heartfelt care...

I get my beads this week, I got distilled water and a spray bottle for misting them. How do you gents take care of your beads? I've seen people soak them, I've seen people spray them, I've seen people sit them in a Tupperware container with a wet sponge... would love to hear recommendations and ideas from ha heartfelt bead vets!

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kuzi16

i just spray em down. had em since 2006. no issues.

jlmarta

I've explained a number of times why one isn't supposed to use the beads as a humidifier. Use a humidifier for that purpose. Let the beads do the job they're intended for.... Just sayin'...

ejgorman

I read the instructions, which said something along the lines of 'wet the beads until about half of them are clear' and I've had no issues since I set up my cooler.

LiquidChaos66

jlmarta:
I've explained a number of times why one isn't supposed to use the beads as a humidifier. Use a humidifier for that purpose. Let the beads do the job they're intended for.... Just sayin'...

Elaborate? I would love to hear your thought process on this. I will admit... I didn't do a CCM search before posting this I find it easier to follow people's thoughts in new threads

LiquidChaos66

jlmarta:
I've explained a number of times why one isn't supposed to use the beads as a humidifier. Use a humidifier for that purpose. Let the beads do the job they're intended for.... Just sayin'...

Elaborate? I would love to hear your thought process on this. I will admit... I didn't do a CCM search before posting this I find it easier to follow people's thoughts in new threads

LiquidChaos66

Sorry for any double postings... got a new samsung tablet and it seems to have a mind of its own sometimes lol

jlmarta

LiquidChaos66:
jlmarta:
I've explained a number of times why one isn't supposed to use the beads as a humidifier. Use a humidifier for that purpose. Let the beads do the job they're intended for.... Just sayin'...

Elaborate? I would love to hear your thought process on this. I will admit... I didn't do a CCM search before posting this I find it easier to follow people's thoughts in new threads

The function of the beads is to remove excess moisture from the air or release it back into the air if/when the RH drops below the designed level of the beads. If the beads are already saturated they can't very well remove the excess from the air.

I leave my beads dry and use a humidifier as a source of moisture. The humidifier releases moisture and the beads absorb the excess. If your RH stays at a level above what the beads are designed for, simply remove the humidifier until equilibrium is reached. Capisce??

jlmarta

ejgorman:
I read the instructions, which said something along the lines of 'wet the beads until about half of them are clear' and I've had no issues since I set up my cooler.

And I've had none either in the 6 or 7 years I've been doing this. If half of your beads are clear then they still have some capacity to absorb excess from the air. However, that also means that they don't have as much capacity to absorb as they would have if they started out dry....

LiquidChaos66

So my beads are 65% RD and my humidification currently in my humidor is 70% ... should probably have humidification closer to the RH level of the beads for better efficiency? That's if I go that route .

jlmarta

LiquidChaos66:
So my beads are 65% RD and my humidification currently in my humidor is 70% ... should probably have humidification closer to the RH level of the beads for better efficiency? That's if I go that route .

So remove your humidifier until the RH gets back down to 65 or below. When the RH gets lower than you want it, put the humidifier back in. Couldn't be simpler...

LiquidChaos66

Hmm mm mm might give that a shot

ejgorman

jlmarta:
LiquidChaos66:
jlmarta:
I've explained a number of times why one isn't supposed to use the beads as a humidifier. Use a humidifier for that purpose. Let the beads do the job they're intended for.... Just sayin'...

Elaborate? I would love to hear your thought process on this. I will admit... I didn't do a CCM search before posting this I find it easier to follow people's thoughts in new threads

The function of the beads is to remove excess moisture from the air or release it back into the air if/when the RH drops below the designed level of the beads. If the beads are already saturated they can't very well remove the excess from the air.

I leave my beads dry and use a humidifier as a source of moisture. The humidifier releases moisture and the beads absorb the excess. If your RH stays at a level above what the beads are designed for, simply remove the humidifier until equilibrium is reached. Capisce??

That makes a lot of sense. I may have gotten lucky with my haphazard conditioning of the beads, but I've been holding steady at 65% since I got them. I would think soaking or misting some would merely hasten the achievement of equilibrium, whereas using a humidification device would be a slower process. I will add that I only use beads in my cooler, which I rarely open and fluctuations in rh border on non-existent.

LiquidChaos66

It is really interesting concept I will say.

The3Stogies

I used to just put a shot glass, or 2, of water in the humi and let the beads do their thing. Once things looked good take the shot glass out. Read somewhere that you don't want to wash the "pixie dust" off the silica beads.

Lee.mcglynn

Here's what I do...I get a brick of boveda 65's I take how ever many I need to use out...put them in my cooler shut the lid and don't worry about anything

LiquidChaos66

So I sprayed down half of each stick and put them in with one of my Dr. RH jars so it can absorb and bring the humi down nice and easy. Let's see how they do. It seems these two little sticks would work well for my size humi though. We will see.