Adding Water to Beads Question

[Catholicsmoker]

I just purchased a new humidor from PadronMe and he included in the deal a tube full of beads. What exactly is the best way to add water to the beads? He told me that you ought to put a small amount of water in a container into the humidor and let the beads absorb the water themselves. I read that you are supposed to have about 60% of the beads in your humi with water in them and the other dry to absorb humidity. How exactly are you supposed to regulate the amount of beads that have water added to them and those that don't have water in them without physically adding it yourself? Is there a better way to add water to the beads? Thanks for your help and God bless!

[piperman]

You can take the cap off one of the ends and spray it until it is half wet and half dry at the end it should be just about right.

[Catholicsmoker]

Should I then leave it out to dry for a bit before putting it back into the humidor, lest I get the wood on the inside wet, or should I just put it back in right away in some type of open ziplock bag?

[J.Lazy]

what i do is open one end up and just pour a little distilled water on the beads then close it up and wrap it up with paper towel and gently shake out excess water then i place back in my humi.Sound barbaric but it seems to work for me.

[Big A]

Originally Posted by piperman

You can take the cap off one of the ends and spray it until it is half wet and half dry at the end it should be just about right.

+1 or i try to spray them through the tube depending on what type of tube they are in. then i just wipe off the extra water and throw it back in the humi. i guess you could put them all in the bowl then spray them if you want to get really anal about it. But they might be a pain to get back in there so watch out. They have worked good for me and hold at 65%.

Here is the link to hearfelts site about adding water to beads

Heartfelt Industries, Cigar Humidor Humidity, Cigar, Hygrometers and Quality Cigar Accessories

Hope this helps

[jgonzalez]

I have two tubes with beads. When necessary I pu all the beads in a bowl, add distilled H2O and put them back in the tubes using a plastic funnel (but at Lowes for almost nothing). It is not difficult at all.

[tzaddi]

Here is an excerpt from Steven Weintraub's document titled "Demystifying Silica Gel". This excerpt can be found in section 5.1.B-sub-titled "Adding Moisture"

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.

Anyone who has experienced the "snowy powder" in one of their humidors knows first hand what this paragraph is referring to. In this same section of Steven Weintraub's document you will find other methods of rehydrating Silica Gel Beads that do not cause this condition.

If you care to download the document in a PDF format I have posted it on one of my web pages. If you are the type of person that finds this "nuts & bolts" stuff interesting you'll love all of this technical data and a bit of history regarding Silica Gel.

http://web.mac.com/tzaddi/iWeb/Corde..._SW_2003-1.pdf

—Richard

Steven Weintraub is a Conservator/Environmental Consultant

[shilala]

Richard is right on the ball with this.
In no time at all, silica beads are reduced to worthless by pouring water on them. There's a very simple reconditioning procedure that will preserve your beads for years, it's one I've put together and it's included in the care/recondition instruction sheet that I send with all my beads.
Here it is...
"If the RH%age is lower than you like…

Place a small distilled water-soaked sponge in a pan or dish and sit it in your humidor overnight. Take the dish and sponge out in the morning and then wait to check your RH%age in the afternoon.
If it's still low, simply put the sponge back in the humidor, leave it overnight, remove it in the morning, check in the afternoon, and repeat the process as necessary.
If you wish to hasten the process, simply use more wet sponges in more areas of your humidor.
While you are doing this, be sure to realize that it takes a good amount of time to recondition everything in your humidor. The amount of time depends on how much you want to raise the RH%age of your beads, how big your humidor is, how many beads you have, and how many sponges you use. It could take hours, days, or a couple weeks. Take your time. Be patient. The more careful, patient and precise you are, the better things will work. The time you spend with the process will give you a greater understanding of how humidity works in your humidor, and how your beads react to the process."

When you're using this procedure with any of the chemically treated bead products you'll want to continue the process until you achieve the 60% clear situation rather than stopping when you arrive at your target RH%age.
When you're using my HCS or HCM beads, you just stop when your target RH%age is reached.
Hope this helps!!!

Originally Posted by tzaddi

Here is an excerpt from Steven Weintraub's document titled "Demystifying Silica Gel". This excerpt can be found in section 5.1.B-sub-titled "Adding Moisture"




Anyone who has experienced the "snowy powder" in one of their humidors knows first hand what this paragraph is referring to. In this same section of Steven Weintraub's document you will find other methods of rehydrating Silica Gel Beads that do not cause this condition.

If you care to download the document in a PDF format I have posted it on one of my web pages. If you are the type of person that finds this "nuts & bolts" stuff interesting you'll love all of this technical data and a bit of history regarding Silica Gel.

http://web.mac.com/tzaddi/iWeb/Corde..._SW_2003-1.pdf

—Richard

Steven Weintraub is a Conservator/Environmental Consultant

[J.Lazy]

Originally Posted by shilala

Richard is right on the ball with this.
In no time at all, silica beads are reduced to worthless by pouring water on them. There's a very simple reconditioning procedure that will preserve your beads for years, it's one I've put together and it's included in the care/recondition instruction sheet that I send with all my beads.
Here it is...
"If the RH%age is lower than you like…

Place a small distilled water-soaked sponge in a pan or dish and sit it in your humidor overnight. Take the dish and sponge out in the morning and then wait to check your RH%age in the afternoon.
If it's still low, simply put the sponge back in the humidor, leave it overnight, remove it in the morning, check in the afternoon, and repeat the process as necessary.
If you wish to hasten the process, simply use more wet sponges in more areas of your humidor.
While you are doing this, be sure to realize that it takes a good amount of time to recondition everything in your humidor. The amount of time depends on how much you want to raise the RH%age of your beads, how big your humidor is, how many beads you have, and how many sponges you use. It could take hours, days, or a couple weeks. Take your time. Be patient. The more careful, patient and precise you are, the better things will work. The time you spend with the process will give you a greater understanding of how humidity works in your humidor, and how your beads react to the process."

When you're using this procedure with any of the chemically treated bead products you'll want to continue the process until you achieve the 60% clear situation rather than stopping when you arrive at your target RH%age.
When you're using my HCS or HCM beads, you just stop when your target RH%age is reached.
Hope this helps!!!

My head started to hurt all of a sudden!

[elderboy02]

I bought a spray bottle for $1 at Walgreens a while back. I spray the tube with distilled water. It works fine for me

[jimmy]

i posted this in the beads faq thread too, but this thread seems to be currently active, so i thought i figured i'd get an answer between the two of them:

i just bought 1 pound of 65% beads and 2 mesh bags for a cooler in my basement. i split the beads in half and put one bag on each side of the cooler.
my question is about how often should i need to check on the beads? i know when the get cloudy it is time to water them, but about how often is that? this is a cooler that i rarely get in to. so i don't want to be going into the basement and checking every week if i don't have to. i replaced a cigar oasis with the beads since everyone raves about them.

huge thanks to heartfelt, and as mentioned a million times already the shipping was super fast.
thanks for any info.
cheers
jimmy

[shilala]

Originally Posted by J.Lazy

My head started to hurt all of a sudden!

Why?

[omowasu]

Personally, I use a "dual-method" humidification on all six of my humidors. I use a traditional sponge-type humidification element soaked with distilled water as a primary source, and a tube/bag of 65%RH beads as a secondary.

This method allows me to maintain excellent and steady RH without rehydrating the beads every few days - in fact, they are almost never manually rehydrated. They absorb the excess humidity from the sponge.

It also keeps the beads from splitting, which is very easy to do - it can happen any time the beads make contact with a lot of water (via direct saturation or even indirect misting at times)...

So, if the humi came with a standard humidification element as well as the tube of beads, go ahead and give them both a try!