Help with my Heartfelt beads

[ezmoney5150]

A month or two ago I bought a 65% RH Heartfelt beads tube.

I was wondering why I cant seem to keep my humidor at 65%. Am I doing something wrong.

I know I measured it right. The webpage says they should be brown when they are full. Mine are white.

The FAQ says to use a spray bottle, which I don't have at this time. Would it help to submerge the tube in a bowl of distilled water? and if so how long.

Any answers would be appreciated.

[Fishhound-cl]

The spray bottle works best. Soaking them will cause them to crack and will turn them into dust. If you beads are white they need water.

[DOZER]

They should be 70-80% clear not brown. White means they need water. Spraying them is best. As Fishhound said if you soak them they will crack. It could be that your Humi was not properly seasoned first. Move your smokes to Tupperware with the beads and re season your Humi. You don't want them all clear so they can absorb excess moisture when necessary.

[Ceedee]

When the beads look glassy they have absorbed enough water. Like Finshound and dozer said, spraying 65% of them is enough to "charge" the beads. You don't want to soak them as they are not the gel type alcohol crystals.

And again to restate what Dozer said, if the beads can't say keep a 50-100 count humi consistently @ 65% RH, then you need to look at making sure your humidor is keeping a good seal and that it has properly been seasoned. There are other threads here on CL where you can find out about seasoning your humidor. Do a search for it and you will find some good info. Good luck!

CD

[karmaz00]

i found that a spray bottle works pretty good as well

[ezmoney5150]

Originally Posted by DOZER

They should be 70-80% clear not brown. White means they need water. Spraying them is best. As Fishhound said if you soak them they will crack. It could be that your Humi was not properly seasoned first. Move your smokes to Tupperware with the beads and re season your Humi. You don't want them all clear so they can absorb excess moisture when necessary.

I just moved them to other humidors and a tupperware bowl and just re seasoned the humidor. I'll do it again it a day or two.

[brightpaths]

I know this may sound like heresy but it works for me and it works with the tubes of beads from Heartfelt that I use to humidify one of my larger humidors.

I go to the sink, I hold the tube upright over it, I take the top cap off, and I slowly pour distilled water into the tube. You can see the water travel down through the beads, humidifying them, as the water travels from the top of the tube to the bottom. The excess water drips into the sink from the holes in the tube. I recap the tube and then wrap it in a soft paper towel and gently shake the tube. The excess water gets absorbed by the paper towel. I dry the tube with another paper towel and place the tube back into my humidor.

This method works well for me and the beads don't shatter.

From my own experience, I've found that no matter what you do, whether you use a spray bottle or the way I do things, etc., you're going to have some breakage of the beads. That's just a normal side-effect of using them. The Heartfelt tubes are constructed so that there are small openings in the tubes so some of the pieces of the beads will fall out, over time, but that's no big deal.

The beads are an excellent product and they work well. I like using them.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day. My thanks to all of you who have served our country.

Enjoy your smokes,
Don