I have a Vino Temp wine cooler that I use to keep my sticks cool in the hot summer months here in LA. Instead of go through the trouble of converting it to a humidor/coolidor, I simply put my humidor in the wine cooler. No problems with condensation, temp and humidity are at 68/68, but I am getting a good deal of mold on my cigars! I'm confused to why this is?

I don't have a fan circulating air in the wine cooler, could this be the cause?

Anyone with any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

M

P.S. I thought there might have been mold in my humidor so I took all my cigars out of humidor, let it dry out, and reseasoned it...but still getting mold. Could it be my humidification device? Its a Danial Marshall humidor 75/stick or so, with a simple sponge type humidifier.

Mold comes from excess humidity.

I use a Haier wine cooler, but I do not put my humidor in there I just place cigars in boxes into it and I have never had a mold problem.

I just bought a vintemp and it's at 66/67 give or take a few and no problems so far. How long have you had it before you noticed mold? I hope mine doesn't get my cigars moldy as well.

Doc - That's the weird thing, I have a digital hydrometer in my humi that reads 68%. I have tested it and calibrated it; so it is working fine. It even has a memory feature which will tell me max and min temps. I check it every so often and its steady at 68%, but still mold? Doesn't make sense?

Graham - I'd say a couple of months and then I noticed mold. I really think its a circulation problem that is exacerbated by just keeping the humi in the cooler. Doc and others likely don't have problems because they humidify the entire cooler with their sticks loose.

This thing has really got me puzzled. Oh and never any mold problems with the humi outside the cooler with same hydrometer readings.

Yeah that's what I do, put them out in trays or in boxes. I stopped using my desktop altogether.
So was there mold previously in your desktop? And your using distilled water or "cigar juice" for the sponge right?

No mold in the desktop before I put into the cooler, and yes I'm using distilled water. When I dryed out and reseasoned my humidor I recharged with the 50/50 mix.

I'm really at a loss for what this is other than lack of circulation...although I've never read of this being a problem in any other threads.

I might have to follow yours and Doc's lead. Graham do you use fans? What's your temp and rh% at?

I don't use a fan. My humidification device is about 4" formthe bottom of the cooler and i use litter pearls. It keeps steady at 66-67 degrees and 67% humidity with no problems. I don't use a fan because there is a small thermoelectric fan in the back of the vinotemp which I'm sure moves the humid air at least a little bit.?.

Hi Slash. I keep my humi in my wine cooler as well. I actually removed my cigar oasis as I was finding my RH climbing even with the oasis off.

I removed the oasis and put about a pound of litter beads (cheap heartfelt beads) in the humi itself and another 7 pounds in the wine cooler. I now have my humidity down to 65% at 67 degrees. I was down at 62% while I had some cubans, but I thought the tips of my smokes were getting a little brittle so after I finished the last cuban I let it drift to 65%

I do need to switch out the beads every so often or the humidity will rise. I would recommend putting some beads in. The nice thing about them is they keep the humi constant. If humidity rises, it removes it. If it falls, it adds it. Very low maintenance.

icall- how big of a wine cooler did you get? I only have about 1/2 lb. of pearls and my humidity is right on. I couldn't imagine using 7 pounds inside but maybe yours is giant compared to mine. It's only a 28 bottle capacity, 32" tall.

quote:

another 7 pounds in the wine cooler.

I second Graham, 7 pounds is a lot of beads. I'm currently using 1 pound for my 70qt cooler which is already a lot. I'd say 7 pounds is good for 700+ qts.

Graham - I have the same 28 bottle Vinotemp.

How long you had yours set up? I don't think the thermoelectric fan on the Vinotemp turns on unless it needs to cool it down. Depending on climate this might not be very often. I worry about without airflow do the sticks get a stale taste?

Its a shame because my desktop is really nice, but I guess I might just have to do this in the summer months.

This is a helpful thread, thanks to everybody for their continued comments.

Mine has been set up for a few weeks now. It took a couple of days to stabilize and I have a lot of spanish cedar lining the back wall and bottom to help for stabilization and also for that nice cedar smell everytime I open the cellar. So far my sticks are nice and silky with no mold or signs of "staleness". I'm not too worried about air circulation since the thermo fan will kick in occasionally I hope that is enough. For example many end-table or cabinet humidors don't have circulating air and they are just as big if not bigger than our cellars and they seem to work fine without a small fan.

quote:

how big of a wine cooler did you get?

50 bottle cooler. My humi fits right in the bottom. Top rack is for wifey's wines.

I got to 7lb in the cooler cause I was trying to get the humi to 62% RH for the cubans I had in there. It was tough. In the end, I swapped out the internal beads daily and cycled out the beads in the cooler every other day. That seemed to work best. It was an 8lb bag, and I used the whole thing so figure about 4lbs between the humi and cooler in total.

It took a while to figure that out. Too much work though. Once I got rid of the cubans, I just left a small tupperware with beads inside the cooler. Its pretty steady at 65%-66% now.

Yeah that sounds about right. I too have only a small tupperware with pearls and it's perfect. So far I've been fine with switching out the beads every other month or so.

Another thing I've noticed is I only get mold on my cigars in the top tray of my humi, not the ones on the bottom. That kind of thing is not supposed to matter but clearly it does. Still doesn't make sense since my humidity is only at 68%r. And ironically its the non-cubans on the top that I saw mold on, not the cubans at the bottom.

I suppose I'll never really know the story here, but I did order some heartfelt beads. Gonna take the humi out of the cooler and try just the trays.

I would try that. Remove the humidor, wipe the mold off of the cigars gently and just use the vinotemp. You and I should find a place that makes custom trays for our vinotemp model or just rip some spanish cedar sheets to the size ourselves. I like my desktop to but for me it's time to move on to the cellar solely.

I'm surprised you need it up in the Bay Area! I'm down here in LA, so its a little warmer. I should n't need it either but its gets pretty hot in my place.

I also have wine on my upper racks so my space is limited. I'm thinking about keeping them in the humidor but with the lid propped open a few inches. That way they can breathe but they still get the spanish cedar seasoning.

To clarify, I mean the humi propped open in the wine cooler.

I wonder if it would work?

By the Bay Area I mean San Jose in the south bay where it can get above 100 in the summer. A week and a half ago it got to 101 here, in May. With getting more and more CCs,Opus, etc. I wanted to stop worrying about them and just be done with it so I got the vinotemp. I'm so glad I did. No matter what I control the temp/humidity of the cigars not the weather anymore, that's a good feeling if you got a collection started or already going.

where you at slashmw? I love SoCal, especially Orange Co.