Redford Lite Electric Cabinet Humidor Review
Summary
The Redford Lite is built around one core promise: a set-it-and-forget-it electronic climate system. Honestly, it’s designed to be a fortress that flawlessly protects your cigar investment.
For this review, I have to admit, it was almost comical unboxing our test cigars—all six of them. If you’ve seen our other reviews, you know the drill: we let at least three cigars rest for a full month to see what happens. Staring at a half-dozen sticks in a cabinet that boasts a thousand-cigar capacity felt like parking a scooter in an airplane hangar.
To keep the test fair and remove any variables, we grouped all the test cigars together right on the top inclined shelf. This way, they were all getting the exact same treatment from the temperature and humidity sources. Yes, the Redford has active ventilation, but for a proper test, we wanted to guarantee identical conditions.
⭐Redford Lite Electric Cabinet Humidor Review
Specification
Type: Electric Cabinet Humidor;
Capacity: 1250 cigars, depending on the vitola.
Key Features: Electronically adjustable temperature control. Electronically adjustable humidity control. Condensation control. Four drawers on metal slides. Three adjustable dividers per drawer. Removable tray with two adjustable dividers.
Manufacturer: Prestige Import Group;
Country of Origin: The U.S.A.;
Dimensions, W/D/H: 26/26/52.75;
Interior and Materials: An oak construction, cedar lining, tempered and tinted glass;
Lock: Yes;
Drawers: Yes, four drawer-style trays on metal slides;
Trays: Yea, a removable cedar tray;
Thermometer: Yes, a digital thermometer.
Humidification: A reservoir at the low back of the unit;
Hygrometer: Yes, a digital hygrometer;
Water tank capacity: Half a gallon;
Temperature control: Yes, adjustable from 410F to 710F;
Lighting: Yes;
Ventilation: Yes;
Noise level: 35 dB;
Power supply: 110-120 Volt electricity.
You get four main drawers for organizing your collection, each on metal slides and equipped with three adjustable dividers. Plus, there’s a removable tray at the very bottom that includes two dividers of its own.
I’ll say that again because it’s the main organizational feature: four slide-out drawers with three dividers each, and one separate tray at the base with two dividers.
What I really appreciated is how smoothly the drawers operate; they glide right out, so you’re not fumbling to grab sticks hidden in the back. It makes sorting by brand or wrapper a total breeze.
Now, I gotta be real—refilling the water reservoir is not my favorite part. It’s tucked way in the back at the bottom of the humidor. On top of that, the humidity and control sensors are also in a back corner, and I could easily see my friend Reid just shoving a box of Padrons in front of them, which would throw off the readings. But, look, for a unit that can age this many cigars this well, it’s a minor annoyance I can live with.
The control panel is front-and-center on the top of the door. Setting the temperature and humidity is all digital. The panel also handles the de-mister (condensation control) and lets you swap between Fahrenheit and Celsius. It even has a memory function for your preferred settings. It feels just like the control panel on my new kitchen fridge.
The built-in LED lighting frames the door and does a fantastic job lighting up the shelves, making it easy to show off your collection day or night. And for peace of mind, it comes with a lock and key. I could see this being perfect for a small lounge or retailer who needs to display sticks securely. The humidity is locked in tight, too, thanks to a door seal that feels incredibly robust, just like a high-end refrigerator.
- Suitable for a large collection of cigars.
- There is a convenient control panel.
- LED lighting.
- Easy to pull out drawers.
- The humidor reliably provides a stable internal climate.
- Inconvenient placement on the water reservoir.
- The control sensors can be covered, and the temperature and humidity readings will be incorrect.
Packaging and shipping
This thing is a beast. It arrived right on schedule, strapped to a pallet and fully encased in a protective wooden box. Be ready with a power screwdriver, because you’ll need it to get this thing unpacked.
The order ships out within 5 business days. If you have specific questions about delivery, you can reach out to Your Elegant Bar. As soon as it left their warehouse, I got an email with the tracking number, which was great. Dealing with Your Elegant Bar was solid; they offer free shipping, a “no risk” damage policy, and an easy return policy if it’s not for you.
Exterior
The Redford Lite electric humidor cabinet feels incredibly sturdy, made with a solid oak construction. It measures 26 inches wide, 26 inches deep, and 52.75 high, which is pretty standard for a fridge-style humidor. To be honest, I was expecting something even larger for a 1000+ cigar claim, but it’s pretty space-efficient.
The door looks sharp, with a stainless steel frame and tinted glass. It’s all about protecting your collection, and the Redford Lite delivers on that with a safety lock and keys.
Interior
Inside, you’re looking at four shelves on metal rails and one removable tray. The shelves are built like shallow drawers, which is smart—it stops your cigars from rolling off when you pull a shelf out. The top two shelves are angled forward, which is great for display. Every shelf and the tray are lined with Spanish cedar, as they should be. Each shelf has three adjustable dividers, and the tray has two.
There’s a soft LED light strip built into the door frame. It illuminates all the shelves really nicely. Even though LEDs don’t put out heat, I personally wouldn’t leave the light on 24/7 if I had a bunch of unboxed, single sticks in there.
The reservoir is in the lower back. To get to it, you have to pull the bottom tray out, then slide out the entire fan unit, which holds two small reservoirs with tin lids. You fill those with distilled water (never tap water!) or a propylene glycol solution and then slide it all back in. You could also just use Boveda packs in here if you wanted to bypass the reservoir system.
Ventilation is handled by two fans, ensuring good air circulation: one on the floor and one on the ceiling of the unit.
Setup and Seasoning
The moment you open the door after installation, you get hit with that amazing, pleasant aroma of fresh cedar.
To set up the Redford, we first filled the reservoir with distilled water and cranked the desired RH to 75%. Even though it’s an electric unit that manages itself, we always do this. We want to make sure all that new cedar has soaked up plenty of moisture before we introduce any cigars.
As the graph shows, the Redford got up to 75% RH crazy fast. It only took three days. At the end of day 3, we put our test cigars inside. At the end of the fourth day, we swapped the water for a propylene glycol solution and set the humidity to our target of 70%. You can see on the chart where we lost about 2% RH during the swap. From day five on, the graph is just a beautiful, boring, flat line at 70% RH.
We did this setup in mid-June, and it was hot—$86^{0}F$ outside. That first SMARTRO reading is basically the ambient room temp before the cooler kicked in. Seasoning the temp on this thing is a joke, it’s so easy. You just set the temp on the control panel, and within a few hours, it’s locked in. After that, we saw zero significant temperature swings.
| Day | SMARTRO SC42 (°F) | Built-in Thermometer (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 84 | 67 |
| 1 | 69 | 68 |
| 2 | 68 | 68 |
| 3 | 68 | 68 |
| 4 | 69 | 68 |
| 5 | 69 | 68 |
| 6 | 69 | 68 |
| 7 | 69 | 68 |
| 8 | 69 | 68 |
| 9 | 69 | 68 |
Capacity
This is definitely one of the top humidors for capacity, holding up to 1250 cigars. But, as always, that number totally depends on the vitola (cigar size) and whether you’re storing boxes or singles.
There is a ton of room in the Redford Lite, and you can stack plenty of boxes. The cedar dividers are a huge help in keeping my single sticks organized. But if you’re a “boxes only” collector like my friend Wesley, you can just pull them all out.
Seal
The seal is no joke. It’s 100% a refrigerator-grade seal. It’s a heavy-duty system that creates a perfect barrier, protecting your cigars from whatever crazy climate changes are happening in your house.
Humidification System
The humidification system runs off the reservoir in the back, working with an auxiliary fan to circulate the moisture. It’s all controlled electronically. You can dial in your desired humidity level anywhere in the 56%-78% RH range.
If the humidity ever spikes and fogs up the glass, the automatic de-mist feature kicks in. It pulls out the excess humidity and keeps the glass clear. This dehumidification function is key for balancing the climate. This might just be the best humidor cabinet for that feature alone.
Hygrometer
The electronic hygrometer is perfectly placed on the top panel, on the outside of the door. This is a huge plus, as you can check the RH level at a glance without ever having to open it. A humidor without a good hygrometer is useless, but thankfully, the Redford’s built-in one works great and seems very accurate.
Thermometer
The digital thermometer sits right next to the hygrometer on the control panel. With electric cabinets, the thermometer is really just confirming the temperature you’ve already set. The Redford can hold a temperature anywhere from $41^{0}F$ to $71^{0}F$.
Thermostat
The Redford Lite includes both a heating and a cooling system. I’m going to say it again: you must be careful not to shove cigar boxes against the back wall and block the control sensors. If you do, you’ll get bad readings, and the system won’t be able to maintain the environment you set.
Performance
We used three La Flor Dominicana El Jocko cigars for the test, which measured at 66% RH before going in. After the initial seasoning, we filled the reservoir with our propylene glycol solution and locked the humidity setting at 70%.
Over the entire 30-day test, the humidity graph was basically a flat line. There were no meaningful differences between the built-in hygrometer and our own SMARTRO control unit. Just to be sure, we moved our SMARTRO hygrometer to different shelves throughout the month to see if there were any “dead spots” or differences between the top and bottom. I wasn’t surprised to find there were none. The circulation is excellent.
| Day | SMARTRO SC42 (RH%) | Built-in Hygrometer (RH%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 69 | 68 |
| 2 | 69 | 68 |
| 3 | 69 | 68 |
| 4 | 69 | 68 |
| 5 | 69 | 68 |
| 6 | 69 | 68 |
| 7 | 69 | 68 |
| 8 | 69 | 68 |
| 9 | 69 | 68 |
| 10 | 69 | 68 |
| 11 | 69 | 68 |
| 12 | 69 | 68 |
| 13 | 69 | 68 |
| 14 | 69 | 68 |
| 15 | 69 | 68 |
| 16 | 69 | 68 |
| 17 | 69 | 68 |
| 18 | 69 | 68 |
| 19 | 69 | 68 |
| 20 | 69 | 68 |
| 21 | 69 | 68 |
| 22 | 69 | 68 |
| 23 | 69 | 68 |
| 24 | 69 | 68 |
| 25 | 69 | 68 |
| 26 | 69 | 68 |
| 27 | 69 | 68 |
| 28 | 69 | 68 |
| 29 | 69 | 68 |
| 30 | 69 | 68 |
The temperature graph is, thankfully, just as boring and flat. We saw tiny, temporary dips in humidity and temp when we opened the door to move the sensor or add the cigars, but the unit recovered and got back to the setpoint within a couple of hours every time.
After a month in the Redford Lite, the La Flor Dominicana El Jocko sticks came out at a perfect 70% RH. They were just as flavorful as I remember. The burn was perfect, lasting about an hour, and the smoke output was just fantastic.
Comparison and Alternatives
Look, the Redford is a dream humidor if you have a massive collection and the space for it. But if that’s not you, there are some great alternatives for storing your cigars.
If you’re just getting into the hobby and want to store a few dozen cigars properly, the Case Elegance Renzo humidor is a no-brainer. It’ll hold up to sixty sticks and looks great on a desk. The humidification system it comes with is super simple to use. It’s a quality piece and a smart first investment, and it’s way more affordable than the Redford Lite. No need to spend a fortune at the start of your new passion.
For those who’ve been at it a while and need more space for long-term aging, check out the NewAir 250 Count. It’s much smaller than the Redford, measuring $13.6\times19.3\times18.5$ inches, so it’s easier to find a spot for in your home. It holds 250 cigars (depending on size) and also offers precise temperature control, from 52 to 74F.
If you’re a more advanced beginner (maybe 60-125 cigars) and you specifically prefer a classic, solid-top look without a glass window, the Deauville Leaf Inlay is the right call. It gives your sticks a beautiful Spanish cedar interior where they can age perfectly.
