Hey gary,
I have 2 Cigar Oasis units (soon to have a third) and love each of them! I guess it will come down to various deciding factors - how much time you wish to put into tweeking the CO, having it do what you want it to do (more about that below); if you like passive RH% or active (which is what you get with CO).
I like to have active RH% interchange and upkeep versus passive (that you get from most other humidifying agents, beads included). Not sure, and its not scientific, but I found my smokes to taste and be more as I like them to be.
You have to tweak the CO periodically to make sure that the unit keeps your cigars at a RH% level that you are personally comfortable with (and one that is not over or under humidified). The unit comes with a rheostat (though its a bit of guess work and manipulation/tweaking to find your recommended RH levels because of temperature changes effecting RH, as well as personal tastes noted above).
What I did, once my preferred humidor was "seasoned", was to put the CO at the standard setting (arrow aligned midway between the + and - markers under the rheostat), and let it do its job, though watching the RH% closely. Once your hygrometer (salt tested, I'd recommend, to be sure you can trust its being accurate) reaches a level you are comfortable keeping your humidor at, dial the rheostat back (less RH, or towards the - levels) very slowly until the machine just turns off. Jocky it back until it turns on again, then again jocky it back until it turns off again. In that way, I find that its "just" at that point where, if the RH% dips even the slightest below what you're comfortable with the CO will turn on. Of course, this assumes that there's no changes in temp, that you aren't constantly peaking under the lid a lot, or not constantly adding less or more humidified cigars into your humidor (all factors which will affect the RH% stability).
In time, you'll probably want to investigate beads or some such passive form of humidification, but while you have the CO hopefully you'll find, like I did, that its an indispensable form of active humidification to keep those precious puros at the appropriate RH level.
Hope that little bit of babble was coherent and partially helpful to you. PM me if you wish to talk more about this unit.
Happy Holidays,
Darren :thumbs:
