Temperature and Humidity Control Trick.

[Python]

I have been having a problem controlling the RH in my cooler-dor recently because there has been a lot of rain where I live and the humidity has been going crazy. I use the 65% Heartfelt Beads and they do an awesome job for the most part, but the humidity has just been so high lately that I have been having to completely dry the beads and put them back in the cooler to get the RH level down, which only last about a week. The RH is my desktop is a little higher than normal as well, but since it is hovering between 68% and 70% I’m not too worried about it. I use the 65% beads in that as well.

Last night I checked on it again and it had climbed back up to 74% again, I am getting sick and tired of having to completely dry the beads every week, so I was trying to think of another way to lower the humidity in the cooler. So I was sitting there contemplating the situation and I thought about how when it’s cold the humidity gets sucked out of the air. Now it isn’t hot enough for me to turn on my A/C yet and with the cost of energy bills skyrocketing I didn’t really want to turn it on if I could avoid it.

I was thinking of a way to cool the air and I thought about those reusable ice packs that you put in coolers instead of using ice. I happen to have a few of them in my freezer so I went and got a couple of them and put them in the cooler. After about 2 hours I went and checked on the cooler to see if it was doing anything and it actually worked!

The RH dropped from 74% to 63% and the temperature went from 68*F to 63*F. I wiped the condensation off of the ice packs because I didn’t want to leave more moisture in there and placed them back in for another 30 minutes or so, then I removed them and put them back into the freezer.

I am also thinking that this would be a good way of lowering the temperature inside the humidor if it gets too warm and to keep it under 70*F. I think that with the desktops it would probably be easier to use the little “ice cube” version of them. They are normally available during the spring and summer months at most stores. I think I have some of them shaped like fish or something but I have to check with the wife as she is the decorator .

I thought that this was a cool way of keeping the temp and RH down that isn’t too complicated or time consuming and I thought that I would share my idea. I’m not sure if any others have tried this or not, but here it is anyway.

[buzkirk]

Sounds great Bob, thanks for thinking about us.

I always wondered about this, since Avallo Humidors, has an cooling option on their Humidors, for people that live in warm climates.

Avallos are made in Nashville Tn, and shipped worldwide.

FM, has been to the factory and met the owner.
He's still tring to bring himself to drop $1,400.00+ on one.

[Python]

Originally Posted by buzkirk

He's still tring to bring himself to drop $1,400.00+ on one.

That's a lot of money!

I can only afford the ice packs .

[JAX]

I've just been kinda living with the vastly differant temps/RH from day to day and day to night. As the summer months near though I see myself wanting to find an inexpensive way to influence my humi temps because they can sky rocket.

Sounds like you've found that way, thanks for sharing Bob!

[slowburning]

Two weeks ago, I took my kids to Target to shop for toys, I came across some ice cube size packs. 36 (3 x 12 ) in a box that costs $2.99. I bought one box to be used in my humidors, due to recent beetle scare.

I am thinking of placing the ice pack in a zip lock bag before putting them in my humidors to avoid moisure contact with cigars.

I guess we all think alike when we have so much at stake.

[HeavyMetal-cr]

Yup, certainly will work as long as you clean up the condensation regularly. If you leav the condensation in the humi for too long you will end up with hi humidty at just a lower temp.

In addition to the dehumidfiers I use a thermoelectric cooling system similar to the hi end humidors. This is called a "cold spike". I've posted on this before. If your local pet shop is good on tropical fish, they will have these as they're used to maintain the temp. If not you can order over the internet. Just drill a hole in your coolerdor or humi and bingo, temp goes down.

If you can't do the dehumi in the same room, I'd avoid cleaning the condensation by just using more beads than necessary.