Quick Wine Coolerdor Question

[adsantos13]

Hey all!

I'm looking ahead to the long hot NY summer in my new apartment and am leaning toward investing in one of those Avanti/Edgestar Thermo units. When I first started to fall down the box buying slope I lived in a place which had a cool basement, so this wasnt an issue. I figure an AC running in a room everyday is going to cost valuable dollars which will be better spent buying...MORE CIGARS!

Anyway, I did a bunch of searching and got pretty much all the answers I needed, but am having trouble figuring out one last detail: About how many boxes does a 28 bottle unit hold? I cant really go bigger at the moment due to a combination of space issues + always balancing on the perilous line were my cigar hobby pisses off my wife (she does agree the stainless steel wine cooler looks "nicer" than the cooler though!)

Thanks a ton for any input!

[cigar_joel]

Depending on the size of the boxs and your tetris skills, i would say 20-40. I have 5 cedar trays, and about 18 boxs. Also i have a cigar oasis and several fans. If you want a pic, let me know, i can go take a new one for you. Any more questions, let me know.

[n3uka]

Originally Posted by cigar_joel

Depending on the size of the boxs and your tetris skills, i would say 20-40. I have 5 cedar trays, and about 18 boxs. Also i have a cigar oasis and several fans. If you want a pic, let me know, i can go take a new one for you. Any more questions, let me know.

I might need you to come and play tetris with mine. Pics would be great. I am not getting near that many boxes in mine.

[adsantos13]

WOW. That many huh?? I guess the stock photos of the units are deceptive as I never thought they'd fit so much.

Thanks for the info!

Pics would be great if you dont mind!

[jerseynewbie]

Originally Posted by adsantos13

WOW. That many huh?? I guess the stock photos of the units are deceptive as I never thought they'd fit so much.

Thanks for the info!

Pics would be great if you dont mind!

I guess I'm not that good at tetris, because my 28 bottle only holds about 10 boxes. Then again, most of my boxes are for large cigars, (including a couple of desktop humidors) so undoubtedly with smaller boxes you could get a lot more in.

If you take out all of the shelves and just stack all the boxes on the bottom shelf above the fans ,you'll get a lot more in. But then the air can't move about as easily and it's a pain to get the cigar you need (which is always in the bottom box no matter what you do).

I just made a dozen cedar shelves over the weekend and I'm waiting for my drawer slides to show up so I can mount them. The cigars will be more sensitive to RH changes, because I'll be eliminating all of the boxes, but I believe they'll be alright if I leave the cello on. Plus they'll be easy to access, and it's gonna look pretty damn nice.

Moral of the story is, it's a whole lot easier to fill up a 28-bottle unit than you'd ever realize!

[muziq]

Originally Posted by jerseynewbie

Moral of the story is, it's a whole lot easier to fill up a 28-bottle unit than you'd ever realize!

True dat. I have two 40-btl wine fridges with about 20-30 boxes in each, and they're overflowing. When I bought the first one I had no earthly idea that it would fill up so danged fast...and couldn't imagine getting and filling up a second one! If there's any way you can convince the wife to go with a bigger one, it'd be worth a little pain now in exchange for (most likely) inevitable growth pains later...

[adsantos13]

I hear ya Muziq, but living in an apt. in NYC space unfortunately an issue I must contend with as well. Until we move into a bigger place, or a house, Im going to have to make do with limited storage capacity. Keeps me in line with the spending too which is always a good thing (I guess!).

Anyway, I can get an Avanti 16 bottle cooler for free through my Amex card and am thinking I might pick up this one up instead then buy another 16 for a little extra space. Think thatll add a little more space? Im assuming the 16 will fit approx. 3/4 of what the 28 will hold.

Decisions Decisions!

[jerseynewbie]

Originally Posted by adsantos13

I hear ya Musiq, but living in an apt. in NYC space unfortunately an issue I must contend with as well. Until we move into a bigger place, or a house, Im going to have to make do with limited storage capacity. Keeps me in line with the spending too which is always a good thing (I guess!).

Anyway, I can get an Avanti 16 bottle cooler for free through my Amex card and am thinking I might pick up this one up instead then buy another 16 for a little extra space. Think thatll add a little more space? Im assuming the 16 will fit approx. 3/4 of what the 28 will hold.

Decisions Decisions!

I understand your logic, and yes, in theory a 16 bottle will hold 16/28, or 57% of what a 28 bottle will hold. However, bear in mind that humidification and fans are still going basically take up the same amount of space. Plus the smaller the cooler is, the more wasted space you will have because you won't have as much liberty to "tetris" boxes of various sizes. Does that make any kind of sense? I'm picturing it in my head but I doubt that I'm articulating it very well.

If this is a horizontal cooler, or if you're planning on stacking the boxes on their narrow ends, this might not be as much of an issue. Regardless, I wouldn't plan on fitting more than a half dozen large boxes, or ten small ones, in a 16 bottle cooler.

[borndead1]

I have a 12 bottle, and at this moment it contains:

1 box of coronas
3 boxes of robustos
2 boxes of toros
1 bundle of toros


So I would imagine a 28 bottle would hold.....16 or so?

Uh oh.

I was planning on getting a 28 bottle next week.

I don't think it will be big enough.

Dammit.......

[adsantos13]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Went with the Edgestar 28 Bottle Thermo. If (uhhh, I mean when) I need more space I can get that freebie from Amex. In the end, I figured having two 16's wouldn't give me enough extra space to warrant the price difference (around $50, plus shipping).

Im just happy to be not worrying about the coming heat. I am set to be going away for several weeks this summer and didn't want to be worried that a swarm of beetles would be feasting on my sticks while I was gone.

[schnell987]

Quick question for you: What temperature range does the wine cooler give? Does it allow temps to be maintained at 70degrees?

Thanks.

[zemekone]

Originally Posted by cigar_joel

Depending on the size of the boxs and your tetris skills, i would say 20-40. I have 5 cedar trays, and about 18 boxs. Also i have a cigar oasis and several fans. If you want a pic, let me know, i can go take a new one for you. Any more questions, let me know.

i had shelves and out grew them...

i got two 24 bottle avanti

[SIZE="4"]this one has 25 boxes (4 are 50 cabs)[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]this was a year ago... right is cuban, left is non cuban...[/SIZE]

[The Korean]

You have played Tetris before haven't you?

[zemekone]

Originally Posted by The Korean

You have played Tetris before haven't you?

sadly yes and all the time...

[rockyr]

I only got 10 or so boxes in my Avanti 28. Of course they were all different brands, sizes, etc. so it was hard to make them fit. Nothing near as impressive as zemekone's setup. I also made several cedar shelves for singles. They slide into the groves for the stock shelves.

I use a temp controller because the stock Avanti thermostat keeps my cigars too cool for my liking. Beads from Heartfelt for humidity.