SUGGESTION—Inspect and rotate your cigars in your fridge


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I have two Haier fridges, well stocked. I am very happy with the fridges, living in Florida I don’t want to worry about overheating and beetles, and I have done pretty well in keeping the fridges properly humidified by using lots of beads. But one problem that I have been aware of is that the humidity levels on the bottom of the fridge register much higher than at the top. When the system is working as it should I usually have about 60-62% humidity at the top and in the middle, and 70-72 on the bottom shelf. In order to compensate for this higher humidity at the bottom I have developed a procedure of emptying out my fridges every month or so, inspecting the boxes, and moving the more heavily humidified boxes from the bottom higher up and the upper shelf boxes down. I have also been using wireless digital hygrometers to monitor the humidity at each level.

Well over the last 6-8 months I have been very preoccupied with family and work matters, and smoking fewer cigars and paying less attention to my cigar storage. Some of that has been letting up and I have been smoking more and paying more attention to my cigars. Well I had not been watching my humidity carefully enough, and had not rotated my cigars in about 4-6 months. I discovered that the humidity in the lower section of one of my fridges had gone above 80%. So I pulled all of the boxes and inspected them. Only three boxes had any problems. In two of the dress boxes there was a small amount of white mold on the 3-4 of the cigars, from the head to about 1/3 of the way down, no big deal, I wiped them off and have set them aside to smoke right away. I have smoked a few from those after letting them dry out a bit, they were fine. Most of the boxes, even on the bottom shelf, were fine, cabs and dress boxes alike. But in my cab of 06 Ramon Allones Estupendos which had been stored on the bottom shelf (full except for 3 cigars) every cigar in the cab had a marked coating of white mold from the head to halfway down the cigar. I took all of those out, removed the yellow ribbon and cedar insert, wiped them off, and have put them back in the upper part of the fridge. Oh, and there was a bit of mold inside of the fridge, low and near the back, I cleaned the fridge out well and let it air out before I returned everything.

I have reinspected and everything looks great now, humidity at the top is low 60s, and at the bottom 72%. I also looked back in the boxes and cab that had trouble and they are doing fine, no return of mold.

Sorry I didn’t take pictures but the sight of those beautiful Estupendos covered in white mold was sickening.

I wanted to post this because it might help someone else to be more alert at maintaining their cigar collections. I got lucky in not having more extensive damage.

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Im just curious, would putting several oust fans in at the bottom pointed up help regulate the humidity throughout the humidor? Glad everything workout ok PT, it could have been much worse.

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Glad everything worked out PT. All it took was 1 mold outbreak in my old coolidor 1 year ago before I forked out the cash for an Aristocrat Plus. Since then I couldn't be happier except for 1 very small outbreak of mold which was my fault for not paying attention during these hot Southern California summer months. I now have 65/65 all day every day come rain or shine.:-D

-Patrick

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» Im just curious, would putting several oust fans in at the bottom pointed

» up help regulate the humidity throughout the humidor? Glad everything

» workout ok PT, it could have been much worse.

I have tried Oust fans, I found that they are not powerful enough to move enough air to make a difference. I was advised to get some computer fans, those would do the job, have just never gotten my act together to get these and set them up. That would probably do the job.

But inspecting and rotating would probably still be advisable.

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Sorry to hear about the problems.. I cringed and freaked out and started checking my humidity. I have an Avanti cooler and I seem to be having the opposite problem of lower humidity on the bottom. I keep all my cabs on the bottom of the cooler so maybe there isn't enough room for air to circulate. No mold or cracking of wrappers but you can be sure I'm going to be keeping a closer eye on things in there... until I break down and get some monstrous 150 box aristocrat as Tampa tells me I need it! :ok:

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» Sorry to hear about the loss of the Estupendos mate. I have half a cab of

» mine I can share. Just let me get back Wednesday and I will shoot them

» out.

Rob, the Estupendos appear to be fine, the white mold wiped right off and they did not get into the foot. I don't think they are ruined.

Thanks for your generous offer though my friend.

I plan to give them a taste test with some friends on Thursday.

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