Cat Litter?

[KevinG]

Ha ha! Thanks Ram.

I included that when I interviewed Steve too:

Cigar Review: How did you get started in the cigar industry? Tell us about Cigar Nexus, JR Cigars and about you being the first on the Internet to use the term "dog rocket" regarding a cigar.

Full article here:
http://cigar-review.com/index.php?optio ... 1&Itemid=2

[thehat101]

Cool Story this has turned into a pretty good post

[Python]

About how much would you need to use for a 125 count humidor?

[19redwings]

Use this link. Everything you need...

http://heartfeltindustries.com/calculator.asp

[Python]

Thanks!

[zitotczito]

I thought I would chime in here, many, many discussions on this. I have tried both. I know, I just had to.

My opinion, stick with the Heartfelt beads. I use 65% and they work great. I tried the kitty beads in one humi (it had the cigars that I gifted CM- )and they were OK at keeping the RH at around 68-69%, but that was not the problem. I watched them closely and some of them started to turn black, I am not sure that it was fungus or whatever, I immediately chucked them out. I've got way too much money invested in my sticks to take a chance. The hearfelt beads I have had are over a year old and going strong, no discoloration, no black ones and my humi's maintain the 65%.

If you are serious about your cigars and spend many dollars on them, then they deserve the best. Fork over the extra bucks, you owe it to yourself.

[stanthetaxman]

Do you know if the beads "wear out"? I've had mine for years and the freakin' 'dors, before this cold front came through, were up to 80%!

[zitotczito]

Do they wear out, that is a good question. I have had mine for about 1 1/2 years so far and no problems. I would think that eventually they would not so much wear out but that the outside porous material would clog up and their ability to take and release mositure would become inpaired. What allows them to work so well in the very small holes in the outside coating, even with distilled water, there is still outside contaimants in the air (dust if you will) that could find it's way into the humi and thus the beads.

I could not swear to this and I am no chemist, but it just seems that regardless of using the distilled water, each time you spritz the beads, dust is being taken from the air. Just my .02.

[JTokash]

I seem to have read somewhere that the Heartfelt beads are simply silica beads (which are microscopically porous) that have been treated with one or more types of quaternary ammonium amphiphilic salt (my wild guess would be something like alkyldimethylbenzylammonium chloride). If that is true, which I'm not sure of, then after many cycles of re-wetting, the salt will eventually be washed away as it is likely soluble in water (the one I mentioned above is very soluble in water)... leaving you with nothing more than silica beads (kitty liter).

This is probably why they tell you not to soak them in water to recharge them... because that would definitely wash off the salt. If you simply mist the beads with a water bottle, the rinsing action would be limited because the surface wouldn't be nearly saturated as in the case of being fully immersed into a bowl of water.

-JT

[slowburning]

Originally Posted by zitotczito

If you are serious about your cigars and spend many dollars on them, then they deserve the best. Fork over the extra bucks, you owe it to yourself.

+1.

I've been using 70% beads for two years now, if not longer, they work great. I have yet to replace any of them.

In one of my two Treasure Dome humidors, I've noticed beads turned yellow, but not black, and humidity still holds at around 70%.

During winter months, when humidity drops significantly, I use humidifiers, the ones filled with green foam that came with humidors, wet them with distilled water to supplement humidity in my humidors. This formula works fine, I have no plan to change it.

I use one 4-oz crystal gel jar in each of my coolers, and they are working perfectly fine as well.