It’s been a little while since we posted an cigar accessory, and since I’m having some allergy-related issues this week, it seems like the time is right. Today I take a look at the Perfecto Cigar Holder. It’s a gadget that’s billed to be the ultimate cigar holding solution for the outdoors in a wide range of environments, from the grill to the golf cart. Let’s check it out.

The Good Points
Simply stated, the job of the Perfecto Cigar Holder is to grip a horizontal surface and provide a safe, stable location to place your lit cigar. It does all those things really well. Once clipped to a surface, this holder isn’t moving, unless you bump into it pretty hard, or intentionally remove it. And the chances of it being knocked loose by anything short of tornado-force wind is nil. I have not tried it out in a car, boat or golf course, but I suspect it would hold securely in any of those scenarios, provided an appropriate surface was available.

It’s difficult to find a horizontal surface the Perfecto Cigar Holder won’t clip to securely. The rubber pads adjust to the surface, and have groves that make for a slip-proof grip. I did a little testing, and I’ve found that it will clamp onto surfaces nearly three inches thick, however, anything thicker than 2 inches causes an incline in the cigar platform that will likely cause the cigar (and the accumulated ash) to slide out.

In addition to being able to hold virtually any size of cigar available comfortably, the reservoir seems to have adequate space for the ash from robusto or toro sized smoke. Which means this isn’t just a cigar holder, it’s basically an portable ashtray, down to the slightly elevated stirrup to keep your cigar out of the collected ash.

The No-So-Good Points
Once you start looking around, you realize that there aren’t as many Perfecto Cigar Holder-friendly surfaces as you expected. In your house, sure there are bookshelves, tables and ledges just about everywhere. But in my car, on the other hand, I couldn’t find a single place suitable for clamping. All those rounded interior edges were crampin’ my clampin’.

Possible Improvements
There are any number of ways you could change the Perfecto Cigar Holder, but if I were to pick one idea, it would be to modify the holder in a way that would allow you to adjust the angle of the part that actually holds the cigar. To make that possible, the ash reservoir/cigar platform would probably need to be attached to the top side instead of the top of the clamp. (It could be done aftermarket with a long screw and a wingnut. Tightening the wingnut would lock the angle of the ash reservoir/cigar platform.)

Hacking the Perfecto Cigar Holder
The Perfecto Cigar Holder does have its limitations. If you don’t have a horizontal surface with an inch or two of grip-able ledge, you’re out of luck. Also, it’s really only useful for one person. I spend some time thinking about ways I could improve this gadget, and then I realized, if you’re willing to embrace your inner geek (or redneck) you can make it more flexible and sociable with the help of a few shiny binder clips. (Please note, attempt the following at your own risk. This is not a part of the officially recommended usage.)

For times when a convenient ledge just isn’t available. I did a little messing around with the holder and I’ve found that with the help of a binder clip (the larger the better), you can attach it to vertical surfaces. (How thick depends on the size of the binder clip. See picture above.) Though it looks unstable, the grooved gripping pads did a good job of holding onto a medium sized binder clip securely. Just don’t bump it too hard.

Imagine you and two friends are sitting by a table at the pool smoking cigars. You only have one Perfecto Cigar Holder. It works OK when it’s just you resting your cigar on it, but when your buddy Joe leaves his cigar in it when he wanders off to hit on the cute girl at the other end of the pool, you’re out of luck. But if you pop a couple binder clips on the sides of the ash reservoir, you’re back in business. Of course, you’ll still need to do something with all that ash, but at least you won’t have to balance your cigar off the edge of a wet and dirty table.

The Verdict
I really like the Perfecto Cigar Holder. This type of cigar holder has been on my list of gear to buy for ages, well before I contemplated binder clip enhancements. And it looks to have a number of improvements over some previous designs I’ve seen. It’s not a gadget I have need for all that often, I don’t play golf, but it has come in handy by the pool and grilling on the deck, and is definitely worth keeping around. Heck, at about 20 bucks per holder, I wonder why I didn’t buy one sooner.