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Originally Posted by SeanGAR
The beetles are warm weather critters and need higher temperatures to hatch. With biological things there is no absolute ... but temperatures higher than 70F are associated with increased risk of any beetle eggs hatching. That doesn't mean you are perfectly safe at 65F and that doesn't mean you are definately going to get beetles at 75F. I'd be comfortable with 72F as long as I didn't have a particularly valuable stash or rarely opened humidor.
Lowering the temperature in a closed system will increase the relative humidity, http://www.sensirion.com/images/getFile?id=115, but your humidor is not a closed system, you have a humidification device that will modulate the humidity change. So lower temperature by itself is not a problem as long as you have a good humidification setup. If I had valuable cigars exposed to temperatures much above 70F and I was ageing them (i.e., not looking at them too often) I'd consider freezing to decrease the risk of beetle infestation. OTOH I'd not worry too much with 72F with cigars I'm planning to smoke within a few months. |
I've heard such mixed things about
freezing. I don't want to start a Mac/PC war thread, but my inclination was NEVER to freeze.
I don't have enough of a collection to really age my smokes yet. I open my one humi often because, hey, how am I going to get another smoke??? I have a bigger humi, a Cuesta Rey I bought on EBAY many moons ago, that I'm conditioning to store the first couple of boxes I purchase. That might need a once-a-fortnight peek, especially the first few months until I begin to feel more confident. Here in SoCal, in my back office, sustained temps (like more than 2-3 hours) > 75 degrees is rare, like maybe a couple of times a year, max. Since I want to keep my computer equipment from overheating, in the summertimes, you could almost hang meat with me as I keep my working temp in the mid-60's, as I like it.
I'm actually more concerned about the low temp (OK, Michigan folk, Minnesotans, et al... what we
Angelenos consider low temps) and what a few day's in the mid-50's would do to the RH and, in turn, to my smokes.
Slowing the aging doesn't bug me more than the risk of beetles!