When I put a unopened box of metal tubed smokes or singles in a glass tube unopened do they require any special treatment in a large humidor? Or will they keep as well as all the others that are in cellophane wrapper? Thanks for any advice Big D
Welcome to the forums..see you're a longtime member, first time poster! Do some searching, some people have had mold problems with metal and glass tubos. If you at least unscrew the cap, that will help...but I'd advise taking them out and storing the tubos nearby. If you put a sealed box/tubo in and never look at it, how do you know it's not moldy or beetle infested? Also, cellophane is to some degree porous...metal and glass probably not as much.
Mold is one of my greatest fears so I take no chances and open everything now. I do still have a few Limitada's in their glass tubes but I can see them, makes me feel a little better, but the rest of the box are naked and happy. When I had some cigars in metal tubes I was opening them up so much I was afraid to damage the wrappers from checking them so off they came. But if one does mold it will be kinda quarantined from the rest in it's tube. I say open them up and let them mingle, you will sleep better too.
I only have one of the glass tubes, it's corked and sealed so I've left it alone. About 98% of the metal tubes I simply removed, the few that I let sleep in the tubes have had the cedar removed. I also remove the cedar sleeve from any cello'ed sticks that are resting.
I pull the tube and cedar sleeve off every cigar period. They are mold magnets. Tubes are not recommended for aging via HSA. Granted, people use the tubo to slow down aging, but I'd rather not risk a long term investment with mold. Just because your humi is 65, doesn't mean that cap and sleeve aren't holding higher rh.
I'm with catfish on this one. I always strip the cedar sleeves off any cigar I receive that has one. I've gone to smoke more than a few cedar sleeved cigars only to find that they were covered in mold. In fact, with one exception, the only cigars I have ever lost to mold were cedar sleeved ones.
Yup^^^^ I had some older partagas tubos that got it. That humi has KL and 62rh boveda, never gets into mold territory. The reality is, we cannot control the inside of a tube, and the cedar wrap if over humidified basically is a sheet of mold spores waiting to happen. Look at all the Camacho Libertys that are mold factories. They're wrapped in paper in cedar coffins...
but, it did have cedar.
i personally have yet to reach the point where i wanna strip the cedar off all my smokes.
I do keep cigars in tubes. those thing are not 100% air tight so RH will change in there especially if you let them sit over time. have yet to have a moldy tube.
again, i seem to be in the minority on this one.
on a semi related note...
i have seen bloom on a cigar only twice from my humidors. one time was from a 2 year old cedar wrapper OpusX (no.4 if i am not mistaken).
the other time was a 3 year old Camacho tipple Maduro.
with the "failure" rate of tubes and cedar and my relatively successful storage, it makes me wonder what i am doing differently from others that i have not ad multiple instances of mold. maybe there is a factor i am overlooking. i feel like i have a fairly standard set-up. Xikar Gel jars or Heartfelt beads supplemented with boveda packs... all 69%. Xikar digital hygrometers. some wood humidors some large plastic containers. i do keep my house cool (around 65-70 all year). iduno. there may be a factor that im missing, but i keep things in the packaging that they come in from the manufacturer.
That is interesting, I have had a few mold issues pop up, some of witch were due to my ignorance, impatience etc, by far the biggest infection was 7 Upmans in cello with a cedar sleeve these were in a 500 ct. humi with an electronic humidifier at 67 rh, nothing else in there sprouted so I believe that the sleeve was the problem. I a few sticks that have Plume, enough that I wonder if it is really that rare? Thanks to Kuzi's an Catfishbluz very informative threads on the topic I am fairly confident I can tell the difference.
I always remove the cedar too myself because it seemed kind of redundant to have my naked cigars in a cedar lined humi with cedar still on them. Not that I know what I'm doing but mold really scares me, and what has been posted here seem's to be the thing to do.
My son stopped in at a cigar shop in Longview and picked up a couple cigars.
He brought them to the house to show me what he bought.
2 tubos, an RP tubo and RyJ tubo. So I asked him if he checked the cigars before he purchased them and he said no.
So I told him he better check them. He checked the RP and it was fine, but when he checked the RyJ, I could tell by the look on his face that it wasn't good.
The RyJ tubo was covered in mold.
Not only is the RyJ in a tubo, but the put a cedar sleeve in it.
In Fumo Pax Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
I've had mold come on a shipment of tubed Brazilias. I was halfway expecting it to be that way. It wasn't too bad but it was widespread. I could have sent them back but I wipped it off and stored them naked and partially segregated in an open ziplock in regular cooler. so far so good.
To my way of thinking the metal tubes are just like an aluminum can. Cold canned beverages sweat. Right? So, at some point, when tubos are exposed to colder air than what is inside the tubes, they'll draw moisture out of the cigar against the inside of the aluminum. Right? So, there's yer trouble. For at least some period of time there could be swamp-like conditions on the wrapper of the cigar. Right?
I pull the tube and cedar sleeve off every cigar period. They are mold magnets. Tubes are not recommended for aging via HSA. Granted, people use the tubo to slow down aging, but I'd rather not risk a long term investment with mold. Just because your humi is 65, doesn't mean that cap and sleeve aren't holding higher rh.
I always remove them from sleeves and tubes. We had a case here a couple years ago where one fella found mold under a sleeve which prompted most everybody to check theirs and turned out quite a few found mold.
I'm a fvckin daredevil and I'm prolly asking for trouble, but I never freeze cigars, never remove cedar, never take a cigar out of a glass tubo and only loosen the caps on metal tubos. I have never had a problem, but I've only been at this a little over a year. There's a first time for everything and the first time I see mold I guarantee my tactics will change.
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but, it did have cedar.
i personally have yet to reach the point where i wanna strip the cedar off all my smokes.
I do keep cigars in tubes. those thing are not 100% air tight so RH will change in there especially if you let them sit over time. have yet to have a moldy tube.
again, i seem to be in the minority on this one.
on a semi related note...
i have seen bloom on a cigar only twice from my humidors. one time was from a 2 year old cedar wrapper OpusX (no.4 if i am not mistaken).
the other time was a 3 year old Camacho tipple Maduro.
with the "failure" rate of tubes and cedar and my relatively successful storage, it makes me wonder what i am doing differently from others that i have not ad multiple instances of mold. maybe there is a factor i am overlooking. i feel like i have a fairly standard set-up. Xikar Gel jars or Heartfelt beads supplemented with boveda packs... all 69%. Xikar digital hygrometers. some wood humidors some large plastic containers.
i do keep my house cool (around 65-70 all year). iduno. there may be a factor that im missing, but i keep things in the packaging that they come in from the manufacturer.
I a few sticks that have Plume, enough that I wonder if it is really that rare? Thanks to Kuzi's an Catfishbluz very informative threads on the topic I am fairly confident I can tell the difference.
He brought them to the house to show me what he bought.
2 tubos, an RP tubo and RyJ tubo. So I asked him if he checked the cigars before he purchased them and he said no.
So I told him he better check them. He checked the RP and it was fine, but when he checked the RyJ, I could tell by the look on his face that it wasn't good.
The RyJ tubo was covered in mold.
Not only is the RyJ in a tubo, but the put a cedar sleeve in it.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
To my way of thinking the metal tubes are just like an aluminum can. Cold canned beverages sweat. Right? So, at some point, when tubos are exposed to colder air than what is inside the tubes, they'll draw moisture out of the cigar against the inside of the aluminum. Right? So, there's yer trouble. For at least some period of time there could be swamp-like conditions on the wrapper of the cigar. Right?
KLMOW Badge 8/2014
Team Trident 2014