My Winefridge/Humidor Rant

So I have been thinking a lot about this of late. I know, I know, I have too much time on my hands. But no that is not it, I am passionate about this hobby/obsession of mine and I actually spend a lot of time thinking about it sometimes I start posts that I stop because I don’t want to upset anyone.
First for the disclaimer, this is only my opinion, and only based on my experience. I know some BOTL that have had similar troubles/issues/whatever but here goes.
If you are thinking of going for a Vino my recommendation would be to not do it. If you cannot afford a reasonable size humidor that will hold your collection stick with coolers, in my opinion they work waaaay better.
Now I am extremely fortunate to have been able to upgrade to the humidor of my dreams and don’t ever expect to move from this to anything else. Not everyone can afford to buy an aristocrat (or similar set up) so we rig various non humidor containers into humidors.

I have used them all;

* 64qt Cheapo Cooler
* 40 qt expensive stainless cooler
* Rubbermade storage boxes
* Brand X Plastic Storage boxes
* Desktop humidors
* Huge Ziploc storage bags
* Travel humidors
* And last but not least the vino’s

To be fair I thought my Vino’s were the best thing since sliced bread when I got them and I put in Spanish cedar shelves, oust fans, Spanish cedar trays crafted by a great BOTL and pounds and pounds of beads from Shilala. I had over double the beads needed for the space ratio.

I used the beads in my coolers and storage boxes as well.

I used salt calibrated digital wireless hygrometers to monitor my RH. In all my boxes the only issues I ever had where in the Vinos. RH spikes and drops (not out of the range of tolerable but movement non the less) Mold yup mold in one that cost me a half a box of sticks due to condensation running down the back of the fridge. With the RH movement it seemed I was constantly checking and fooling with things which was a bit annoying after a while, in my mind it was causing my sticks to not be smoking well (burn issues, draw issues, cracked feet etc. It may have been just in my mind but I didn’t have these issues in any of the coolers, boxes or ziplocador.

After talking to a few other members of the cigar world it seems that anyone that has had trouble with their storage it was only with wine fridges. Never heard of cooler issues other than the normal how to set up and how much beads to use etc. Also in most desktops the issues are typically seal issues, or user error.

I liked my Vinos they looked nice, hell they have a fancy glass door I can see my sticks through. They were also jammed full, hygros fell out, beads fell out, sticks fell out cuz they were jammed full. Tetris was a pain. The coolers and boxes just worked better.

In the end if I had to do it again I would never use a wine fridge again, don’t get me wrong many a brother have used them to great success. Many have modified them beautifully and they are wonderful looking units. But not for me I would stick to coolers, they never ever (ok well hardly ever) needed any kind of maintenance and would go months in between needing to charge the beads. They seem to hold their RH better after being opened (which makes no sense since humid air is lighter than dry air you would think that the nature of opening a cooler vs a wine fridge would let more humidity out)

But on that vein if I had been happy with my storage then I would never have moved on to the Aristocrat so this journey has had a happy result.

Just my thoughts on Wine Fridges I thought I would share. I don’t for a second think that my opinion is the right one but you so often see them touted as great (I was in that camp) and don’t often here of issues or reasons against I thought this would be a different view.