Archive for the ‘beads’ Category

Coolidor

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

While I have a good amount of humidor storage, which you can view HERE, I recently found myself needing a place to store boxes of cigars. This is when I decided it was time to use a coolidor. After viewing a tutorial by Walt from Stogie Review, I was armed with enough information to get started.

What is a coolidor? Why would you want to use one? It is simply using a cooler as a place to store cigars. While it isn’t as pleasant to look at as a traditional humidor, it does get the job done efficiently and affordably. Another advantage is that coolers offer a tight seal and minimize temperature swings.

1_Coolidor

I went with a Coleman Xtreme 50 quart wheeled cooler for $35.00. I chose one with wheels since I don’t really have a permanent place for the cooler. It will probably be moved from one part of the house to the next, depending on the circumstances. Otherwise, I would skip a cooler with wheels.

The dimensions, in inches, are: Length-25, width-16.5, and height-16.6. This is enough space for quite a few boxes of cigars.

After purchasing the cooler, I found that it had a strong odor of plastic. All it took was a few drops of Ivory dish detergent and a scrub down of the interior. I thoroughly rinsed out all traces of soap after scrubbing for a few minutes. This got rid of every last bit of the plastic, new cooler smell. Once everything was dried out, the cooler was ready for cigars.

2_Coolidor

What about humidity control? Easy… I went to Heartfelt Industries and used their calculator. I entered the dimensions of the cooler, and knew how many beads I would need. I chose to use a pound of 65% beads. I split them into two 1/2 pound bags, which are placed on each side of the cooler. You can purchase empty mesh bags on their site, or use pantyhose. I went with the bags available from Heartfelt. In the end I spent around $35.00 for humidification.

3_Coolidor

I already had cigar boxes (loaded with cigars) ready to go. So it was simply a matter of placing them in the cooler, along with the beads. Everything equalized quickly, and I was holding a steady 65-68% humidity in the tightly sealed cooler within a day.

I am using more beads then I need to, which never hurts, and I won’t be using a hygrometer. I’ve been using Heartfelt beads for years, and simply don’t need to constantly check up on humidity levels. I do spot checks from time to time, but the beads haven’t let me down yet. There are other methods available, which you can read about here.

If the cigar boxes were dried out, I would have probably “Seasoned” them by wiping them down with a slightly damp cloth. Distilled water only of course. Fortunately, I didn’t need to take that step.

4_Coolidor

And there you have it. A quick and cheap means to store a lot of cigars. Some people go with mounting a hygrometer, cedar linings, and a place for beads. While nothing beats a traditional Spanish cedar humidor, I just needed something functional and nothing more, and this did the trick.

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