Maintaining PMC at Slightly Higher Temp ?

[Socrates]

Hi Guys,

First off, just want to say I am a relatively new member and have hardly posted anything so far....but I have been reading lots of posts especially related to cigar storage and climatology per @PigFish and am really enjoying the forums. I hope I am posting this question in the right forum. If not, please let me know.

I have a Newair 1500 and store my most prized cigars in the middle two shelves, where I am able to maintain pretty steady 68F and 65%RH (with a bit of fluctuation). At these settings my cigars are smoking great and pretty much pull them out and smoke them and enjoy them. At these settings I don't know what the % moisture content in cigars actually is (PMC)...but whatever it is I am happy with it.

My question is this:

My house is getting a a lot warmer these days ( I live in the Caribbean) and my Newair runs very frequently to maintain 68F inside.

If I wanted to increase my temp inside the Newair to say 70F....how much should I increase my %RH (you can set this on the newair) to achieve an equivalent PMC as to what I have now.

In other words, strictly in terms of PMC inside my cigars,  70F and what %X rh  will qive me the same PMC based as I have now at 68F and 65% RH ?

@PigFish or others based on your experience....what do you think ?

Any advice appreciated ? 

 

Thanks!

Phil

[NeoGeo]

Interesting to see people's take on this and if a couple degrees difference would warrant a different approach to RH maintenance. Are you finding your top/bottom shelves to be less consistent than the middle two, or is it just preference for accessibility?

[Socrates]

Hi Neo,

Yes, the top shelf runs about 1F warmer and about 3% less humidity...so any cigars I keep up there definitely end up a little drier than I like...and the bottom same temp as the middle two shelves and around 1% rh lower. Not bad and I do keep my less expensive cigars (e.g NUBs  down there).  But all this is just the nature of the stock Newair 1500 unit and the way it works (I know people modify them with fans and adjust airflows etc...but I really don't fancy getting into all that). So...I keep 80% of my cigars just in the middle two shelves and some on the bottom...and only use the top shelf if I want to maybe dry out a cigar for a few days before I smoke it. Usually I just pull out a cigar and light it 95% of the time lol.

My main reasoning for thinking about increasing the temp inside the unit up to 70F is only for it to run a bit less often. So am wondering if I do that maybe I need to increase RH up 2% or so ? in order to achieve that same cigar PMC ?  

 

Phil

 

[Socrates]

Thought about this a bit more...and I am probably just over-thinking this too much

Since I am happy with the moisture content of my cigars at 68F and 65%rh, I set my Newair 1500 to 70F (so it does not need to crank as often) and 66% RH and I'll see how things are after a month. It will probably get me to about the same PMC, and I probably won't notice any difference when I'm smoking them!

 

[traveller]

The higher the temperature the more water the air can hold at the same RH % so you should be lowering your desired RH if you are increasing temperature, as I understand it.

[SUP8333]

On 6/24/2024 at 7:46 PM, traveller said:

The higher the temperature the more water the air can hold at the same RH % so you should be lowering your desired RH if you are increasing temperature, as I understand it.

This, I am happy at 69/66. Seems to hold nicely.

[Socrates]

Just as a follow up to my original post...

I ended up changing my temp/humidity controlled cigar humidor from : 68F / 65% RH  to: 70F / 64% RH and after only 5 weeks I sampled different cigars from different boxes and have noticed some very positive changes when smoking outdoors in my tropical environment.

- ever so slightly drier feel to the cigar...slightly more firm

- much improved burn...a lot more even even and no touchups or relights!

Hard to believe that such a small change can really improve the smoking experience. Just raising the temp by 2 F and a 1% drop in RH pulled just enough moisture out of my cigars so they smoke a lot better for me!