Beginner Questions (Ask Them Here!)

[HailTheBrownLeaf]

Originally Posted by AdamJoshua

They also work well on torpedoes.

[Yamasa]

I have a question that did not come up in forum search.

Has anyone ever used a submersion heater to get the water in the humidifier up in temperature?
My humidor is in the basement which generally averages 16 C, or about 61 F, and depending on furnace cycles can be 15 C.
I would like it to get to somewhere around 20 C or 68 F, and wondering if this is an option.

Thanks,

[AdamJoshua]

Not sure why you would want to raise the temperature, man of the old cigar shots in countries like England store their cigars in damp cold basements, the same as they have for over 100 years and they are amazing cigars. I think you'd be just fine where you're at, I suppose if you thought the water was going to freeze inside the humidor that would be one thing, but doesn't seem that's the case. FWIW many people will freeze cigars when they get them to kill any beetle eggs, then store them away.

[Yamasa]

Well, I suppose I just thought that the current temp is too low.
I'm not sure what the optimum is. When I go to a vendor with about a million $ of high end inventory the humidor is controlled at 72-72 and the cigars are great to smoke, many of them displaying bloom.

I have frozen cigars when I got them, however only those from a manufacturer that does not freeze before shipping. Again, the vendor is my guide for that information.

Perhaps I am just needlessly fretting for an exactness that is irrelevant?

[AdamJoshua]

Originally Posted by Yamasa

Well, I suppose I just thought that the current temp is too low.
I'm not sure what the optimum is. When I go to a vendor with about a million $ of high end inventory the humidor is controlled at 72-72 and the cigars are great to smoke, many of them displaying bloom.

I have frozen cigars when I got them, however only those from a manufacturer that does not freeze before shipping. Again, the vendor is my guide for that information.

Perhaps I am just needlessly fretting for an exactness that is irrelevant?

Yup I think you are worrying too much and vendors usually keep their sticks pretty wet, well that's extremely wet to me, I am in the 62-63 range, just personal preference and when I have smoked or tried to smoke them in the 70 range I felt like I was relighting often and had more wonky burns, again personal opinion and tastes.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Yamasa

Well, I suppose I just thought that the current temp is too low.
I'm not sure what the optimum is. When I go to a vendor with about a million $ of high end inventory the humidor is controlled at 72-72 and the cigars are great to smoke, many of them displaying bloom.

My money is on mold at those temps and humidity.

[AdamJoshua]

Originally Posted by T.G

My money is on mold at those temps and humidity.

Nice catch Other Adam, I totally missed that

[Yamasa]

Originally Posted by T.G

My money is on mold at those temps and humidity.

Nyet, not mold. Actually I smoked a 4 year old Dirty Rat there on Friday and it had significant bloom. A great complement to the richness of the cigar due to the sweetness of the bloom. It tasted like pure, raw, cane sugar and had clear colour.

Next time I go there in a month or less, I will ask permission to take a pic of a tray of 20 Padron 1964 LE in full bloom on the shelf, probably 3 years old, and post it here.

Then you can decide for yourselves.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Yamasa

Nyet, not mold. Actually I smoked a 4 year old Dirty Rat there on Friday and it had significant bloom. A great complement to the richness of the cigar due to the sweetness of the bloom. It tasted like pure, raw, cane sugar and had clear colour.

Next time I go there in a month or less, I will ask permission to take a pic of a tray of 20 Padron 1964 LE in full bloom on the shelf, probably 3 years old, and post it here.

Then you can decide for yourselves.

Wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard that.

Could have bought a couple boxes of Behikes by now.

[icehog3]

Love that 72/72 bloom.

[CigarNut]

Most times people mistake mold for Bloom or plume. Mold is fuzzy. Plume or bloom is crystalline.

[Yamasa]

Originally Posted by CigarNut

Most times people mistake mold for Bloom or plume. Mold is fuzzy. Plume or bloom is crystalline.

Absolutely. Very small delicate crystals without a colour different than the cigar.

However, the humidor is completely regulated with a cigar manufacturers version.

Unlike at home, I just have the cabinet humidor. As an example of what our ambient RH is the other day it was snowing when I woke up and the RH in basement was 31. At noon it stopped snowing and the evening ambient RH was 20 on a calibrated digital gauge.

So we all have different conditions to adapt to, it is a matter of what is good for the cigars. Just opening the door to take out a cigar drops the RH from 69 to 67 in a matter of 30 seconds on that gauge, and even further on the controller humidistat.

[icehog3]

The few times I have received moldy cigars from a vendor, the mold has been white.

[RevSmoke]

I have seen (in my 37 years smoking cigars) plume & mold.

Plume (or bloom) are oils natural to the tobacco, that rise to the surface and crystalize, usually it is spotty (little spots), more like little spots of dust.

Mold is more fuzzy, but can be less so, and usually covers more of a cigar, maybe the whole thing.

Given the picture shown, I am more inclined to say mold. But, without a more magnified picture, and Alstair's comments I am less certain it is mold.

That being said, I'd be suspect of what I see in the pictures as I see it.

Just my $.02.

[RevSmoke]

Another big key would be the foot of the cigar. I have never seen plume there, only mold.

[icehog3]

The white mold won't really hurt you unless it gets inside the foot of the cigar. I'd wipe it off before smoking one of those Padrons though.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by icehog3

The white mold won't really hurt you unless it gets inside the foot of the cigar. I'd wipe it off before smoking one of those Padrons though.

Padrons, and Dirty Rats, and, and, and "many of them".

That many cigars all with different tobaccos from different regions and different ages, all stored at 72 degrees and 72%RH, all magically showing signs of plume is unlikely.

Some tobaccos will never develop plume, others can do it quite quickly.

Padron cigars undergo some unique handling of their capa leaves, something that removes a lot of the oils and sugars that could potentially lead to plume. Just prior to rolling, rather than store them in a high humidity area, or pass them through this area on a conveyor machine, or use a misting system, right at the back of the rolling floor, Padron actually dunks them repeatedly in buckets of water, and then wrings them out like dirty dish rags. That water is black with compounds coming from the tobacco. This is one of the reasons why Padron wrappers have a unique look & sheen to them.

[Hippi3Slay3r]

I have a noob question about air circulation. I recently purchased a tower humidor from Wally World and for some added circulation I installed two 3in axial muffin fans on a repeat cycle timer running for 15sec every 60mins. My question would be.. I there such thing as to much circulation? Should I run it less or more? The max intervals between fan operation is 60min and the run time can be adjusted to whatever I need. Thank you in advance!

For Ref:https://www.cheaphumidors.com/humido...r-humidor.html

[CigarNut]

As long as the fans are not building a tornado, you are ok. I leave my lans on all the time. Just my

[icehog3]

I agree with Michael, Kyle.

If it was mine, I'd probably set it to run 15 seconds every 15 minutes, for no good reason other than that's what I think would be good.