Adorini Cigar Heaven - 2nd generation?

[Guest Nekhyludov]

Hi all,

I suspect this question may be a little remedial in light of the considerable engineering talent on display here, but I'm hoping to draw on some of your experience before I commit to a purchase. I've got an Adorini Bari cabinet humidor that I've been using for the past couple of years. I've been using the 2 acryl polymer humidifiers that came with the unit, and they've worked fine holding the RH at 65% where I want it.

But as my humidor has filled up, I'm not getting any air circulation, and I'm noticing some inconsistency in my smokes lately. So I'm considering picking up the Cigar Heaven - 2nd generation electronic humidifier. The Bari is set up with a port to accommodate that particular unit, but I'm sure it would work with any electronic unit.

https://www.humidordiscount.com/adorini-cigar-heaven-2nd-generation

Do any of you folks have experience with the Cigar Heaven unit? I've seen that it's used in high-end Habanos humidors, so I suspect it's a good humidifier, but I have no idea how it stacks up against some of the less expensive alternatives like Cigar Spa or Cigar Oasis. 

I've also noticed that some folks here build their own - is that because the commercial units are poor performers? Not worth the cost? Should I just dig into PigFish's archives and build one?

Any thought, suggestions or experience would be much appreciated!

 

[PigFish]

I have no experience with this unit. I am also a competitor in the humidors control arena, so I thought that I might just toss that out up-front.

Much of what you want and/or need may be controlled by your budget. As I see it, if this is all that you need, this solution may be a good affordable alternative. But, here are some of the problems.

Putting your humidor sensor in the close proximity to the humidifier is a mistake. This is my opinion anyway. If they have an option to separate the two, I would take it. I mean, you don't put the air conditioning or heater thermostat in your home right next to a heater register! If you did, it would suffer from the 'direct flow and condition' of the conditioned air. This would cause an unstable and highly variable condition in your home heating. The same holds for controls in your humidor.

There are people that sell separate controls and humidifiers. I do and so does Bob over at Aristocrat. I think these are better solutions but they come at a higher cost.

Air circulation is an entirely different situation. There are tons of options here. Do you want 'general' circulation or specific...? Specific is far better for humidor stability and balance. If you don't want to buy a solution you can certainly make your own if you are cleaver and handy. I build a variety of ducted fan products for use in my humidors.

What I would do here is use at least one ducted fan assembly taking the higher rH and warmer air and move it to the bottom of the humidor. Now I like running fans 24/7 but that can be a problem for passive humidors (not cooled).

The solution is two-fold. First you want your fan to run when your humidifier is running. This is going to blend the water from your humidifier with the entire space in your humidor. Next, you should consider a timed fan circulation solution. I think that this should run on a 20 to 30% duty cycle, on a short cycle basis. I suggest 150 seconds on and 450 off. Again, what is important is that the circulation circuit runs when the humidifier runs or it does lesser good, overall.

If you have more specific questions to my suggestions, just post them up.

Best of luck on your projects. -The Pig

[Guest Nekhyludov]

Hi Piggy,

Thanks for the thoughtful and detailed reply. Your expertise is certainly much appreciated! You make an excellent point about sensor and humidifier proximity - and the thermostat analogy is apt. Seems like that closes the book on all the electronic humidifiers that are available at retail. 

I'll be starting research on a custom solution ...