Thursday, March 31 2011
Q: I live in the Georgia mountains and obliviously have changing seasonal weather conditions, I have no central heat/ac but a window AC unit, and a large gas heating unit. This allows for very different temps in different rooms in the house. I have had the
humidor in the back bedroom for the winter and it has been a fairly constant 65-68F and 66-68RH; I love that range for the way my
cigars smoke. However, now the warmer temps are coming and the readings have changed to 70-72F and 65-68RH. Is this a big problem? Should I plan to move the humidor to the area closer to the AC where the room temp will be lower than the room it was in during the winter?
Lastly, you recommended the Cigar Oasis for this large of a humidor; does it control both, the temp and the RH, or are you still at the mercy of the room temp?
- Randy P. in Georgia
A: Many cigar smokers encounter this same problem every year, too. First, I would NOT replenish the humidifier. IOW, let it get down to about 65% and try to keep it there. If the readings, as you say, have already climbed up to the 70% range, remove the humidifier and keep it out for a half a day or so. Keep it in a ziploc bag until the RH in your humidor dips below 64%. After 24 hrs, put the humidifier back in the humidor and take a reading . Repeat this procedure until you can stabilize the RH at around 65%. The cigars should settle nicely under those conditions.
As far as the air conditioning is concerned, moving the humidor closer to the AC would be a plus. I would try that first, before doing the above.
Re
Cigar Oasis: Yes, they all monitor humidity and temperature. Note the XL unit (shown above) is made for humidor that holds at least 50-300 cigars. For 75 you want to go with the
Cigar Oasis ULTRA model. 100 and higher, see the other XL models.
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