Beads and gel
hi all,
Well i did a lot of reading of old post trying to figure out what the difference is between the the beads and the gel in the jar. and what I can tell by the post the beads are better. and the beads are a little more money. I have a 150 count humi with one try on top.
Questions
1) will a 4oz tube of beads be enough for my humi
2) Can I lay my cigars right on the top of the cartridge of beads? or will my cigars get wet?
3) Does the beads last as long as the gel in the jar?
Thanks for your help
Comments
duty and urbi have the rest of this covered.
Me neither... well, that's not exactly true. I just spilled some this weekend because I tipped over a tube with the top off. Gonna have to replace those.
Where do you find the beads? I find the gel, the solution (which I use now), little packs, but no beads....
I have one in my old small humidor that I have to refresh once a week.
It actually has the foam "pad" that sits on top of the beads. It seems to only be there to hold the beads on place and keep the smaller ones from slipping out the vent holes.
As a reference, my small (20-ish?) humi works with 1.9 oz of beads, but I'll be throwing another ounce in there because I still refill about every month or so.
The "Puck" I have is black. The foam is also black and of course sits under the lid/cap between it and the beads.
It just seems to go dry fast, in my smaller humidor. But, while it has a great seal, it's a glass top. I'm testing with the digi hygrometer in that one now and so far, surprisingly, the analog is pretty dang close in the low 50% range with a fresh Puck. It may just be that it's not near enough for even that small one, or I let it get drier than I thought after emptying it. My new one holds in the 72%-74% range with the humidifier (solution) and hygrometer are on the lid. It drops a little if I put the humidifier under the tray.
I'm off topic now though. It looks like those are the "beads".
I've got a few old plastic film containers (a few of you may remember those). I've drilled a bunch of holes in them and filled them with catnip as toys for our cats. That works pretty well. Maybe I'll see if I've got some un-nipped containers around.
Somebody (smoke?) suggested using women's nylon stockings.
I agree that the empty tubes are quite over-priced.
The beads will absord as much water as they can hold and then just stop absorbing more. A quick wipe of the outside of the container you are using is all that is required. The beads will not drip onto your sticks.
I just charge them in a dish, and then add some uncharged ones along with the charged ones (about 10% uncharged) when placing them into the container. This leaves some beads dry and ready to absorb any excess moisture, while allowing the saturated beads to do their work.
No.. I took the green sponge out of my black puck that came with my humi. It attaches to the top with a magnet, and does a fine job of staying out of the way of everything. I filled the puck back up with beads as much as would fit. Almost a full tube fit, leaving behind about 10% of the beads from the tube. I rebuilt the puck and stuck it back on the lid. The remaining nearly-empty tube is sitting in one of my tupperdors, waiting to be replenished when I order a half pound of beads.