Wilkey's shot of his Great Wall of Cooler-dors (that was outstanding Wilkey) really got me going and I thought I'd post up some shots of my storage setup.
This shot above is my full humidor setup. You are looking at a pair of 28 bottle Vino-Temp units that I got on sale at Target for $149 each. If you look in the bottom right corner of each fridge, you will see a blue glow. Those are CPU fans that have blue LEDs in them that I have hooked up to a timer to run every other 15 minutes. I got fans with lights mostly because they were exactly the size, air flow, and DB level I was looking for and they were actually a little cheaper than no-lit ones. After installing them, I kinda like the lights since they are an idiot-proof way to see that the fans (and the fridges for that matter) are actually running.
Both fridges have about 1.75 lbs of 65% beads. I use regular old foam-type elements to up the humidity faster after a serious loading/unloading/rearranging session. The units hold steady between 64 and 67 degrees F and 63 to 68% RH. I'd like to say that I spoke to both Matt at Avallo and Bob Staebell at Aristocrat at length and they were both very pleasant guys who answered every question I had about their respective climate controlled units. If you don't know who they are, Google them as they both make some absolutely stunning custom humidors. At some point I will get a very large humidor from one of them - something that is suitable for my living room rather than a corner of my office - but right now that is an expense I just can't justify. In the meantime, I love the Wine-O-Dor concept - inexpensive and effective.
Most of the cigar boxes in the photos contain what they appear to although a few (such as the plain, unmarked cedar ones) hold different sticks. I have found that the cedar singles trays look nice and all but don't do nearly as good a job at maximizing room. One of the major drawbacks with the trays is that they are just a hair to big to fit side by side in the Vino-Temps. I have a little Brother labeler that I use to mark everything I get. From tags for the boxes to detailed labels for individual sticks if I get a bunch of singles, I try to record the following info on all of it:
Brand, Name, Country of Origin, Wrapper, Vendor, Price, Date Rolled, Date Purchased, Date placed in Humi, and Miscellaneous Notes
The desktop on top of the fridges is a 2 level, 300+ count box humidified by a Hydra. I take a selection of sticks out of the Vino-Temps and toss them in there, using it as a sort of "go-to" box. I have another, smaller desktop unit on the first floor that I keep some yard gar sticks in that I wouldn't care too much about if I had to toss 'em halfway through. The boxes on top of the right hand unit are just empties I got from my local B&M for singles storage.
The unit on the left (and below) is all US import stuff in boxes and singles trays. If you look on the first shelf you will see some cans with Lucky Strike logos on them. Those are tins of Swedish Snus (chewing tobacco) in portion packed form. Great for long days in the office when I can't smoke a cigar
The unit on the right (and below) is almost completely ISOM and I don't go into that side often as I am trying to restrain myself and let those cigars age.
Thanks,
Tim
This shot above is my full humidor setup. You are looking at a pair of 28 bottle Vino-Temp units that I got on sale at Target for $149 each. If you look in the bottom right corner of each fridge, you will see a blue glow. Those are CPU fans that have blue LEDs in them that I have hooked up to a timer to run every other 15 minutes. I got fans with lights mostly because they were exactly the size, air flow, and DB level I was looking for and they were actually a little cheaper than no-lit ones. After installing them, I kinda like the lights since they are an idiot-proof way to see that the fans (and the fridges for that matter) are actually running.
Both fridges have about 1.75 lbs of 65% beads. I use regular old foam-type elements to up the humidity faster after a serious loading/unloading/rearranging session. The units hold steady between 64 and 67 degrees F and 63 to 68% RH. I'd like to say that I spoke to both Matt at Avallo and Bob Staebell at Aristocrat at length and they were both very pleasant guys who answered every question I had about their respective climate controlled units. If you don't know who they are, Google them as they both make some absolutely stunning custom humidors. At some point I will get a very large humidor from one of them - something that is suitable for my living room rather than a corner of my office - but right now that is an expense I just can't justify. In the meantime, I love the Wine-O-Dor concept - inexpensive and effective.
Most of the cigar boxes in the photos contain what they appear to although a few (such as the plain, unmarked cedar ones) hold different sticks. I have found that the cedar singles trays look nice and all but don't do nearly as good a job at maximizing room. One of the major drawbacks with the trays is that they are just a hair to big to fit side by side in the Vino-Temps. I have a little Brother labeler that I use to mark everything I get. From tags for the boxes to detailed labels for individual sticks if I get a bunch of singles, I try to record the following info on all of it:
Brand, Name, Country of Origin, Wrapper, Vendor, Price, Date Rolled, Date Purchased, Date placed in Humi, and Miscellaneous Notes
The desktop on top of the fridges is a 2 level, 300+ count box humidified by a Hydra. I take a selection of sticks out of the Vino-Temps and toss them in there, using it as a sort of "go-to" box. I have another, smaller desktop unit on the first floor that I keep some yard gar sticks in that I wouldn't care too much about if I had to toss 'em halfway through. The boxes on top of the right hand unit are just empties I got from my local B&M for singles storage.
The unit on the left (and below) is all US import stuff in boxes and singles trays. If you look on the first shelf you will see some cans with Lucky Strike logos on them. Those are tins of Swedish Snus (chewing tobacco) in portion packed form. Great for long days in the office when I can't smoke a cigar
The unit on the right (and below) is almost completely ISOM and I don't go into that side often as I am trying to restrain myself and let those cigars age.
Thanks,
Tim
