beads for absorbing moisture

[germantown rob]

Well being impatient is sometimes a problem for me so I went and got things for an experiment.

I will season my 100ct humi to 75% for a few days with an oasis, then I will add dry cat litter crystals to see how fast it can take care of high humidity. I will also retest "charging" dry 65% viper beads to see how long it will take to change from white to clear. Let you know how it goes.

[Hydrated]

Originally Posted by germantown rob

...then I will add dry cat litter crystals to see how fast it can take care of high humidity...

Just sift out the cat-rockets first!

[drawfour]

Originally Posted by whiteboard

As Viper has noted before, bringing humidity down takes time. I had similar problems with my coolers this summer. My beads were completely white and I kept adding and adding beads well beyond what was required for that space to control the environment. I was able to do so, but found my humidity creeping toward 68 often even with COMPLETELY white 65% beads.

Hopefully when you were adding beads you weren't just piling them on top of existing beads, but spreading them out... You want more surface area available for the beads to absorb the extra humidity.

[ca21455]

Originally Posted by germantown rob

I am also going after the seals on the humi today to get a better seal.

I think you are on the right track here. I have a small humi with a bad seal sitting next to my Plexidor. Both have beads. The Plexidor stays right at 65% all the time. When the humidity went up over the past few weeks with the windows open the small humi would not maintain humidity. The Plexidor with good seals stayed constant.

[whiteboard]

Originally Posted by drawfour

Hopefully when you were adding beads you weren't just piling them on top of existing beads, but spreading them out... You want more surface area available for the beads to absorb the extra humidity.

Actually I have them in a sealed 1/16" diameter silo taped in the corner of my cooler with no fan running. And they are well charged with PG.

What am I doing wrong?

[ca21455]

Originally Posted by whiteboard

Actually I have them in a sealed 1/16" diameter silo taped in the corner of my cooler with no fan running. And they are well charged with PG.

What am I doing wrong?

If you are using beads, you should not use PG solution.

[whiteboard]

Originally Posted by ca21455

If you are using beads, you should not use PG solution.

[ca21455]

Originally Posted by whiteboard

[whiteboard]

Originally Posted by ca21455

Sorry...I couldn't help myself.

[drawfour]

Originally Posted by whiteboard

Actually I have them in a sealed 1/16" diameter silo taped in the corner of my cooler with no fan running. And they are well charged with PG.

What am I doing wrong?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say "everything". :P

[Viper139]

Originally Posted by erab

This seems as good a place as any to get my question answered....

I currently live in a estrogen-free environment, so no access to hair dryers. I do, however, have a heat gun that very much resembles a blow dryer, but it burns a bit hotter.

Can a device like this be used to dry out the beads, or are they quite heat sensitive?

Yes but be very carefull, keep the gun a good distane away from the beads and move around so as to not overheat the beads.

[Viper139]

The beads I sell most definately absorb and desorb moisture to maintain a given rh in a humidor. The process is slow and some patience must be afforded to the process. I have tested them myself, and of course welcome others to do so, but they definately work as advertised.

[rumballs]

Yes they absorb. I learned this in Hawaii, when the RH outside was close to 85%

[germantown rob]

Experiment 1 is finished

I let an oasis run for 3 1/2 days at 75% in a 100ct desk top humi with 75g of completely dry beads. After 3 1/2 days the beads weighted 84g, 9 grams of water(aprox. 3 teaspoons) was absorbed. This proves my earlier statement to be wrong. I was not weighting the beads before only looking for them to turn clear.

The second part of this experiment which is the answer I am looking for is absorbing moisture from 75% down to 65%. Same humi seasoned to 75% without the oasis and the same 75g of dry beads to see how quickly it can handle lowering the rh. I will follow this up with dry silicon cat litter to see if it can handle the spikes in rh quicker or slower.

Disclaimer...this in no way is saying viper's beads aren't awesome. I have been using them for over a year and love them. I simply have a problem with rh spikes up to 72% that sometimes last for 2-4 days. I like my cigars at 65% and tend to stub them out early when they get humidified higher than that.