If you could start over with your humidor.

[El Presidente]

One of the strengths of FOH is the number of newcomers to Cuban cigars (and cigars in general) who land here. 

Once you get into cigars, it is a fulfilling and long journey. There is a lot of impatience when it comes to cigars, but embracing/enjoying  the journey to me is the best part of it 

One of the questions I get e-mailed most on is what type of humidor to purchase. I like to think that I give some sage advice but I will put it to members to provide their advice here. 

If you could start again, what advice would you give as to the type of humidor you would recommend. I am not necessarily talking about brands of humidor, but rather set ups. 

Think about it and pass on your experience. We will pin this to the new FOHcus section when it is launched next week. 

The do's, the don'ts etal. 

Cheers!

Rob

[JohnS]

I think one universal theme you'd find amongst our members is to make sure that you start off with a humidor at least twice the size of the amount of cigars you'll begin with. Also, don't discount how good a simple setup is, like a plastic Tupperware container, as long as your location has a stable temperature.

[HarveyBoulevard]

First, get yourself a nice Yeti 350 Cooler...

Second, get about a pound of 65% rh Heartfelt Beads...

Lastly, find a nice 200 count desktop humidor with a few more beads.

Put all your boxes in the Yeti with the 65rh beads.  Pull out what you want to smoke over the next couple months and put them in your desktop and keep them around 60rh.  As the desktop gets low, refill from Yeti.  As the Yeti gets low, refill from Rob.

I keep my A/C and or heat between 68 and 72 year round and I live in Southern California.  The above may not work as well in other regions and/or parts of the globe.

(Optional step...buy another Yeti

 

[Jeremy Festa]

1 minute ago, HarveyBoulevard said:

First, get yourself a nice Yeti 350 Cooler...

Second, get about a pound of 65% rh Heartfelt Beads...

Lastly, find a nice 200 count desktop humidor with a few more beads.

Put all your boxes in the Yeti with the 65rh beads.  Pull out what you want to smoke over the next couple months and put them in your desktop and keep them around 60rh.  As the desktop gets low, refill from Yeti.  As the Yeti gets low, refill from Rob.

(Optional step...buy another Yeti

 

And there's your answer. Concise. 

[Jeremy Festa]

The only other thing I would recommend is, maybe a move to Brisbane. 

[Orion21]

I'd buy a house with a true basement cellar (like in the movies), then put up some cedar shelving and call it a day.  

[ThePolskiOgorki]

I still consider myself somewhat of a newb to cigars although I would have to agree with John. Coolers and air tight Tupperware work great.

When I was starting out and was only buying singles I struggled with keeping stable humidity in the expensive custom solid wood humidor I bought. Especially in winter. So much so I gave up on it and stored my stock in Ziploc bags with Bovedas in a desk in my basement. It worked really well for me until I got a wineador set up. The fancy wood humidor is now a fancy box for my accessories. Big regrets buying that thing. If your collection is small, just buy air tight containers and keep them in a place with a relatively stable temp.

Now on to the mistake when I bought my wineador. No problems with the function of the wineador itself. Works great. But I bought several custom drawers and one shelf to go with my set up. At the time I didn't think my collection would grow as much as it did. I thought I would have a lot of singles and maybe get a few boxes here and there of what I liked. I was wrong. All I use now is the shelf and stack all the boxes I have on the shelf and I am pretty much at capacity. The drawers are hidden in a moving box in a storage room so I don't see them and get annoyed at myself. So if you plan to get a wineador save your money for cigars by skipping the custom cedar drawers and just get one shelf!

 

[skalls]

I'd start with 2 120qt coolers instead of the Winecooler and the cheap ones we get with samplers over here.  And not buy the 58qt cooler thinking that was good enough (good lord, I should my own tendancies well enough lol).  Also would've just stuck with 70% beads for the NCs and 65% ones for the CCs from the get go.

I'd focus my NC collection on just a couple different Oliva's, Padrons, Drew Estate, some AJ blends and a couple RPs that I like.

I'd probably skip buying Hoyo's.  Would buy more of what I like now.  Probably would've gone deeper on some SC El Morro's and the RYJ Churchills.

[Fugu]

Don't buy a desktop.

[BMWBen]

A lot of good advice in here and I definitely agree with buying more storage space than you think you'll ever need. Once you realize how much better cigars can get just from an extended rest (A few months) to aging (A few years) you find you need more and more inventory on hand, also to keep up with your increased smoking habit as well 

[jpnyc]

4 minutes ago, Fugu said:

Don't buy a desktop.

I concur. I have two desktops that are now empty. I could have spent the money on 2 or 3 boxes of cigars. That would have been money better spent. Now I keep all my boxes in large tupperware bins and I'm still running out of room.

[Cigarsandmalts]

36 minutes ago, ThePolskiOgorki said:

I still consider myself somewhat of a newb to cigars although I would have to agree with John. Coolers and air tight Tupperware work great.

When I was starting out and was only buying singles I struggled with keeping stable humidity in the expensive custom solid wood humidor I bought. Especially in winter. So much so I gave up on it and stored my stock in Ziploc bags with Bovedas in a desk in my basement. It worked really well for me until I got a wineador set up. The fancy wood humidor is now a fancy box for my accessories. Big regrets buying that thing. If your collection is small, just buy air tight containers and keep them in a place with a relatively stable temp.

Now on to the mistake when I bought my wineador. No problems with the function of the wineador itself. Works great. But I bought several custom drawers and one shelf to go with my set up. At the time I didn't think my collection would grow as much as it did. I thought I would have a lot of singles and maybe get a few boxes here and there of what I liked. I was wrong. All I use now is the shelf and stack all the boxes I have on the shelf and I am pretty much at capacity. The drawers are hidden in a moving box in a storage room so I don't see them and get annoyed at myself. So if you plan to get a wineador save your money for cigars by skipping the custom cedar drawers and just get one shelf!

 

Same experience here. I had to go out and buy the exact same wine cooler so I could use the extra drawers and shelving. So now I have one wineador for CCs with one drawer for loose cigars and 2 shelves for boxes, and the other holds my NCs with 3 drawers of loose cigars and 1 shelf for CC box overflow.  

This was recent so now I'm torturing my credit cards in order to fill in the empty space. 6 boxes en route so far in June!

[MrCrowley39]

I bought a desktop and a winedaor....I wish I had used tupperdores or coolidores as storage so that I could afford more sticks at the start. The storage doesn't have to look good, it just has to function. For humidification, either beads for a large space or boveda packs for smaller spaces.

Sent From My Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Using Tapatalk

[MrGTO]

Just get a monster Aristocrat and be done with it!

[DrunkenMonkey]

1 hour ago, HarveyBoulevard said:

First, get yourself a nice Yeti 350 Cooler...

Second, get about a pound of 65% rh Heartfelt Beads...

Lastly, find a nice 200 count desktop humidor with a few more beads.

Put all your boxes in the Yeti with the 65rh beads.  Pull out what you want to smoke over the next couple months and put them in your desktop and keep them around 60rh.  As the desktop gets low, refill from Yeti.  As the Yeti gets low, refill from Rob.

I keep my A/C and or heat between 68 and 72 year round and I live in Southern California.  The above may not work as well in other regions and/or parts of the globe.

(Optional step...buy another Yeti

 

A Yeti cooler for a humidor?  Do you have a marble outhouse?

[Moogypug]

Agree with members above. Don't waste your time on a desktop. Collection grows exponentially and it's hard to keep up. Wineadors can be tricky business. I should have spent more on coolidors. Buy more cabs than dress boxes for said coolidors. 

[El Guero]

I wouldn't have bought a 100 ct humidor. Would have went with a cooler and heartfelt beads from the start. My environment is such that i dont use any hf beads in my smoke now 50ct. 

[foursite12]

18 minutes ago, Moogypug said:

Agree with members above. Don't waste your time on a desktop. Collection grows exponentially and it's hard to keep up. Wineadors can be tricky business. I should have spent more on coolidors. Buy more cabs than dress boxes for said coolidors. 

I use a two-level system--Deep and Ready.  I find the desktop useful for holding storage of the assortment of smokes that are arising from their deep sleep and become candidates for my less-than-predictable selection process each day.

[tembo307]

48 minutes ago, MrGTO said:

Just get a monster Aristocrat and be done with it!

That is exactly my plan at some point this summer, collection has grown too large for even coolers to contain.

[wade1979]

1 hour ago, ThePolskiOgorki said:

I still consider myself somewhat of a newb to cigars although I would have to agree with John. Coolers and air tight Tupperware work great.

When I was starting out and was only buying singles I struggled with keeping stable humidity in the expensive custom solid wood humidor I bought. Especially in winter. So much so I gave up on it and stored my stock in Ziploc bags with Bovedas in a desk in my basement. It worked really well for me until I got a wineador set up. The fancy wood humidor is now a fancy box for my accessories. Big regrets buying that thing. If your collection is small, just buy air tight containers and keep them in a place with a relatively stable temp.

Now on to the mistake when I bought my wineador. No problems with the function of the wineador itself. Works great. But I bought several custom drawers and one shelf to go with my set up. At the time I didn't think my collection would grow as much as it did. I thought I would have a lot of singles and maybe get a few boxes here and there of what I liked. I was wrong. All I use now is the shelf and stack all the boxes I have on the shelf and I am pretty much at capacity. The drawers are hidden in a moving box in a storage room so I don't see them and get annoyed at myself. So if you plan to get a wineador save your money for cigars by skipping the custom cedar drawers and just get one shelf!

 

Did the same. Would like a mulligan. 

[MrGTO]

4 minutes ago, tembo307 said:

That is exactly my plan at some point this summer, collection has grown too large for even coolers to contain.

if I hadn't bought a new MTB I would be doing the same. 

[seattledude]

150QT Cooler with Humidity Beads set to 63-65% RH

[jimsta10]

2 hours ago, HarveyBoulevard said:

First, get yourself a nice Yeti 350 Cooler...

Second, get about a pound of 65% rh Heartfelt Beads...

Lastly, find a nice 200 count desktop humidor with a few more beads.

Put all your boxes in the Yeti with the 65rh beads.  Pull out what you want to smoke over the next couple months and put them in your desktop and keep them around 60rh.  As the desktop gets low, refill from Yeti.  As the Yeti gets low, refill from Rob.

I keep my A/C and or heat between 68 and 72 year round and I live in Southern California.  The above may not work as well in other regions and/or parts of the globe.

(Optional step...buy another Yeti

 

IF you can afford..This is ideal. 

My final 2 cents...Dont feel the urge to constantly open your humidor! 

[Mattygukas]

Well, I see nothing wrong with a desktop humidor as long as you get a nice one that is not overpriced.  Having one of those is always good to have and is a good starting point.  Now, once you get past that point, I would go right for the big boy.  I currently have two end tables, four desktop humidors, and a few humi bags full.  I am currently shopping for the large 5000 cigar cabinet humidor.  If you don't think you will outgrow a nice 300 cigar desktop then so be it.  That said, I told myself I wouldn't outgrow the 100 count, then wont outgrow the 100 & a 200, then add a end table, and so on. 

 

I have never had issues keeping my humidors correct and balanced but I do a combo of oasis products and boveda packs.  Together things are right where they should be.

Never tried the coolers or Tupperware methods but I see how that can work but I would rather add a nice piece of furniture and piss my wife off

[oliverdst]

Hard to start the hobby spending big money.

Of course, if somehow you are sure you will keep on smoking for a long time, buy the biggest you can.

Desktops are still useful for me. When new boxes arrive they go straight to them and sleep for some weeks. I use them to store my singles as well.