beads turning yellow?

[MrSoprano]

I have a tube of beads in the bottom of one of my humidors, and i have noticed that they have been turning yellow. The beads are not more then 2 months old..i dont over water them. It kinds looks like they are decomposing.
any ideas?

[MiamiRolled]

Hmmmm not sure, never had that issue. I am quite certain you are but using distilled water correct? I am sure some of the humidor scientists we have here will diagnose this quickly and resolve your yellowing.

[LouZava]

Some of the beads I had turned yellow too. They turn yellow because I added the extra distilled water that was over flowing on my cigar oasis. Sometimes I pour too fast and over flow and I hate to just waste it.

[karmaz00]

sorry i have never had that happen

[BigCat]

2 months seem soon, but in my experience the beads turn yellow because of the oils cigars give off as they age. It is like when you find an old smoke in cello that has turned yellow. There is nothing to be alarmed over.

[madurolover]

Originally Posted by BigCat

2 months seem soon, but in my experience the beads turn yellow because of the oils cigars give off as they age. It is like when you find an old smoke in cello that has turned yellow. There is nothing to be alarmed over.

Exactly!

[tzaddi]

Like other silica gels, the beads are capable of adsorbing small quantities of organic volatiles. However, these compounds are not fixed irreversibly but can be released again when the beads are adsorbing additional moisture.

Science in action.



http://www.puff.com/forums/vb/questi...ght-brown.html

[MrSoprano]

yeah thats what i was thinking, the oils and what not. thanks

[LookAtBigErn82]

Must be some really oily cigars!

[Corpus]

I have 2 tubes from heartfelt that have turned a light orange color. I assumed it was from a partially smoked cigar I placed back inside the humidor (had bad draw issues, decided to let it sit a bit)..

[bobarian]

Not to worry, beads will turn yellow from oils over time, but it does not reduce their effectiveness.

[e-man]

How are your beads contained and what do they sit on?

Since I doubt that you have that much oil floating around your humidor, I would suspect you are absorbing something else. Is it possible that your beads are in pantyhose, placed directly on cedar? You could be leeching from the cedar, especially if you over wet your beads. Having foreign materials on your beads will impact their performance as it can clog the tiny pores.

I've had my beads for over 6 months and they are still bright white. I keep them in Heartfelt pucks and Heartfelt tubes. I only wet them with a spray bottle.

[madurolover]

Originally Posted by e-man

How are your beads contained and what do they sit on?

Since I doubt that you have that much oil floating around your humidor, I would suspect you are absorbing something else. Is it possible that your beads are in pantyhose, placed directly on cedar? You could be leeching from the cedar, especially if you over wet your beads. Having foreign materials on your beads will impact their performance as it can clog the tiny pores.

I've had my beads for over 6 months and they are still bright white. I keep them in Heartfelt pucks and Heartfelt tubes. I only wet them with a spray bottle.

Cigars give off oils when sitting. This will cause your beads to turn color after a period of time. The beads that are in my coolers have been there a couple of years. There is nothing to leach color from except the oils from the cigars and they are still a yellowish color. I do agree with you that beads sitting directly on the wood will take some color from it but they will also discolor without touching the wood.

[Blaylock]

I've had the same beads in humidors and coolerdors for many years. When dry, they are white, when wet they are "yellow". They also give off a very sweet smell.

Here's what David (Viper139) from Heartfelt has to say about this...

When asked if the discoloring will affect bead performance:

"the beads... can absorb some of the oils from the cigars when the cigars off gas. These oils will then get in the beads and possibly discolor them, this won't hurt the performance of the beads but they can get yellow from the oils."

"Not a problem. The beads have absorbed oils from the spanish cedar and from the off gas that the cigars do during aging. These will not hurt the performance of the beads just discolor them."

These statements come from...http://www.puff.com/forums/vb/questi...ds-faqs-2.html

Search: oils

[e-man]

Originally Posted by madurolover

Cigars give off oils when sitting. This will cause your beads to turn color after a period of time. The beads that are in my coolers have been there a couple of years. There is nothing to leach color from except the oils from the cigars and they are still a yellowish color. I do agree with you that beads sitting directly on the wood will take some color from it but they will also discolor without touching the wood.

I don't disagree that cigars give off oils that eventually get absorbed by the beads. But, as you state, your beads have changed over the course of a couple years, and I bet your cooler is holds many more cigars than his humidor. The OP said his beads changed in under 2 MONTHS. If you have that much oil floating around then you would also expect to see some serious plume, and all of the cellophane should be a similar color.

I doubt this discoloration could be caused by ambient oils in such a short period. It really sounds like another source of contamination.


Maybe caused by a young stick that is putting out a lot of gases? Ammonia can turn things yellow too.