Quote Originally Posted by pmp View Post
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).

Quote Originally Posted by pmp View Post
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.