Beads - which to buy, 65% or 70%?

[Zoomschwortz]

Originally Posted by bbaug14

Being new to cigars, I faced the same question of what beads to go with. In the end I decided on a compromise. I took the humidifier that came with my humidor and put 65% RH beads in it and then put 70% RH beads in a 1oz tube as well. I figured that would give me a good middle of the road humidity. So far so good. I just hope this isn't a terrible idea.

There have been threads on this subject and as I recall, it doesn't work as intended.

It seems that the 65% beads will keep sucking the water from the 70% beads until the 65% beads are full of water or until the 70% beads are dry.

[lenguamor]

60% beads are what I use in almost all my cigars.

Some NC's like humidity closer to 70% though, so if your collection is composed of a large proportion of non-premium NC's, you might want to choose 70%.

However, whichever NC you have, I've never had a cigar suffer at 65%, which is a good compromise humidity for all cigars if you only have one humi.

Just note that at 65%, if you are aging any Cuban cigars they will age faster and not develop a lot of the nuance that they would by slow-aging them at 60%. This also applies to high-end NC's such as Padron Anni's, La Aurora, La Gloria and Fuentes Hemi's, etc.

Ideally, you would have two humi's - one for NC's at 65-70%, and one for Cubans and/or high-end NC's at 60%. That's what I do.

[drawfour]

Originally Posted by Zoomschwortz

There have been threads on this subject and as I recall, it doesn't work as intended.

It seems that the 65% beads will keep sucking the water from the 70% beads until the 65% beads are full of water or until the 70% beads are dry.

The 65% beads will think there's too much humidity and will keep taking the humidity in. The 70% beads will think there's not enough humidity and keep putting humidity out.

Since the beads release humidity quicker than they absorb it, you humidity will hover right around 70%. Once the 70% beads are completely dry, the humidity will slowly start to drop. If the 65% beads are completely saturated then they won't absorb the humidity -- it will be lost due to normal air exchange.

Really, it's better to just grab one type of RH beads and stick with them. I originally chose 70% beads but switched to 65%.