Where do you keep your Cooler? Actually a ? about, is the garage/shop OK?

Curious where do you all keep your cooler? I might have one place to keep my new project but the wife might (OK, without a doubt she will) think differently about it. I don’t really have any closets that are an option. My humidors are in the only place the wife will allow and have filled that area up already.

My only other option and the place I would actually like to keep them is in my shop. It’s not climate controlled and hardly insulated and gets very hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I am guessing the inside of the cooler will as well, as the temp fluctuates? (yea that is kind of obvious) How important do you place the importance of the temperature of your cigars? Thinking I already know the answer to this given all the talk about temperature controlled Wineador’s.

May just have to try a little harder to find a place inside the house the wife wont object to. Main reason for asking is to see if anyone has had luck keeping their cool-a-dor’s in a garage type place.

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catfishbluezz

Freezes your cigars for a week as you get them. Then you don't have to worry about temp really... Gets in the mid 80's here all the time during the day in my humi's. No worries here.

blurr

Like dustin said as long as you have frozen for a few days to a week upon receipt of all cigars you won't have to worry about beetles hatching. However the issue you will have is extreme temp swings daily, meaning during a workday your shop may be heated while you work there and get up to 70 farenheit, then at night it may drop down to 30 degrees or less. Then summer hot temps may be up to 100+ degrees, followed by drops down to cooler 70s at night. If this is the kind of temp swings you are saying your shop gets, then I wouldn't personally recommend it for a humidor space. Maybe a travel humidor with a few excess smokes for at work, sure, but I would never keep a large valuable stash in these conditions. Sure with beads and litter pearls you may be able to have your hygrometers showing a steady 65 to 70 rh most of the time, but no doubt with the huge temp fluctuations your cigars will not be seeing a STABLE environment. up to you though.

rsherman24

I wonder what the temp swings would be inside of a cooler? They are intended for insulation purposes, so I would think they should keep it relatively stable. Has anyone ran any tests with a min/max thermometer?

jgibv

If I remember right ... I think someone tried something similar last summer(?)....
I can't remember who it was but I know they wanted to store the cigars in an uninsulated/fluctuating temp area similar to the conditions you're describing. (Or maybe I'm just going crazy and making this up)

Dang, if that poster is still active maybe they'll read this and reply & tell you how their experience is/was.....
Or someone else can remember that conversation and bump it up.

blurr:
of temp swings you are saying your shop gets, then I wouldn't personally recommend it for a humidor space. ..... but no doubt with the huge temp fluctuations your cigars will not be seeing a STABLE environment

+1

The way I see it ....
Yes, the cigars may be fine and you may not have a problem ..... but will you worry about them going "bad", will you "stress about it"?
Think about worse case scenario - the smokes get ruined and you have to toss them all out....would you be ok with that and be willing to "start over".
Some people probably wouldn't think twice about the temp/humidity fluctuations and just smoke the cigars all the same --- and if they had to toss the cigars and get new ones it would be no big deal.
But for me --- heck no I'd be stressed out pulling out all my hair worrying about the smokes....but then again my wife tells me I have OCD, so maybe that has something to do with it LOL

Stubble

catfishbluezz:
Freezes your cigars for a week as you get them. Then you don't have to worry about temp really... Gets in the mid 80's here all the time during the day in my humi's. No worries here.

I know what I'll be making room for tomorrow.......great info, Thank you!

Bob Luken

I did this in my basement area over the winter. But I didn't worry about chilly cigars as much as I'd worry about warm cigars. I don't have experience with warm weather yet.

I did post a question about it here and I'll try and find the thread. There was some good points made.

Bob Luken

Found it

http://www.cigar.com/cs/forums/thread/706295.aspx

zeebra

I put my cooler in my laundry/utility room. Has no windows, no exterior walls. But I'm in Houston, TX and it gets hot down here. No way am I running my ac all day...so I use reusable ice packs. I put a small hand towel, and lay this on top. On on bottom shelf, on on top. I have 4, so I just rotate them while my bread is toasting in the morning.

http://www.amazon.com/Lifoam-4943-Glacier-Reusable-ounces/dp/B001MUK0HA/ref=pd_sim_hg_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0TS1T2TW39KMTXXWVHSQ

catfishbluezz

Stubble:
catfishbluezz:
Freezes your cigars for a week as you get them. Then you don't have to worry about temp really... Gets in the mid 80's here all the time during the day in my humi's. No worries here.
I know what I'll be making room for tomorrow.......great info, Thank you!

Honestly there are a bunch of different ways to freeze, but really, i kind of got lazy with it and have had no issues. I pt them in a ziploc, suck all the air out, toss them in the freezer for a week or two, pull them out and let them sit overnight, then put them back in. It's pretty easy honestly.

Tyland64

I have a large walk in closet in our bedroom. No windows or direct sun light , no huge swings in temperature and easy to get to. This year I got a real nice humidifier for the whole house. It is small and quiet and I can set it at 68%. We have gas forced air heat, which tend to dry out the house in the winter. With the humidifier in the living room my humidors in there have been just perfect this winter, low maintenance and I use a digital thermometer to check the temp from time to time. After all this is a labor of love. Smoke on Brother.

Bob Luken

catfishbluezz:
Stubble:
catfishbluezz:
Freezes your cigars for a week as you get them. Then you don't have to worry about temp really... Gets in the mid 80's here all the time during the day in my humi's. No worries here.
I know what I'll be making room for tomorrow.......great info, Thank you!
Honestly there are a bunch of different ways to freeze, but really, i kind of got lazy with it and have had no issues. I pt them in a ziploc, suck all the air out, toss them in the freezer for a week or two, pull them out and let them sit overnight, then put them back in. It's pretty easy honestly.

Dustin, I trust that you are right about this but is there confirmation from other sources that higher temp storage is OK cigars that have been through a freezing regimen? I can't find much info on this specific question.

So the basic question would be: Aside from beetles, are higher temps (80 and 90 or even 95) OK for cigar storage? Or to put it another way, Is 70 degrees better than 85 or 90 for any reason other that avoiding beetles?

Every storage guideline I've ever found online has mentioned beetles as the reason to avoid higher storage temps. But I have never read that higher storage temps wold be OK if proper freezing is used beforehand. Like I said, I trust that you are right but are there any more sources that back up this assertion? I just want to be sure. In my case specifically, I have frozen about 2/3rds of my stock and would consider keeping those specific sticks in a warmer invironment due to lack of space available to keep my coolers indoors.

Cigary

I keep mine in the house inside one of the closets...away from everybody and it's in a perfect temperature. I've kept one in the garage but here in Atlanta the summers can be brutal so I stopped keeping it in the garage and since I have a basement I've kept a coolerador in there...perfect.

blurr

Bob Luken:
catfishbluezz:
Stubble:
catfishbluezz:
Freezes your cigars for a week as you get them. Then you don't have to worry about temp really... Gets in the mid 80's here all the time during the day in my humi's. No worries here.
I know what I'll be making room for tomorrow.......great info, Thank you!
Honestly there are a bunch of different ways to freeze, but really, i kind of got lazy with it and have had no issues. I pt them in a ziploc, suck all the air out, toss them in the freezer for a week or two, pull them out and let them sit overnight, then put them back in. It's pretty easy honestly.
Dustin, I trust that you are right about this but is there confirmation from other sources that higher temp storage is OK cigars that have been through a freezing regimen? I can't find much info on this specific question.

So the basic question would be: Aside from beetles, are higher temps (80 and 90 or even 95) OK for cigar storage? Or to put it another way, Is 70 degrees better than 85 or 90 for any reason other that avoiding beetles?

Every storage guideline I've ever found online has mentioned beetles as the reason to avoid higher storage temps. But I have never read that higher storage temps wold be OK if proper freezing is used beforehand. Like I said, I trust that you are right but are there any more sources that back up this assertion? I just want to be sure. In my case specifically, I have frozen about 2/3rds of my stock and would consider keeping those specific sticks in a warmer invironment due to lack of space available to keep my coolers indoors.

Bob if you research the mortality rates and speeds for tobacco beetles versus freezing temperatures, somewhere you can find a nice graph or chart showing exactly how long it takes to kill all the cycles of the beetle/larvae/egg at various low temperatures like 32F, 0F,-10Farenheit, etc. Basically using the chart you can determine your freezer temperature at home, and how long it would take (minimum) for the toughest-to-kill stage (which i believe is the eggs). So say your freezer gets to 0 farenheit and the chart shows it takes 36 hours to kill all three stages, you just add a safety factor [1.5, 2.0, 3.0, whatever factor makes you feel warm n fuzzy safe :-)] and decide you are going to freeze for say 5 days and have 100 percent confidence that any beetles/larvae/eggs that arrive in your cigars are dead when you take them out of the freezer.

Thus with isolation and freezing everything, you have 100% certainty your cigars will not hatch beetles. Now I'm not sure if its possible that they live in areas like pennsylvania and can get INTO your humis, but thats for another discussion.

Bob Luken

Thanks for the info. In the past I have researched the morality chart and I double checked my freezer temps. I've frozen hundreds of cigars and I feel like Im already pretty good at it. But what I want to know is, are there any other problems associated with storage at higher temperatures besides beetles? I plan on 65% RH and 85 or at worst case 90 degrees. What should i worry about BESIDES Beetles?

sorry to thread jack this thread. So, I've started another thread with this question over in the cigar101 section.

blurr

Bob Luken:
Thanks for the info. In the past I have researched the morality chart and I double checked my freezer temps. I've frozen hundreds of cigars and I feel like Im already pretty good at it. But what I want to know is, are there any other problems associated with storage at higher temperatures besides beetles? I plan on 65% RH and 85 or at worst case 90 degrees. What should i worry about BESIDES Beetles?

sorry to thread jack this thread. So, I've started another thread with this question over in the cigar101 section.

Oh my mistake. I don't really think you have anything to worry about. The only other thing to keep in mind which most likely are aware of, is that obviously hotter air can hold more moisture, and obviously we're reading hygrometers in relative humidity. So while 68rh may be ok for you when you're used to storing cigars around 70, it may be beneficial to drop your rh to like 60 to 65 rh if you plan on storage at 90 Farenheit. As far as I know there is nothing else to worry about, but there is a lot I don't know about I'm sure.

FireRob

Good stuff thanks everyone.

Bob, you did not hijack this. Your questions were part of my concern. The temps here in my part of Texas get in excess of 100* very often. A year or two ago the DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) area set a new area record of 71 days over 100 degrees. It was 40 something consecutive days with a 5 day reprieve (meaning it was only a high of 99* those 5 days) and then another 20 something consecutive days with 100*+ temperatures. At night it might only cool off in the mid to lower 90’s. So if I kept my coolers of cigars in my shop the inside of that cooler could very well be 90*+. I will have to go check the thread you started in Cigar 101.