im building a coolidor
Big T smokes
Everyone, Registered Users Posts: 211
in Cigar 101
I've been reading up on the joys (and inexpensiveness) of a coolidor and I think I wish to persue one myself.
Here's my battle plan: 1) buy a 70-qt cooler. Here's one I had in mind: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-70-Quart-Xtreme-Cooler/4807332
2) Buy 1 lb of 65% RH beads. If I did my math correctly then 70 quarts equals a little under 3 cubic feet. The pound of beads humidifies up to 5 so I think I'll just go with the pound. http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/proddetail.asp?prod=HB_1_65
3) I plan on putting the beads into a stocking and just using a lil bit of velcro tape. http://www.amazon.com/Sticky-Back-Industrial-Tape-Inch-Black/dp/B00006IC2T/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1277160532&sr=1-2-spell
4) Attach a humi-care hygrometer purchased from cigars.com to the lid.
And I should have myself a cheap, working collidor. There's some debate on using spanish cedar or not. I think what I intend to do is buy a few empty cigar boxes if I can and just keep my cigars in those instead of glueing wall - to - wall cedar. I dunno, it'll depend on If I can find the cedar or not. I might just have to get the cigar boxes the old fashioned way---- buying boxes of cigars.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
Here's my battle plan: 1) buy a 70-qt cooler. Here's one I had in mind: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-70-Quart-Xtreme-Cooler/4807332
2) Buy 1 lb of 65% RH beads. If I did my math correctly then 70 quarts equals a little under 3 cubic feet. The pound of beads humidifies up to 5 so I think I'll just go with the pound. http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/proddetail.asp?prod=HB_1_65
3) I plan on putting the beads into a stocking and just using a lil bit of velcro tape. http://www.amazon.com/Sticky-Back-Industrial-Tape-Inch-Black/dp/B00006IC2T/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1277160532&sr=1-2-spell
4) Attach a humi-care hygrometer purchased from cigars.com to the lid.
And I should have myself a cheap, working collidor. There's some debate on using spanish cedar or not. I think what I intend to do is buy a few empty cigar boxes if I can and just keep my cigars in those instead of glueing wall - to - wall cedar. I dunno, it'll depend on If I can find the cedar or not. I might just have to get the cigar boxes the old fashioned way---- buying boxes of cigars.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
Comments
Worst case scenario there are empty trays for sale out there like these:
http://www.bargainhumidors.com/bh/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=ACC-TRAYS
I might use something like that.
Coolidor progress:
I bought a bigger cooler today at Walmart because it was more economical. The 75 Quart one was $45 and the 150 QT cooler was $52. Can't have too many cigars right? So I went with the 150 qt.
I also picked up a digital hygrometer from there for about $7. I am going to do the salt test to see how accurate it is, but I've been told it'll do the trick especially if I'm using humidity beads.
I also got a ton of cigar boxes. The guy at my B&M where I bought my humidor was asking $5 for EMTPIES. They must have been quite big I dunno. I said screw it, and called around. I live somewhat near one of the Holt's cigar stores and I called them up and they said they would give me a couple if I stopped in. So I just HAD to pick up a couple Ashton 8-9-8 while I was there... holy crap is it a great mild! And in the process they gave me about 20 emtpies for free!!
So I washed out my cooler with a little bit of mild dish detergent really well, dried it, and I'm leaving it open on it's side to air out a bit. I wiped down the cedar empty cigar boxes to give a little moisture and just to wash them out a bit with some distilled water. Once I get my beads in the mail I'll be ready to rock n roll. I'll simply put the beads on either side at the bottom and stack up cigars in my boxes. I'm hoping to have this thing cigar-ready within a week from today.
Here's the grand total of money spent doing the project:
150 qt Cooler - $52 (on sale at Walmart)
2lbs of Humidity Beads - $40 (includes shipping)
Hygrometer ($7 at Walmart)
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Springfield-Digital-Indoor-Thermometer-with-Hygrometer/10671021?adid=1500000000000012981640
Velcro Tape ($4 at Micheals)
Empty Boxes (Free at a local B&M)
Grand Total: $103 for a humidor that has the potential to hold around 1000 cigars if I so choose.
Here's how I did it:
Step 1 - I got a Cooler at Walmart. For now, I'm keeping it as is, I checked the seal to make sure the air pops out of it nice and that it's an airtight seal. The only thing I did to the cooler itself was wash it out with some mild dish detergent and some distilled water with a clean dishrag. I wouldn't skip that part because alot of times the factory puts preservative chemicals on the cooler plus it just had an unpleasant plastic smell. Then I took another clean dishrag, and rinsed it again a few hours later with JUST distilled water just to get any extra scents and everything off. I dried it with some papertowel.
Step 2 - I took a drill to the back of my hygrometer to open up the vents a little bit. You don't have to do this especially if you get a nice hygrometer. I'm cheap and a buddy bought the $7 hygrometer before and told me it works fine, plus I like to bust out my drill, so all you have to do is unscrew the back of it carefully and you'll have a piece with all of the elctronics in it and a piece that is all plastic and has a tiny slot in it. That's supposed to be your ventilation. I simply drilled a few holes into the back of that sucker to get some nice ventilation and put it back together again. Very easy to do and well worth my time as I got a much more accurate reading because of it. The original slits would have been covered by the velcro tape and they were too tiny anyway.
This image shows the two pieces. I drilled the extra holes in the back of the hygrometer on the plastic part. DO NOT DO ANYTHING WITH THE ELECTRONICS! It's a flimsy device so I would not recommend even touching the other part of this. Once I drilled the holes, I screwed the back on and was done. I attached the hygrometer to the lid with some velcro tape. There's a piece of metal that would stand it up on a flat surface, I removed it with pliers but that was just personal preference.
Step 3 - I got empty cigar boxes from a local B&M. The first few I went to wouldn't even sell them to me (except one... he wanted to charge me $5 a piece!! eff that!). I called around and one said they'd give me boxes if I stopped in. Being a cigar smoker I had to be gentlemanly and of course pick up a few sticks (my favorite part of this whole process-- Ashton 8-9-8s very nice mild cigars) and I walked out with a giant bag of empty cigar boxes.
Step 4 - I took the lids off of my cigar boxes with a screwdriver and some needlenose pliers. I also took out any inserts and things of the sort. The lidless, empty boxes are all the spanish cedar I needed in my coolider. This way, I can seperate certain brands and flavors if I want to, and the humidity has something to stick too. Some people don't put any cedar in their coolidors at all, others go wall-to-wall with it. I chose this route. I had originally planned to break them up and glue the cedar to the side of the coolidor, but I thought it would look tacky and it would also be dangerous. Spanish cedar breaks up into very tiny particles that get into your airway, and possibly are carcinogenic. So working with it, especially indoors, is not reccomended.
Step 5 - I added 1/2 lb bags of humidity beads- 4 of them: one in each corner of the cooler. As my coolidor gets bigger and I add more layers and shelves to it, I will probably take two bags and attach them to the lid (perhaps with the velcro tape). I did the calculation and assuming my math is right, 150 qts needed about 1.7 lbs of beads. I decided to go a little higher rather than a little lower because 1) it's alot of cigars (eventually) and 2) it's better to go higher than lower with humidity beads for RH % purposes.
Next, I added some cigars and I had a coolidor!!! I laid it out in detail exactly how I did it. It may seem wordy but I assure you, it was one afternoon's worth of work and well worth it in my opinion. As of now, with just 6 empty boxes in there I estimate that it can hold 150 sticks in the assorted boxes. Plus, if I buya box if cigars I can just stick 'em right int he coolidor. There's plenty of room. In time, I plan to add shelves to it somehow so I can add more layers. I might be able to get around that by stacking the boxes in such a way that I'll be able to get humidity to the lower row of boxes as well as the top row. Who knows? It's still a work in progress but that's my coolidor and that's how I did it! Any criticisms and comments are fully welcome!
Hydrating my beads for the past couple days will throw em in and take pics tonight
Soaked em in distilled water in tuperware for 3 days.
As far as if beads or KL being better, don't think one is, just preference from what I've seen around here, also the KL is WAY cheaper for a lot more of it, there's a nice post here from Catfish that explains using KL/beads as well as another post on the "Right" kinds of KL to use
Catfish: How to season/re season...
This one took a bit of digging to find ...
Good cat litter & bad cat litter list
I am currently using 2lbs of 65rh beads (4 each 1/2lb stocking bags) per wineador with 6 each 65rh boveda packs in each one also, It's been just about 7-8 months now and all is great, still using the same boveda packs also & they keep right at 3/4 full all the time, I dip the beads in a bowl of distilled water then let drain for a few seconds once a month (there opened every day), But if/when I ever have trouble with/need to replace the beads I'm going to try the KL way Catfish talked about by using a USPS Tyvek shipping envelope and probably stick with 2lbs as well at the bottom shelf
Also cant justify $$$ for the custom fit Spanish cedar drawers yet so I just use cigar boxes taken apart, using the top & bottom for individual shelf trays to hold the sticks
http://t.petco.com/product/7363/Petcetera-Filter-Lifeguard-Bags.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch