Is A Cooled Humidor Better Than A Cedar Humidor?
Blog
July 20, 2022
Is an old fashioned cedar humidor the best one to use? The short answer is, not necessarily. I have been casually enjoying cigars since around 2005. It has been a slow, organic growth to where I am at now. Since 2016 my love of cigars has grown ever year. The beauty of cigars is, there is a lot you can learn, or you can literally just fly in your own lane and still be happy. That being said, there is still a lot of science to cigars and keeping them healthy. I set out to seek answers on a lot of these questions myself, and love sharing my knowledge with other enthusiasts. That being said, let’s get into it.
Classic Cedar Humidors
I have been though many humidors at this point. Glass tops, non glass tops, portable ones. I will say that nothing, and I mean nothing, beats that wonderful cedar wood & cigar smell. When I walk into a local big walk in humidor, I could sit in there all day. The wood also acts more like a living thing. It needs more seasoning and can have longer adjustment periods. It is always breathing and adjusting to the humidity and cigars in that humidor. This isn’t a bad thing, but it can leave some people frustrated. As far as wood cedar humidors go, I would recommend the non glass tops, just to make sure you get the full air tight experience. Some of the cheaper glass ones can have issues. Cedar humidors of all sizes are absolutely great, but maybe you are looking for something more like me.
Cooler Humidors & Temperature Control
Some people literally user coolers, like for beers, or Tupperware container. Cost effective and efficient, yes. Ascetically pleasing and versatile, not as much. I hadn’t really looked into these myself until this year, one with cooling built in, that is. I have a basement that does not have any air conditioning air flow. During the summer, the room my cigars are in can spike up to 75+ easily. Keeping cigars in a higher temp or humidity consistently, is not good. You really want to stay around that 70 degrees and 70 humidity range, if anything lower on both, not higher. This is very important if you want to keep them good and you are serious about longer term proper storage. I thought I was getting some bad tasting cigars and thought I better make a change again, after my last cedar non glass top gave me 4 good years of use. I am usually good about Boveda packs and monitoring my numbers. I finally realized though that I had a high room temperature problem. I did also kind of get tired of replacing the Boveda packs and the battery on my Boveda butler. You have to keep a pretty accurate eye on your temp and humidity. Maybe you want to keep your cigars around 65 degrees, but not the room they are stored in. Then these would be a great solution for you. Just to be clear, this isn’t an actual cooler per say, or Tupperware. The terms cooler humidor or coolidor, are loosely used. I am talking about a humidor that has cooling controls built in, a fan system. I would think that would be considered a coolidor.
A New Solution
I had seen small fridge looking storage units before, like a wine cooler essentially. I started looking around online and found this beauty, did some research and bought it. Yes it’s about as big as a full tower desktop computer, but as soon as I saw the temperature controls, I was sold. There is no way to adjust the humidity built in, but that is easy anyway and they give you a little water container to use, and it works flawlessly. Being able to keep my cigars at 70 degrees or under, when the room is 77, honestly priceless. Saving money on Boveda packets, also awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I love Boveda as a company and their products, but in this day and age most people are looking to save where they can, especially where there is a better way. It has a light inside and temp controls that go down to 54 degrees. You could kind of use it for other things, but it’s a great humidor. The cedar shelves that you can take out and move around, are great and still give you that nice cedar smell. The hygrometer that came with the unit seems off by around 5% or so, under what my digital says, but I just use my digital one anyway. It has an awesome blue light so I don’t even have to open the door. The door is like a fridge door by the way. This thing is more air tight than a lot of other humidors, guaranteed. I also went from being able to store 90 cigars, to a 150 capacity. I don’t usually have half of that, but it’s nice to be able to stock up a bit. They do have ones with heating as well, I do live in an area where winters are rough, but I am more worried about the heat during the summer. If you are consistently getting close to 80 degree and 75+ humidity, you will affect your smoking experience and put yourself at risk for tobacco beetles.
Final Thoughts
For me, I love this thing! It’s funny the brand is called NEEDONE, since most people are probably sitting there saying, I NEED ONE! If you want a 300 cigar capacity and heating options, they have that too! Yes, they are pricier humidors that average around $200 to $400, but the cigar capacity, temp controls, air tightness and ease of use, can’t be beat. You don’t need to worry about any other humidity systems. This will be my one and only humidor for the next 10 years!
If you are looking for a great solution like this one, you can check out the exact one I bought below! When I bought my NEEDONE, there was a coupon that was automatically applied, see if you get one too!