happening you can dispose of those few rather than the whole shabang...
 
i'm in texas too, honestly, i don't tihnk that the higher temp really makes any difference. I'm at about 80 degrees and my cigars have been perfectly fine.
 
Hey guys, I myself live in Houston. My humi is at 66rh and 72temp I have had cigars in there for at least a year now and I have never had any problems. I would be more concerned about the humidity getting above 75, not to say that you should be concerned about the temp. I wouldn’t let the temp get above 80 or you might be asking for problems. But some people claim that beetles can hatch at 68 degrees. Just keep it on the floor in your closet until the winter months come around. Just my thought!!!
 
Honestly at 73 you should be fine. If you have a beetle, it would be a rare occurance. I will say that I have had several when the temp was 80 and above. I bought my wine cooler for peace of mind. We are experiencing 115 degrees here.
 
I have found that part of my house stays cooler than the other. For example, the sun rises in the back of the house where there is really no trees to block it and such. But in the front we have several trees that act as a great buffer for the evening sun. Keeping my humi in the front office keeps it at about 3-5 degrees cooler than in the back room. It's given me piece of mind to see the temp holding at about 68-70 in this North Texas heat.

Also, I try not to use the halogen lights that are installed in the office. My humi has a couple of glass windows on it and the halogen lights can fluxuate the temp in the humi by as much as 5 degrees in a matter of hours. So I stick with a soft light lamp.

Good luck and don't lose any sleep over it. Humi's can take a couple of months to settle in.

mac
 
A lot of bad advice given here. :(

I've driven my truck at 80 mph before and I've never gotten a ticket so should I advise others to drive 80 and everything will be fine?

There are a lot of different factors that have to come together for beetle eggs to hatch and temps at 70+ is one of those factors. Does that mean you will have beetles if your temps are above 70? No, it means you have introduced one of the conditions needed for beetle eggs to hatch. I can personally attest to an outbreak at <75.

If you have a small inventory then a good checking of your smokes every so often is advisable so that if you do see an outbreak you can catch it early and prevent disaster. Those with larger inventories or $$$ invested and choose to roll the dice with high temps.... its just a matter of time.
 
Some people freeze their smokes proir to storing them. Search for that and see what you come up with.
 
I was under the impression that most freezers couldn't reach the temps required to kill the eggs. I'd take Allofus123's advice and keep a damn good eye on them. But if you are anything like me I have to oggle over them at least once a day so I keep a pretty good eye going. I put mine in front of one of the AC registers in my office so the inside temp stays right around 65 even though I set the AC at 76.
 
Shooter said:
Some people freeze their smokes proir to storing them. Search for that and see what you come up with.
Click to expand...


this.

I think I may try this, as a window air conditioner for a single college student can get pretty expensive to run at 70*...

anyone else offer insight into just freezing your cigars when you get them, thaw em out slowly, and commit to proper storage thereafter?
 
Here in Tracy, it gets pretty warm as well. We air condition the house at 78 degrees, which is therefore about the same temperatures my humidor is at. Never had a problem yet (knock on wood).

The only suggestion I have is to:

a) Store the humidor in a dark closet or room closest to the center of your house, and
b) Think about getting a coolidor

I recently just bought a 70 gallon cooler for $37 bucks at Walmart. You can store a lot more cigars in there than your average desktop humidor, and it will also help with the humidity and temperature as well.
 
I was 3/4th into a good bottle of Cabernet last night when I posted so if my comments above came off as a bit flippant I'm sorry. :laugh:

Naturally what one can "afford" comes into play here. Nobody is suggesting to run your AC at <70 if you are managing a small or low valued inventory of cigars. (small/low valued is subjective and will be different from person to person) People in this catagory just need to keep tabs on their cigars. Should you see a beetle start damage control immeadiately. If you have what you consider a valuable inventory then you need to weigh what it cost you to keep them optimal vs what it will cost you should you have an outbreak. Not all cigars are replaceable.

I've posted these pictures several times over the years and I'm sure many have seen these before but a picture gets the point across that these SOBs are not to be taken lightly.

Here's aprox $800-$1000 worth of cigars that were smoked like a flute....... (I threw away a lot that were unsmokable)
MVC-009F.JPG


Ouch.... this picture hurts everytime I look at it........
MVC-300F.jpg


Here is what a live beetle looks like......
MVC-010F.JPG


And here is what that same beetle looked like shortly after the above picture was taken....... :sign: :thumbs:
MVC-011F.JPG
 
for the lazies like myself

it feels good to give.


In general I freeze most things that have been in transit for more than a couple of days. 3 days deep freeze, 2 days in the fridge, a day at room temp and then back to the "aging" humidor where they stay for a minimum of three weeks to regulate themselves. This is true for the summer months. During the cooler months I slack off a bit.
Click to expand...

edit, I will begin this process tonight, then I can focus maintaining temp as best as i can, but not freak out about it, and work harder on humidity control. in that thread i didnt see anyone mention ill effects of freezing, as long as temperature shock was avoided.
 
another idea from another board. this one is curious. the suffocation idea is good.. but i dont understand his reasoning about condensation... dry ice is frozen CO2...

Here's my personal expeireince with the beetles. I run a coolerdor and had some beetles. I got a block of dry ice from work. I put some cardboard over the top of the cigars to protect the cigars from condensation and then put the dry ice over the top of that. Over the next day the temp got down to -15/20 and stayed there for at least 3-4 hours. It was at least 12 hours before it got above freezing. Not only did I freeze those suckas but I also suffocated them. I let the condensation evaporate back into the cigars and everything seemed fine. IMHO
Click to expand...
 
Allofus123 said:
A lot of bad advice given here. :(

I've driven my truck at 80 mph before and I've never gotten a ticket so should I advise others to drive 80 and everything will be fine?

There are a lot of different factors that have to come together for beetle eggs to hatch and temps at 70+ is one of those factors. Does that mean you will have beetles if your temps are above 70? No, it means you have introduced one of the conditions needed for beetle eggs to hatch. I can personally attest to an outbreak at <75.

If you have a small inventory then a good checking of your smokes every so often is advisable so that if you do see an outbreak you can catch it early and prevent disaster. Those with larger inventories or $$$ invested and choose to roll the dice with high temps.... its just a matter of time.
Click to expand...

No truer words spoken. Here in Buffalo suburbia the front of my house hits low to mid 70s when things get toasty outside. I keep my RH% at 68 or below and checked my cabinet. 7 cigars had beetle infestation. I was sickened by the site and suggest that anyone who has their cigars in a hot part of the house, bring em in the basement at the very least. There my temps are at a cooler 68 degrees and all is fine in the RH dept.

High temps are not an ideal storing condition.

Nuff said,
Darren
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top