The problem with the majority of these humidors is it's hit or miss on whether the seal will be any good. I started with a cheap little 20 count that had an excellent tight seal. I decided to upgrade from that to a 100 count. That one leaked big time. I sent it back (yay Amazon return policy!) and went with a 300 count. That one sealed pretty well except along one side. I fought with it for 3 months, dried out some sticks in the process, and finally faced the fact that it was crap. At that point I went with a 70qt cooler and I have not looked back since. It holds humidity rock-solid and you can't beat the volume for the price. Right now it's pretty much stuffed to the gills and I'm debating getting another (larger) cooler. I really wish I had started out with coolers sooner.
Just to let you know, all three wood humidors I had can be found at cheaphumidors. I have no doubts that other examples of the exact same models seal with no problem at all, but the reliability is not great on the Chinese-made boxes.
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Originally Posted by Flynnster:
With everyone moving up where are all these smaller 20-50 count humidors going?
And I know yall keep saying go bigger, and I will, eventually...
Around here, they hoard and/or give stuff to friends.
If you can, you might want to check out your local shops and see what they have in stock. You'll pay more, but since you can inspect it you can see if it looks like it's got a good seal.
There are many ways to check for a good seal, and even some ways to try and improve the seal.
When I'm at a store, I lift the lid and let it drop. It should "huff" shut and actually slow down as all the air gets huffed out by the lid closing. Some people take a dollar or a piece of paper, and close the lid on it. A tight lid should pretty much not allow you to slip that dollar out.
If the lid is close, but not really well sealed, you can cause it to swell by brushing some distilled water on the "lip" that is supposed to seal the lid to the body of the box. Some people will flip out about this, and for good reason...as it's easy to warp the wood and make your seal worse...so it's up to you if you go this rout to tighten up a box.
As mentioned, a good sized tupperwear is an excellent, inexpensive humidor. You can use this till you find the right size and model of wood humidor that you like. Make sure it's got a good seal, get yourself a hygrometer (Walmart has one for $8, it's big and bulky, but both mine were accurate to within 2%), and get yourself some way of humidifying like the
Cigar Mechanic Beads,
Heartfelt Humidity Beads, or
Shilala clay beads.
I would also finish up my Tupperware humidor by putting some Spanish Cedar in it, which you can get for free or cheap from your local cigar shop in the form of cigar boxes. Just break up the boxes and use the pieces for dividers/spacers, whatever. The wood will help maintain the moisture and help season/age the cigars, so they aren't simply living in a plastic box.
I'm sure if you Google Tupperware humidor, you'll get a lot of articles and even some videos on you tube to clarify what I wrote here.
I hope that helps!
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