To recharge or not recharge..that's the question.

[pmp]

Use the right beads.

Crystals do have their uses, but a blanket recommendation is disingenuous.

Which beads are you referring to? I'm open to suggestions. Hell if you find beads better than heartfelt I might even carry them on my website.

[craig]

Ha ha ha...nice try. If your beads look like that your cigars are either dryer than an old christmas tree or sopping wet. My beads never look that dry or that wet. But its probably because they are never dry as a bone or saturated completely. I'm guessing your beads don't look like that either unless you are trying to prove a point. Under normal use they pretty much go from slightly opaque to slightly translucent with some being more or less to the extreme.

I'm not making any blanket statements. My recommendations are the same as they have always been. They are posted on my website in my cigar primer. Beads are a necessity for cabinets and anything larger than 300 ct. Under 300 ct its a clear victory for gel. Hell, the gel might even be better but nobody sells prefilled elements for larger applications....at least yet. I'm working on this right now. I have a supplier for bulk crystals and I'm going to attempt to do some research on how this would work in a few of my cabinets.

If you want the list of cons for using gel, its basically that gel doesn't come in different RH levels. It basically hovers around 67-70. If you want your humidor at 65 you are out of luck.
But thats really not a big deal. From my experience the RH-rated beads don't really work as advertised.

Your statements are blanket as they ignore the seasons/parts of the country when/where ambient RH is greater than humidor RH. Beads adsorb moisture to regulate RH much better than gel (or foam). Gel (or foam) without PG solution won't regulate RH at all. Gel with PG (or impregnated with PG) is better at releasing moisture, but worse at absorbing moisture - when compared to the same container volume as (good) beads.

Gel is no different than green foam, except it holds a lot more water. That's why gel is such a great upgrade for active humidifiers like Cigar Oases. Gel is also waaayyyy cheaper than beads - one can purchase all the gel one will ever need from a crafts store for a few bucks, or enough for hundreds, if not thousands, of humidors from a local garden center for a few bucks more.

Note I am not denying that gel will work 'better' than beads for a lot of small humidors in a lot of situations - 'better' in the sense of needing a smaller-sized container for the same humidifying effect when ambient conditions are dry. (BTW, I do use gel in the winter where the humi is too small for an active humidifier. I use beads + active humidification everywhere else. In the summer, beads only.)

Finally, in these days when lots of "humidors" use cedar veneer and MDF, buffering capacity has to come from somewhere, and I'd prefer that my cigars be the buffer of last resort. Beads buffer. Most unfinished wood buffers. Gel doesn't buffer very well (in the packaging that is used).

Which beads are you referring to? I'm open to suggestions. Hell if you find beads better than heartfelt I might even carry them on my website.

Beads doped with Lithium-chloride:
http://www.fuji-silysia.co.jp/englis.../art_sorb.html

I'm pretty sure those beads are what n2adventure (cigarmony.com) uses based on performance data Mark has posted elsewhere, and he does (or used to) wholesale the puck-ifier, which looks like it would fit into your line-up nicely .

I don't know what beads viper139 (heartfelt) uses.

[bigwhiteash]

I just have one question..

Do you leave the cello on your beads or crystals? or should I remove it?

[pmp]

Not sure why you replied to my deleted post but I'm not really making a blanket statement.

Stating that something is true for humidors under 300 ct is pretty specific. I'll be glad to list the pros and cons of both methods. I stand behind beads for what they are good at.

I've never had a need to do this because I live in california but I have read that you can charge the crystals with pg and they will buffer the environment.

[ashauler]

Not sure why you replied to my deleted post but I'm not really making a blanket statement.

Stating that something is true for humidors under 300 ct is pretty specific. I'll be glad to list the pros and cons of both methods. I stand behind beads for what they are good at.

I've never had a need to do this because I live in california but I have read that you can charge the crystals with pg and they will buffer the environment.

Most likely because he didn't expect the post to be deleted since that's frowned on.

Quoting posts in replies is very common, and aids in making sure that the context in which posts are made is as clear as it can be.

[bigwhiteash]

Deleting posts is in VERY poor form. If you post something, you better mean it.


Crystals do NOT buffer humidity, they are saturated, and can only raise rh. The only way they could possibly absorb humidity is if they were completely dehydrated, in which case, they would do nothing for low rh.

They definately have their uses, I'll throw a drymistat tube into my desktop during the winter months, but in the summer, ambient rh here can run in the high 90's, dry beads do a pretty respectable job of controlling this.

[pmp]

Deleting posts is in VERY poor form. If you post something, you better mean it.


Crystals do NOT buffer humidity, they are saturated, and can only raise rh. The only way they could possibly absorb humidity is if they were completely dehydrated, in which case, they would do nothing for low rh.

They definately have their uses, I'll throw a drymistat tube into my desktop during the winter months, but in the summer, ambient rh here can run in the high 90's, dry beads do a pretty respectable job of controlling this.

90s? Damn. My house is rarely over 30. Buffering is not an issue for me.

Well I guess its good to keep in mind that for places where the RH exceeds 70, beads might be the better option.

[mrtr33]

Humidity has been in the 80's here since the beginning of March......it will stay that way (and higher) through December....

The weather never changes in southern California. I lived there for years. It might seem like it does, but nah.....

BTW, anyone in TX, LA, MS, AL, GA see that storm this past week/weekend? WoooHOOOO!

[Shelby07]

There's a chart that's been floating around for a while that compares temp to humidity. While it's a valid chart, it's often misinterpreted. It is, in fact, so prevalent that a google search with the words "temperature humidity cigars" brings up several hits. I've even seen this bogus information given by CA. Here's a link to a page that has it all wrong.

http://www.cubancigarhouse.com/humidor.php

The explanation given is wrong because the chart actually tells you is how the %RH changes as the temperature fluctuates.

Looking at the chart, if you start off at 70 degrees with a RH of 70% and the temperature drops to 67, you will see that the RH will raise to 78% unless corrective action (i.e., reducing the amount of moisture) is taken. This is because cool air cannot hold as much water as warmer air. An everyday example that will help explain what this chart actually shows can be seen when you watch the weather report.

Weather reports always show the current temperature and dew point. The dew point is actually the temperature at which the air, given the current VOLUME of moisture (different than %RH,) will become 100% saturated (100% RH.) If the temp/dew point spread is 3-4 degrees, you will usually have fog. and once the temp drops to the dew point, unless the VOLUME of moisture in the air changes it will start raining. Dew point is always lower than or equal to the actual temperature (RH can never exceed 100%.) It explains why dew forms on cool grass in the morning.

This shows the importance of what the beads and the Spanish cedar in your humidor do. Unless your humidor is temperature controlled (both heated AND cooled as necessary) your RH is going to fluctuate as the temperature changes. As most people know, fluctuating RH is worse for your cigars than a constant high or low RH.

Beads and Spanish cedar help to stabilize the %RH as the temperature fluctuates. As the temperature changes, the beads release and absorb moisture to help keep the desired relative humidity. Frow what I understand, Spanish cedar actually performs much the same buffering function as it tends to be able to hold less moisture as the temperature rises and more moisture as the temperature falls.