Coleman Cooler

christian1971

Wife bought me a 48 qt coleman cooler. It contains 50 cigars. Will two 65% boveda packets be enough?

Bob Luken

christian1971:

Wife bought me a 48 qt coleman cooler. It contains 50 cigars. Will two 65% boveda packets be enough?

Well, it might work but I'd want more than two. Maybe four would be better. However, your hygrometer will be more useful than my opinion in deciding how many you really need

SleevePlz

Are the cigars in boxes? How many? The big issue would be if the cooler is mostly empty. You need stuff in there to help maintain the humidity, especially after opening it up.

CharlieHeis

I am next door to you in SD and with our humidity as high as its been, you'll probably be ok. Be sure to have some extras on hand for the winter. Search for the kitty litter thread, you may want to consider this option in the future. That is what most guys use for their coolidors. Very easy and much cheaper than boveda.
Edit: you may want to search for coolidor as well.

Cigary

The more cigars you have in there the better and use cedar from cigar boxes/trays/cedar sheets as well as this helps keep the RH balanced. KL does a great job of keeping RH where you want it.

raisindot

Okay, I know there are many discussions of coolers here but I'm too lazy to search through them all, so can I just ask: Is there an advantage that a cooler provides over a traditional wood humidor? Or is just another way to store stogies?

avengethis

Coolers have a very good seal and provide a cheap way of storing larger quantities of cigars. They hold their humidity very well. I am pricing out my cooler setup now and to do a 70 qt with buying some cedar trays for singles and heartfelt beads im about $100. You cannot find a wood humidor that will store the same amount the cooler will for anything close to that price.

rsherman24

You may get into a cooler for the price and storage, but you will soon love it for stability. My wood humidors look nice, but the RH drops in the winter and rises in the summer. Constantly chasing that 65 number it seems. Two of the small Plano utility boxes with holes drilled in the top each hold a pound of kitty litter and it stays within 1-2 degrees RH. I use stackable containers from wally world that look like little milk crates. Hold probably 75 singles each and then stack the boxes like tetris. I tried the cedar trays, but was not a big fan.

avengethis

Can you post a pic of the containers you are using? I wanted the cedar more for the aroma and some of the flavoring from aging. I see them being a pain in the rear to stack and keep them stacked and not slide into each other ruining sticks.

CharlieHeis

avengethis:

Can you post a pic of the containers you are using? I wanted the cedar more for the aroma and some of the flavoring from aging. I see them being a pain in the rear to stack and keep them stacked and not slide into each other ruining sticks.

I would, but I haven't got them yet. Ordered cedar trays seven weeks ago and still haven't received them. But I knew going in it takes forever. Check wineadors.com if I didn't already scare you off.

avengethis

I was asking Sherman what he is using. I would get trays from cheaphumidors.com.

rsherman24

I think ther are $2 and hold 50 sticks at least

Bob Luken

Speaking of cheaphumidors.com I ordered some of their cheap ($10.99? plus shipping) cedar trays and it worked out pretty good. They do stack but they don't interlock so if you use them in a large cooler they might not be as practical or cost effective as stackable plastic trays. But I used five of them in one small 28 quart cooler for singles. It has a great aroma There's just enough room for the five trays. Right now I have 185 loose sticks of various vitolas inside. (But a bunch of churchills in the mix for some reason so maybe if there were a few more robustos you could get 200 sticks in there.) As far as bang for your buck? I probably would not do it again. The cedar aroma is a very nice part of the ritual involved in selecting your next smoke, but IMHO it does not enhance the flavor to a large degree and if I was going for value storage in a cooler, I'd stick with plastic trays and use cedar sheets placed loose along the bottom and sides of the cooler or use broken up cedar cigar boxes in the same way if I wanted that cedar smell.

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