Temperature problem

M

Mindflux

Lowland Gorilla
Well my friend who's signed up on here (beatnik) just got his humidor and is currently seasoning it.

So, in talking to him I had him stick his new digital hygrometer in his humidor-bag (69% humidity) to sort of calibrate it.. rather than do the salt test. This is what I did.. and it's fine.

Anyway, I guess he doesn't run the A/C much and mentioned the hygrometer is reading 87 degrees... which is probably what the house is at too he says.

I mention this is no good.

Anyway. So I'm trying to help him minimize his chances of getting beetles. Freezing is probably an option but here's the thing.

I see most people fridge their sticks for a day, freeze for 3 and re-fridge for a day to bring back to a somewhat normal temperature.

I had heard that both the fridge and freezer would zap most of the moisture out of the sticks.. (or maybe it was put way too much in). If this is the case, is it not damaging your cigars?

So I'm thinking he could freeze his sticks and maybe use a beetle trap? Although I haven't found what those are quite yet.

Got any advice?
 
87 is WAY too hot. Freeze in ziploc bags inside tupperware with all the air out of the bags. Is his basement any cooler(if he has one)? If not freezing is the only choice, and he'd have to freeze everything he buys, kinda tedious. Look at a wine coolerdor, not cheap but will solve his problem. Another option is to go to a local cigar bar and store your smokes there while figuring it out. I have a local place that you can rent a locker-humidor by the month for $25, they keep it perfect 65-65. Buys you some time for $25.
 
I triple wrap my cigars, then freeze them for 48 hours. Another 24 hrs in the frig, then back in the humidor. No negative effects from freezing/refrigerating. Can't even tell any difference. Oh, from the frig, I do let them stand at room temp for an hour before putting them back in the humidor. Don't know if this matters, but it makes me feel better. Don't want stogie shock.

Larry
 
He doesn't have a basement, no. I know 87 is way too hot. :p

I'm not sure if he'd go for a cigar bar humi rental, if there's even one near him to bother with. He just bought a humidor, hygrometer etc.

I guess freezing is the way it's gonna have to be. He wont spring for a wine cooler.. since he'll need a temp probe to shut it off if it drops below 65ish (which all wine coolers seem to dip into the 40s and then slowly warm up).
 
Many inexpensive wine coolers do have temperature control. Mine does. This is not the 12v portable designed for the car though. It works well, but not terribly accurate. I set it as 61 to 64 degrees, and the full cooler stays roughly at 68 to 70 degrees depending on the surrounding ambient temp. The only way to go for smoking on a budget. It does seem to work best when 3 or 4 cans of your favorite liquid beverage is also planted inside with the cigars to moderate and control the temperature. The liquid does very well holding cool. Much better than dry boxes.

Larry
 
I've been freezing my cigars lately. From what I've read, the main danger of freezing, is the thawing process. If you don't get them up to temperature slowly, the cigar might expan too quickly (from heat and moisture aborption) and crack the wrapper.
So far, I've just put my cigars in ziplock freezer bags, fridge for 2-3 days, fridge for 1 day, room temp for a few hours, and back in the humi or cooler. I haven't had any problems with cigars tasting funny, drying out, or cracking so far.
This crazy beetle epicdemic has definitely got me paranoid, though.
 
sirxlaughs said:
I've been freezing my cigars lately. From what I've read, the main danger of freezing, is the thawing process. If you don't get them up to temperature slowly, the cigar might expan too quickly (from heat and moisture aborption) and crack the wrapper.
So far, I've just put my cigars in ziplock freezer bags, fridge for 2-3 days, fridge for 1 day, room temp for a few hours, and back in the humi or cooler. I haven't had any problems with cigars tasting funny, drying out, or cracking so far.
This crazy beetle epicdemic has definitely got me paranoid, though.
Click to expand...

I do the same thing, freezer 3 days, refrigerator 1 day, RT 1 day, back into humidor. I repeat the process with all new sticks before they go into my humidors. I triple bag and wrap in aluminum foil - seems to prevent freezer burn with food so I figured it couldn't hurt. Then after the refrigerator I move them into a new bag for the RT step (I just use one of the outer bags). So far so good, my house has been in the mid 70's the last couple of weeks, hoping it will cool down a little.

If I ever do get a bug outbreak or out grow my two humidors , I will probably purchase a wine cooler. I hope the latter occurs first.
 
Living in the Atlanta area we have a problem with high heat/high humidity (100/80 for the last two days). The way I control both is by adding dry ice to my coolerdors. I just use an empty box with holes drilled in it and add the "ice" every couple of days. Keeps the temp around 60/65 & my RH around 67(I ahve about 2.5 pounds of 65rh beads in each cooler. This has been working fine for over a year now.
When freezing your cigars - what about using one of the vacumn sealers? No air and the bags are thick enough that one would keep the freezer burn away. And they are reuseable for a while.
 
larryinlc said:
Many inexpensive wine coolers do have temperature control. Mine does. This is not the 12v portable designed for the car though. It works well, but not terribly accurate. I set it as 61 to 64 degrees, and the full cooler stays roughly at 68 to 70 degrees depending on the surrounding ambient temp. The only way to go for smoking on a budget. It does seem to work best when 3 or 4 cans of your favorite liquid beverage is also planted inside with the cigars to moderate and control the temperature. The liquid does very well holding cool. Much better than dry boxes.

Larry
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about that? Have you ever watched the actual cooling cycle? I keep reading that most of them switch on, cool into the 40s or 50s and slowly creep back up into the 60s and start all over again. This is the reason *I* dont have a wine cooler yet.
 
Wait a minute guys... I want to make sure I understand the true benefits of freezing. The first benefit is obvious, freezing cigars cracks the larvae and kills the eggs, thus preventing an outbreak. However, in this particular situation, if his temperature remains in the 80's, won't he just risk potential beetle infestation later; can't the high temperature begin the creation of larvae/eggs later regardless of what was done in the past, such as freezing them? I didn't think that once you crack the larvae and kill the eggs you're in the clear for good.
 
I had wondered the same thing King Cat but I think that what they are saying is true. If you freeze long enough and at a cold enough temperature that all the existing eggs in the cigars are destroyed, the only chance of reinfection would be from OTHER cigars that had not only had eggs in them but had beetles hatch. Basically the only way for existing cigars to get reinfected would be for a beetle to hatch from somewhere else then lay the new eggs. You break that cylce by freezing and introducing nothing new without freezing then you shouldn't have any outbreaks.

Similar to grub worms in the lawn. You've gotta attack damn near every cycle, larvae, beetle, larvae before you make a dent in them. But once you do your clean. If a beetle gets in there again and lays eggs... back to step one.
 
stogie_kanobie_one said:
I had wondered the same thing King Cat but I think that what they are saying is true. If you freeze long enough and at a cold enough temperature that all the existing eggs in the cigars are destroyed, the only chance of reinfection would be from OTHER cigars that had not only had eggs in them but had beetles hatch. Basically the only way for existing cigars to get reinfected would be for a beetle to hatch from somewhere else then lay the new eggs. You break that cylce by freezing and introducing nothing new without freezing then you shouldn't have any outbreaks.

Similar to grub worms in the lawn. You've gotta attack damn near every cycle, larvae, beetle, larvae before you make a dent in them. But once you do your clean. If a beetle gets in there again and lays eggs... back to step one.
Click to expand...

That is my understanding as well. If you kill all the eggs and the larvae, then you shouldn't have any beetles hatching from your frozen sticks. Now, tobacco beetles are not only found in tobacco, so if you had an infestation somewhere else in your house/outside, I suppose you could "infect" the smokes again and you would have to start over and re-freeze (I'm not clear if it is good to freeze a cigar more than once).

In addition, the freezing process is probably not 100% efficient (nothing in biology is), so even if you do freeze your cigars and the temperatures are a little high, it is a good idea to inspect them to make sure they don't have any signs of an infestation.

Otherwise, buy a wine cooler and set it to 65F (if only my wife would let me).
 
Keep an ye on eBay.... I got my 17 bottle for $25.00. They have bigger ones in scratch & dent as well fo typically about $100.00. Once I stabilize things in mine I'm going to consider selling bout everything and getting a bigger one. Worrying about the heat and what not is just not worth it. :hn
 
If you freeze ALL of your incoming cigars, which kills all potential beetle infestation in the future (this seems to be a no brainer - I think I will start doing this as well even though I've never had an outbreak). I've also never heard of anyone complain about a difference in taste/flavor from a once frozen cigar vs. non-frozen (which although sort of suprisingy to me, is good news). The unknown effects of freezing my cigars, as it relates to flavor/taste, is one of the reasons that I haven't frozen my cigars in the past. However, apparently this isn't an issue. I've read that even many of the big boy's do it (i.e. JR - see below). So here comes the elementary level question... hypothetically, lets say that all of the cigars in your humi have been frozen at one point, then who cares if your cigars get subjected to 80 degree heat, as long as the humidity is where you want it?

Here is some interesting reading that was posted on Cigar Aficionado's website (June 24, 2006):

"We freeze everything that comes in from anyone who isn't a major manufacturer," says Lew Rothman, president and chief executive officer of retail and mail-order giant 800 JR-Cigar Inc. "If a manufacturer doesn't have the fumigation and freezing procedures of the major manufacturers like General, Consolidated, Swisher, Villazon, Fuente, then you have to be extra careful. These bugs can be devastating." Even with cigars from the large cigarmakers, Rothman said his policy is to spot-check at least one box per shipment.

In JR's new Burlington, North Carolina, warehouse and distribution center, Rothman installed a 40-by-60-foot freezer big enough for a tractor trailer. Purchased from a food products manufacturer, the freezer ensures that the millions of cigars that pass through JR's warehouse every month don't go out infested with beetles. "Freezing the cigars cracks the larvae and kills the eggs and the adults," says Rothman. "Before shipping the cigars we have to do all we can to avoid any problems. We've had no disasters yet."
 
It's been in the 90s and 100s around my area lately, with the inside of my house at 80-85 degrees in the afternoons. Due to the knowledge gathered at this site, I purchased a 20-bottle cooler (non compressor unit) over a month ago, for less than most cabinet humidors and now I have no worries about my cigars, which are all in dress boxes or cabs. So far, I don't see a need for a temp control; the built-in one set on it's highest temp works fine for now. I actually sat down and watched my hygrometer/temp gauge thru the glass door during a number of cycles and the lowest it got was 56 degrees, usually staying at around 61-63 degrees, at 68-70% humidity. Better than running the AC all day, and absolutely better than 85 degree temps, IMHO.
 
My wine cooler isn't that big, but it does have a temp control with adjustment fron 68 down to 39 degrees. I find that 61 works the best as it keeps the cooler at ~68. Also, I now only use two 100 ct desktop humidors in the cooler itself. The cycling of the cooler has very little to no sudden impact on temp or humidity inside the humidors. Very easy no fuss system. One 4oz bead tube in each humidor with remote sensor from Oregon Scientific also in each. It's a good set-up for my smallish stash. Maintainance? I wipe the inside of condensation about once per week. Sorry for the tangent. Back to high temps and the evil beetle.:)

Larry
 
which wine coolers do you all have that dont have these big ass temp swings? everything I've read mentions getting an external prope thermometer that cuts the power to the unit when it gets below the set range (I'm familiar with these units as a homebrewer).
 
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