Question for all of the Cigar Oasis users

[yourchoice]

I searched the site pretty diligently before posting this, so please don't me if this has already been covered!

I bought a Cigar Oasis a couple months ago to humidify my humidor (duh!). My question is how many times do you you refill/recharge your cartridge before you replace it?

I know Cigar Oasis recommends replacing it either every time or every other time, but I wanted to know what other BOTL's out there were doing.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[cigar_joel]

I have had mine for close to a year and i have it set up in a Wine-cooler-dor. I have about 10 box's and 100+ individual sticks. I have refilled mine 3 times. Each time i put a small amount of PG solution to prevent mold and dist. water. It has had no problems. I plan on buying a new cartridge soon just to be on the safe side. Just my

[RGD]

I've had mine for well over a year or so and have not changed it yet. I can't see any mold in it - does not mean it's not there though.

But anyway - am working on cracking the case open and changing out the foam to beads. I have a pretty small glass jar (old candle jar) that I used once in one of my humidors. For some reason it will grow mold in record time. Maybe it's the bottled type neck on it - who knows - but was throughly scrubbed and ran through the dishwasher before use - but floral foam in it will result in mold in less than two weeks.

So - using the same jar - I filled it with beads and saturated with distilled water. No mold. Moved it to the window for sun - still no mold. Stuck it in a dark hot humid drawer - no mold. So I'm feeling pretty safe they won't grow mold in the Oasis.

So the question is: why use the Oasis at all? Why not just use the beads? I use the beads in everything except for one large desktop humidor that I smoke from daily. It gets opened a lot. Beads are the greatest - but they are not the fastest at recovery. The Oasis is with it's chip and fan. So I'm thinking that by filling the cartridge with the beads I get a medium that will not mold - never need to replace it and may hold water/moisture longer than the floral foam.


Ron

[SeanGAR]

When I used an Oasis, I removed the foam and added the super-absorbent crystals. They can be removed if there is a problem and hold much more water than the floral form.

[cf2112]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

When I used an Oasis, I removed the foam and added the super-absorbent crystals. They can be removed if there is a problem and hold much more water than the floral form.

I use SAP in both my cigar Oasis an Set N Forget, this is imho the best set up I've found.

[RGD]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

When I used an Oasis, I removed the foam and added the super-absorbent crystals. They can be removed if there is a problem and hold much more water than the floral form.

Damn - all the gooder idea's have already been taken - And here I thought I was on to something -


Ron

[Baric]

I think refilling depends on how humid your environment is and therefore how much work the oasis has to do after each tme you open the 'dor.

[yourchoice]

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. I'm gonna refill it a couple times with DW and PG solution before replacing the cartridge.

And to answer RGD's question, ("So the question is: why use the Oasis at all? Why not just use the beads?") I bought the Oasis before I was a member of CS. (Actually used the Top25Cigar Best of 2005 rankings when deciding what to do) Based on the positive things said about beads, my next humidor (never thought I'd say that ) will probably utilize them; although I have nothing but good things to say about my Oasis.

Again, thanks.

[papajohn67]

Originally Posted by RGD

I've had mine for well over a year or so and have not changed it yet. I can't see any mold in it - does not mean it's not there though.

But anyway - am working on cracking the case open and changing out the foam to beads. I have a pretty small glass jar (old candle jar) that I used once in one of my humidors. For some reason it will grow mold in record time. Maybe it's the bottled type neck on it - who knows - but was throughly scrubbed and ran through the dishwasher before use - but floral foam in it will result in mold in less than two weeks.

So - using the same jar - I filled it with beads and saturated with distilled water. No mold. Moved it to the window for sun - still no mold. Stuck it in a dark hot humid drawer - no mold. So I'm feeling pretty safe they won't grow mold in the Oasis.

So the question is: why use the Oasis at all? Why not just use the beads? I use the beads in everything except for one large desktop humidor that I smoke from daily. It gets opened a lot. Beads are the greatest - but they are not the fastest at recovery. The Oasis is with it's chip and fan. So I'm thinking that by filling the cartridge with the beads I get a medium that will not mold - never need to replace it and may hold water/moisture longer than the floral foam.


Ron

How in the heck does one "crack the case open"? I sat here last night looking at the darn thing wondering how I could get the tank/case open without destroying the whole thing.