Setting up coolerdor
We're doing some budget retweaking and I may not be doing much cigar buying after the summer. So I wanna keep some boxes of my favs around but don't have the funds to buy a really big humi, so I'm doing a coolerdor. My question is this: do you need to season something like that or just throw in some humidification with the cigars and leave it? I'm going with the Coleman 25 qt Party Stacker cuz that will hold what I know I'm going to be storing, if that helps.
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If that STILL doesnt get the smell out, here's a trick - gently crumple up some newspapers, enough to fill the thing, close the lid and leave it for a couple days. Something about the type of paper newspapers are printed on makes it absorb scents like a mofo, and will suck the plastic stink right out.
Then the good stuff - beads, calibrated digital hygro and GARS!!! Also, remember to open it every couple days to circulate some fresh air in. If the cooler has a drain plug at the bottom, leaving it open will accomplish the same thing, just make sure it doesnt have a negative effect on the RH.
Hope this helped. :-)
When I set 'em up, I washed them out with mild dish soap, and once dry I put a dish of baking soda in there for a day or so to remove smells. There are too many cats and animals around here for me to feel comfortable with leaving it outside, and all newspaper did for me was make it smell like newspaper. That being said, some people swear by newspaper so I wouldn't discount it.
As far as seasoning goes, if you're putting unseasoned cedar in there, I'd add the wood, and whatever humidity device you're going to use along with a calibrated hygro and give the wood some time before adding cigars. The principal is still the same. You don't want dry wood sucking the moisture out of your sticks. If you're putting wood in there that's already seasoned, I'd just add it after the smells of the cooler are gone. I bought trays for one of mine, so those I seasoned first. The other cooler I just added boxes that were already humidified, so no seasoning process there. Hope that helps.
If not, move them to the coolest area of your house and make sure they are not in direct sunlight, this will help a lot too.
If you move a wooden humidor next to an A/C unit or air vent though, make sure you keep an eye on the RH. The constant air movement may dry out the wood faster than normal, so just keep an eye on your humidifiers.
I've done both; I don't think it makes much of a difference since the Spanish cedar boxes will "breathe". However the "closed" boxes in my humi all have their own hydro-pillow in them. I don't know if it does much but it makes me feel better about keeping the boxes "closed". I recharge the pillows about every 1.5 months and have never had a problem.
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