Popular Post Markspring1978 Posted January 23, 2019 Popular Post Posted January 23, 2019 In November I reached out to Bob to get an Aristocrat on order. Big disappointment when he told me that he wasnt taking any more orders. I even tried to sweet talk him a little bit, he didn’t budge. After a bit of research and a few emails and phone calls, I settled on Avallo, http://www.avallohumidors.com/. The owner, Matthew Allen was really responsive and good to work with. He had a Triple D “Shorty” that was nearly finished, hypothetically this would save me most of the typical 6-8 week lead time. This particular unit had a number of upgrades that I would highly recommend. Those include the pull-out shelves, a singles drawer, extra sets of circulation fans, and a timer system for the extra fans. This particular unit is also 41” tall which also represents an upgrade from the standard height of the Triple D Shorty, which I believe is 36” tall. The capacity of this unit claims to be 90ish boxes and 300 singles. To accommodate this, you would have to be a Tetris master. I fully expect to be needing another unit before too long. As has been stated many times, in many threads, whatever you buy, expect to fill it quicker than you expect. That is unless you are the rare breed of Homo sapiens that is disciplined enough to not look at the 24:24 thread, at the exact minute it goes live every day. My order was completed the first week of December, and Matt had thought he would be able to have the unit to me by Christmas. Needless to say, it ended up being a month longer than that, which is understandable considering the holidays. When buying custom anything, I always try to buy and forget about it, which is easier said than done, right? Matt maintained good communication throughout the delays. However, I get the sense that he is very busy right now, and with Aristocrat closing their doors, I would assume that he is going to be getting a lot busier. Good news is, waiting for a humidor is definitely a first-world problem. The shipping cost to my business location in Montana was pretty steep, and I have a forklift to off-load. Don’t be surprised if this cost is more than you expect. The packaging/crating was first-class and very thorough. Set-up of the unit was simple and took only a few minutes. I left the unit open for the first half day as the temps in Montana are in the teens and all the wood needed to get up to room temp before I started to introduce humidity. Matt states that “seasoning” his humidors isn’t necessary, but I left it overnight to acclimate at 65% RH before adding boxes. The fit and finish of the cabinet is outstanding. The quality of the woodwork is very good, no dings, nicks, or finish flaws. The pull-out shelves and drawers are smooth and sturdy. The fan operation is quiet and can be modified to whatever cycles you wish with the timer system. The door frames are lined with a foam for sealant and magnets close the doors securely. I am using a RH and temp data logging unit right now, so far, the unit has been very stable, so no concerns for leaking humidity. I placed 2 recently calibrated hygrometers on the middle and top shelves in the unit, the RH% was within 2% of my calibrated sensors. After the unit was stabilized at 65%, I lowered it to 63%. We keep the ambient room temperature at 68% in our office building, ideally I would like the temperature in the humidor to be 65ish, the cost for adding cooling to the humidor is about $1,500, so I didn’t pull the trigger on that feature. Maybe I’ll tell my staff that we are going to start a “green” initiative and lower the office temp to 65, but I’m guessing that would go over like a turd in a punch bowl. If I had one criticism of the unit, it would be the lock system. If you have any concern about securing your stash, this will really only stop a small child from access. Then again, the doors have glass, so it’s inherently not a secure cabinet. The price on the unit seems to be fair and I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to buy from Matt again in the future. If you are looking to get one of these and have more questions, shoot me a PM. 10 1
PartagasIV Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 My first 'big' humidor buy was an Avallo. I'll miss ordering a second from Bob, but I think Avallo really is the only option at this price point--which certainly is reasonable given the construction and work involved. Nice pickup and congrats!
MD Puffer Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 I'm headed to Nashville in July- plan on ordering one and picking it up then. I keep hesitating on pulling the trigger because I have a huge double door French paneled cabinet from Restoration Hardware sitting in my man cave not being put to use and dreamed of converting it to a refrigerated humidor but am unsure if I can develop the technical skills to make it functional. 1
luv2fly Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 I have an Avallo and it works great. Matt is a great guy to work with. 2
Hutch Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Have heard good things about a company called Vigilant in NH. No personal experience here though. Bob was 30 mins away so I ended up with three of his.
Homer Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Are Avallo or Vigilant in same price range as Aristocrat? More expensive? 1
Markspring1978 Posted January 23, 2019 Author Posted January 23, 2019 4 hours ago, Homer said: Are Avallo or Vigilant in same price range as Aristocrat? More expensive? Avallo are comparable in price to Aristocrat, Vigilant is about 50% more. I looked into Vigilant, they look really nice.
Derboesekoenig Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 9 hours ago, Hutch said: Have heard good things about a company called Vigilant in NH. No personal experience here though. Bob was 30 mins away so I ended up with three of his. Wow that is impressive. is each one bigger than the other? Ha I would like to see that.
Erm310mce Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 I’ve owned two Avallo humidors. I like his product very much and his customer service is excellent. He has helped me replace my cooling unit and gave me very detailed instructions to be able to do it myself. Highly recommend Matthew’s product.
dominattorney Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 I have his humidifier system and am very happy with it. I had an of-brand end-table humidor that I couldn't keep steady at 65 in the dry colorado weather and he set me up with a great dual reservoir system that works perfectly.
oliverdst Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 I just wonder how much money all these sellers lose not coming here and given 5-10% discount with a coupon.
VRATJV07 Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Great Review @Markspring1978 that's a very nice looking humidor
Ribeye Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 Nice Humidor! Beautiful full bear mount trophy!
Markspring1978 Posted January 24, 2019 Author Posted January 24, 2019 2 minutes ago, Ribeye said: Nice Humidor! Beautiful full bear mount trophy! Glad you noticed. ? I like to think the Griz is watching over my stock.
1fastmach1 Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 Very nice unit!Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Homer Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 Bad news for us living outide USA. Thank you for your interest in our humidors. I hate to say that we only ship inside the US. Freight is so expensive in dealing with any type of export just makes it so complicated. I'm sorry we couldn't do business and I hope you can find a good humidor to store your cigars.
SonGoku Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 2 hours ago, Homer said: Bad news for us living outide USA. Thank you for your interest in our humidors. I hate to say that we only ship inside the US. Freight is so expensive in dealing with any type of export just makes it so complicated. I'm sorry we couldn't do business and I hope you can find a good humidor to store your cigars. I seem to remember contacting both Avallo and Aristocrat +10 years ago and asking for shipping to Europe. Either I didn’t get an answer or they replied something in the lines of the above. So gave up the thought and been thinking about building it myself. But gave up on that as well. I just don’t have the skills for it. Haven’t come across a manufacturer that builds them large enough or to the demands I have or seem legit enough here in Europe unfortunately. I would think there would be a market for it. Meanwhile the amount of plastic containers is getting out of hand here in my place.
Homer Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 https://www.schwaben-humidor.de/ I dont know anything about the Company. Some here in FOH have ordered from there. I asked the shipping price to Finland and it was almost 1500euros.
Lotusguy Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 https://www.schwaben-humidor.de/ I dont know anything about the Company. Some here in FOH have ordered from there. I asked the shipping price to Finland and it was almost 1500euros. I know Mark and his work. Great products, similar price range to Aristocrat, but he doesn’t offer temperature control and he doesn’t ship overseas.
Homer Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 50 minutes ago, Lotusguy said: I know Mark and his work. Great products, similar price range to Aristocrat, but he doesn’t offer temperature control and he doesn’t ship overseas. I got this answer from Marc. But i can build you an Junior Exclusivo inside with Sapeli Mahagoni and outside with Zebrano ? or Wenge ? or Oak ? what i can buy in solid Wood her. Shipping and insurance is very expensiv and i have to build a Wood Box for shipping. I have always thought that all humidors are cedar inside and other wood outside. But those are mahogany also from inside. Why?
Lotusguy Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 I got this answer from Marc. But i can build you an Junior Exclusivo inside with Sapeli Mahagoni and outside with Zebrano ? or Wenge ? or Oak ? what i can buy in solid Wood her. Shipping and insurance is very expensiv and i have to build a Wood Box for shipping. I have always thought that all humidors are cedar inside and other wood outside. But those are mahogany also from inside. Why? Best for him to answer, but basically, what we call cedar is actually a close relative to mahogany.
Hutch Posted January 25, 2019 Posted January 25, 2019 On 1/23/2019 at 8:50 AM, Derboesekoenig said: Wow that is impressive. is each one bigger than the other? Ha I would like to see that. Only one left. And, yes, each one was bigger than the last 2
Lotusguy Posted January 26, 2019 Posted January 26, 2019 I got this answer from Marc. But i can build you an Junior Exclusivo inside with Sapeli Mahagoni and outside with Zebrano ? or Wenge ? or Oak ? what i can buy in solid Wood her. Shipping and insurance is very expensiv and i have to build a Wood Box for shipping. I have always thought that all humidors are cedar inside and other wood outside. But those are mahogany also from inside. Why? Marc reached out to me on the German forum. I think you might have misunderstood his quote. The shipping price wasn’t 1500 euro. What you had asked for was a customized unit which carries a cost adder and then there was shipping and insurance on top. You can also pick it up for free PM me if you want help with translation or communication to Marc. I asked him to consider shipping a few containers worth of humidors to US
BrightonCorgi Posted January 26, 2019 Posted January 26, 2019 On 1/25/2019 at 12:47 AM, Homer said: Bad news for us living outide USA. Thank you for your interest in our humidors. I hate to say that we only ship inside the US. Freight is so expensive in dealing with any type of export just makes it so complicated. I'm sorry we couldn't do business and I hope you can find a good humidor to store your cigars. It wouldn't make sense shipping outside of the US. I am sure someone in Finland can make just as nice. If you have to source the humidification ahead of the purchase wouldn't be the end of world either.
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