Water damage and MOLD (pics!)

[Elltrain]

So I did a very stupid thing and re-hydrated my beads in my cooler and left the spritzer in the cooler for 2 weeks without checking it. Opened it this evening and it had a very un-tobacco gross smell to it. Started looking around and noticed some (stomach wrenching here) mold and water damage! The damage was pretty substantial -- a big box of Old World Reserves practically ruined, a Gloria Cubana box completely toast, as well as some assorted other damage.

I am hoping the taste of the rest of the sticks in the cooler is unaffected. I am letting them all breathe for a few days in the open air before getting the cooler ready again.

The emptied out cooler, my soaking babies drying off:




The damage I first saw, MOLD on my cab of owrs!




The OWRs that will never be smoked:



The OWRs that I hope may possibly be salvagable:




My Gloria Cubanas, completely wrecked.




My Maxx Vice box. Luckily I at least smoked a few of these.

[SmokeyJoe]

Dude... that is just WRONG!

Sorry for the terrible loss.

[Jack Straw]

Oh geez. I hope the rest are salvagable. What do you mean by "you left the spritzer?"

[Elltrain]

I use a spray bottle to wet my beads, which I stupidly left in the cooler. The beads became soaked and completely saturated and could not absorb everything that was in it. The result was a rainforest inside my cooler.

[DSturg369]

This is a bad time of the year to rehumidify your coolers and humidors. With the warmer temps coming in the humidity in the air also starts to rise. It only takes a few degrees to make the humidity level in your humidor spike. The extra few degrees will literally suck the moisture out of your cigars and cedar boxes and then deposit itself in pocket areas when the temps cool again in the evenings. This can happen daily and it only takes a time or 2 to cause major mold problems.

What's worked well for me is simply to watch the room humidity. If it is 70% or less, simply leave your coolers and humidors open all day, but avoid areas where unwanted aromas can reach them. If you're in a geographical area where you have an air-conditioner running nearly all Summer, even better as the a/c will reduce the moisture in the air. Your smokes may lose a little moisture but very little and it won't affect the way they smoke.

Now I know you're thinking that leaving the humi's open is probably a bad thing but it truely works. It's worked for me for nearly 10+ years now with no cigar problems for my 150 qt cooler or my desktops and no mold problems at all.

[Elltrain]

Warmer temps.. hahah. It is 45 degrees and pouring rain outside right now

I have another cooler and 4 humidors that are all perfectly fine. I just left an open bottle of distilled water in the cooler for a few weeks, which caused the problems. It's that fluorescent orange devil in the first picture!

[BigRay023]

dude that sux man...feel for yah brother...looks like the bottle fell over and water got all over???

[Nickerson]

I would seriously cry. Few things in life are more tragic than this.

[Elltrain]

The bottle actually didn't fall over. It was just how I left it. I think the beads just kept trying to soak it up, even though they got ridiculously saturated.

[Acesfull]

Man that blows.... seeing OWR like that makes me want to cry.

[beaglepower]

Dang. I am so sorry about your misfortune.

This will teach us noobies what not to do. I will never leave a spritzer bottle in a coolerdor.

[Elltrain]

Thanks for the condolences. I think the only way to feel better is to buy a box or a sampler. I have been out of the loop for awhile in regards to buying cigars. What is trendy and hip these days? Any new stuff by Pete Johnson?

[DoctaJ]

Wow, that sucks Those pictures are hard to look at. I really don't know what I would do if that happened to me. Hope you can salvage as much as possible.

[GlockG23]

A said day,,,,,,,,,,
Sorry brother.

[orca99usa]

If it is 70% or less, simply leave your coolers and humidors open all day, but avoid areas where unwanted aromas can reach them. If you're in a geographical area where you have an air-conditioner running nearly all Summer, even better as the a/c will reduce the moisture in the air.

Good advice for some, but if I left my humidor like that my cigars would be powder. Our native humidity is normally between 5-15%,