Mold removal question

[nicayotte]

Friend recently gave me an old humidor that he unfortunately did not maintain well. The spanish ceder is in good shape but he complained that his cigars got moldy. What should I use to remove the possible mold that may still linger? I have read using isopropyl alcohol but am leary of ruining it. Any suggestions?

 

[bfisher88]

Wipe it all down with distilled water. Then go buy some 65% beads from heartfeltindustries.com . The foam pads suck and you cannot control humidity with them. Always go with beads and distilled water.

 

[{tpc}]

I once had an issue similar to this, turned out to be a stick issue more than anything else, but just in case I sequestered all my sticks into a tupperdore while I went to work on the humi. I am kinda anal about possible mold issues lol, so I'm sure I went overboard. At the time I was using a combination of foam humidification and beads as well.

I first aired out the humi completely for a couple of weeks, I then proceeded to wipe down the inside very a little (very little) isopropyl alcohol, and then I sanded every portion of the inside of the humi and the tray with a very fine grit sandpaper. If you are going to go this route, you need to be careful with how coarse the sandpaper is and how you sand. Too much pressure in one spot and you can end up with hills and valleys in the wood. I think i used somewhere around 600 grit, but I know it was a "finishing" type of sandpaper so it may have been higher than that. Do not just "go to town" with the sanding, you arn't roughing out a floor or anything here lol. I used very light pressure and took off very little....enough that you could see some fine dust, but not enough that you have to get a broom out to sweep up. I went over everything one time, and when I was satisfied, I vacuumed out the humi and the try to get all the fine particles out, and then re wiped with the isopropyl.

The last step after letting it air out for a couple more days was to re-season the humi, and this time I went with beads only. In fact I ditched my old beads (anal about it, like I said) and went with new to be sure that nothing was lingering behind in the beads. Its been fine ever since.

I will caution you again about the sanding, fine fine grit and very light but uniform pressure. Also you want to be careful around the sealing edges....take too much off there and it may not seal correctly. I was very careful there as well.

 

[jfields]

Just wipe it down with a 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and distilled water mix without leaving any standing mixture pooling inside (don't want to stain the cedar).
Then let it air for a day and load with your cigars after re-seasoning it. Keep it simple.

 

[half full monty]

Just wipe it down with a 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and distilled water mix without leaving any standing mixture pooling inside (don't want to stain the cedar).
Then let it air for a day and load with your cigars after re-seasoning it. Keep it simple.

+1, I've done this with more than 1 humi......with excellent results.

 

[nicayotte]

Alrigh just finished doing the 50/50 method now gonna let it sit a day, wipe it down with 100% distilled then re-season it.

 

[Friggame]

Only Mold issue i have had was a cigar issue and not the humidor itself. They were a couple of Cuban cigars that got spots of mold i just wiped off the mold and stuck them into a ziplock to isolate them... 6 months later and still no more mold.

 

[Custom Creations]

I had a friend ask me the same thing recently. He said he wiped it down with lysol. I told him to throw the humidor in the trash.

Take everything out of the humidor. Wipe with alchohol and let the humidor sit in a warm dry place for about a month. Sanding it like the above post will make it look better, especially if the mold stained the wood. Remember, mold is a living thing and you will have to completely kill it in order to get rid of it. This should help.

If the humidor is a cheap hand me down, I would not risk placing $500 worth of cigars in it. I would rather use a zip lock bag and Humi Packs before using it. It is easy for me to say though since I build them for a living.

Good luck, if you need any help you can shoot me an e-mail.

 

[BlindedByScience]

Just wipe it down with a 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and distilled water mix without leaving any standing mixture pooling inside (don't want to stain the cedar).
Then let it air for a day and load with your cigars after re-seasoning it. Keep it simple.

+3. It's probably worth mentioning that "rubbing alcohol" IS NOT isopropyl alcohol...!!! Rubbing alcohol sometimes has lanolin and fragrances in it (read the label). Real iso can be bought at most any pharmacy. It will come in varying percentages due to the fact that it likes to absorb water from the atmosphere very quickly. Point being - read the label...!!

I had a friend ask me the same thing recently. He said he wiped it down with lysol. I told him to throw the humidor in the trash.

Take everything out of the humidor. Wipe with alchohol and let the humidor sit in a warm dry place for about a month. Sanding it like the above post will make it look better, especially if the mold stained the wood. Remember, mold is a living thing and you will have to completely kill it in order to get rid of it. This should help.

If the humidor is a cheap hand me down, I would not risk placing $500 worth of cigars in it. I would rather use a zip lock bag and Humi Packs before using it. It is easy for me to say though since I build them for a living.

Good luck, if you need any help you can shoot me an e-mail.

....there's wisdom here, as well. You can get a decent imported desktop for $50-70.00 from several places. Unless you have something of value, monetary or sentimental, it may not be worth the risk.

Regards - B.B.S.