Stole from another site...
Hey gang, @Mad4Cigars and @jakecartier3 thought I might be of value on wineadors. Thanks for the heads-up gents! I'm the Business Development Director at Boveda where we make a range of humidities for industries ranging from tobacco, music, food, electronics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and herbal medication. We're the only ones in the world that do what we do, so we have a number of companies who come to us for packaging/container advice for using Boveda.
Wine coolers and flip-top coolers are fantastic for moisture control because unlike wood boxes, they don't leak or absorb much moisture. This means that Boveda works very efficiently inside, adding or removing moisture depending on the conditions to achieve the 62, 65, 69, 72 or 75% you're after.
HOWEVER, when you're using the refrigeration of the wine cooler (some do, some don't) you're scrubbing moisture from the air. This means that any time the refrigeration is on, Boveda goes into overdrive to make up for it, because the fan is much faster than the Boveda. Can refrigeration + Boveda work? Absolutely. There are just far too many variables for me to even begin to suggest how many you should use. But here's the good news: it's impossible to use "too many" because Boveda can't humidify beyond the RH on the pack. Boveda only has minimum requirements to make sure you have enough horsepower, where everything else has a "max fill" or suggested spray/submerge/wet amount. They're admitting you can use "too much". So if you really want Boveda's zero-maintenance to work, I'd suggest using more than your brain thinks will be needed. If you throw 10 in there and it's stable where you want it, you might notice that after 4 months the Boveda are still soft (water to give up). This would mean you could easily use five Boveda for 2+ months in there. Working it the other way, if you start with two Boveda and they die in a month, four will get you two months.
On the other hand, wine coolers that aren't using the refrigeration, they'll behave much like a flip-top cooler. We have coolers here with 20-30 boxes in them and 4-6 Boveda and we open them whenever we think to, which can be months and months. It wouldn't be uncommon for Boveda to last a year or more in there.
So if you want max efficiency, skip the refrigeration if you're storing cigars in your wine cooler. The cool air does zero for the cigars (even if your brain says otherwise) and it reduces the moisture control efficiency. If your brain still wants refrigeration but you also want max efficiency, store your "could smoke at any time cigars" in a tupperware with Boveda inside the wine cooler. That way, they aren't affected by the moisture scrubbing. As for the overflow, coolers with Boveda are the world's best way to age cigars effectively and efficiently.
I vote @Mad4Cigars the official guinea pig for a test. Here are my thoughts: We have a flip-top cooler that measures 12x12x22 which equals 1.83 cubic feet. We have 4 packs in it that are labeled 12.10.12 (we write the dates on all the Boveda we put in stuff to know how long they lasted) and they have plenty still left. So why don't I send a dozen of @Mad4Cigars preferred RH and you can start with 8-10. Keep it closed until it gets to the RH on the pack. That'll give us an idea how many packs it'll take to get a cubic foot (at least in THAT wine cooler) up. Fire your address to charles(dot)rutherford(at)bovedainc(dot)com and we'll get them on the way!
