RH too high with heartfelt beads

[Dan the Man]

Greetings all. I'm wondering if you can help me sort out a little problem with my new heartfelt humidity beads?

I recently purchased the 65% RH humidity beads from Heartfelt Industries in the aluminum box in order to maintain proper humidity without all the hassle. After filling them with distilled water and leaving it in the humidor for a week I noticed that my humidity was about 72%! I have a brand new digital hygrometer that I calibrated with a Humidipak calibration kit, so it can't be hygrometer. As a test i have placed the beads and hygrometer in a ziplock bag and left it overnight. The RH is holding at a rock steady 73%.

Any suggestions? I don't know what to do about it, but I don't want my cigars to be that moist.

 

[Craig Mac]

Greetings all. I'm wondering if you can help me sort out a little problem with my new heartfelt humidity beads?

I recently purchased the 65% RH humidity beads from Heartfelt Industries in the aluminum box in order to maintain proper humidity without all the hassle. After filling them with distilled water and leaving it in the humidor for a week I noticed that my humidity was about 72%! I have a brand new digital hygrometer that I calibrated with a Humidipak calibration kit, so it can't be hygrometer. As a test i have placed the beads and hygrometer in a ziplock bag and left it overnight. The RH is holding at a rock steady 73%.

Any suggestions? I don't know what to do about it, but I don't want my cigars to be that moist.

Take the beads out of your humidor for a day or two and the humidity should drop a bit and this will dry out your beads a bit too. Also when wetting the beads make sure to get them "half" wet meaning half the beads should remain white.

 

[twenty5]

Are all the beads clear? When using beads, I have found that if about 25% of the beads are still white they can absorb the extra humidity without a problem. If all the beads are clear they cannot take on any more humidity. If this is the case for you, you need to let your beads dry out a bit before putting them back into your humi.

 

[twenty5]

Take the beads out of your humidor for a day or two and the humidity should drop a bit and this will dry out your beads a bit too. Also when wetting the beads make sure to get them "half" wet meaning half the beads should remain white.

ah, you beat me:clap:

 

[Dan the Man]

About 75% are clear.

 

[twenty5]

About 75% are clear.

If you have 65% beads, and a good percentage of them are still white, there is no way that your humidity could be too high..... They would all be clear before the humidity started to rise..


Do you have enough bead surface area exposed?

 

[Dan the Man]

This is what I have. So I really can't adjust the surface area.

http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/proddetail.asp?prod=AH_1_65

 

[RonC]

dan, is the humidifier in a desktop humidor? and what is the temperature of the room that it is in? are the temps consistent? Just give a little more info.

 

[Dan the Man]

It is a 100 ct desktop humidor sitting at a nice even 70F.

I'm going to dry the beads out to about 50/50 and repeat the ziplock test.

 

[RonC]

what i would do is dry out the beads completely. make them all white. i dont know what daves instructions are regarding drying out the beads. its easy to dry the beads in the oven, but i do not know about putting the case in the oven.

put them in your humidor dry, and see what happens. then add water just a LITTLE at a time. i would go with 25% clear to start off

 

[Headbanger]

Stupid question here, but what was the reading on the hygro when you "calibrated it" with the Humidpak pack? If the hygro is an adjustable style, be sure you adjust it correctly.

What is the ambient RH where the humidor is? If you open and close the humidor often in a moist environment the moist beads will not be able to absorb the extra RH quickly.

How many cigars are in the humidor? Was the humidor recently seasoned?