I found a guy online named Kevin Dill that outfits Wine friges with new thermistats and makes them useable for cigar storage. I was thinking of doing this myself and contacted him about getting the plans of how he does it. I know the main problem is when the condenser kicks on it drains the moisture from the air. Has anybody thought of building a cube of spanish cedar to place inside the fridge. Use the cool air circulating around the cube to keep things cool. But seal the cube to keep in the moisture from the humidification system. Sort of a Box with in a box concept. Anybody heard of this before?

ajeroth

here you go...

http://www.cigarbid.com/auction/forum/forum.cfm?action=list&forumID=7&messageDisplay=0000000008181 

Thats a beutiful thing Robby... But I don't have that kind of time or money. I was thinking of just buying a wine cooler for 100 bucks at home depot and constructing a Cedar box to put inside. The air outside the box can be dry but inside it will be nice and moist.

ajeroth

Been kind of wondering the same thing... What would the drawbacks be if you used a small refrigerator lined with Spanish Cedar and an active humidification system like the Cigar Oasis that would constantly work to offset the effects of the refrigerator attempting to dry the air out. Even though it wouldn't be the most efficient method I would think that the Cigar Oasis could easily offset the humidity problem while letting the refrigerator take care of the temperature problem and you would have less than $150 bucks in the whole thing.

John

Bear in mind that most of what I've read indicates that the lower the temp the slower the aging/mellowing process. Cigars will still age/mellow at low temps but the process slows to a crawl. For that reason I wouldn't want to keep my aging cigars any cooler that maybe 60 degrees. Just my thoughts.............

i am a newbie, but also a a/c tech by trade, a refrigerator is designed to operate between 38-42 degrees and about 40% humidity,a cigar is good around 70 degrees and 70% humidity,a cidar lined none working refrigerator would be awesome, i don't understand wanting to plug it in, unless it is in a garage,i am new and would like your thoughts.

hdking

This is the guys site... He calibrates them to 70 degrees before shipping them.

http://kevindill.com/ 

I understand the colder temperature problem but a couple of small wine coolers that I have looked at allow settings around 65 degrees at the highest setting.

John

Even 65 degrees would be nice. But I think he replaces the old thermistat with one that will allow slightly higher temperatures.

ajeroth

You showin' off again, Robby?

ALWAYS! One other thing, Honeywell makes a controller that you can plug your fridgador into. You can run the thermostat through the side and fill it with some putty. Then it takes the temperature, kicks on and off at the power switch as opposed to using the thermostat in the fridge. Beer makers use these to lager beer because you need to hold the beer at a certain temperature for a certain period of time, i.e., 65 degrees for a week, then 60, then 55 and down to like 38 to finish. Beer supply shops sell these.

IMHO, nothing beats the look and feel of beautiful wood.

Scott

ok, we got past the temperature part, when a refrigerator is running it is a de-humidifier, what you are trying to do will probably work fine, or even great, but keep a eye on the humidity while the unit is running, a guy with one in his garage in the summer time may run completly different than it would run in the winter months.

As far as humidity goes, AC will do the same thing. It's better to run your AC and keep your cigars below 75 degrees. You just have to keep your humidifiers full of water.

I live on the coast where it rarely gets above 75 degrees so no one has AC. When it does though, I get pretty paranoid. I've been considering a similar idea for a fridgidor with a modified thermostat. Theoretically it should rarely cycle, thus not causing a major humidity concern but for a few 85 degree days in the summer.

Ajeroth,

Putting the humidity question aside, what is the value of keeping your cigars cool?

Your kidding right. My wife likes the house to be on the cooler side of hell. Which means baking me alive. And my poor smokes. So I figure if I get the temp and humidity to be level I can let them age without to much difficulty. And I won't have to worry about beetles at temps above 75. Besides I'm military and when I go TDY for three weeks it worrys me to have the wife looking after them.

ajeroth

Ajeroth,

No, I wasn't kidding. I do see your point about latent beetles. That would worry me too and at cool temperatures you're protected from them.

As for where my question came from just consider that Cuba doesn't get cool like a refridgerator. Ideal humidity is supposed to be 70% because that's what it's like in Cuba etc. I would think that temperature would be part of that.

In the 60's there was some kind of fad about cooling cigars in storage. I know that a famous tobacco shop in Chicago (I...R...) was keeping their cigars either cold or frozen. My dad commented to me about it. The problem was that it dried them out which brings me back to my original question why do it? If they're 70% humidified at 50 degrees F they will be drier at room temperature.

A one time freeze will protect you from beetles. Consult this forum for details.

I want to adjust the Fridge to have a temp of 70 degrees and add humidification. I don't want to store them at lower temps... Just trying to keep them at 70 degrees.

ajeroth

I used a Coleman 50 qt thermoelectric cooler and plugged it into a Ranco thermostat used for giant fish tanks. Set it to come on at 70 and shut down at 60. Put some home made credos in and has worked great for more than a year now. The thermoelectric cooling solves the humidity problem you get with frigedoors.

tandem401,

You're right about the Chicago firm. I used to buy from them alot back when I was a pipe smoker, particularly their house blends. Also tried a few cigars from them for variety. They did recommend keeping cigars in the freezer. However, (and I'm really going to date myself now) that was before refrigerators were of the "frost-free" variety. Back then the humidity in a freezer really didn't change. With the frost-free variety the unit periodically heats up (or suspends cooling) to eliminate the build-up of frost. In the process moisture/humidity is extracted from the air in the unit. Unfortunately the moisture/humidity is extracted from the cigars as well. So if cigars, except for relatively short periods of time, are stored in a freezer they will become "bone-dry." Whew........didn't mean to get so long-winded but I haven't thought about IRC in a lot of years. Just my thoughts..............