Heartfelt beads not working?

[stig-cl]

I just got some new hygrometers with the help of Itsme-Speedy-G, and I've been checking up on my humidors/tupperdors, and I'm slightly alarmed now. I've salt tested these hygrometers several times now, and I'm testing them again right now, but it seems like my Heartfelt beads aren't working. I put both hygrometers in the bag that my cigars from SeriousCigars arrived in, which also included a water pillow, and they read a nice 65%. When I put them in my humidors and tupperdors, however, they consistently read around 75%, sometimes higher, which is odd because I bought 65% beads.

It's definitely not a problem of the beads not being able to pull out extra moisture, as in my two humidors the beads are all completely white and dry, and should be pulling in all that extra humidity. Any ideas as to what's wrong? As far as I can tell, my beads are broken.

[Lok17]

How long have the beads been in there and are the beads the only humidification device in the humis? Also are the bottum of the beads saturated in standing water? Are you using the bags or tubs, a dish does not work too well because there is not much surface area of the beads exposed...

[pv1191-cl]

There may be too much water in the beads. I did that the first time. A spray bottle works best. Just mist them until you get the right color. If they are overdosed then they leach humidity. They should be almost dry to the touch. The idea is that they absorb as well as release.

[stlcards]

You say the beads are white and dry... Hmm, how long have they been in there? Maybe it will just take more time.

[koolhandk]

Maybe you have too many beads for the space?

[pv1191-cl]

Originally Posted by koolhandk

Maybe you have too many beads for the space?

There is no such thing as long as they are humidified correctly

[Ceedee]

Tupperdor's don't breath much. With Cigars and beads, the RH may go up and stay up if the beads are over-saturated. I would take the beads out and let them air dry for a while (a few hours) then put them back in. As heartfelt states, only water roughly 60% of the beads (mist) to activate them. They will do their trick with much less water than you think.

CD

[foolwithnohair]

If the beads got too wet at some point, then they could have conditioned to a higher RH.

[stig-cl]

This isn't a new setup, it's the setup I've had for the last several months, I just stuck the hygrometers in there to see how it was doing. It's definitely not oversaturating the beads with water, because as I've stated, all the beads are completely white, meaning they SHOULD be sucking moisture out of the air. When I do recharge my beads, I never overwater them either; I pour all the beads from all my containers onto some paper towels, mist them, and allow them to dry off a bit, so they're all an off-white, semi-clear color.

In my two tupperdors, I'm using the tubes that Heartfelt sells, and in the two humidors, the beads are spread pretty thinly across some large containers, so it's definitely not an issue of surface area.

I've noticed that the beads in the humidors seem to always have to be recharged; I used to think that maybe the humidors were just leaky, but now I'm afraid that somehow the beads aren't actually holding any specific RH level now, but are just leaking all the water they hold until they're dry. I'll put up a pic or two later.

[stig-cl]

Originally Posted by baldheadracing

If the beads got too wet at some point, then they could have conditioned to a higher RH.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'm considering taking the beads out of the humidors and putting them a sealed container with the hygrometers to see if they're trying to actively maintain some higher RH now for some reason.

[GreySmoke]

Are you using an oust fan in the tuperador. If not the air isnt circulating and getting across the beads. If its a small one you may not need one but if its a large volume the air need to be circulated.

[stig-cl]

It's a small one, and besides, in each of my tests, the hygrometer was right next to the beads. In the tupperdors, the hygrometers were close, and in the humidors, I actually put the hygrometers on top of the beads.

[Viper139-cl]

Originally Posted by baldheadracing

If the beads got too wet at some point, then they could have conditioned to a higher RH.

Heartfelt Humidity Beads cannot be re-conditioned to a different rh level either by accident or intentionally. They are treated during manufacturing to maintain a given rh level.

[Viper139-cl]

You state that you got recently got some hygrometers, have those hygrometers been calibrated to assure their accuracy? Both digital and analog hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate.