Anyone Here Keep Their Humidor at 75/60?

[choinga]

Just curious...

I bought an end table type humidor and during the summer months (I live in Austin, TX) it's literally impossible to keep my house below 75... Right now we're averaging 100 outside temps for a couple weeks in a row now...ugh.

Anyway, my new table will go in my office where it's nice and dark, no direct sunlight - my current 150 count humi stays at 75/65 in here - but I haven't had it all that long to know what the long term effects, if any, are at keeping stoges at that temp/RH.

Anyway, I've got a couple pounds of both 60 and 70 beads coming from HF, I've got an Oasis XL - so RH is not going to be an issue. I just dont think, that at least for about half the year I'll be able to keep my humidor below 75. I know everyone likes to keep theirs about 10 degrees cooler than that when possible - just curious what folks think about it. If my temps are higher - that's why I'm thinking about going with 60% beads instead of 65 or 70%.

Thanks in advance!

[BigMacFU]

You'll be fine with 60%.

[hypersnyper694788]

Its hard for me to get the temp down in the humidor here in florida. Also mine is new and its at the end of the seasoning process so the RH is a little high too. Right now its at 74 RH and 77 degrees. The sticks still feel good and draw just fine so im not to sure what to think about it. As long as they still draw nice and taste good im happy.

[ashauler]

Its hard for me to get the temp down in the humidor here in florida. Also mine is new and its at the end of the seasoning process so the RH is a little high too. Right now its at 74 RH and 77 degrees. The sticks still feel good and draw just fine so im not to sure what to think about it. As long as they still draw nice and taste good im happy.

How long have your sticks been in that environment? Long enough to acclimate and equalize to that RH? 74% is, imho, too high for smoking.

[hypersnyper694788]

How long have your sticks been in that environment? Long enough to acclimate and equalize to that RH? 74% is, imho, too high for smoking.

Probably not quite long enough to be honest. I am trying to get it down to 67-70. I just dont want to drop it to fast and mess them up. It was at 75 like 2 days ago, so its coming down slowly but surly.


EDIT : It is at 73 RH today, still coming down

[choinga]

awesome - that's good information to know...

I know everyone is paranoid of beetles, and rightfully so, and my understanding is that they can hatch anywhere above 75 degrees...but I know there has to be a ton of people keeping their cigars in that temperature zone. I live in TX and during the summer it's all I can do to keep my house at 75-76...we don't have basements down here so there's pretty much no relief.

From what I've read, if your humidor runs a little high on temp you want to compensate by lowering the RH...if you're at 75 or 76, at least from what I've read, you're probably shooting for a 60% RH - maybe 65% if that makes you feel better. I'll have a bunch of 'those kind' of cigars in my humidor as well and the consensus is they are happier at a little lower RH that the Nic's or Dom's.

I've got a new humidor now (end table cabinet) that I'm seasoning with 70% beads...but I'm going to drop it down to 60% beads when I load it with sticks.

I'm trying the cabinet out now in what I think is the coolest room in the house - it's definitely the darkest...I'll be happy if I can maintain 75/60...there's no way that's going to be a harmful combo.

I'll keep everyone posted...and update with pics. My humidor came from FL so the hygro already showed about 55% up top and when I stuck my Oasis and digital hygro in the bottom it was even closer to 60% (the two compartments are seperated) so hopefully I'll only have a couple days or so of tweaking this thing out before it's ready...