Some of you may recognize me from days gone by. Haven't been here in quite a while as I don't smoke that much anymore due to family life (3 little boys). It's good to see some old familiar faces as well as all the new people. Here's my problem:
I've got an Aristocrat mini which at the moment is about half full. The RH here in my area of the SF Bay Area is, well, perfect for cigar storage. I rarely, if even have to turn the CO on...in fact the RH in closet today is 70%. I'll get to why that is important in a second.
I really haven't been paying attention to the hygrometer, which in retrospect was not a good idea, and I opened the cabinet yesterday to, of all things, pull out a few sticks to gift to a new found BOTL. The RH was at 84%...there is nothing in there except an empty CO, which, I'm assuming was full, but has now given all it's moisture to the cedar and cigars. The CO not plugged in, and hadn't been for quite some time, it for sure was a passive exchange.
Still thinking this was a hygro issue, I pull a few boxes and the sticks are wet, and some had white surface mold. Nothing in/on the foot, so I just wiped it off...but seeing a full box of Monte #2's in that condition is, well, something I don't want to see ever again.
My thought is that since I very rarely open the humidor, the water from the CO evaporated and has now saturated the cedar and some of the cigars (only a few boxes on the bottom shelf were affected..others on the top and in the drawer were still fine).
My solution is to pull everything out, and store them in my closet for a while. The closet is dark, cool, and the RH is 70%. I plan on replacing the hygro just to cover all bases.
I guess it makes sense, particularly if the temp is up in there to facilitate evaporation. The water had do where to go.
To prevent this in the future I'm just going to remove the CO. Don't need it around here.
What do you guys think?
Thanks and good to be back.
Matt
I've got an Aristocrat mini which at the moment is about half full. The RH here in my area of the SF Bay Area is, well, perfect for cigar storage. I rarely, if even have to turn the CO on...in fact the RH in closet today is 70%. I'll get to why that is important in a second.
I really haven't been paying attention to the hygrometer, which in retrospect was not a good idea, and I opened the cabinet yesterday to, of all things, pull out a few sticks to gift to a new found BOTL. The RH was at 84%...there is nothing in there except an empty CO, which, I'm assuming was full, but has now given all it's moisture to the cedar and cigars. The CO not plugged in, and hadn't been for quite some time, it for sure was a passive exchange.
Still thinking this was a hygro issue, I pull a few boxes and the sticks are wet, and some had white surface mold. Nothing in/on the foot, so I just wiped it off...but seeing a full box of Monte #2's in that condition is, well, something I don't want to see ever again.
My thought is that since I very rarely open the humidor, the water from the CO evaporated and has now saturated the cedar and some of the cigars (only a few boxes on the bottom shelf were affected..others on the top and in the drawer were still fine).
My solution is to pull everything out, and store them in my closet for a while. The closet is dark, cool, and the RH is 70%. I plan on replacing the hygro just to cover all bases.
I guess it makes sense, particularly if the temp is up in there to facilitate evaporation. The water had do where to go.
To prevent this in the future I'm just going to remove the CO. Don't need it around here.
What do you guys think?
Thanks and good to be back.
Matt