Humidity Beads help....

[StingMeadery]

I use the HCM beads which come in convenient canisters in all sizes.

They are made from some form of clay and adjust humidity either absorbing or releasing moisture to maintain RH.

My humi is sitting rock solid at 65RH

Highly recommended !

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[StingMeadery]

Tapatalk Tourette's strikes again

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[Pedro2486]

Tapatalk Tourette's strikes again

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Tapatalk Tourette's. Nice

[MrGTO]

I'm still struggling with my wine cooler and beads, Got a 36 count vintec or whatever it is and some 65% beads (pound) and humidity seems to hover in the mid to high 70 range while my heartfelt beads are moist and another brand of beads i have are bone dry.. Can't figure it out. I think im cursed.

Only time I ever had a problem w my heartfelt beads was when I had them too wet. I would spread yours out on a platter and let them dry out and then put then back in your winador dry.

[sw15825]

Only time I ever had a problem w my heartfelt beads was when I had them too wet. I would spread yours out on a platter and let them dry out and then put then back in your winador dry.

Totally agree here. The only time I have had to add water to beads is in the end of winter when it has been very cold and dry. Or if someone lives in desert climate, there should be enough moisture for them to work without recharging.

From my experience, if you add distilled to them for the initial or later re charges, do it with a spray bottle and add as little as possible. It also takes a while to stabalize and i mean days to a week or more, but be patient. You can always add more later, but if you over do it with water then you have more work in getting them drier again.

[PigFish]

… late to this topic.

I think most of it has been said.

Many things are hygroscopic. As a result many things can act as a desiccant in certain situations and conditions. One of the first recognized for industry was activated charcoal.

Silica gel is a commonplace desiccant. The point being, is that what KL is intended for? Not really! You see KL is not primarily designed to be a precision desiccant, as it is put into the open air when you lay it out in a cat box. What is it good for then…? Well, I will tell you!

KL is not primarily designed to hold water vapor… It is primarily designed to be absorbent. Frankly, it is not really designed to catch water at all! It is designed to release the water it catches…

Cats don't pee water vapor! They urinate just like the rest of us. The silica cat litter is supposed to a(b)sorb the urine. The point being, that in areas of high concentration of water, that water will evaporate based on the laws of physics. If it is 70 or 75dF in you home and a comfortable 30 to 40rH the water is going to leave the cat box and there is nothing you can do about it! What the KL is really designed to do, is catch the remaining larger molecules that are odorous and hold them locked up in the silica. Silica cat litter is actually a molecular sieve!

When we all go making the assumptions, "its all the same stuff," you might as well look at a junk yard and a Porsche 911 and say the same thing… It is all the same stuff!

It is easy to discount engineering and science when you don't see it and understand it. If I say my Mac is the same as my PC, or my White Owl is the same as my Party SdC, I think I would be in for an argument from those that know better! I am not going to spin down a tangent on desiccants. They are not the same! I have posted this before…

Does that look the same to you? This chart represents the 'performance' of different engineered desiccant materials and how they relate to each other in terms of percent moisture content verses rH. Do they look the same???

There is more to a desiccant that what it is made from. The actual process AND the components, and percent make up of the components varies greatly as you explore desiccants. Ultimately we are looking at what we refer to as density (as in surface area per gram) and pore diameter when we are looking for sorbents for cigar use. You see some sorbents are not really designed to catch water, such as your kitty litter, but to catch ammonia, or to purify streams of fluids and gasses as those industries that use these specific products demand.

A specific group of sorbent are referred to as molecular sieves. This means that they will exclude certain elements that will not pass through or bond and catch others.

So I ask those that wish to generalize, can you tell me what the surface area density and the pore diameter is of your cat litter?

Now I understand that most of you don't care, I will therefore end it here! But please, for the sake of those who do know the difference you might not want to go around saying that it is all the same unless you are going to offer up more than anecdotes.

Each purveyor of sorbents for cigar use is gonna' have the idea that his product is the best. And why not? That is the friendly world of marketing and competition. I have more or less moved from the desire to sell desiccants directly to simply providing what I have engineered to work with my specific controlled systems.

For the record my sorbents are not for cat piss! I mean if you really want them for that, it is okay for me, it is your bread! Mine are specifically engineered and blended to hold water vapor. There are some other criteria that I also used in selecting what I use.

Here is the last little tidbit for you to consider! With a hobby such as ours, one that is as full of myth and lore as that of cigar aging; with all the opinions and theories that cigar 'taste' may be volatile… you may want to think about the engineering of your desiccant and how it interrelates to your other beliefs. Perhaps that cat litter that you are using is letting the water run relatively free, and is sucking up all the taste in your cigars, just like the cat piss odor that it was designed to hold in the first place!!!

One thing is for sure. If you were not somewhat confused about desiccants before. Well, I am sure you have some doubts now.

Oh, and if you think I am out to lunch or otherwise sniffing too much horse manure, do a web search of molecular sieves and find out what they do…

OH!!! …and start worrying!!! -LOL

Prof. Piggy

[Dbone]

Man, Piggy really brings science to the equation.

I buy more than whatever the calculators say, I just figure faster recovery. I put a pound or two on each shelf and split them up in a number of smaller bags (of noncolored pantyhose). Top of my cabinet tends to be more humid so more up top. And Id suggest buying from Mark and cigarmony he's a good guy.