Humidor temperature

[cigarmo]

So RH is often discussed and debated on, and we all know that if the temperature is too high the little beasties may eat your prized collection of cigars. But what about low temperatures?

i have realised that the temp in the room where I keep all of my humis is cold actually very cold, the RH in all my humis is good. I could move them to a warmer room but the warm rooms will have large temp swings.

so does storing cigars to cold do them any harm, any thoughts ?

[ValeTudoGuy]

I can't find where I read it but If I recall correctly anywhere between 12-18c is good for long term storage... The lower on that scale supposedly the slower they will age.

I don't see any reason with the right humidity why below 12c but still into +C would harm them, especially if it's only sporadically.

I'm sure someone (rascal ) will be along to put me straight though.

[Simon Bolivar]

I know nothing about the science but I believe the lower the temp the less water in the atmosphere, so at cold temps you cigars will be drier. I have noted this myself as the Cave is kept in a small box room with no direct source of heat. Luckily this mild (so far )winter hasn't caused a problem but last yr wasn't good. If you haven't noticed a problem Mo then I wouldn't worry, I agree swings of temp can be more damaging.

[ValeTudoGuy]

image.jpg(Graph shamefully plucked from Wikipedia) however it's data is backed up by many other graphs but this one is pretty simple and clear.

If you look between 10-20c you will notice that the actual amount of water vapour only has a small difference which suggests to me that at these temperatures there is nothing to worry about.

Edit: especially with the volumes of air we are talking about in even large humidors.

[butternutsquashpie]

keep in mind TWO things when keeping RT below room (ambient) temperature:
1. Uneven distribution of humidity due to both the 'drip' effect and to the fact that more humid air = heavier air, so it falls:
the drip effect is basically condensation that will move microscopic liquid water towards the bottom
the latter is self explanatorily true. humid air tends to hug the ground when kept in a closed system so sticks at the bottom will exhibit more humidity than the ones to the top. ESPECIALLY when most humidification systems are located on the bottom of humidors.
put that into practice with my mate's 3000ct coolidor at 15 deg centigrade and it causes quite the large difference with the bottom at 82% sometimes and the top at 70% (when his fans aren't blowing)

However, during the blackout when the humidor was the same temperature as the outside world. it wasn't such a large difference..... oddly......... probably because colder damper air causes it to sink and create colder and damper air dragging it all down in a repetitive cycle. that's the best hypothesis on that i can formulate

2. Inability for cigars to lose precious oils and solvents in cold temperatures
now i honestly don't know the effects of these. i just typed out half a paragraph on how cigars would age slowly in cold climates but i thought about the higher water and oil content in that case and it may not be true. colder air means denser air. denser air (assuming at the same RH) means more tightly packed oxygen and water in the air which should speed up the process of removing soluble, low- boiling gases and liquid in the cigars. this all poitns to the cigar losing ammonia and nicotine faster and ageing faster.. but the oils (high boiling solvents) should actually stay around the same amount but might plume easier
the plume is wildly detected on the bottom of my mate's 82% cigars. and yes: white powdered plume, NOT white blotted mould.

aaaaaaah, this is just like physical chemistry all over again.. the good days