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Safar i: Bourbon Barrel-Aged Tobacco posted on May 4th, 2013 An Afternoon with Marvin Samel (Part One)An Afternoon with Marvin Samel (Par t One) posted on May 5th, 2013 Cigar Review IndexCigar Review Index posted on January 9th, 2009 How to build a Coolidor by Walt+ As a cigar smoker I am sure egards to humidor size. The ket for a humidor is buy he size you are looking for you have had the same conversations that I have in r most common advice given when a person is in the mar bigger than you need . This is very good advice as long as t fits within your budget.

If large storage does not fit your budget, I would strongly suggest purchasing a cooler to setup and use. The plastic within the cooler does an excellent job of holding humidity and the insulation does a lot to help hold interior temperatur e. Using a cooler as a humidor couldn t be simpler and it is a lot of bang for your b uck. Since I recently outgrew my cooler I am going to setup another for storing cigars. Since I am already setting up the cooler I thought this would be a great opportunity to write a how to article for anyone who may be in the market for i nexpensive storage. Just like a humidor, you want to get the biggest one you can as long as you have the storage space and budget for it. Buying a cooler the size of a standard fli p top lunch box is going to be a waste of time unless you are looking to make a make shift travel coolidor. Personally I would not recommend going any smaller t han a 35 quart unit. I decided to go out and buy a rather large cooler, weighing in at 120 quarts. On e thing to remember is that you have to store this unit, so do not go out and bu y something that is going to be impractical for you to store. Once you make a decision on the size of the unit, take a look around and try to get the best price you can. In a situation like mine, I was trying to stay on a low budget for the most storage I could get. In the end I went to Walmart and pi cked up a 120 quart cooler for $44.95 during an after Labor Day closeout sale. Next on the list of things to buy are empty boxes. You may not even need to buy them if you have some empties sitting around. I recommend using quality wooden b oxes and not the cheap ones that remind you of an old cereal box (La Vieja Haban a by Drew Estates). The wooden boxes will work with your humidification unit and hold in some humidity to create a buffer for when you open and close the cooler . If you do not have any empty boxes lying around you can always order them from s omewhere like Cigars International. CI has paper wrapper wooden boxes and high q uality wooden boxes that they will ship to you for a few dollars per box. If you would rather not go this route stop bye your local cigar shop. In most cases ci gar shops will sell you empty boxes for $1.00 $2.00 each. If online shopping and

a local shop is not an option you can always trade a few cigars for empty boxes , which is what I did. I got a very good deal on some high quality empties that were just going to be thrown away. Next to consider is a humidification device. You have many options here, but I s trongly recommend using RH beads. I have been using these beads for almost a yea r now and absolutely love them. They are relatively inexpensive and very easy to use. In my case I used my leftover 70% RH beads purchased from Heartfelt Indust ries. The last thing you will need is a hygrometer. I recommend going the digital rout e for higher accuracy. I choose to go with a cheap Walmart model for under $7.00 , however many people will recommend the wireless units so you can monitor multi ple humidors with one base unit. Hygrometers are a rather personal item, so by a ll means use what you are most comfortable with. Now that I have covered the basic items needed to build a coolidor, let s cut to t he chase and start building one. Coolidor-1 Step 1: Before we do anything, we need to clean out our new cooler. To do this take a cl ean cloth and dampen it with distilled water and a mild detergent such as Dawn D ish Detergent. Wipe down the inside of your cooler very well. Once you are satis fied with the cleanliness of your cooler take another clean cloth, dampen it wit h distilled water and remove all of the left over detergent from the plastic lin ing of the cooler.After you have wiped out your cooler you will want to let it a ir out for a few hours to remove any lingering plastic smell. If you are having trouble with plastic smell, place a small box of baking soda inside the cooler a nd let sit for a day or so. Coolidor-2 Step 2: Once your cooler is clean and free of any plastic odor, you will want to start r aising the humidity level inside. To do this take yet another clean cloth and da mpen it with distilled water. Wipe down the inside of the cooler leaving it damp , and then close the lid. Step 3: Now we want to start prepping our wooden boxes. I like to take my damp cloth and wipe down all of the unfinished surfaces of my boxes. Once I moisten the boxes I add them inside the cooler and close the lid. Step 4: Place your hydration unit inside your cooler. In my case I opted to go with RH b eads. If you decide to go with the RH beads you will need to calculate how many pounds you will need for your cooler. Here is an example of the calculations for my cooler. Width = 13.5? Length = 34? Depth = 12?

Area: Width x Length x Depth 13.5 x 34 x 12 = 5508 cubic inches Convert Cubic Inches to Cubic Feet: 5508 / 1728 = 3.1875 Now divide Cubic Feet by 5 (5 Cubic Feet per pound of beads) 3.1875 / 5 = .6375 Pounds I round up to the nearest Quarter Pound to get .75 pounds. Once I knew how many pounds of beads I needed, I sorted out three quarters of a pound of beads and placed them in four individual sacks. The sacks I used are ma de up of cheap Pantyhose. I used four sacks so that I could spread out the beads making them more affective than a single large bag of beads sitting at one end of the cooler. To hydrate my beads I took that damp cloth I was using earlier and wrapped up th e sacks inside it. I then placed this cloth and the beads inside the humidor to rest for a couple hours. Step 5: Insert your hygrometer into the cooler. Like I mentioned before, I went with a v ery inexpensive unit that I felt needed some modifications before being added. T he modifications I made were done to allow air to more easily flow through the u nit. If you do not want to make these modifications please skip to Step 6. Take the rear clip off of the unit. Use a typical file to flatten the raised plastic buttons that hold the clip in place. Remove the screws and pull your hygrometer apart, be careful not to drop the Fahrenheit / Celsius button. Drill holes into the back plate to allow air movement. Put the unit back together and add a strip of Velcro to the back plate. Stick the unit inside the cooler Step 6: Let the unit stabilize for another hour or so then remove the damp cloth and let the beads absorb any excess humidity inside the unit. Letting the beads stabili ze could take a few days, so keep an eye on your hygrometer. Step 7: Optional If you decided to go with adding a fan to keep the If these pockets setting higher or lower Relative a cooler that air moving so it could mean Humidity than is larger than 70 quarts I would suggest that any humidity pockets do not settle. that a portion of your cooler may have a the rest.

I decided to go quick and easy, so I purchased an Oust Fan from a local pharmacy . To use the fan simply add the batteries and place the fan inside the cooler. I t is very important that you do not add in the fragrance unit, you just want to use the fan.

The nice thing about the Oust fan is that it runs for 5 minutes then shuts off f or 15 minutes. This conserves the battery and makes it last for quite a while. A gain, this is an optional step you can take to help keep a constant humidity lev el throughout your cooler. Step 8: Once you are satisfied that your cooler is stabilized the only thing left to do is add in your cigars. Cost Breakdown Cooler $44.95 Oust Fan $6.99 1 Pound RH Beads Pantyhose $0.33 Empty Cigar Boxes Total Cost $81.22 For more information on RH Beads check out Heartfelt Industries

$28.95 Traded for Cigars

Please note The video below was recorded several months after the article was written. There are some variations between the article and video, however those variations sho uld not cause any conflict when building your coolidor.

Win a Copy of SHOOT by Julie Golob The Stogie Review > Humidors > How to build a Coolidor HumidorsSeptember 26th, 2006 76 Comments George Edmonson September 27, 2006 at 12:18 pm Kudos on the nice coolerdor and the great instructions, I want to let folks know that the front cover of the Oust fan can be removed easily (there are two s mall screws in the back) to reduce the size of the fan and increase the air flow . George E. Reply Troy February 26, 2010 at 10:52 am Great article although I would stay away from Heartfelt. Had problems hi s service and product. He is dishonest. Reply Dan April 23, 2011 at 12:59 pm Had several transactions with Heartfelt and never had a problem. Top notch service and only heard good things from everyone I ve talked to. Reply

KingoftheCove August 8, 2011 at 11:21 pm Problems with service and product??!! Dishonest??! Utter nonsense! From my experience excellent all the way around. More importantly, j ust go to all the cigar web site forums and read about Heartfelt .no negative comme nts anywhere .but here. I smell a troll Reply J April 4, 2012 at 6:24 pm Agreed with these gents. Heartfelt is top shelf. Great company t o work with with great products. Reply Eric April 25, 2013 at 7:54 am Try Cigarmony as well. I have Heartfelt and just ordered thr ough Cigarmony and the owner was really great with customer service. Check it ou t if you want an alternative to Heartfelt. Walt September 27, 2006 at 1:33 pm George, Thanks for the tip. I ve seen so many pictures of guys who use a dremel tool t o cut away the front section of the fan that I never expected it to come off wit h just a couple of screws. I think I ll be removing the front of my fan later on this evening. Again, thanks for the tip -Walt Reply Jerry Cruz September 28, 2006 at 5:16 am Honestly Walt, when you started smoking stogies, did you ever think months l ater that you d be modifying Oust fans in the name of stogie storage? Great How To Article a wireless hygrometer would be tight. If I had a coolerdo r I d need it cause I m one of those out of sight out of mind kind of guys and I d for get about it. Reply Walt September 28, 2006 at 6:17 am Jerry, When I started out, the 30 count box I ordered from JR was more than enough storage space for me. Slowly I grew and picked up a 15 count Cigar Caddy (Otterb ox) and again, more room than I needed. A couple of months ago I built my first cooler due to lack of space. It was a small 35 quart unit that I thought would last me a long time. Within two month s that was filled and I unloaded everthing into a 70 quart cooler. Once again, i thought that would last me a long time.

With this new cooler I now have 1 30 Count Desktop Humidor (70% Full) 1 20 Count Desktop Humidor (80% Full) 1 15 Count Otterbox (Varries 75 100% Full) 1 70 Quart Cooler (95% Full) 1 120 Quart Cooler (10% Full) When I think back to when I first started enjoying this hobby, if you would have told me I would end up needing all this sorage I would have laughed histari cally. The truth of the matter is, even being a budget smoker like myself (limited to a small weekly allowance for cigars ~$30.00) buying cigars on sale or online auctions racks up the total really fast. This cooler will probably last me 6 mon ths then ill have to upgrade again. Fortunately I get alot of enjoyment out of t his hobby so I wont be too upset when its time to upgrade, however I cant say my girlfriend will feel the same way. Reply TriMarkC December 11, 2012 at 8:03 am Ditto! I started out with a little 20-30 count desktop that I thought I d never need anything bigger. Within a year I had two, and then my wife bought me a cabinet style (500 +200 on top), and I thought I d died and gone to heaven. Now I have two more coolidors, too, and my wife thinks I ve gone insane you could stop buying cigars and just smoke what you have, and you d have over a year of cigars even if you smoked a couple every day. Kinda hard to argue with logic .. so I don t! :-) Superb article Walt! I ll remember the fan for my next coolidor project ;) Reply Dale Roush October 2, 2006 at 7:57 am Outstanding article Walt! Very well done. Reply Mark Neff October 2, 2006 at 8:55 am VERY well done Walt! The only thing I might suggest is lining the entire coolordor with spanish c edar (NOT aromatic). You can usually find at least single sided veneered plywood at you local specialty mill shop. Great job! ~Mark Reply dave crisman October 24, 2006 at 10:44 pm This is great of you to print.I am a newbie w/cigars and was checking on dig ital hygrometers on club stogie when i read your post.I get cabin fever after hu nting season is over so this will be an excellent project to keep me busy.Hope i

ts o.k. but i will drop you a line if i hit any snags or, if your already on to some since this article let me know if its not to much trouble.Again great artic le thank you. Reply Walt October 25, 2006 at 4:12 am Dave, Absolutely, If you run into any problems please feel free to email me. Reply Kirk November 9, 2006 at 9:22 pm Walt Great article! You and Jerry do some good stuff. Anyway we can get a vi deo of this? Also, would a styrofoam cooler work for this? Reply Walt November 9, 2006 at 9:30 pm Kirk, Jerry asked me the same thing. I can put together a video of this, but it wi ll have to wait until I am in need of a new cooler (At this rate it shouldn t be t oo long). It will have to be a multi part series, but it should be fun. The Styrofoam cooler should work ok. Just make sure that the lid isn t worn, o therwise you will get a poor seal and it will leak humidity. Some weather stripp ing should help with this. You can get it at any local hardware store. Reply Al November 13, 2006 at 9:16 am Walt, Great directions. I notice you store all your cigars in boxes inside the unit. Since many of m y cigars are purchased either in bundles or singles, can they be stored loosely? Reply Walt November 13, 2006 at 9:40 am Al, The reason for me using boxes is to help keep a humidity buffer with the ced ar that makes up the boxes. If you would prefer to not use the boxes then I woul d recommend lining the unit with Spanish cedar. The boxes also help organize the unit. When I made my first one, I continued to add loose cigars. After a few dozen cigars finding one particular cigar beca me very difficult. So really, the boxes take the place of the cedar lining and create a way to keep things organized. If you are only planning on making a small unit then you could certainly avoid the boxes and add some loose Spanish cedar to help maintai n humidity. If you would like to avoid Spanish Cedar all together I would recommend goin

g a little heavy on the beads so that when the cooler is opened and closed you d on t loose too much humidity. Hope that helps Walt Reply jim November 19, 2006 at 1:03 pm should holes be cut in the cigar boxes to allow for better air circulation. It seems to me if cigars are in the boxes and the lids are closed they won t get t o much actual air or humidity. Reply Walt November 19, 2006 at 2:31 pm Jim, You could drill holes in the boxes if you like, I cant imagine it would hurt anything. I don t drill any holes in the boxes, I count on the cigar box allowing some a irflow (although minor) to keep the humidity constant. Normally when I add new cigars I keep them in the plastic bag I received the m in (with the seal open) for a few days to acclimate. After that the cigars get moved into a box. If i don t feel the cigars are ready, I prop the lid of the box open for a cou ple of days. Reply James November 23, 2006 at 4:25 am It isn t pretty, but your coolidor will work better than those fancy wooden hu midors. By using an insulated box to keep the temp constant, and a circulating f an to eliminate hot and cold air pockets, you solved the problem that most humid ors have, which is that the RH changes depending on temperature. RH decreases as temperature increases if the actual amount of water vapor stays the same. Reply matt February 3, 2007 at 9:20 am Thanks for the idea for the oust fan. I will be using something like that fo r mine now. I ve had a smaller coolider (75qt.) for a couple of years now and it w orks great. I recently decided to do an upgrade. Check out some of my pix at als upcoolidor.shutterfly.com and tell me what you think. Reply Walt February 3, 2007 at 10:06 am Matt, Looks great, thanks for the pictures. I just picked up yet another cooler last week. I think that if I build a coo ler after this one, I am going to steal your idea for making storage units out o f Spanish Cedar. Again, it looks great and id very practical.

-Walt Reply Brent February 6, 2007 at 11:47 am Matt, I loved your design g one like that. What did you ails? How thick was the stock Reply ken February 13, 2007 at 5:14 for the cedar organizer! I might have to try makin use to fasten the wood together? Just some small n you used? pm

Nice idea. I m going to make one of these this week! I m thiking of cutting a ho le the sape of my hydrometer in the front so I can put it in, seal it with silli cone calking and view the meter from the outside. Reply zBob May 4, 2007 at 4:10 pm Okay so I decided to save a few bucks and build the coolidor over the fridga dor. Then Famous ran a deal on boxes on Pepin Garcia blue labels and that saved money became spent money. That being said I need to gets this thing up and runni ng as I have no place to put them when they get here. So I have one last questio n about the construction; I saw that you used weather stripping in the video to improve the seal around the lid but is there anything I should do around the dra in plug or is fine just the way it is? thanks for all your reviews and suggestions, -zBobReply Walt May 5, 2007 at 6:06 am zBob, I left the plug alone in my coolers. Since the plug should be water tight (a nd not leak when it is full of ice and water, if you actually use it as a cooler ) I figured it would be a tight enough seal. Reply Mike B July 6, 2007 at 12:05 pm A couple of things you might also consider. I broke apart my empty cedar box es and used them to line the inside (with brass screws) so that the entire coole r is covered. I made trays for the cooler out of plastic canvas, the craft stuff that has all the holes in it. That solved the circulation problem. And just for good measure I put those thin sheets of cedar that comes in some boxes at the b ottom of each of the trays. Reply Daniel D August 28, 2007 at 11:03 pm Hey Walt, I was wondering, where did you buy that cooler? the igloo website is selling 48qt for like almost $50. I am a novice so I would need about 50-60qt , but I can t find any cheaper than $50. I haven t been to a walmart or anything lik e that yet though so I ll have to check that out. Reply Walt August 29, 2007 at 5:00 am

Daniel, I picked that up at Walmart. Your better off going to the store, sometimes they put them on clearance (a little later in the year) and you can get a 120 150 quart cooler for the same pr ice as the 50 quart you were looking at. Let us know how you make out -Walt Reply Daniel D August 31, 2007 at 5:11 am I decided to look around in this town I m in since there is no walmart for 70 miles, and I found a nice cooler at the pawn shop and since there was a spill in side they gave it to me for $3, it s not huge but it looks like it might hold abou t 300 singles which is more than enough for now until I go to walmart and pick u p a bigger one. My gf and I filled it with hot water and baking soda and let it soak for a c ouple hours then really cleaned it out and I put some of that adhesive foam on i t to help the seal, filled it with about a half pound of baking soda and my half pound of heartfelt beads should be here tomorrow. All is looking good so far, now I need to get a digi hygrometer, and I m not s ure on how the temperature will fare with this since I live in the desert in upp er NV. I ll have to experiment. Reply Jerry August 31, 2007 at 9:27 am Daniel No Wal-Mart for 70 miles? You re lucky man I can count 4 within 15 miles of me. Reply Daniel D September 4, 2007 at 6:30 am I just moved here though, used to live in Goodyear AZ, right next to Phoenix so I know how the walmarts can be! LOL Reply A.J. September 9, 2007 at 3:38 pm Hi, I am making a coolidor for aging cigars not for my singles. Do I need to do anything different? Reply Walt September 9, 2007 at 3:51 pm A.J. No making there same cooler should be just fine. The only suggestion I would make is to add in an extra circulation fan. With the cooler being for long term aging, it isn t going to be opened very often so i would want to make sure I had plenty of circulation inside the cooler to preven t any dense pockets inside. Reply A.J.

September 10, 2007 at 8:38 pm you said that your oust fan had some kind of a timer on it that it was on fo r 5 minutes and then off for 20 so it last longer. Do you know any other fans th at are like that and where I can get them? Reply A.J. September 13, 2007 at 6:10 pm find anything?? Reply Walt September 13, 2007 at 7:36 pm A.J. Short of wiring up some kind of circuit board I haven t came across anything t hat would work like the oust fan. Depending on the size of your cooler, you could pick up a timer (like the on es you would use for your house lights while away on vacation) and plug a comput er fan into it to get a timed circulation. Reply Tom January 17, 2008 at 6:54 pm I was wondering when u store the boxes in your coolidor i noticed they were closed ,will they still allow humidity to get to the cigars by closing the cigar boxes or is it better to keep em open or does it not matter ? Reply Walt January 17, 2008 at 8:43 pm Tom, There shouldn t be a problem keeping the boxes closed within the humidor. The boxes I have used were not intended to seal tight enough to act as a humidor, so the humidity within the cooler will leak into the boxes keeping the cigars insi de the same RH as the overall unit. Placing a box such as the one found on the CAO Vision may cause a problem be cause it is designed to be used as a humidor. In that situation the seal would b e much tighter than your run of the mill cigar box and slow down the transfer of RH into the box from the cooler. Hope that helps and thanks for the comment. -Walt Reply TriMarkC December 11, 2012 at 8:08 am I ve read elsewheres on this interwebs-thingy that placing a wooden match (minus the matchheads) to prop open each box corner helps considerably in allowi ng the humidity into each box. Reply Tom January 18, 2008 at 3:21 pm Thank you , im fixing to build me a coolidor and i have several empty cigar boxes lying around and i have 2 destop humidors that have the upper trays taken out ( i find there is more room with out them ) so i am betting those whould be

good to put inside my coolidor to stash singles on and help regulate humidity ,b tw your videos are awesome keep up the good work ! Tom Reply Pedro Lopez January 21, 2008 at 4:32 pm Gracias por esta informacion, con ella me hice un Humidor de toper muy efect ivo Los puros se mantienen perfectamete y listos para fumarse Gracias Reply Paul March 8, 2008 at 11:51 am In place of the RH beads, I found a product called Exquisicat Pearl Fresh be ads (for litter boxes) that looks and performs like the expensive RH beads. Eigh t pounds of Exquisicat Pearl Fresh beadsfor $13.99. What s your opinion on this product versus the Heartfelt beads? Thanks, Paul Reply Walt March 8, 2008 at 11:50 pm Paul, I have heard that some people have had great success with the product. If do ne right I m sure that it will get the job done. With that said, I personally, would never trust a bag of kitty litter to mai ntain my collection. With a product such as RH beads, I am comfortable with them due to the numerous success stories of the product. Given some time, and many more positive results with the Exquisicat Beads, I may change my mind. However at this point I wouldn t take the risk Again, this is my personal opinion and I m sure there have been numerous succe ss stories with the product, I m just not willing to take the gamble. -Walt Reply TriMarkC December 11, 2012 at 8:09 am I bought a small ing them wrong. sample set of beads a couple months ago, and I must be us

I put them in my 30-50 count humidor, after soaking them in distilled wa ter, and my humidity is still all over the map. I ve tried resetting the humidistat, reseasoned the humidor itself and the humidity is still fluctuating between 58-72%, almost daily. I thought these beads were supposed to stabilize the humidity. Like I said, I probably did something wrong. Any thoughts? Reply Walt December 11, 2012 at 10:16 am

When you say soaking them in distilled water what do you mean exactly? If the beads are completely saturated (100% of the beads are clear) they can no longer absorb excess humidity. I don t remember what they should wind up being but I think 70% of the beads should be clear and the rest should be a milky white. This allows for 2 w ay exchange of humidity. Reply TriMarkC December 11, 2012 at 10:23 am I set the bag into distilled water til they were 100% saturated (all clear) I did this on purpose because my consistent issue is keeping my humi dity above, say, 65%. So by saturating them, they evaporate some of the excess h umidity out into the humidor as I need and then supposedly work with second humi difying unit (70% gel) to maintain the humidity. At least, that s the plan. But what tends to happen is that the be ads go mostly white within a couple days, and then my humidity levels start gyra ting up and down again. And its only in this one humidor, too. My others are relatively stable. Reply John April 17, 2008 at 10:05 pm Walt, many thanks for this site I am in process of going into business on the side and selling cigars at various locations. Question, please, how does redwood rate as an alternative to cedar for the lining of a coolidor? It is often less expensive but I do not know the retention rate like cedar accomplishes .. Reply Hoover May 8, 2008 at 7:45 pm I ve heard that leaving cigars in the cooler too long is bad because humidity is completely trapped. This supposedly leads to damaged cigars. Any truth to thi s? Reply Walt May 11, 2008 at 8:34 am John, Redwood and Spanish Cedar may have similar moisture retention rates but the Spanish Cedar is used more so due to its natural insect repellent properties. While both woods would be stable in a moist environment I would stick with t he tried and true Spanish Cedar over the Redwood. Hoover, What your talking about would be more likely to happen if the case, in this case a cooler, was hermetically sealed and allowed for zero transfer. I would th ink that in this situation any off gassed ammonia that the cigars produced would be trapped inside and start affecting the flavors of other sticks. With the cooler being opened a couple of times per week and the fact that it doesn t seal 100%, I don t think that you have anything to worry about. Reply tcr May 11, 2008 at 10:36 am

Wow didn t even know this how-to was here. I think even mechanically-challenged people like myself might be able to pull this one off. Nice instructions, Walt. Reply Hugh June 30, 2008 at 6:23 am Here s a question about spanish cedar. I m living in Japan right now, so finding spanish cedar isn t happening. There is a type of wood I can find called sugi , or J apanese cedar. It smells a lot like spanish cedar, but it s not really cedar, it s s ome sort of evergreen similar to spanish cedar. Does anyone have any experience with sugi in a humidor or any other type of closed box? None of the Japanese fol ks I know smoke cigars, so they can t help. Reply Tony June 30, 2008 at 1:26 pm Isn t SUGI raw fish? Reply Kegan July 6, 2008 at 2:42 am No Tony, that s SUSHI =) Reply mike kestel July 23, 2008 at 6:59 pm I have one I set up almost exactally like yours except the fan.I m going first thing tomorrow to try and find one! EXCELLENT JOB!!! Reply Anthony August 21, 2008 at 12:52 am Hey everyone! New to the site. Great article and great info! Just wanted to let everyone know that I ve found that Clorox Fresh Step UNSCEN TED cat liter (of all things) is 100% silica gel. Which is of course the magic b eads for humidors (coolidors, tuppidors, etc.). It s about $12 for an 8 lb bag! Sure as hell beats $30 for 1 lb. This should b ring down the cost significantly when putting a -idor together. Hope this is helpful, Anthony Reply Tom Williams August 21, 2008 at 3:20 am Everything seems to be about humidity with no way to control temperature. Is temp not a big issue? or will most temps do as long as they are steady? I am having fits trying to get the same flavors out of the same cigars smoke d even just days apart. Reply Walt August 21, 2008 at 5:01 pm Tom, Temperature makes a big difference. The humidity inside the humidor is relat ive to the temperature (Relative Humidity). It has to do with how much moisture

can be retained in the air at a given temp. Because of the insulation in the walls of the cooler, it prevents wild tempe rature swings inside the box. I keep the cooler in a room that stays at an avera ge of 67 degrees, or so. It forces me to move it from one part of the house in S ummer to another in Winter, but without getting very elaborate on the part of te mperature control within the box, its just what I have to do. One key thing to remember is that if you are comfortable your cigars will be comfortable. Try keeping them in the range of 64 degrees to 68 degrees and you should be good to go. When temps rise into the mid to high 70's you run the risk of beetle infesta tion. Hope that helps -Walt Reply Walt August 21, 2008 at 5:07 pm Mike, I have heard of the Crystals and have done a little research on them some ti me ago. The person I buy my beads from (Mark at http://www.cigarmony.com), tells me that the pearl beads perform poorly at the RH range we keep our cigars. Inst ead they rate well in the 70% 80% range. While I am sure that taking advice from a salesman may seem a bit odd, but I have a trust with Mark that has been developed over the past few years. Being t he big cigar smoker he is, I ll take his advise without hesitation. Besides, I am just not comfortable trusting kitty litter to maintain a colle ction that has cost me thousands over the years. Some people have used the product with great success, but I m not willing to t ake that risk. -Walt Reply Rich February 24, 2009 at 12:13 pm Walt, I set up a small coolidor before reading this and washed it out with dish so ap and tap water instead of distilled water then let it air out for a few days. Do you think the fact that I used tap water as opposed to distailled water will pose any problems? I did however wipe down all the cedar and boxes with distille d water when I set it up. Thanks, Rich Reply Jim May 9, 2012 at 1:41 pm Excellent job you did here Walt! Thanks so much for sharing with us. Reply Matt March 11, 2013 at 12:25 pm

Hi Walt, great video! Seeing that you do a lot of woodwork, I was always curious as t o whether you ever built a wooden humidor, and, if not, would you consider makin g one in the future? Reply Nate March 27, 2013 at 5:32 am Thanks for the help on this topic, Walt. Will definitely use this method whe n cigar surplus kicks in *Which won t be long the way my wife has been spoiling me * :) Reply Scott N March 27, 2013 at 9:29 pm I will definitely be following this setup once I get my cigar stash up. I cu rrently have an Adorini 300ct. that s about 1/3 full right now but that will be ov erflowing by the summer :) Reply Pingback: The Guys Club How to Build A Coolidor Pingback: myninjaplease Blog Archive Ample Cooling and Storage For a While Pingback: Robert Frisbie Blog Archive Office Humidor Project Pingback: Mr. Brian s Opus: How To Buy, Make And Season A Humidor Brian s Random Thoughts Pingback: Cigars with your morning coffee? | The Stogie Review Pingback: Humidor recommendations? - www.Head-Case.org Pingback: My new Coolidor project The Weekly Cigar Pingback: Cigars - How to: Coolidor / Coolerdor | The Aspiring Gentleman Pingback: La Traviata Maduro Divino Cigarfan.net Pingback: Tom's Cigar Reviews Blog Archive Coolidor Pingback: Cooler + Humidor = Coolidor | High Caliber Guns Leave a Comment Personalize your comment with an avatar from Gravatar. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Notify me of followup comments via e-mail Smoke Inn Recent Comments

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