Slow start can yeast be cold shocked?

I started a cider yesterday with:

4 gallons apple juice
4 lb sugar
1/2 tsp yeast energizer (DAP)
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (yeast hulls)
1/2 tsp acid blend (malic citric tartaric)
1 pack lalvin 1118 yeast
boiled a cinnamon stick in a cup of water for a couple minutes and added the water to mixture.
starting gravity was 1.085.

my question is there seems to be little or no airlock activity after 12 hours- I checked and the lid doesn't seem to seal quite tightly so I think that is the reason, also 12 hours is a little early.

I am worrying that the yeast was cold shocked as the wort was room temperature when i pitched after rehydrating at 95 degrees or so. Is this likely?

also because my other fermenting vessel is in use for another project, assuming the yeast gets its job done can i just cold crash to settle the yeast out when the gravity gets down to 1.005-1.000 and bottle directly from the primary and age in the bottle to prevent contamination since my seal isn't tight? My plan was to add sugar to bottle carbonate.

I plan to check the gravity every 1-2 days and all the literature I found said lalvin 1118 would pretty quickly power through this.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/no-air-lock-activity-154105/#post1771038

Your hydrometer is the only way to tell if fermentation has occurred

I did some thing similar to you in my first batch as well. The problem was I added to much sugar right off the bat. The yeast has a hard time getting started in that level. What I did is started with 1 gallon of apple and added the yeast and nutrients and let is start fermenting then then slowly added the first batch to it over a couple of days. This way I didn't waste the whole batch. Another pack of yeast and some nutrients was needed, but that cheaper then 4 gallons of apple juice.

PS
I know they say use the meter, but if are not getting air activity at the start then nothing is happening. At the start mean after 1-2 days not 12 hours.

Thanks it got going after 24 hours and even more after 36. My bucket seems to leak around the seal and it pushes the water level in the airlock up so it is uneven but never bubbles, so I can tell there is constant pressure production in there it's just leaking out somewhere else.

gravity is down to 1.018

hopsalot said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/no-air-lock-activity-154105/#post1771038

Your hydrometer is the only way to tell if fermentation has occurred

Click to expand...

It's not the ONLY way.