staying cool

[Pompous Pugs]

I have a 150 count desktop humidor.
Temps are creeping up in NJ and I live in a centralized ac/heat apartment. Stupid beaurocratic states won't let the school flip on the AC until a certain number of hot days...yada yada.

All this to say that my humidor temps are at 75-76 degrees right now (65-68% humidity).
I have read here and other places that hot temps may lead to mold and hatching beatles.
I do not store the humidor in direct sunlight. What other preventative measures can I take?

yeah yeah I know mailing my cigars to your house will be the only safe way...but any other advice would be appreciated (also minus "get a coolidor/fridgador").

 

[gandolf565]

Outside of mailing your smokes to me, or buying a cooler, my only advise would be to get as much thermal mass as possible and try to keep it cool. Maybe put you humidor in a large box packed with magazines on all sides, top and bottom. Put it in the coolest place in your apartment and hope.

Really, I would buy a small cheap cooler, and a blue ice pack or three. Put you smokes in, and wrap a towel around the blue ice pack and place it in also. Wash rinse repeat as needed.

 

[armedak]

I would second the cooler strategy. They really are not very expensive when compared to using your humidor to beetles which is where you may be headed if those temperatures are allowed to continue. My .02!

 

[antaean]

Has anyone tried putting an ice cube or two in a ziplock baggie and put in their humidor or coolerdor to help keep the temps lower in summer? I have been considering this as an emergency measure if the electricity goes out this summer and there is no a/c.

antaean

 

[Pompous Pugs]

I am confused by the beetle thing...
Do all cigars (or most/many) contain beetle eggs that given the appropriate temps the will hatch???
Or is a beetle problem a rare occurance but so destructive to one's collection that a preventative measures must be taken?

Also, by keeping my cigars cello-ed (I have already done many of the searches here on that), I imagine that I am giving my sticks a protective coat should things hatch/grow. Or am I just dressing my sticks up in a sweatsuit?

 

[smokelaw1]

Beetle eggs exist in a very, very large percentage (correct me if I am wrong, please) of hand-rolled premiums. Theere is evidence that the ISOM brands are considerably more problematic.
Cello is no barrier to a beetle, they can/will go right through it.

 

[armedak]

Pugs,

As far as beetle eggs go most guys assume their sticks have them and they are probably right. The little buggers can chew through just about anything so cello is not a counter measure. I believe you are risking a beetle infestation at the temperatures your humi is reaching and it isn't even Summer yet. Another option would be to freeze your sticks using the correct protocol and temperature to kill all life stages of the beetle. Believe me a beetle infestation is an ugly thing to behold.

 

[Cigar Penguin]

Those plug in coolers have come down quite a bit in price here in jersey.You should be able to find a cheap on on the net too.Some you can adjust the temp too.

If you buy one,no need to worry about humidity,just drop your desktop humidor in the cooler.

 

[Rob_k]

i owned a condo that was on the second of three floors, and always hot, the a/c worked, but it took a long time to cool down. i used to put my humidor in a closet on the floor and in a cooler and that kept the temps down. give that a shot.

 

[ThankYouForNotSmoking]

I keep my desktop humidor in the same cabinet as my dishes, etc (spare shelf). Temperatures in my apt are already creeping up to 75,76 during the daytime, since I'm out most of the day, I don't see any sense in running the AC all day. What has worked well for me is to take a pack of blue ice, wrap it in a thin towel, and put it on a stack of the dishes or bowls or whatever. The dishes gradually cool, creating a rather large, temperature cermamic mass. It keeps the blue pack directly off the humidor, which I felt could be bad for the wood, as well as distribution of temperature within. So far, it's working extremely well at being stable around 68 in the humidor throughout the day (I tested it on a few warm weekend days) and is a solution for 8+ hours of being out of the house (typically the warmest parts of the day).

Hope my solution gives you some ideas. The cooler sounds good too, the only thing I would watch out for is putting the pack on the humidor (even through a towel), because the wood is already stressed so much by the difference in internal/external humidity, I don't think it's too wise to add even more by varying the temperature throughout the case (cold on top, warm on bottom).

 

[Pompous Pugs]

now I see why everyone moves to coolidors so quickly...That attractive looking humidor my wife gave me, sure loses it's "Wow" value at the back of my closet.

And when I get out of this state and back down south--it looks like this will become a real issue real quick.

Thanks,
pugs