Need some opinions from the experts.
I have been running a wineador for a few months now, so I have not been using my desktop humidor at all. I recently wanted to use it again so I wanted to do a quick reseasoning. After about 5 days of going through the process, I was letting it come down from the high humidity and just happen to notice that I had mold on the inside lid of it. Has anyone ever experienced this before?
https://imgur.com/GbuUnQD
https://imgur.com/Su6rFL4
I found an article on Cigar Advisor talking about how to fix this issue.
https://www.famous-smoke.com/cigaradvisor/how-to-remove-mold-from-your-humidor
The article is pretty straight-forward and seems logical. I guess my concern is the fact that it mentions Isopropyl alcohol. Don't get me wrong, I get the fact that the use of the alcohol is needed to kill the mold itself, but I worry about the long term affects to the cedar.
Any recommendations?
Thanks in advance
Ive also heard that Isopropyl alcohol is the way to go. You don't want to soak the wood and you want to leave the humidor open. I've never done this myself, just read about it in a few different spots.
I've seen at least one case where the mold actually got in between the cedar liner and the wood that is used as the outside of the humidor. I think you'll really want to dry it out and use the alcohol to kill the mold.
Right now it seems to be only around the glass top. Of course I can't see behind the the cedar inside it.
QuoteBrockDB - 10/8/2017 12:38 PM
Right now it seems to be only around the glass top. Of course I can't see behind the the cedar inside it.
I would guess if the mold just started to show up it wouldn't be under the cedar. I would let it dry out and use a bit of alcohol to kill it.
Quoteninfiction - 10/8/2017 1:12 PM
Ive also heard that Isopropyl alcohol is the way to go. You don't want to soak the wood and you want to leave the humidor open. I've never done this myself, just read about it in a few different spots.
I've seen at least one case where the mold actually got in between the cedar liner and the wood that is used as the outside of the humidor. I think you'll really want to dry it out and use the alcohol to kill the mold.
^ This is correct. The cedar will not be harmed. I recommend giving the entire interior surface a quick wipe down as well because mold spores could be hiding in other areas now.
Also, you want to make sure that you always use distilled water in your humidification devices, never tap water.
I have followed those procedures, so I will see how it turns out. It's drying now. I ended up light sanding all of the surfaces I could reach, applied the alcohol and the wiped down with DW. I always use DW, never tap. I have a feeling that I just over saturated the humi, at least I hope that's all I did.
Since glass is non-porous and cannot not provide any nutrients itself, mold would have needed a base, something to attract it. The surface might not have been fully cleaned from a previous spill of some sort. Certainly a build up of moisture could also have done that.
The excessive build up of moisture, I believe, was the culprit. It dried out good after the cleaning, so now I am just going to let it sit and see what happens before I put anything else in it.
I would use hydrogen peroxide. It will kill mold, and it breaks down into water and oxygen.
I assume the pic is of the humidor lid, showing the glass insert. The mold appears to be concentrated on the window cutout. Which leads me to believe that the panel with the cutout is plywood of some sort, and that the inner material is not spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata). In high humidity conditions, mold is more apt to grow on those wood surfaces that are not Cedrela odorata: http://www.pfaf.org/USER/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cedrela+odorata
I learned this the hard way, the first humidor I ever had was a "Lucky Seven", and I slugged that thing with waywayway too much moisture. It had drawers in it, and the drawer bottoms were made of press-board. And they did have a carpet of mold growing on them. I bought my first hygrometer and learned how to regulate %RH.
Good luck with it.
Agreed. Let that sucker dry out and start over.
Gotta kill those spores, or they will be back.
Well, its been 5 or 6 days and there doesn't appear to be any mold. The humidity has been stable at 68% for 3 days, with no humidification devices. There are no indications of mold. I will mark it up as over-saturation. So at this point it seems the process of vacuum, sanding, isopropyl alcohol and DW wipe down worked.
Good luck!!!