I’ve only ever had desktop humidors. In fact, I’ve owned only 3 in my life and always looked to resources online to guide me in seasoning my new humidor. With the wood models, it was always a guessing game and a tricky balance to maintain proper humidity and temperature. With the coolador that problem is supposed to be as easy as plugging it in, adding water, and throwing in your cigars right? I found out doing a simple test that is just as wrong as it is with a wooden humidor. Anything with wood inside the compartment used to store the cigars is going to require seasoning. Even if your manufacturer says their unit and/or shelves is/are pre-seasoned, don’t buy it (Schmécké doesn’t make that claim, they say you need to season (just not how to)). Always season your cedar as we all know it’ll dry out your sticks, if not!!!
Ok so let’s hope I’m doing this right… Got the unit in a couple of days ago and the wife kept it hidden from me (thankfully upright). I unpackaged it today and first thing took out all the shelves and cleaned the entire inside of the unit with a baking soda and DW mixture. I then waited until lunch time and went back over the unit with DW (clean sponge) and wiped it dry with paper towel. From there I used another new sponge (all sponges were scent free) and lightly coated the shelves, drawers, and some empty boxes I have with DW. They all went into the unit with 4 Boveda 84% bricks. I also filled the reservoir 3/4 the way as instructed in the manual. Sidecar….Referring back to the first paragraph here is where it gets interesting….I have 2 digital (freshly calibrated) hygrometers in the unit and it was reading 70/70 at that time across the board….the shelves and boxes were damp and there are 4 Boveda packs in there…still 70/70 after 4 hours and the unit is running!
Fast forward 4 hours…I take the shelves, drawers, and boxes out of the unit (one by one, closing the unit in between to minimize humidity loss) and reapply DW to dampen them before placing back in the unit. Within minutes the display reads 70/80 on the unit and my hygrometers are registering 77 in the middle of the unit and 79 at the bottom of the unit. Looking good…
Fast forward another 4 hours…I look at the readings… 70/75 up top on the display, 71/79 in the middle and 70/80 at the bottom. Ok we got some fluctuation, but that also makes sense considering the main source of humidity output typically is at the bottom.
Note: The shelves, drawers, and boxes all ”dried“ up pretty quickly after they went into the unit both times the DW was applied. The second time, the RH shot up really quickly which leads me to believe the shelves, drawers, and boxes are now seasoned.
The plan to complete the seasoning is:
Day 2 Morning - Check the levels should be 70º/75% (unit is set to 70/75)…If it is holding 70/75 then I think it’s time to pull the Boveda bricks to see if the level drops. Wait 12 hours
Day 2 Evening - Check Levels should be at 70º/75% w/o the Boveda Bricks and only water in the reservoir. Lower the settings to 65º/67%
Day 3 Morning - Check the levels. Should be at 65º/67% across all 3 hygrometers. If levels are at 65º/67% +/- 3 in either temp or humidity then add 3-4 Boxes (1/3 of total planned to put in humidor)
Day 3 Evening - Check Levels. Should be at 65º/67% +/-3º/%. If so, add ~100 cigars (loose)
Day 4 Morning - Check Levels. Should be at 65º/67% +/-3º/%. If so, add remaining cigars (loose & boxed)
Aim: 65ºF @ 67% RH. I store various cigars from various sources, so taking the average on humidity and for those that call for 65%, for example…dry boxing.
Is there anything I am missing or doing wrong?
Ok so let’s hope I’m doing this right… Got the unit in a couple of days ago and the wife kept it hidden from me (thankfully upright). I unpackaged it today and first thing took out all the shelves and cleaned the entire inside of the unit with a baking soda and DW mixture. I then waited until lunch time and went back over the unit with DW (clean sponge) and wiped it dry with paper towel. From there I used another new sponge (all sponges were scent free) and lightly coated the shelves, drawers, and some empty boxes I have with DW. They all went into the unit with 4 Boveda 84% bricks. I also filled the reservoir 3/4 the way as instructed in the manual. Sidecar….Referring back to the first paragraph here is where it gets interesting….I have 2 digital (freshly calibrated) hygrometers in the unit and it was reading 70/70 at that time across the board….the shelves and boxes were damp and there are 4 Boveda packs in there…still 70/70 after 4 hours and the unit is running!
Fast forward 4 hours…I take the shelves, drawers, and boxes out of the unit (one by one, closing the unit in between to minimize humidity loss) and reapply DW to dampen them before placing back in the unit. Within minutes the display reads 70/80 on the unit and my hygrometers are registering 77 in the middle of the unit and 79 at the bottom of the unit. Looking good…
Fast forward another 4 hours…I look at the readings… 70/75 up top on the display, 71/79 in the middle and 70/80 at the bottom. Ok we got some fluctuation, but that also makes sense considering the main source of humidity output typically is at the bottom.
Note: The shelves, drawers, and boxes all ”dried“ up pretty quickly after they went into the unit both times the DW was applied. The second time, the RH shot up really quickly which leads me to believe the shelves, drawers, and boxes are now seasoned.
The plan to complete the seasoning is:
Day 2 Morning - Check the levels should be 70º/75% (unit is set to 70/75)…If it is holding 70/75 then I think it’s time to pull the Boveda bricks to see if the level drops. Wait 12 hours
Day 2 Evening - Check Levels should be at 70º/75% w/o the Boveda Bricks and only water in the reservoir. Lower the settings to 65º/67%
Day 3 Morning - Check the levels. Should be at 65º/67% across all 3 hygrometers. If levels are at 65º/67% +/- 3 in either temp or humidity then add 3-4 Boxes (1/3 of total planned to put in humidor)
Day 3 Evening - Check Levels. Should be at 65º/67% +/-3º/%. If so, add ~100 cigars (loose)
Day 4 Morning - Check Levels. Should be at 65º/67% +/-3º/%. If so, add remaining cigars (loose & boxed)
Aim: 65ºF @ 67% RH. I store various cigars from various sources, so taking the average on humidity and for those that call for 65%, for example…dry boxing.
Is there anything I am missing or doing wrong?
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