The Half Ashed Cigar Forum

Just to interject ... the Boveda packs can be recharge by placing the dried out packs in a sealed container with an open jar/tray of water. I rotate about 6 packs regularly (purchased a pack of 12) and have not had any issues for over 2 years. I do use distilled water in the tray just to try to keep down chances of bacteria and mold.

jledou wrote:Just to interject ... the Boveda packs can be recharge by placing the dried out packs in a sealed container with an open jar/tray of water. I rotate about 6 packs regularly (purchased a pack of 12) and have not had any issues for over 2 years. I do use distilled water in the tray just to try to keep down chances of bacteria and mold.

A little more clunky than recharging the beads but at least it's possible. I was unaware of this.

I've always wondered if the "seal" on the Coolidor is good enough? seeing coolers at Walmart, I'm really rather skeptical about that but maybe I'm not that well informed lol, but wouldn't the beads and boveda work against each other if you used them together? IF I was doing a Coolidor I'd use beads exclusively and use boveda for a small humidor, BUT I can see myself having a Coolidor in a few months because there is one specific website I go to and well, it's a bit addicting buying 5 packs and such, I'd like to hear what Kip & Craig think about coolidors and listen to their opinions

Coronaboy62 wrote:I've always wondered if the "seal" on the Coolidor is good enough? seeing coolers at Walmart, I'm really rather skeptical about that but maybe I'm not that well informed lol, but wouldn't the beads and boveda work against each other if you used them together? IF I was doing a Coolidor I'd use beads exclusively and use boveda for a small humidor, BUT I can see myself having a Coolidor in a few months because there is one specific website I go to and well, it's a bit addicting buying 5 packs and such, I'd like to hear what Kip & Craig think about coolidors and listen to their opinions

1.) Welcome! Glad to have you around....you should stop getting the notifications about your posts being approved now. One of the many spam-fighting measures is that all new members' first few posts are moderated.

2.) Your question depends greatly on the cooler. A coolidor, much like any other humidor, needs a good seal. Some coolers are much better at this than others. I like the soft, rubber seals best. As for the beads/Boveda thing...that also depends on the items in play. If you have 65% beads and 72% Boveda, yes - they'll fight until one is dead. If you have matching rH products, they may still fight, because they may not both be at the same accuracy. I think either is a usable product, but I use beads. I bought Heartfelt beads many years ago (gotta be going on 8+ years at this point). They were in the game early on, so I paid more than you can find the same for today, but I can't complain after all these years. They work both ways - if it's too damp, they absorb moisture; too dry and they release whatever they're holding. I personally use the 65%, although the Dominican environment kinda does its own thing. I haven't done anything to my humidor in the 18 months we've been here...not even a drop has been added to it. Until the recent rains, everything stayed perfect. Lately, the rH has been creeping up.

Coronaboy62 wrote:I've always wondered if the "seal" on the Coolidor is good enough? seeing coolers at Walmart, I'm really rather skeptical about that but maybe I'm not that well informed lol, but wouldn't the beads and boveda work against each other if you used them together? IF I was doing a Coolidor I'd use beads exclusively and use boveda for a small humidor, BUT I can see myself having a Coolidor in a few months because there is one specific website I go to and well, it's a bit addicting buying 5 packs and such, I'd like to hear what Kip & Craig think about coolidors and listen to their opinions

I'm in the minority with my cigar storage thoughts I think. While I think that a seal is somewhat important, I think the most important thing is that your coolidor be around 80% full. Cigars (tobacco, to be more correct) are hygroscopic. They will act like a little humidifier, absorbing and releasing humidity environmentally. Assuming your humidor is in a stable temperature year round and also assuming that you don't open it a whole ton, I don't think seal is incredibly important. If you've got an 1/8" gap around a foot of your cooler, that's 1-1/2 square inches of opening. That's really nothing. Your cigars all hold humidity, your humidifier holds humidity, there's no air movement within your humidor, there's little convection occurring after you stop changing the humidity or temperature levels. You'll have next to ZERO air exchange between the two environments. The cooler will keep itself stable. There's no doubt in my mind. There's much more humidity than "plain" air and if you don't exchange that air because of opening it too often, it will quickly balance and go stable. I also tend to think that a slightly less than perfect seal can help prevent mustiness. That's just an anectodal thought but I believe it to be a sound hypothesis scientifically.

Buy a cooler with foodsafe interior. Fill it with a lot of cigars and cedar boxes. Don't open it to gaze at your collection. Keep it in a stable temperature. You'll have no problems.

Or, if you'd like a little more insurance, I have an Avallo 2000 which has temperature and humidity controls that I'm looking to sell. I just don't have enough cigars anymore.

kurtdesign1 wrote:If you've got an 1/8" gap around a foot of your cooler, that's 1-1/2 square inches of opening. That's really nothing.

For an 1/8" gap to only account for 1.5 in^2 of space, there'd only be 12 linear inches of gap. That's a pretty small cooler. The cooler I formerly used had a lid/seal that spanned 16" x 30". That 1/8" gap would be an 11.5 in^2 opening.

That being said, I'm totally onboard with the thinking behind keeping your humidor as full as possible to eliminate drastic swings and shorten recovery time after opening. I've been actively convincing my wife of this need for years...

Kip wrote:

kurtdesign1 wrote:If you've got an 1/8" gap around a foot of your cooler, that's 1-1/2 square inches of opening. That's really nothing.

For an 1/8" gap to only account for 1.5 in^2 of space, there'd only be 12 linear inches of gap. That's a pretty small cooler. The cooler I formerly used had a lid/seal that spanned 16" x 30". That 1/8" gap would be an 11.5 in^2 opening.

That being said, I'm totally onboard with the thinking behind keeping your humidor as full as possible to eliminate drastic swings and shorten recovery time after opening. I've been actively convincing my wife of this need for years...

You're certainly correct about the math. I guess I was thinking the lid would touch somewhere otherwise how would it stop?! Maybe it makes contact everywhere but the rear part of the lid. That would still be 3-1/2 SqIn of area. Much more than my example.

This is more of a question for Zed about air density. I'm assuming that when the same temperature, saturated air is heavier than unsaturated, i.e. higher humidity air at the same temperature as lower humidity air, is heavier. As such, the humidity should stay in as long as there isn't forced air exchanges from drafts, temperature/convective loops, too many openings.

I feel like we're over-complicating this. Again, just do what I did and move to cigar country....simplest route.

Kip wrote:I feel like we're over-complicating this. Again, just do what I did and move to cigar country....simplest route.

I love this guy.

Got a weird security error about the site. Tried reloading and posting and it kept occurring. When I abandoned the post and went into the thread to try again, the 3 attempts I made were all there. I've deleted them and now we're here. Weird...