How should I stack my wineador?

[Webbo]

Whilst I realise it is better to use shelves to allow greater circulation would it be a big problem stacking boxes and cabs one on top of the other in my wineador? Should have gone big and have now run out of space.

[CdnLimitada]

I am curious about this too as recently had to remove two shelves...

[PapaDisco]

Well once your stack of sticks is at its target rH you shouldn't need all that much circulation to maintain humidity. rH will move about when you open and close the door, but at the core of your pile that 5 minutes won't have hardly any effect. Now temperature fluctuations are a bigger bugaboo on causing rH fluctuations, but again if they are only transient in nature then they will only be felt by the outside of the boxes not the cigars before your fridge makes the appropriate correction.

Keep in mind the shrink wrappers are essentially going for an environment equal to NO air circulation at all.

[Stanislaw]

In my limited experience with my set up (new air with cedar shelves and heartfelt beads) is that it tends to be more humid up top and less humid on lower shelves...

As a result I tend to keep cabinet boxes up high (they tend to regulate humidity inside the boxes better) and dress boxes lower (paper boxes tend to absorb moisture easier) and I also keep cigars I intend to smoke sooner at the lower levels to avoid having to dry box before smoking....

[PigFish]

There are two primary schools of thought here. One, is the uniform environment via control method and two would be the static and loose method.

Static and loose is how I would describe how most folks store their cigars. Recovery times and precision are not really of primary consideration in this method. Once the cache of cigars settles at a desirable point (and the challenge is getting it there) one simply depends on the static environment of the internal contents of the humidor to bring the 'space' in the humidor back in line. This is a valid and useful method as long as there are not driving forces that will be moving your cigar 'cache' out of the range that you desire. In this case precision is not really a key component and neither is control.

I prefer the control method, but in perfect conditions (the macro) your micro conditions may suffer a little. The trade off is control over a broad range of macro conditions for a set of micro conditions that you accept and control within a set of parameters.

Where do you stand?

Depending on how you answered the above question, will be whether or not it is important to control the 'open' space left in your humidor. You need to decide if you are into the control of that space and then in control of your cache of cigars, or if you are going to let the cache of cigars control the space!

Without being circular in the discussion, those of us who wish to control space and then cigars and not visa versa are the ones that need the ability to move the air around inside. When we move the air we move the energy with it. We also move the water molecules that are sharing the space.

I believe in the less shelves the better. I usually suggest only one shelf in a humidor and that keeps the boxes off the humidifier. I also use the natural serrations found in the sides of moulded wine cooler that I convert. This keeps the boxes off the sides and allows the air and water vapor to mingle with the guests.

I don't think that you can control environmental space without fans and circulation. You need to take a position, static or active and do the best you can from there…

Cheers, the Pig

[lostsoulcamero]

Always a good read Mr.pig

[Stanislaw]

Hmmm, interesting theory Piggy, I currently have four cedar shelves in my humidor (as well as "risers" -thin strips of cedar under boxes to allow airflow underneath) that limits the amount of boxes I can get in there.... I may just pull three of the shelves and see what that gets me space wise as well as temp/rh stability....