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Mold in Humi?

SweetMelissa

Sweet Innocent Angel
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Messages
2,118
Hey all...posting this for Sam since I'm at work right now...He told me he found some mold in the new humi he has...and 3 cigars have suffered...what can he do to combat this? He hasn't ever had to deal with this before...

Thanks :)

Melissa
 
First question: are you absolutely sure it's mold? Could be bloom...subtle but important difference. Look at it up close and personal. If it is fuzzy, has little filaments and looks like a fungus then that's what it is.

Ok, if it's mold then separate the affected cigars from the rest. If you want to try to save the moldy ones wipe off the mold with a paper towel, put them in freezer bags and freeze them for a couple of days. If they're too far gone then just toss them. Whatever you do, don't let them come in contact with uncontaminated cigars.....EVER. Quarantine the others. Put them in freezer bags also, but don't freeze them. Isolate them for a couple of weeks and make sure they show no signs of mold. Check them every day and if they show no signs of mold for 2 weeks they should be ok.

Now you've got to make sure there are no spores in the humidor. Wipe the inside with alcohol then leave it open and let it dry for a few days. Take the credo apart and replace the Oasis foam. Wipe the plastic parts with alcohol. When the humi is ready to go back into operation you've got to figure out why there was mold there in the first place. It takes a pretty high humidity to cause mold so something must be wrong with the humidification system. Since you live in a high humidity environment, you must make sure that the credo has capacity to absorb excess humidity. If it gets saturated, the humidity will increase without bound. You may need to periodically take it out and dry it. Another option is to call brother Vern and get him to hook you up with some Climmax beads (they're not what they sound like...get your mind out of the gutter). Even with the beads, if the humidity is very high they will eventually get saturated and will need drying.

I've probably forgotten something....hopefully one of my other brothers will pick up the slack but I hope this helps. You can also look here for more information.
 
The man's knowledge never ceases to amaze me! :thumbs:
 
Simply a wealth of information and he presents it with style too ;)
 
WOW , what an answer. :thumbs: If you need some single plastic bags to quarantine the savers let me know. :thumbs:
 
Thanks for the response. I will look at it again when I get home. The green stuff as I remember it is more fuzzy - like thined out cotton candy. It's developed around the bottom corners of the humidor.

So if it is bloom, is this a "good" thing and I should just leave it, or?

Thanks for your help FT!!

Sam
 
SamGuss said:
It's developed around the bottom corners of the humidor.
Bloom is a good thing but you won't find it "on your humidor". If it is developing around the corners of the humidor... its mold! :(

Great response FT. I was glad to see you add the important step of identifying the problem. Too many times we fix something without identifying what is causing it only to have the problem resurface. The only thing that I would add is to realize there "could be" more than one cause to a single problem.
 
Well it's been 10 days. I have scrubbed, washed out with rubbing alcohol and scrubbed again.

I can still see suspicous spots in the corners and on the bottom of the humi. As a atake a good close look I can see gaps - minor ones, but still gaps between the sides of the humi and thebottom of the humi. The hydrometer which displays out in front of the humi is a pop-in into the humi itself. All of this I am assuming is causing a loss of a perfect seal into the interior humi environment. Now whether this helps cause problems with mold or not, I have no idea, but does help me identify weak spots within the humi.

So, I am going to scrub again, completely dry out again and see where we are at that point, but I am not holding my breath, nor am I overly confident that the problem will be fixed. As a matter of fact I now totally distrust ths humi but we will see.

In the meanwhile my old humidor that holds 75-80 cigars that I got for christmas 2 years ago is still holding up without any noticeable problems, perfect humidity with re-fills needed every 2-4 months and a day or two of circulating air to keep humidity down (it tend to run high for about 3 days after a water refill). So my conclusion is that when I can I will simply go back to where this one was got and buy another one of these cheapies and break it in.

Thanks again for all the advice and suggesstions. I am still hopeful that this new humi can be fixed but going to take a long time if ever it is looking like.

Sam
 
Well Sam I guess it is time to get a new humi. That is what I would do, I found some decent priced ones at Cigarbid.
 
I found some decent priced ones at Wal-Mart. They're mislabeled though....they call them coolers. :p With IGBC starting up you're going to need the space, bro. Get yerself a coolerdor.
 
Anyone have a link or some pictures - or better yet both, that they can steer me to to make a coolidor? It would be a fairly cheap option for cigar storage from what i understand. I did have one for awhile, just used a cooler, some wet stuff you stick flower arrangements into, and used cigar boxes to store them.

If I am going to do it again though, I want to do it the right way. So please let me know if you got links or pics that will me out.

Thanks,

Sam
 
Well, :0 . I can't believe you weren't reading, when I built mine, I posted a daily running of my coolidor, well I will just have to send you there
Coolidor Thread

Now you stay there and don't come back until you have read it all. There will be a test at the end of the day. :p
 
Here is a pic of my coolidor right after finishing it, but after this pic I added another shelf and s@#$loads of stogies.
site1079.JPG
 
Thanks PG - sorry I missed this thread originally. And is somewhat what I am looking to do - I want display shelves and holding areas for singles so it looks nice and organized.

Don't suppose you have any of that wood left.... :sneaky:

Sam
 
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