How long do beads last?

[Freddy]

Noob question: I use beads in my humidor. When the humidity drops I keep adding filtered water on the beads. How long can I continue this procedure with the same beads before getting totally new ones?

[CanuckSARTech]

First off, don't use filtered water. Even this contains impurities and contaminants - chlorine, carbon, etc. You should only be using distilled water - this is water that has been boiled, and then the water vapour condensed and collected, thus only 100% (or relatively as close as is possible) pure H2O being bottled; the impurities don't boil off and condense the same as H20. A one-gallon jug is only a dollar or two, and will last you years.

If you're noticing a drop-off in the effectiveness of your beads, it could be because of using filtered/regular water rather than distilled water. Any impurities could be getting into the microscopic pores of your beads' surfaces, and be clogging them up, thus leading to a lowering of the effectiveness of their moisture transfer.

If you're not noticing a drop-off per say, then just rinse them off with some distilled water, and switch from filtered water to distilled water. They should be okay if you're not noticing any negative performance yet.

All that said....

Beads should last you YEARS relatively. I've seen some mentioning they should last you forever, but even dust and other airborne impurities could build up in them. If you're using the RH Beads or the Heartfelt beads, I would presume that you should be able to get a decade or more out of them, depending on how frequently you're filling them up (ie - every other month, or every other week), based on your humidor quality/conditions.

[Freddy]

Oops! My bad.

I meant to say that I use distilled water (NOT filtered).

I use Heartfelt beads.

Thanks for your reply.

First off, don't use filtered water. Even this contains impurities and contaminants - chlorine, carbon, etc. You should only be using distilled water - this is water that has been boiled, and then the water vapour condensed and collected, thus only 100% (or relatively as close as is possible) pure H2O being bottled; the impurities don't boil off and condense the same as H20. A one-gallon jug is only a dollar or two, and will last you years.

If you're noticing a drop-off in the effectiveness of your beads, it could be because of using filtered/regular water rather than distilled water. Any impurities could be getting into the microscopic pores of your beads' surfaces, and be clogging them up, thus leading to a lowering of the effectiveness of their moisture transfer.

If you're not noticing a drop-off per say, then just rinse them off with some distilled water, and switch from filtered water to distilled water. They should be okay if you're not noticing any negative performance yet.

All that said....

Beads should last you YEARS relatively. I've seen some mentioning they should last you forever, but even dust and other airborne impurities could build up in them. If you're using the RH Beads or the Heartfelt beads, I would presume that you should be able to get a decade or more out of them, depending on how frequently you're filling them up (ie - every other month, or every other week), based on your humidor quality/conditions.

[Professor Twain]

I don't know how long they last, but I do know that I found that some of my beads didn't seem to be functioning as well about four years after I put them in operation. I replaced them using the Exquisicat Pearl beads and noticed great improvement.

I've got a little distilled water story to tell on myself. I noticed that the cabinet under my bathroom sink was soaking wet and called a plumber, assuming I had a leaking pipe. Turned out that I had stored a gallon plastic bottle of distilled water in that cabinet, it had never been opened, and somehow the water seeped out of the bottom--it looked like there was some sort of vacuum created in that bottle, the sides were all mashed in.

Too bad I had to pay a plumber to show me that

[Trevor2118]

Oops! My bad.

I meant to say that I use distilled water (NOT filtered).

Thanks for your reply.

As an emphasis - Deionized water or Demineralised water is NOT a suitable alternative to Distilled water.

[ZinZan]

I've been told that reverse osmosis (RO) water is ok?

[Trevor2118]

I've been told that reverse osmosis (RO) water is ok?

No, RO is just de-ionised water.

From Wiki:

"Deionization is a physical process which uses specially-manufactured ion exchange resins which bind to and filter out the mineral salts from water. Because the majority of water impurities are dissolved salts, deionization produces a high purity water that is generally similar to distilled water, and this process is quick and without scale buildup. However, deionization does not significantly remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses or bacteria, except by incidental trapping in the resin."

[ZinZan]

No, RO is just de-ionised water.

From Wiki:

"Deionization is a physical process which uses specially-manufactured ion exchange resins which bind to and filter out the mineral salts from water. Because the majority of water impurities are dissolved salts, deionization produces a high purity water that is generally similar to distilled water, and this process is quick and without scale buildup. However, deionization does not significantly remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses or bacteria, except by incidental trapping in the resin."

Thanks Trevor. Ohh ****, I've been using RO water.

[adic88]

Zin, you can get distilled water from the local 7-Elevens. RM1.30 a bottle. That's what i do.

[ZinZan]

Zin, you can get distilled water from the local 7-Elevens. RM1.30 a bottle. That's what i do.

I actually did use 7-11 ones for the 1st charge but i read some where we could use the RO water cuz i got a RO water filtration system at home.

[adic88]

I actually did use 7-11 ones for the 1st charge but i read some where we could use the RO water cuz i got a RO water filtration system at home.

oh gg man. lol.

no real harm done, dont worry, cigars are a really hardy bunch.