Temperature Question

[Slow Triathlete]

I have a question for everyone out there about what temperature is alright for tobacco storage. My wife and I are adopting in the next year and the closet that I use as my tobacco cellar will soon be overtaken by baby clothes, etc. We have a single story house with a room over the garage and no basement. We also live on the coast of North Carolina where it get's pretty hot in the summer. The only room that it seems that I will be able to store my pipe stuff might be in the room over the garage. The only issue is that because heat rises it is usually 5-10 degrees warmer up there. We have the option of using the AC up there but it is still a bit warmer up there all the time. What kind of adverse effects could this have on my tobacco if I kept it up there? Another option is to only keep what is open up there and find another dark corner to store all my sealed tobacco. Any ideas? Anyone else have to deal with this?

[tzilt]

Originally Posted by Slow Triathlete

I have a question for everyone out there about what temperature is alright for tobacco storage. My wife and I are adopting in the next year and the closet that I use as my tobacco cellar will soon be overtaken by baby clothes, etc. We have a single story house with a room over the garage and no basement. We also live on the coast of North Carolina where it get's pretty hot in the summer. The only room that it seems that I will be able to store my pipe stuff might be in the room over the garage. The only issue is that because heat rises it is usually 5-10 degrees warmer up there. We have the option of using the AC up there but it is still a bit warmer up there all the time. What kind of adverse effects could this have on my tobacco if I kept it up there? Another option is to only keep what is open up there and find another dark corner to store all my sealed tobacco. Any ideas? Anyone else have to deal with this?

What about a storage shelf in the garage itself?

Edit: Duh, nevermind. Warm weather is completely a foreign concept to me right now so I failed to realize that your garage would be hot as well.

How about a the top shelf of a china hutch or something?

[DubintheDam]

My idea would be to store it out of strong sunlight, ie a dark corner, in a a cabinette wherever you will use your aircon system the most, so I guess that would be your living room or kitchen, I don't see the point of installing aircon in a room especially for your tobacco...that seems a little 'excessive' to me not to mention increased energy bills as well.

[Bruce]

I do not know how heat affects pipe tobacco, but I would be leary of exposure to excessive heat. You may want to protect the tobacco in some way....maybe storage in an Igloo cooler or something along those lines?

I would try to keep the tobacco stored in a low lying area and out of direct sunlight. IMHO the loft above a garage would get very hot in the summer months.

[wharfrathoss]

as a compromise w/my old lady, i store mine underneath our couch-for my "cellar" i put the jars & tins in a plastic storage box that's made for sliding underneath beds-my small jars of what i'm smoking at the moment go on a serving tray so i can slide them out easily-they're out of her sight so it doesn't bother her & not too inconvenient for me so i'm ok w/it

[Slow Triathlete]

Yeah, I think that I'm going to try and get some plastic bins that fit under my side of the bed and maybe the guest bed as well. Thanks everyone!!

[RJpuffs]

I hide my "cellar" behind the stack of unpaid bills. The ball and chain never goes near that corner, its really quite amazing - like an anti-gravity magnetic deflection, she always veers away from that stack and resumes course after passing it. Pipes are stored on my computer desk, she does complain about how they are multiplying though. "Like two furry dice on a cars mirror, dear", nah she don't buy that.

[Arizona]

Yeah I'd avoid the heat of an upstairs loft for sure. I agree with the stashing it under the bed or couch. That room is probably most often in a temp range that you'd call "stable" compared to the extremes of a garage or loft that's not temp controlled. Wildly varying temps (winter vs summer) are probably more of the problem than the actual temperature (within reason).

[BigFrankMD]

Pick some tupperware bins up at WalMart, they sell nice onces that have locking ends for under 5 dollars a piece. I store all of my baccy in those and put it in my closet. Under the bed would work also.

[paperairplane]

Stake your claim son! Define your man-cave! Retain your territory! Hold men, HOLD!!!

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by Slow Triathlete

... plastic bins that fit under my side of the bed and maybe the guest bed as well.

I raised two kids to adulthood and mostly raised two more step kids. They survived my best and worst decisions, FWIW. Now I learn from the state of Rhode Island that some of my safety efforts were probably hollow and wasted. They may have lived in spite of me. Turns out it is pretty hard to kill your kids by letting them ingest your tobacco:

"Most (81 {90%}) of the exposures were reported by parents, and 88 (98%) of the exposures occurred in the child's home (Table_1). Symptoms were reported in 30 (33.3%) of the children and included spontaneous vomiting (up to four episodes) (26 {87%}), nausea (two {7%}), pale or flushed appearance (two {7%}), lethargy (one {3%}), and gagging (one {3%}). Thirteen (14%) of the children had been taken to a health-care facility. All 30 children recovered fully within 12 hours."

I am not irrationally opposed to 12-hours of pale, vomiting, lethargic, gagging babies; it's not the end of the world having to clean kiddie-barf from carpets, bedspreads, walls and the like. Nevertheless, you may wish to reconsider your jars-under-bed strategy in favor of a more secure alternative. From six-months on kids always find miraculous ways to get into stuff. They also will emulate your behavior, to wit: if you get the stuff under the bed and open it up, so will they. Sooner or later.



Inexpensive, locking two-drawer filing cabinets are small, multi-use handy thingies. Top drawer for checks, bills and papers; bottom drawer for Penzance? For example.

[Old_Salt]

Originally Posted by paperairplane

Stake your claim son! Define your man-cave! Retain your territory! Hold men, HOLD!!!

the Boss and I never had any kids { too much Sea Duty }

so when we finally settled down here in n. Ca. we each claimed one of the spare bedrooms. she's into quilting, 2 sewing machines cutting table etc. I put in 6 foot high wall to wall Oak bookshelves for her fabric stash.

In my cave I've got modular chrome shelving. One side is my Office space
Desk & server Rack { 3 Intel dual core & 2 quad's } the other side is split
my train stuff & tobacco cellar.

[Slow Triathlete]

Moo, I think that we have a long way before that. We'll probably be on the wait list for about a year and then it will be another 6-8 months for all of the paperwork. I'll be an old man before we finally get to adopt a child!!

We'll see how things work out when the time finally comes.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by Slow Triathlete

Moo, I think that we have a long way...

We'll see how things work out when the time finally comes.

I hope that it goes smoothly for you. I know the process can seem never-ending. One of my colleagues just adopted a brother and sister in a "who ever thought it was possible" deal. I hope a lucky star shines on you and Mrs. Tri'lete, too.