Applying Water To Beads

[BigMak]

Rats! I did the new gorilla intro thing 3 weeks ago, and have read what I think is every sticky and have done massive "search" research for 3 weeks and have a stupid noob question that I can't find info on.

If I have my beads in mesh bags, or tubes for that matter, should I take the beads out of said container before spraying with distilled water, or just spray it through the mesh media?

My thought is that if I spray the beads at re-charging time "through" the bag, it will be wet and drip. Right or wrong?

Thanks, Lowlanders!

-Charlie

[vstrommark]

Originally Posted by BigMak

If I have my beads in mesh bags, or tubes for that matter, should I take the beads out of said container before spraying with distilled water, or just spray it through the mesh media?

My thought is that if I spray the beads at re-charging time "through" the bag, it will be wet and drip. Right or wrong?

I spray through the bag. You aren't going to soak the beads, so dripping isn't an issue.

[The Professor]

I always spray *through* the bag (nylons, in my case). What I do is put the nozzle of my sprayer right up against the bag and pull the trigger to spray. I'll do that at several spots on/around the bag and then I'll just move/massage the beads around to spread out the damp beads a little bit more. Seems to always work well for me....

[Hammerhead]

Charlie, you would want to spray them while they're in the bag - definitely don't take them out and handle them. The danger is that you'll either wind up spilling them all over the place, or contaminating them with dust, or oils from your hand.

However, the problem with spraying beads either directly or indirectly is that they tend to crack. What I do is to recharge my beads by placing them in a ziplok bag along with a damp sponge for a day or two. Granted, I have multiple bead tubes in my humidor so that I can rotate them out, but this solves the problem of keeping at least some humidification in my box at all times. It also eliminates concerns about whether or not the water is pure enough, as evaporated water absorbed by the beads will always be absent of minerals that might clog the beads. Also, the tubes double as a travel humidifier, where I can throw a tube into a ziplok with a few 'gars to head out to a herf.

[Little General]

I'm new here but have suffered the "bouncing bead" syndrome by taking them out of the container.... I just spray through the bag and set it on the counter for a few mins. Then a quick shake to get the excess off and back in it goes. I never had any problems with them being too wet.

Just my opinion.. If I'm wrong I'd love some expert advice.

[yazzie]

Originally Posted by Little General

I'm new here but have suffered the "bouncing bead" syndrome by taking them out of the container.... I just spray through the bag and set it on the counter for a few mins. Then a quick shake to get the excess off and back in it goes. I never had any problems with them being too wet.

Just my opinion.. If I'm wrong I'd love some expert advice.

Yup, not a whole lot of science to it. Take the mesh bags out of the Cooler, give em a good spray with distilled water, let em rest on the counter for a bit, then back in the cooler.

Couldn't be easier than using Beads

[BigMak]

I knew I'd get quick responses at CS! Thanks all, this answers my question perfectly. I posted this because I thought others might have wondered about this, too.

Thanks, again, and I look forward to contributing to this forum soon!

[tzaddi]

[SIZE="4"]Bead Science[/SIZE]

DEMYSTIFYING SILICA GEL


This is a PDF.

Refer to section "5.1.B ADDING MOISTURE"


—Richard


PS What Hammerhead said.

[Old Sailor]

Originally Posted by yazzie

Yup, not a whole lot of science to it. Take the mesh bags out of the Cooler, give em a good spray with distilled water, let em rest on the counter for a bit, then back in the cooler.

Couldn't be easier than using Beads

[uncballzer]

Originally Posted by The Professor

I always spray *through* the bag (nylons, in my case). What I do is put the nozzle of my sprayer right up against the bag and pull the trigger to spray. I'll do that at several spots on/around the bag and then I'll just move/massage the beads around to spread out the damp beads a little bit more. Seems to always work well for me....

. Exact same thing I do.

[RedSoxFan]

Originally Posted by Hammerhead

Charlie, you would want to spray them while they're in the bag - definitely don't take them out and handle them. The danger is that you'll either wind up spilling them all over the place, or contaminating them with dust, or oils from your hand.

However, the problem with spraying beads either directly or indirectly is that they tend to crack. What I do is to recharge my beads by placing them in a ziplok bag along with a damp sponge for a day or two. Granted, I have multiple bead tubes in my humidor so that I can rotate them out, but this solves the problem of keeping at least some humidification in my box at all times. It also eliminates concerns about whether or not the water is pure enough, as evaporated water absorbed by the beads will always be absent of minerals that might clog the beads. Also, the tubes double as a travel humidifier, where I can throw a tube into a ziplok with a few 'gars to head out to a herf.

Does it matter if your bead tubes are touching your cigars? I'm a noob who got a 65% 4oz tube in my 150 ct humi and I have my tube separated from the cigars with the dividers... am I just being too cautious? It does use up a lot of extra space. Should I quit this and move my tube with the rest of my cigars?

[yazzie]

Originally Posted by RedSoxFan

Does it matter if your bead tubes are touching your cigars? I'm a noob who got a 65% 4oz tube in my 150 ct humi and I have my tube separated from the cigars with the dividers... am I just being too cautious? It does use up a lot of extra space. Should I quit this and move my tube with the rest of my cigars?

SoxFan, no problem at all with keeping the tube with your Cigars. Only issue I can think of is when you rehydrate your beads make sure that they are not so wet that there is the potential to have some water leak on your gars.

I use tubes and mesh bags and have never had this issue in my cooler. Just let them rest on the counter or wrap a paper towel around for a short while after rehydrating before you put back in your humi/cooler

[OilMan]

Why do you have two knives in your humidor?

[ChasDen]

Originally Posted by OilMan

Why do you have two knives in your humidor?

I thought the same thing.

I live in the northeast and the cold and dry heat in the house has our RH in the house so low I have almost gotten to the point I have to leave a shoot glass in the humidors all the time. It takes about 5 days for the beads to soak up enough in the big one but 2 to 3 days later they are turning white more than I would like.

So back in goes the shoot glass. Come on spring.

Chas

[yayson]

Originally Posted by tzaddi

Refer to section "5.1.B ADDING MOISTURE"

Originally Posted by section 5.1.6

The simplest method for conditioning silica gel is to place it in a room or environmental chamber set to the desired RH level. The best method of confirming that the silica gel is at the correct RH is by measuring the RH of a sample batch of gel. This is done by placing the sample gel in a sealed container or plastic bag with a hygrometer (use a large amount of gel relative to the surrounding air), and allow a day for the RH within the bag to stabilize with the gel mixture. Although an approximate RH value can be calculated based on weight, this method is not recommended because of its margin of error.
• Methods of speeding up conditioning time:
o Spread the gel as thin as possible.
o Use a fan to circulate air around the gel.
o Periodically mix the gel layers to improve uniformity.
• For a single layer of bead, allow at least 4 days if the gel is initially dry, and longer if spread as a thicker layer.
• Silica gel can be conditioned to a higher RH than the desired level, either to speed up the conditioning process or because of the inability to control RH. If so, it is important to allow 2-3 day for the moisture to equilibrate within and between the gel beads, especially if beads with different moisture contents are mixed together.
• The direct addition of water through mist spraying or immersion is not recommended, since the high heat of decrepitation causes silica gel beads to crack and fragment. Although silica gel retains its hygroscopic properties, the overall response time of silica gel in a tray will slow down because of denser packing from the mix of large beads and smaller fragments.

good stuff there, it's all been said before here at CS, but this is very scientificy and authoritativey.

I used to "inject" the spray like the Prof mentions above but it does actually make the beads crack and come apart some times. Now I mist the bag and massge it around til it's dry and the beads are clear. Takes longer but still less than 5 minutes.

The tubes with the holes are a big pain in the butt, you're almost forced to inject those whether you go through the sides or the ends, get a lot of crackage and breakage as a result. When I charge the plastic tubes I put them between my hands and vigorously roll back and forth to throw off excess moisture before I put them back in the box, I do this before I charge them with water as well to see how many fragments will fly out, too many!

Panty hose or mesh bags are where it's at.