Back in July of 2015 I became the proud owner of a Newair CC-100 Thermoelectric Humidor, and it’s been functioning wonderfully ever since. It quickly reached capacity, becoming the home for many of my most prized cigars. I stored all of the various coffins, odd boxes and whatnot in it that get lost in the large cabinet, and don’t really fit in a desktop humidor. It also was decorated by Wineadorart.com with some great looking decals. Recently, the folks at NewAir offered me an upgrade to their CC-300H model, not only an upgrade in size but in features as well. Let’s take a look at the list of features that the CC-300 has before I tell you what I think of it!
KEY FEATURES
- Opti-Temp™ heats and cools to maintain consistent temperature year-round
- Holds up to 400 individually wrapped or boxed cigars for serious collectors
- Pin-point accurate thermostat lets you adjust the temperature in 1 degree increments
- Removable, adjustable Spanish Cedar shelves and drawers enhance flavors and aromas
- Lock and key helps you protect your collection
It’s quite a bit larger than the CC-100, has heating as well as cooling, where the CC-100 only cools. It has a lock and key, which the CC-100 doesn’t. It also has two drawers, and they skipped the dial hygrometer mounted in the drawer which is in the CC-100. Like many dial hygrometers, it isn’t worth a darned anyway, it’s strictly decorative. I had taken a shelf out of the CC-100 to accommodate an additional box, which I won’t have to do with the CC-300H for some time, as it will easily accommodate ten dress boxes if needed. Cabinet boxes will prove to be a challenge and would require removing shelves to make room. I allowed a week or so at elevated humidity for the shelves and drawers to absorb moisture so they wouldn’t be drawing humidity out of my cigars when I moved them in. There’s not a lot of wood, so this isn’t as important a step as it is with a wood humidor. Wineadors aren’t too much more than a fancy coolerdor anyway, it’s just a sealed plastic box with added electronics. I have the same Cigar Oasis Excel that I used in the smaller unit that I rarely ever had to refill and it seems to be settling in right where I want it to be, and I have one of my Govee remote sensors in there so I can monitor things. The room I have this in is the one room in the house that has the wildest temperature swings, so the heating part will be handy in the winter, although my cigars getting chilly is less of a concern than them getting too warm. With all of these units there’s a limit to how far below the ambient temperature it will cool, if the room is 80, it’s not going to get much below 75, but it’s better than 80! Those are the upsides as I see them.
Downsides, minor as they are, would be the placement of the lock. The way is engineered, it’s the most logical way to do it, I get it. It’s on the bottom, and it’s pretty simple, but if you need to keep small children out it’s effective. It isn’t going to keep anyone older than the age of 4 out, but by then you should have taught your child about what are adult things and what are child things. There’s no handle, which looks good and doesn’t really affect anything at all. I like that they no longer highlight the fact that they include a “moisture container”, which they still do, as using that as the source of humidity is just asking for trouble. Of course, as with any humidor, time will tell, but first impressions of the Newair CC-300H are very favorable, and, based on the last 3+ years experience with the smaller predecessor, I have no cause to believe this isn’t a sound investment.
NewAir has provided my readers with a 20% discount off the purchase of a CC-300H! Use code 20CRAIG for 20% off at https://www.newair.com/
That’s all for today, until the next time,
CigarCraig
