Couple Coolidor Questions

[Ethan]

Guys

Do you normally wipe down your cedar trays and empty boxes lightly with distilled water before adding them to your new coolidor? Do you let the coolidor come up to humidity before adding in all your sticks?

Most of my sticks have cello on them but some of the more expensive ones dont. What do i need to do to ensure I never have any mold problems?

I have 2 mesh bags that I was gonna put 1/2 pound of heartfelt 65% beads inside each bag to give me 1 pound total. Should i just put them both in the bottom of the cooler? Does it really matter where they are?

 

[Robertsndr68]

My .02 would be that it's going to be hard to get your cooler to the right rh without your sticks in it

 

[Donk]

question 1. how big is cooler?
question 2. how many boxes are going in your cooler?

If you only have a couple of boxes you will have a really hard time maintaining humidity, if you have enough boxes to basically fill the cooler you will have an easier time maintaining humidity.

As towards prepping the cooler, wipe down any empty boxes with distilled water, it will add a little bit of humidity but also you want to keep everything clean.

How many trays of cigars do you plan on using? If it is several I'd wait till the humidity is at least stable in your ball park area. then add your sticks and continue to adjust humidity until its in the zone you like.
you might need more beads or less or even all your beads and a couple humi packs for a while. It takes a bit of time to dial in a cooler or wine cooler. But when you get it dialed in there are very few issues after that.

Need more help, give me a shout.

 

[Ethan]

question 1. how big is cooler?
question 2. how many boxes are going in your cooler?

If you only have a couple of boxes you will have a really hard time maintaining humidity, if you have enough boxes to basically fill the cooler you will have an easier time maintaining humidity.

As towards prepping the cooler, wipe down any empty boxes with distilled water, it will add a little bit of humidity but also you want to keep everything clean.

How many trays of cigars do you plan on using? If it is several I'd wait till the humidity is at least stable in your ball park area. then add your sticks and continue to adjust humidity until its in the zone you like.
you might need more beads or less or even all your beads and a couple humi packs for a while. It takes a bit of time to dial in a cooler or wine cooler. But when you get it dialed in there are very few issues after that.

Need more help, give me a shout.

Cooler is a Coleman 75 qt. I have 4 cedar trays along with 3 cube empty cigar boxes and 1 regular flat cigar box to go in it. The cube boxes are definitely on the smaller side

Sounds like I should get more boxes to fill this thing. They should be all wood right? Not varnished or like the black rocky Patel boxes correct?

 

[BrittS88]

question 1. how big is cooler?
question 2. how many boxes are going in your cooler?

If you only have a couple of boxes you will have a really hard time maintaining humidity, if you have enough boxes to basically fill the cooler you will have an easier time maintaining humidity.

As towards prepping the cooler, wipe down any empty boxes with distilled water, it will add a little bit of humidity but also you want to keep everything clean.

How many trays of cigars do you plan on using? If it is several I'd wait till the humidity is at least stable in your ball park area. then add your sticks and continue to adjust humidity until its in the zone you like.
you might need more beads or less or even all your beads and a couple humi packs for a while. It takes a bit of time to dial in a cooler or wine cooler. But when you get it dialed in there are very few issues after that.

Need more help, give me a shout.

This is good advice. Also for me I spread out my beads. Some in the corners some in the middle. I don't know if it matters but its how I saw it done so it's how I do it. Like Donk said. Empty space is your enemy in a coolidor. The fuller it is the better off you are.

-Britt

 

[Donk]

They should be all wood right? Not varnished or like the black rocky Patel boxes correct?

When it comes to just filling up empty space it doesn't really matter, I have some nice Opus X boxes and some Ashton ESG boxes. Varnished boxes are just as good as non varnished. Remember if the boxes are good enough for Fuente or Patel to put their cigars in they are good enough for me too. So yes pick up some empty boxes and stuff your coolidor. Plus it also adds to the nice cedar smell when you open it up. As you add more full boxes remove your empties or use some of the empties as single stick storage too.

 

[StogieNinja]

You definitely want to season the cedar in the coolidor first.

1.Wipe the boxes and trays down with distilled water, then get an unused sponge fresh from the store, soak it, and put it in a plate inside the coolidor. The wood is one of the main stabilizers in there (second only to your sticks) so you want the dry thirsty wood to absorb as much water as necessary to accomplish this.

2. I'd say give it three days with the lid shut, then check. If you're above 70% you should be good.

3. Put the beads in completely dry, close the lid and wait another two days. When you open the lid, you should be at 65%.


If you're using a Lb of beads in a 70Qt, you should be done to just put them anywhere.