My wineador has kinda been sitting around for a couple weeks in my room with a handful of cigars inside on the floor in a sealed tupperware with a small amount of beads.

A few days ago I got word from Forrest that my drawers were completed so I took all my heartfelt beads I had scattered around my humidors and placed them in my wineador to start building up the RH.. Nothing was out of the usual until today.

Anyway, I am about to head out to a buddies so I opened it up to grab a couple sticks and got blasted in the face with a horrendous smell. It smells like moldy stinky feet. I have no idea what it could be other than my beads... they are the only new thing to the humidor.

Is this normal? I took out the bead sticks and smelled them and they stink pretty bad. What could have caused this?
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Sounds like mold...
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From the EPA:



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Whats the temperature inside?
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It's roughly 60F right now, it bounces around from 60 - 63F throughout the day..

So do you guys think a baking soda wash would help it?
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those nylon bags for beads may look like socks, but dirty hanes are not a good substitute.
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That sucks man. Good thing you didn't leave it sit like that with your cigars for a long time though.
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Putting beads or any humidification in a sealed wine cooler (or any thing that seals well) without something to absorb moisture could be the problem. In this case there were beads giving off moisture with nothing to absorb it. A dirty humidification device (e.g., floral foam or beads) could aggravate this.

I would guess an empty cigar box or some cedar strips might have prevented this, but that is only a guess.

A thorough wash with baking soda should clean it up.
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Well it's not sealed yet. I still haven't plugged the drain. I wanted to see how I held RH before plugging it.

But yes, I'll probably give it a thorough wash with baking soda, let it dry, and then repeat. My drawers from Forrest come tomorrow, but I am in no rush. Better to fix the problem early, than deal with it later.
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Good luck in finding a solution, and if you do, please post it here. I have the opposite problem I am trying to solve....my feet smell like a Wineador.
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I really like this thread. Thank you, Vin and Tom. You guys made my night!
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This might help:

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That won't ruin his Wineador?
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stick your feet in his wineador, problem solved.:-)
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Derrick, I would suggest you get in touch with Heartfelt and ask if there is a proper way to clean them. I'm pretty sure, if anyone, they would know best what to do. If you haven't done it yet, clean out your wineador again until you are satisfied and plug up that drain. If you are going to place any wood (i.e. boxes empty or otherwise) put a few saucers with wet sponges to season them. If nothing, then no seasoning is needed.

Good luck!
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I read on a well respected blog that it's perfectly ok to use that stuff in the wineador, so, despite my complete and utter lack of experience with foot powder use in winedors, I'm going to authoritatively assert that it is completely safe to use and is the recommended treatment.
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Thank you, that's a good idea, ill contact Heartfelt and ask if they have heard of this before and what they suggest.
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Stinky feet you say...
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So, how did the cigars taste?
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Great, but they were in sealed tuperware. Only the wineador smells funky, the cigars in the tuperware are fine.
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