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HELP!!! Stinky humidor!!

R_M_GR_M_G Posts: 41 ✭✭
in General Discussion
I went to grab a smoke earlier today, and when I opened my humidor I was nearly knocked off my feet by the stench of an ashtray! I've been renting a room to a friend of mine and he smoked half of a Tabak Especial, one of the espresso infused kind, and liked it so much that he cut the burning part off and put the rest back into the humidor to save for another day! Does anyone know if this has ruined all the rest of the cigars? It's only been in there for two days, will this ash stench go away? Do I need to relocate to a new humidor? Do I need to trash humidor AND contents and stat from scratch?? HELP!
"...and in the evenings the men would be men. We would sit round the fire and share a drink, a smoke and old war stories that oft dealt more with women than war it's self. There were no fathers or sons, bosses nor hands, we were just men sitting round a fire."

Comments

  • mrpillowmrpillow Posts: 464
    Not sure if your smokes are ruined but you should certainly give your fiend five on the head.
  • undulacundulac Posts: 1,129 ✭
    People have died for less than that.
  • doromathdoromath Posts: 576
    Wow, seriuosly uncool..

    I have zero experience in this but so as not to overreact I would take the half stick out (refraining from shoving it down roomate's throat) and get some air moving through my humi just for 1-2 minutes to "clear out" the air already in there. Quickly seal it back up and let the humidity settle down a bit and then give the contents a whiff. Take a cigar out and remove it from the cello to check if it smells like smoke as well.

    If the smell returns just as strong (meaning all your stogies are emitting the ash smell) I'd take more drastic measures and get the smokes out of the humidor and into a bag. Let them sit for maybe 30 minutes open to the air, then seal them up with a humidification device and hygrometer in there. Let the humidity stabilize a bit but then open the bag to give them a quick whif. If they still smell ashy, let them sit open another 30 minutes. Rinse and repeat. Let your humi sit open until you can't smell any ash, then reseason and replace your sticks.

    Just my non-expert opinion, follow any of this with caution.
  • jihiggsjihiggs Posts: 469 ✭✭
    a long time ago, I once accidentally ashed on a few of my sticks in my travel box. I didn't think anything of it and just blew the ash off. I got home having not smoked the cigars I had ashed on and put them back in my humi. the next day i opened it up and the smell of ash was very noticeable, I had to clean my travel box foam with soap and water as well as whipe out the plastic inside. also I had to remove the celo on the affected sticks and move all my cigars out. I thought that just airing it out for a while would get rid of the stench, I never got rid of the smell until I did a little sanding of the humidor. having a partially burned stick left in a humidor will most likely taint the cigars in it. baking soda is really good at absorbing smell from things. I would try that, just sift some backing soda on the cigars in a tuperware and seal it for a couple days. might want to test it on a couple cigars first, I have no idea if there is somthing in the cigar oil that might react with the baking soda, like some kind of acid. you should be able to just wipe the sticks down after that with no ill effects from the baking soda.
  • Smoke=FireSmoke=Fire Posts: 692 ✭✭✭
    And don't forget to beat said "friend" with a small Louisville slugger, so as not to have the momentum slowed down if you happen to brush the ceiling, as happens with larger bats. Preferably aluminum as well, as it makes a nice ringing sound when it contacts the cranium.

    I'm just saying -.-
  • betasynnbetasynn Posts: 1,249 ✭
    Smoke=Fire:
    And don't forget to beat said "friend" with a small Louisville slugger, so as not to have the momentum slowed down if you happen to brush the ceiling, as happens with larger bats. Preferably aluminum as well, as it makes a nice ringing sound when it contacts the cranium.

    I'm just saying -.-
    Or, alternatively, use a block of ice to bash his brains in with. Turn the temperature up, and the evidence will just melt.
  • kaelariakaelaria Posts: 572 ✭
    You have some work ahead of you. It won't air out. The good part is, the sticks will get back to normal after time in a clean humidor, but the tips above are what you need to do ASAP.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    FYI - in addition to baking soda, newspaper is also very good at absorbing smells (weird, ain't it? Got the tip from a firefighter friend of mine); so try sticking some baking soda and/or a few crunched up newspapers in there to absorb the smell

    betasynn:
    Or, alternatively, use a block of ice to bash his brains in with. Turn the temperature up, and the evidence will just melt.
    I hear icicles are good for doing the deed as well

  • Dustin1981Dustin1981 Posts: 412 ✭
    OH and dont forget that the roommate is resposible for all supplies needed for the operation. Also for a few new sticks so you have some while you are waiting for the others to return to normal.
  • R_M_GR_M_G Posts: 41 ✭✭
    Roommate has been beheaded. I'm honestly a little nervous about putting anything ON my cigars, and I'm a little wary of baking soda... won't that pull all the good aromas from the cigars as well?
    "...and in the evenings the men would be men. We would sit round the fire and share a drink, a smoke and old war stories that oft dealt more with women than war it's self. There were no fathers or sons, bosses nor hands, we were just men sitting round a fire."
  • Stryker808Stryker808 Posts: 269 ✭
    I too have no past experiance with this, so take caution....but i would take the sticks out air em out and put em in a nother humi/ziplock/whatevers and wipe the humidore down with a damp cloth and air it out, carefull not to rub it all in. That I would (i think) get rid of most of it. maybe put some newspaper and baking soda (in a dish) in there too while the cigars are out, as mentioned above. give it a few days then reset the humi for a few more days before throwing the sticks back in. I also agree your room-mate owes you a few sticks and a bottle of scotch to pass the time waiting for it all to clear out. good luck and let us know what happens for future reference.
  • doromathdoromath Posts: 576
    Just having your cigars around baking soda for awhile shouldn't do anything to remove that oh-so-delicious scent (BTW Damn good idea IMO jihiggs) from the cigars. It's going to trap the aromatic chemicals that are in the air, not pull them from the cigars. There would be some small "pulling" effect long term just because of how evaporative physics works, but it would probably take a year or so before it made any noticable difference. The baking soda/newspaper is really just going to act as an air filter, cleaning off the ash smell as the cigars and your humi re-emit it.

    I wouldn't be keen on putting it on my stogies either (especially if they're un-cellophaned) but that's probably unnecessary anyways. Just having the baking soda in there exposed to the air (think high surface area) should help.
  • GoldyGoldy Posts: 1,638 ✭✭
    I wouldn't put baking soda ON the sticks. If you want to try the baking soda I would put it in the humi without the sticks inside. I think the sticks should "heal" themselves but the humi needs some work.
  • bigharpoonbigharpoon Posts: 2,963 ✭✭✭
    My heart goes out to you.
  • Russ55Russ55 Posts: 2,765 ✭✭
    That's awful. That roommate needs to be smacked in the head daily until this is resolved. How expensive was the humidor, and how many sticks are we talking about? It might be easier to just replace everything. As the guys above have posted you're in for a lot of work.
  • R_M_GR_M_G Posts: 41 ✭✭
    Fortunately I don't keep too many cigars on hand at any one time, and they were mostly midrange quality, nothing too boutique. Humidor included, it's about a $300 loss. I've moved all the cigars to a tupperware tub with the suggested newspaper and baking soda (i'm not going to give up on them yet!). It looks to me like everything that was in cello AND a tin or box has escaped relatively unharmed, but those were mostly small gage things that are pretty cheep to begin with.. those are being stored separately from the full size sticks, which it saddens me to say, still wreak of ash. It's been really nice here the last few days so I left the humidor open on the back porch to see if it would air out, but it's still completely disgusting. I've started shopping for a new humidor and I've already ordered some replacement cigars (with roommates debit card) so I should soon be back to "normal", but I'm going to see if I can save any of the previous collection just for reference in case this happens to anyone else and just for the challenge of it! And if you were wondering, no, this is not covered under homeowners insurance... I checked. I should've bought idiot insurance.
    "...and in the evenings the men would be men. We would sit round the fire and share a drink, a smoke and old war stories that oft dealt more with women than war it's self. There were no fathers or sons, bosses nor hands, we were just men sitting round a fire."
  • cabinetmakercabinetmaker Posts: 2,560 ✭✭
    I would put "said nub" under your roomate's pillow, along with the contents of a full ashtray.

    A new humidor seasoned and ready to go should be purchased by your (ex?)roomate for you to transfer all your sticks to, and he can have the stinky one.
  • cabinetmakercabinetmaker Posts: 2,560 ✭✭
    cabinetmaker:
    I would put "said nub" under your roomate's pillow, along with the contents of a full ashtray.

    A new humidor seasoned and ready to go should be purchased by your (ex?)roomate for you to transfer all your sticks to, and he can have the stinky one.
    Speaking of which, pick a number for a chance to win a free one, lol.... Shameless plug there...
  • bernard_busbernard_bus Posts: 18
    Time for a new roomie. This story made me shake my head a few times. Goooood luck!
  • FourtotheflushFourtotheflush Posts: 2,555 ✭
    sorry dude, let us know how it turns out and what you did to fix it.
  • R_M_GR_M_G Posts: 41 ✭✭
    The humidor may be saved! It's been sitting outside in the breeze for two days, and tonight when I got home I checked and it actually smelled more like cedar than ash! I took some fine grain sandpaper and went over the interior to get some action out of the cedar then started the conditioning process as if it were new... At last inspection it was holding pretty steady on the humidity and I couldn't detect any ash smell over the cedar! The cigars are still in the ICU. Definitely still smell like ash, but every time I remove the newspaper it also smells like ash, so it IS definitely pulling stuff out of the air... we'll see if it can pull enough to save the stogies!! Thanks for all the advice & sympathies!
    "...and in the evenings the men would be men. We would sit round the fire and share a drink, a smoke and old war stories that oft dealt more with women than war it's self. There were no fathers or sons, bosses nor hands, we were just men sitting round a fire."
  • R_M_GR_M_G Posts: 41 ✭✭
    Well, after much effort and a few four letter words I've abandoned the "save the humi" project... I made Roommate buy the stinky humidor from me so that he never has to use mine again. I'm hanging onto the 20 or so sticks that were contaminated, keeping them in a tuppordor with newspaper to continue filtering stuff out and these are now the cigars for the mooches who show up and want to smoke my smokes and drink all my wine! ...they wont know the difference anyway! It's a shame, it's the first and only humidor I've ever had... *sniff*... Oh well, time to move on up anyway!
    "...and in the evenings the men would be men. We would sit round the fire and share a drink, a smoke and old war stories that oft dealt more with women than war it's self. There were no fathers or sons, bosses nor hands, we were just men sitting round a fire."
  • KCWKCW Posts: 1,334 ✭✭✭
    R_M_G:
    Well, after much effort and a few four letter words I've abandoned the "save the humi" project... I made Roommate buy the stinky humidor from me so that he never has to use mine again. I'm hanging onto the 20 or so sticks that were contaminated, keeping them in a tuppordor with newspaper to continue filtering stuff out and these are now the cigars for the mooches who show up and want to smoke my smokes and drink all my wine! ...they wont know the difference anyway! It's a shame, it's the first and only humidor I've ever had... *sniff*... Oh well, time to move on up anyway!
    You'll be better off. Get a Humi with a lock & key.. Hide the key..
  • Sandman1amSandman1am Posts: 2,567
    KCW:
    R_M_G:
    Well, after much effort and a few four letter words I've abandoned the "save the humi" project... I made Roommate buy the stinky humidor from me so that he never has to use mine again. I'm hanging onto the 20 or so sticks that were contaminated, keeping them in a tuppordor with newspaper to continue filtering stuff out and these are now the cigars for the mooches who show up and want to smoke my smokes and drink all my wine! ...they wont know the difference anyway! It's a shame, it's the first and only humidor I've ever had... *sniff*... Oh well, time to move on up anyway!
    You'll be better off. Get a Humi with a lock & key.. Hide the key..
    Go big or go home get a cabinet....one with a lock.
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