Do beads go bad?

[Wurm]

So now that my 65% beads have been sitting at 70% for over a month I can now throw them away and buy new ones? Greeeeeeaaaaaaatttttt.

If I had of know that I would have left them out of my humidor while it was down in the basement, my cellar is 65°F / 70% RH and after my humi was down there for a week or two the beads couldn't absorb anymore and the humi has stayed at 70% RH for well over a month now. So you are basically saying my beads are now fucked and if I want to keep my humidor at 65% during the fall and winter I have to buy a new Aluminum block.

Not cool at all.

Read the part about reconditioning them. You just have to bring them back down to 65. Beads do not go bad. Just leave the lid open on your humi for a couple hrs aday until it drops to 65 then your are set. Once you leave it at 65 for a week or so and allow everything to equilibriate you will be set.



NO need for new beads.

Its still going to raise hell with my cigars while its open for those few hours isn't it.

 

[Shooter]

So now that my 65% beads have been sitting at 70% for over a month I can now throw them away and buy new ones? Greeeeeeaaaaaaatttttt.

If I had of know that I would have left them out of my humidor while it was down in the basement, my cellar is 65°F / 70% RH and after my humi was down there for a week or two the beads couldn't absorb anymore and the humi has stayed at 70% RH for well over a month now. So you are basically saying my beads are now fucked and if I want to keep my humidor at 65% during the fall and winter I have to buy a new Aluminum block.

Not cool at all.

Read the part about reconditioning them. You just have to bring them back down to 65. Beads do not go bad. Just leave the lid open on your humi for a couple hrs aday until it drops to 65 then your are set. Once you leave it at 65 for a week or so and allow everything to equilibriate you will be set.



NO need for new beads.

Its still going to raise hell with my cigars while its open for those few hours isn't it.

Nope, I bought 10 boxes of smokes that are known to be wet and moldy and my humidity jumped to the low 70s I left my coolor open 3 hrs a day for a week until it settled back down to 65, no ill effects on my cigars. That is an extreme case but I think you get my point.

 

[Wurm]

Thanks Shane.

*edit* 10 boxes of Anjeos huh Hope they turn out alright for you bro!

 

[preembargo]

Or just take the beads out of the humi for a few hours a day and leave your humi closed. It' take longer but it'll work. Allofus123 posted his research on drying out oversaturated beads and reconditioning them.

 

[Shooter]

Thanks Shane.

*edit* 10 boxes of Anjeos huh Hope they turn out alright for you bro!

It was a group buy and a mixture of different smokes. But yea lots were anjeos.

 

[Ginseng]

I think Shooter is basically on target although that document is a helluva read for the layman. ....

....Also, it may be interesting to note that different grades of amorphous silica gel can be taliored to be more effective in certain RH ranges. What this means is that although commercial humidity control beads may be of the same chemical makeup as crystal kitty litter, their respective capabilities and capacities to buffer humidity swings in the 60-70% RH range may be quite different.

Wilkey

Yes, the only difference between KLH and 'Museum Grade" beads are the size of the nanopores within the beads. Which means one will hold an infinitesimally greater or smaller amount of moisture.

The salient point that Wilkey and shooter make though, is that your beads have become reconditioned to its current set point. To recondition them back to 65%, make sure you Hygrometer is calibrated and you have no leaks, then try putting a bowl of PG solution in your humi. The PG will want to drive your RH to 70% so monitor the rise in RH closely. Once it reaches 65% replace the PG solution with distilled water. Continue to monitor for any significant change in RH. If it begins to fall, place the PG solution back in to bring it back to 65%. This should reset your beads to a set point of 65% in a few days.

I believe that would be the wrong thing to do. If you have a dish of water in a closed container, it will lead to a 100% RH or fully saturated condition. By definition, pure water will lead to this. Adding propylene glycol to water in a 50/50 solution will lower the saturation point to 70%. Pure water alone, 100%.

This is why when your silica is on the dry side, the placement of a small container of water is so effective in raising the ambient humidity. The dish will just pump out water and keep on pumping until you take it out of the humi.

And to reiterate, re-conditioning to a different setpoint is possible. In fact I'd hazard to guess this is the process behind the initial preparation of the commercial humidity buffering crystals.

In this universe, 50/50 PG water will always seek to control at 70% through unalterable thermodynamic process. It is impossible for this to be otherwise. Silica, however, works best as a humidity buffer when the environment it is in is already quite close to its initial conditioned moisture content. In other words, putting 65% beads in an airtight container that is already essentially at 65% RH will appear to magically regulate the humidity to 65%. Open the container a few times a day, put in some dry smokes, put in some wet smokes, leave it cracked open a bit, etc. and all these actions will lead to the necessity of either spritzing the beads (if RH is trending down) or leaving it open (if RH is trending up and external RH is lower than the internal RH).

It's not magic, but generally, it is convenient. BUT, like any other engineering solution, it is not appropriate or optimal across all conditions of use. Furthermore, I believe there is some confusion as far as the terminology we use. The Oasis XL is an active RH control device. PG/water is a passive RH control device. Silica gel is a passive RH buffering device. These are not the same things although in practice, they generally end up having the same visible effect which is keeping the RH about where we want it while minimizing fluctuations due to input/output considerations.

Wilkey

 

[preembargo]

Yes, I see your point Wilkey. The adsorption/absorption properties of the PG will want to drive the Rh to 70% and hold it there, whereas the distilled water will continue to adsorb to 100%. Meaning the distilled water would cause a continued rise in humidity beyond the desired 65%.

In order to achieve 65% Rh using PG solution (which wants to acheive 70%) the Rh needs to be monitored closely. Once the Rh reaches 65% the PG solution needs to be removed. If the RH begins to fall below 65% then PG solution should be reintroduced so that it's adsorption properties can bring the Rh back up (again closely monitored). In the unlikeky event that the Rh should continue to rise above 65% after the PG solution has been removed, open the lid for a few hours.

Once your beads are conditioned to your desired set point you have to keep it set by lightly spritzing the beads with distilled water when you see the Rh beginning to dip.