Thread: is a small wine cooler the best humidor?

I bought a small Savoy humidor a week ago and began seasoning it. Turns out the hygrometer that comes with it is very far off. Kept putting in distilled water to bring it up and it never went above 60 after 4 days. Did grow some mold on the filter where you put in the water though! A wipe down with alcohol and a few days left open and we start again...

Threw away the hygrometer today after looking inside it to see that its non adjustable. Gonna get a digital one inside and look into the gel packets.

But then, I see in the archive people here with small fridges and the temp on 70...What a great idea? Leave the cigars in the original boxes and just place inside. Dont have to keep checking temp because its plugged in...Just add packets..

Anyone care to chime in on yays or nays? Kinda new to the cigars so I am open to learning as much as possible.

Wine cooler is a very popular and efficient way to store cigars. You have the temperature control taken care of. You only need to make sure about RH.

So, yes it's a good method but I've heard its not always easy to maintain the RH at a desired level. There is more involved than "just add packets" ie RH circulation to avoid dry/damp patches.

There seem to be a rule of thumb where you need a pound of humidification bead for each 5 cubic feet of volume you have in your cooler.

Give it a shot, I am sure it can't be worse than with the Savoy humidor.
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cant say its the best but definitely fun to put one together yourself.

mine just recently broke, a little accident shattered the front glass door. just started on another one, added the spanish cedar and currently seasoning the wood. however, not everyone adds spanish cedar.

i put whole cigar boxes inside and also use some spanish cedar trays to store singles. however, i mainly use my fridgidor to season cigars and have two other small count humidors for my smoking singles.

if you go this route, definitely purchase a thermo-electric fridge vs standard units as standard units suck the moisture out of the internal air. the thermo-electric models keep the humidity within the fridge. like hovy mentioned, i use beads in mine and only add di water when i notice the humidity to drop below 60. most, if not all fridge units have internal fans that circulate the internal air.

Great ideas..Thanks everyone.