Back in December 2015 I decided to buy a bunch of bundled cigars. The problem was that My 2-50ct glasstops, 2-20 ct cheapos where completely maxed out. I thought about going with 2-125 count digital arch barrel humidors from Thompson Cigar but considering how quickly I filled my previous humidor I thought it best to go with something much larger. I was tempted by a cabinet humidor but 1k+ I could never justify and there was no way I was interested in a stupid cooler.
I wanted a display piece that was affordable, looked nice and had a super large capacity. After some searching around I saw the Havana footlocker at Cigars International and loved the price at $150 for a 500 count humidor so I decided to pull the trigger after searching the internet for the best deal. I found the same humidor at pretty much the same price at every site but the shipping was terrible $20+ until I found a 20% off code from CheapHumidors. The code knocked down the price to about $142 which included shipping so I pulled the trigger.
I was super excited and couldn't wait for it to arrive. The tracking number said it would take 3 days to reach me but it was not to be and it ended up taking 7 whole days to reach me. I was bummed but once it arrived I was jumping around like a maniac and couldn't wait to get it seasoned. Its funny looking back because everything took a turn for the worse once I opened the package up and saw (smelled more like it) what I received.
What i got had glue streaks all around the insides and smelled of glue and plastic. The construction was a super thin spanish cedar on mdf that made the terrible glue and plastic smell worse. I really thought I had bought a lemon and was dreading having to pay 25 bucks to return the sucker. Luckily I decided to give it a shot before squandering any money on return shipping.
Seasoning the humidor by wiping it down did not seem like a good idea since the spanish cedar veneer was so thin and I was afraid of it warping. I decided to go slow and to try and give it the best chance of working out. I used some activated water beads in a bowl that I placed at the bottom and waited for 3 days to see if it was working or if I needed to return the footlocker. It was shocking to see that it was fully seasoned in such a short time frame. The top shelf read 78, the middle 76, and the bottom 72 (I had two digital hygroset II hygrometer and the surprisingly accurate calibrated analog that came with it).
I bought a 8 oz humi-care black ice jar and since it was rated for 150-300 cigars I decided that should be enough. If more humidity was needed I decided that I could just retrofit one or both of the shitty large rectangular sponge humidifiers with cat litter. I really did not want to return it because I would be out 25 bucks in shipping charges for the return. It was shocking how well the Havana footlocker held humidity, the 8 oz black ice was perfect with the top tray being 72 rh, the middle tray 71 rh, and the bottom holding at 70 rh (I placed it at the bottom).
The glue smell was still noticeable but it had declined in intensity so I decided to continue with the set up. I was feeling much more hopeful and decided to placed the dividers where I wanted before I tossed in some bundled cigar the next morning. When I opened the footlocker the humidity had spiked to 78 rh at the top, 76 rh in the middle tray, while the bottom was still reading 70 rh. I was freaking out that I was now out of the return shipping but then it occurred to me the stupid dividers where at fault so I just removed them and waited to see if that would fix things.
The next day my hunch was confirmed and everything was back to a more acceptable 72-71-70 rh. I tossed all my crappier cigars and the newly purchased bundles into the havana footlocker and waited a few days to see what happened. To my surprise it stayed rock solid with only a 3 rh difference (72-71-69; not sure why but the bottom now reads 69 instead of 70 while everything else stayed the same). After about a month there was no more glue smell, in fact, it just smells like cigars. The glue streaks are still there since I was lazy and I didn't want to risk exposing the Mdf substrate. The Havana footlocker looks like crap construction and smelled like glue but after several months of use its extremely low maintenance and works extremely well for long term storage.
~7 months after the purchase I have 63 cigars in the 2 trays and about 180 in the bottom in their original packaging or zip loc bags. I uses this as my cigar dungeon, to house my bundled cigars, and where i rest all the cigars i buy before transferring them to my desktop or jar humidors . Other than the top two trays this is an organization nightmare unless you keep them in the original packaging, go with boxes, or use plastic zip loc bags to keep singles in the bottom section. Its way too awkward to uses this as your primary humidor since only the top tray is easy to deal with.
You can easily fit 60-80 cigars in the trays and 150-250 in the bottom without messing up the circulation of humidity. This is close to an actual 300 count humidor, it really can hold 300 mixed and larger ring gauge cigars. You can jam in more cigars but you will need to use several boveda packs to even out the humidity. This humidor really does hold humidity well and for long term storage this is a great option.
The negatives is that its really fkn huge and the bottom is a organization nightmare if you just toss in singles. This is for all in tense and purposes very similar to a coolidor except that it looks much nicer. I personally think coolers look terrible while this humidor really does look like a footlocker and blends in nicely into any room. This is not the cheapest way of storing cigars but it definitely is one of the best looking ways to go about it.
I wanted a display piece that was affordable, looked nice and had a super large capacity. After some searching around I saw the Havana footlocker at Cigars International and loved the price at $150 for a 500 count humidor so I decided to pull the trigger after searching the internet for the best deal. I found the same humidor at pretty much the same price at every site but the shipping was terrible $20+ until I found a 20% off code from CheapHumidors. The code knocked down the price to about $142 which included shipping so I pulled the trigger.
I was super excited and couldn't wait for it to arrive. The tracking number said it would take 3 days to reach me but it was not to be and it ended up taking 7 whole days to reach me. I was bummed but once it arrived I was jumping around like a maniac and couldn't wait to get it seasoned. Its funny looking back because everything took a turn for the worse once I opened the package up and saw (smelled more like it) what I received.
What i got had glue streaks all around the insides and smelled of glue and plastic. The construction was a super thin spanish cedar on mdf that made the terrible glue and plastic smell worse. I really thought I had bought a lemon and was dreading having to pay 25 bucks to return the sucker. Luckily I decided to give it a shot before squandering any money on return shipping.
Seasoning the humidor by wiping it down did not seem like a good idea since the spanish cedar veneer was so thin and I was afraid of it warping. I decided to go slow and to try and give it the best chance of working out. I used some activated water beads in a bowl that I placed at the bottom and waited for 3 days to see if it was working or if I needed to return the footlocker. It was shocking to see that it was fully seasoned in such a short time frame. The top shelf read 78, the middle 76, and the bottom 72 (I had two digital hygroset II hygrometer and the surprisingly accurate calibrated analog that came with it).
I bought a 8 oz humi-care black ice jar and since it was rated for 150-300 cigars I decided that should be enough. If more humidity was needed I decided that I could just retrofit one or both of the shitty large rectangular sponge humidifiers with cat litter. I really did not want to return it because I would be out 25 bucks in shipping charges for the return. It was shocking how well the Havana footlocker held humidity, the 8 oz black ice was perfect with the top tray being 72 rh, the middle tray 71 rh, and the bottom holding at 70 rh (I placed it at the bottom).
The glue smell was still noticeable but it had declined in intensity so I decided to continue with the set up. I was feeling much more hopeful and decided to placed the dividers where I wanted before I tossed in some bundled cigar the next morning. When I opened the footlocker the humidity had spiked to 78 rh at the top, 76 rh in the middle tray, while the bottom was still reading 70 rh. I was freaking out that I was now out of the return shipping but then it occurred to me the stupid dividers where at fault so I just removed them and waited to see if that would fix things.
The next day my hunch was confirmed and everything was back to a more acceptable 72-71-70 rh. I tossed all my crappier cigars and the newly purchased bundles into the havana footlocker and waited a few days to see what happened. To my surprise it stayed rock solid with only a 3 rh difference (72-71-69; not sure why but the bottom now reads 69 instead of 70 while everything else stayed the same). After about a month there was no more glue smell, in fact, it just smells like cigars. The glue streaks are still there since I was lazy and I didn't want to risk exposing the Mdf substrate. The Havana footlocker looks like crap construction and smelled like glue but after several months of use its extremely low maintenance and works extremely well for long term storage.
~7 months after the purchase I have 63 cigars in the 2 trays and about 180 in the bottom in their original packaging or zip loc bags. I uses this as my cigar dungeon, to house my bundled cigars, and where i rest all the cigars i buy before transferring them to my desktop or jar humidors . Other than the top two trays this is an organization nightmare unless you keep them in the original packaging, go with boxes, or use plastic zip loc bags to keep singles in the bottom section. Its way too awkward to uses this as your primary humidor since only the top tray is easy to deal with.
You can easily fit 60-80 cigars in the trays and 150-250 in the bottom without messing up the circulation of humidity. This is close to an actual 300 count humidor, it really can hold 300 mixed and larger ring gauge cigars. You can jam in more cigars but you will need to use several boveda packs to even out the humidity. This humidor really does hold humidity well and for long term storage this is a great option.
The negatives is that its really fkn huge and the bottom is a organization nightmare if you just toss in singles. This is for all in tense and purposes very similar to a coolidor except that it looks much nicer. I personally think coolers look terrible while this humidor really does look like a footlocker and blends in nicely into any room. This is not the cheapest way of storing cigars but it definitely is one of the best looking ways to go about it.
? just busting your chops. I would like to get a humi that size.
