What a Night, my AC went down

[KWG116]

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to share my experience from last night. I had a bad day at work already, and when I get home, it felt a little warm in my apartment. I thought maybe it was because the high yesterday was about 93 degrees. So I think nothing of it, I sit down and relax. As usual I check my temp and humidity on my cigars. The temp was 76 ( I always keep the AC on and my humidor stays at 70 degrees/67% humidity I would like to keep it even lower but that is a whole other thread)

So I panic, I check the AC unit, I call the apartment office, call in a maintenance emergency (they never showed up) I finally calm down and decide to let the cigars sit overnight and call in the moring. Well, by 10:30 the temp went to 79 degrees. I was starting to get really nervous (I am sure the short term exposure to high temps would be OK, but like many of you I have a lot on money invested) At 10:45 I took all my cigars, packed them in a suit case and a box and drove 30 minutes to work to put them in my air conditioned office. After getting there I put all of my boxes in garbage bags with Boveda packs and turned the AC on high.

So I light up a Hoya Du Maire for the ride home ( fantastic cigar, Thanks Rob/Lisa) and had a fantastic smoke to calm my nerves. It sucked sleeping in a hot apartment (Nashville never seems to cool off), but my cigars were safe.

The AC was fixed this morning, and I went to work, got my cigars and went home and placed them all in the humidor. I checked them all, and I pray they do not crack or anything from all the trauma.

What an experience.What we do for our cigars. I think I need a chilled unit.

Thank you

[Colt45]

Sorry to hear of your trauma :-)

As long as you don't have a million cigars, a good sized cooler with refrigerant gel packs

might help in an emergency.

[aavkk]

Colt, you are absolutely right. I have a 150qt igloo with several of the freeze gel blocks in there and a couple pounds of beads and it is locked on 65% with the temp swinging between 63-68 degrees. Surprisingly I havent had an issue with the RH moving the opposite direction of the temp swing. So far so good. While the setup is more involved than I would like, it keeps the cigars perfect and that is most important.

[Wiley]

Whoa, great idea, thanks guys!

[habanohal]

This is one of my worst fears. Electric bill is getting pretty high, due to the increases and the fact of keeping a/c on 70 degrees at all times.

My home is a tri level so cabinets are in bottom level where it stays a cool 67 degrees all summer long.

Pretty funny, cause my wife is always wearing a sweatshirt. No matter summer or winter, cause in winter I dont turn heat above 67

[asc]

Haven't heard of these freeze gel blocks

[aavkk]

» Haven't heard of these freeze gel blocks

Yeah, it seems I took a bit of a risk by putting them in the igloo with the blocks on the very top level (cool air sinks). Most people I asked didnt think it was a great idea and no one that I know has tried it. Loading the coolidor with lots of beads is the key becuase with temp fluctuations you should also have RH fluctuations and thats just not the case with my setup. The damn thing is always at 65% RH unless of course when I open it to change the blocks and it spikes up. Right now I have 2 1/2 lbs of beads in a 150qt igloo and a preety full 32 boxes and about 200 singles. I will be needing another one soon. I also suppose having the environment full of smokes helps stabilize it to some extent.

Good luck to all of you that were in the same problem as me 2 months ago.

[Morientes50]

Guys, correct me if i'm wrong but i'm not so sure that 79 degrees is dangerous for the cigars. I mean, you do need to worry about beetles and if that is the concern then ok. But it should make no difference in how the cigars taste.

Of course, 70 degrees is ideal and one should avoid quick changes in temperature (and direct heat on the cigars). But I have always heard that if you are comfy in the temperature then your cigars are too. I mean, I have family in cuba that smoke cigars and they do not have temperature control in their humidors (they don't even have AC).

So maybe your better off just leaving the cigars in the house (unless there is a fire then it is cigars and children first :-D )

El Moro

[aavkk]

Personally, I would rather take 2 minutes and deal with my temp each day than worry about the damn beatles hatching in my boxes. Many of my boxes I dont look at and inspect at all which could lead to a disaster if an outbreak occured. Coincidentally many of those boxes are my most valuable.

[asc]

» worry about the damn beatles hatching in my boxes. Many of my boxes

» I dont look at and inspect at all which could lead to a disaster if an

» outbreak occured.

Exactly. Planning on investing in a wine cooler soon though, rather than the block idea.