Cigar Aging Vault Humidor Review
Made By: Quality Importers
Purchased From: CheapHumidors.com
Purchased: March of 2010
Price: $849 and $250 for shipping
I have been recently contacted by a couple great members here on Cigar Pass that wanted to know my thoughts on my humidor. So this is why I am writing this review. Also with the hopes of helping anyone else in any questions they have on this humidor.
Like most when I started to search for a large humidor I was looking for a very nice looking piece of furniture but also versatility on cigar storage also keeping the price fairly reasonable. To me the Cigar Aging Vault fit the bill. So I searched around and found the cheaphumidors.com was the lowest price. I put a call into their office and was very satisfied with their customer service so I pulled the trigger. They highly recommended the Hydra LG humidification system to use on this humidor so I ordered one of those at the same time. Seven business days later I arrived home to a very large box in the driveway.
All unboxed and setup I installed the Hydra LG and began the seasoning process. All Seasoned up I thought I was good to go! The construction and finish of the unit was superior.
The Unit has 10 individual drawers that hold up to 24 cigars per drawer with a maximum cigar length of 8" Not 8.5" like some dealers are advertising. Also if like most cases your cigar is said to be 8" long but is really slightly over 8" it will not fit. Stay at 7.5" and you'll be safe. Now this leads me to my first issue with this humidor. Every dealer that sells this humidor does not list a maximum ring gauge for the cigars that fit in the drawers and to me this was a piece of vital information that should have been given. The drawers will NOT hold anything over a 54-56 gauge cigar depending on if it is in cello or not. Anything larger will hit the drawers opening when you close it. I figured this out the hard way and lost a few smokes that were 60 gauge when I went to closed the drawer. The cigars got scalped. Now my second issue with the drawers may have just been my unit but the screws that Quality Importers used to hold the drawer slides in were all mismatched and too small. They always came loose causing the drawers to fall out of line and rub. I replaced all the screws that hold the slides to the inner walls of the humidor. Once I did this they all lined up great. The slides tend to bind up every once and a while and you need to force the draw closed or open which is a pain. Behind the draws there is about a 4” gap to allow air to flow up behind the drawers for good air circulation to all the cigars in the drawers.
This will help you to see what I meen about the bigger ring gauge cigars hitting!
L-R Ashton VSG Torpedo 6.5x55 which just makes it, Padron SI-15 6x60, Ashton VSG Enchantment 60 at the widest spot
The bottom of the cabinet has to doors that open up to a big open area that has an internal outlet for the humidifier. The bottom compartment measures 28 5/8”W X 15 ¾”H X 15”D. This area would be great for box storage or whatever you imagination will bring. I myself got 2 custom made drawers and a shelf for the bottom section. These were made by Forest (Golfnut here at CP) wineadors.com. They fit in perfectly and are only 10” deep leaving me 4” behind the drawers for my humidifier to sit. The drawers and shelf are on 14” slide leaving the last 4” hanging off the back so the drawers will slide out all the way. The slides I used are from Home Depot and the drawers easily pop out of the humidor to access my humidifier.
Drawers and shelf made by Forest
(not included with the humidor)
See how the slides extend off the back of the shelves and drawers
The seals on all the 10 drawers and bottom doors are not nearly tight enough to handle the constant change in temperature and humidity we face here in New England. I went over to Home Depot and picked up some thin foam weather strippingand lined all the opening contact points around the drawers and cabinet doors. This greatly helped my humidity issues but I was still unable to get the humidity to where it needed to be. Also need to add stronger magnet closersfor the 2 cabinet doors now that the gaskets are there the doors dont close tight without them!
Gaskets I added to the drawers
This now brings me to the Humidifier option that most recommended for this unit being the Hydra LG Humidifier. The LG is by all means not a bad humidifier but not the proper humidifier for this humidor. After over a year of constant struggle of keeping my humidity right I spent some money and got the Avallo 2 canister system with built in fan timer option and 4 external fans. I installed the 4 fans on the back of the drawers 2 towards the top and 2 towards the middle. The external fans run along with the canister fans when there is a call for humidification. The external fans also run off a fan timer that is built into the Avallo control. This fan timer runs the external fans for 1 minute every 60 minutes to help keep the air circulating for a more even humidity level. This solved all my humidity issues and keeps my humidor perfect at 68%rh. The Hydra LG only measured humidity right at the unit causing it to short cycle and the top of the humidor would always be dry.
Avallo System
Fans Behind Drawers
Location of the remote sensor that the Avallo measures temp. and humidity from. Also you can see how i mounted the fans to the back of the drawers. This is also a good picture of the 4" open area behind all the draws that lets air flow up behind and around the drawers.
The Cigar Aging Vault is an ok humidor besides the few things that needed to be fixed (drawer screws, sealing the drawers and doors, maximum ring gauge for the drawers) and to be aware of when making a purchase of this humidor. If you are all about buying boxes than I would say this is not the humidor for you. You would fill the bottom of this humidor up very fast. Now if you are like me and buy a lot of singles, fivers and the occasional box this is an option. I would recommend this humidor if you don't mind making the changes need to get it to function correctly if you really want the concept of the slotted drawers. It does look great and has a very new cool concept with the slotted drawers but is it worth the hassel. There are some great custom humidor builders right here on CP that could make you a quality product that will fuction the way it should. I hope this review helps anyone looking to make this purchase and if you pull the trigger knowing the problems I had please let me know how your turns out and if your humidor is any different.
Personally If could do it again I would have contacted a custom builder!
Paul
ETA: On April 8th 2012
I have been in contact with Quality Importers at the recommendation of some members here to point out the problems that I have had with this humidor and that it is known to still be advertised wrong. They were very happy that I contacted them and even though it is out of warranty sent me a little something for my troubles. If you are having any of the same problems and are still in warranty contact Quality Importers they stand behind their products!
Edited by Tall Paul, 09 April 2012 - 08:19 AM.
