Glad to help my friend! This recommendation is 100%. You could buy a grip of them and resell on e-bay. I have had heartfelt and they are 100% the same thing. With all my extensive testing (multiple comparisons and trials over many months and even a year and a half) they have held up 100% to heartfelt beads and even lasted much longer before going smelly on me. I'd still recommend humi-pillows and gel (with a small piece of wet floral foam soaked in pg/dw as a buffer) but if one insisted on beads I'd recommend these with 100% confidence. Just a side note, when/if your humi starts to smell even slightly different disguard the beads immediately and start a new batch. A 7lb bag should last for years and years. I have ruined, tainted rather, cigars using beads and KL. They eventually degraded on me (became infused with the off smell) and had I changed them at the first hint of "odor" I'm sure they would have served their intended purpose just fine. Just want to add a note of caution in case any BOTL/SOTL run across the same issues as I did.
Just to set the record straight they do have unscented ones that have the blue (dyed) ones in them but work just the same. Just check the ingridants and it should read sand,silica, and water. I'd go with watersorb if it were I now. Knowing what I know now! Quality, quality, quality! Watersorb!
CAcigarguy, in your experience, what was the average time before you've had to replace the litter? 6+ Monthsyears, I suppose?
I just started a batch of kitty litter and want to know if I should just preemptively change it at some fixed time to avoid this problem.
///It actually twas about 6months but is summer months when my wine-a-dor was running. One would keep solid and one would stray. The one that strayed in the summer months (read humidity drops) was never on point unless it was turned off. It starts as a plastic smell that is quite faint but eventually it permeates the cigars and you can taste it. I even got some cigars from another member that had the same taste and after extensive rest the cigar was enjoyable. I would caution all to be on alert though, it seems like they are putting out inferior wine coolers that seem to be set on different calibrations. I got both or mine from airandwater.com and one worked like a champ and the other was constantly going on and dropping my humidity level and eventually tainted my sticks. The solid one delivered but the other one was just a hot mess and ruined about 2K worth of cigars, most of which went into the trash with a huge tear in my eye! Lesson learned! Since switching to humi pillows and a piece of PG/DW soaked foam as a buffer, have given me zero trouble to date! My sterlight-a-dor with weather stripping is solid as a rock and seems to self regulate for cold temps and raises/drops in humidity. I will continue to use it and if it gives me issues I'll be sure to report back. But so far, so good from 06/23/2011 with the same pillows and same PG/DW soaked piece of foam!
CAcigarguy, in your experience, what was the average time before you've had to replace the litter? 6+ Monthsyears, I suppose?
I just started a batch of kitty litter and want to know if I should just preemptively change it at some fixed time to avoid this problem.
///It actually twas about 6months but is summer months when my wine-a-dor was running. One would keep solid and one would stray. The one that strayed in the summer months (read humidity drops) was never on point unless it was turned off. It starts as a plastic smell that is quite faint but eventually it permeates the cigars and you can taste it. I even got some cigars from another member that had the same taste and after extensive rest the cigar was enjoyable. I would caution all to be on alert though, it seems like they are putting out inferior wine coolers that seem to be set on different calibrations. I got both or mine from airandwater.com and one worked like a champ and the other was constantly going on and dropping my humidity level and eventually tainted my sticks. The solid one delivered but the other one was just a hot mess and ruined about 2K worth of cigars, most of which went into the trash with a huge tear in my eye! Lesson learned! Since switching to humi pillows and a piece of PG/DW soaked foam as a buffer, have given me zero trouble to date! My sterlight-a-dor with weather stripping is solid as a rock and seems to self regulate for cold temps and raises/drops in humidity. I will continue to use it and if it gives me issues I'll be sure to report back. But so far, so good from 06/23/2011 with the same pillows and same PG/DW soaked piece of foam!
I'm very wary in using foam for anything. IMO, to prone to mold.
My experience is that I picked up "Mimi-Litter" from WalMart. Under $5 for a 4lb bag. It has colored crystals in it but it is unscented. I put it in a woman's nylon stocking, added distilled water and then into my humidors. It has completely corrected my humidity issues to a solid 70%. After about 3-4 weeks the silica seemed pretty dry and I was going on vacation so I added more H2O. I came back 8 days later and everything was perfect in my humidors. My cigars are smoking beautifully at the moment.
I am under the impression that silica beads of any brand will absorb a certain degree of odor as well. I was thinking of throwing some spanish cedar inside the bag to see if it takes on a cedar smell. I have what looks like at least 3.5 lb left in the bag which I resealed. I should be good for the next umpteen years or so. I am however being careful to not breath in any silica dust! I have my cigars in cello so that should not be a problem.
Why is everyone hating on the Kitty Litter? lol I use it and it works great! It's been keeping a perfect 63-67% for about 2 months straight now. This is the brand of Kitty Litter I am using and works great!.
Haw you looked on eBay? There's always beads on there usually pretty cheap. I'm no expert on beads but from what I've read beads are beads are beads. There all basically the same.
Comments
I just started a batch of kitty litter and want to know if I should just preemptively change it at some fixed time to avoid this problem.
I am under the impression that silica beads of any brand will absorb a certain degree of odor as well. I was thinking of throwing some spanish cedar inside the bag to see if it takes on a cedar smell. I have what looks like at least 3.5 lb left in the bag which I resealed. I should be good for the next umpteen years or so. I am however being careful to not breath in any silica dust! I have my cigars in cello so that should not be a problem.
ExquisiCat Unscented - PetSmart Brand
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11256828