Re-Upped my Cigar Oasis (picture intensive)

[s15driftking]

Well, thanks to Hazman i am now using active hydration.

Then, thanks to SeanGAR i am now cooking with gas. He let me know about some hydration crystals that i could find at a local craft store.

Here's the Idea:

People claim that unwanted fungle infections can occur to the original cigar oasis' foam core. So i figured that i needed to switch to something that had less of a risk of mold, and would work equally as well.

The best part is... I NEVER have to buy another oasis cartridge. I will simply buy 2 bucks worth of hydro crystals and put them in this now emptied cartridge.

This is the last cartridge you'll ever have to buy!!


Anyhow, i wanted to take you through the process that i blindly kinda "made up".


We start off with the two packages.

The "Cracked ice" was 5.99 and it makes 2.5 gallons. The Water jewels were 99 cents and are for 1 gallon... so i bet the 99 cents jobber will last 1-2 years. BOOM.




OK, now, how we started off. I took Seans advice and broke up all the material in the old cartridge.. and ran water through it to expell the broken chunks. 25 minutes later, worked like a charm.









Here are the two poking/crushing utensils..




And here is a piece of the floral foam. i didnt see any mold. But, i wanted to make sure that it never happens!



Here are the water jewels. they are perfectly round, not chipped or rugged.

[s15driftking]

And, i used a microwaved spray bottle of water to wet them. I started off misting them, but just ended up soaking them, they ate the water up nicely. I think it took about 2 hours to get them to "juicy".





Here we have the 5.99 cracked ice, i decided to use this set in the end for my oasis. Note - i used 1/2 a tablespoon of beads in each case. they all ended up puffing up to about 20x the original size.


i started out with a sauce cup... but that was dumb, it outgrew the cup within 20 mins.



Here they are.. side bu side, about 10 mins into thw whole thing... about 2-3 times their original size.



a little further in....



approaching 40 mins... note, they are only about 5-6 times the original size.. but you will see that they RAMP UP considerably in 16 minutes.




1.5 hours in.... fully sized... they didnt grow any further in the next hour....

[s15driftking]

5.99 ice





Jewels






Side by side...



The Jewel... before.. .and after.



2.5 hours... Ready to go in the oasis. I put them in via a funnel i made from the handle of a gallon bottle.





All Done...




I'm bagging these up.




So yeah, i'm overall happy... i hope i did it correctly. ITs nice to know that it's only going to cost me a couple bucks a year to keep it up.

A word of caution... make sure to clean the cartridge thoroughly, make sure to clean it with hot soapy water.

Give the crystals (whichever ones you use) a couple of hours to fully puff out. you dont want to over fill the cartridge. Also, i know this...The round ones reqire a half tablespoon MAX! The cracked ice could use a "dash" more..

[bobarian]

I understand the concept and your pics are great. But exactly how do you are you planning to regulate humidity? The Oasis will continue to add humidity, but without a regulating agent how will you keep a constant Rh if it rises above your set point(summertime)?

[MikeyC]

Originally Posted by bobarian

I understand the concept and your pics are great. But exactly how do you are you planning to regulate humidity? The Oasis will continue to add humidity, but without a regulating agent how will you keep a constant Rh if it rises above your set point(summertime)?

I've often thought about removing the foam in my Hydra and replacing it with some of the Heartfelt beads (I already have a bunch so why not?).

I've been using Super Absorbant Polymers from www.watersorb.com. for years. They look similiar to those you pictured and work better than the foam. I use them in Cigar Oasis, Hydra and my Set n Forget

Originally Posted by MikeyC

I've often thought about removing the foam in my Hydra and replacing it with some of the Heartfelt beads (I already have a bunch so why not?).

Beads will not work as they do not hold enough water.

Originally Posted by bobarian

I understand the concept and your pics are great. But exactly how do you are you planning to regulate humidity? The Oasis will continue to add humidity, but without a regulating agent how will you keep a constant Rh if it rises above your set point(summertime)?

It should be no different the Oasis/Hydra will not turn on unless humidity drops below your set point just as with the foam.

[WyGuy]

Originally Posted by cf2112

I've been using Super Absorbant Polymers from www.watersorb.com. for years. They look similiar to those you pictured and work better than the foam. I use them in Cigar Oasis, Hydra and my Set n Forget

That's what I've been using the past couple of months too. Cheap and they work great!

[s15driftking]

its my understanding that the oasis is a "trial and error" thing (the older ones)... you have to go with it and check your hygro...

The Cigar oasis has a dial from "on less often" to "on more often"... you turn it up or down accordingly.

MAybe you are confused at what i did... all i did was replace the floral foam with somethign else... it does the same thing. the oasis doesnt regulate anyhting, you must decide how you want to regulate it by cranking the dial.


SO, i it spikes up to 70%.... i'll simply turn the dial down which in essence... will not fan that much air...

[SeanGAR]

I forgot to mention that I toss some copper wire into the mess of hydrated crystals ... copper has antimicrobial activity.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/...s/microbes.php

[Alfred]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

I forgot to mention that I toss some copper wire into the mess of hydrated crystals ... copper has antimicrobial activity.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/...s/microbes.php

GREAT idea!

[bobarian]

I still dont understand how you will be keeping humidity lower than ambient during the moist months. As Silhound said, he is using PG to accomplish this task. If ambient humidity rises to 80%, how will turning off the Oasis remove the excess humidity? During the winter your system should work great, but I am concerned with the warm humid months.

[Bear]

Originally Posted by bobarian

I still dont understand how you will be keeping humidity lower than ambient during the moist months. As Silhound said, he is using PG to accomplish this task. If ambient humidity rises to 80%, how will turning off the Oasis remove the excess humidity? During the winter your system should work great, but I am concerned with the warm humid months.

If I had to guess, the ambient humidity doesn't get too high where the OP lives (OH) even in the warmer months. I could be wrong though...
I wonder how big the humi is. Is this a cabinet or a desktop (a CO would be overkill for the standard desktop IMO)? If the seal is less then ideal, his set up should work no problem especially if he's in and out of it on a regular basis.
Bottom line IMO is that even if you put a glass of water in your cabinet humi, the RH won't spike like mad due to the lack of air circulation being forced over the surface of the water. I don't see how this would be any different.

Now, with that said, if the temp & ambient humidity gets high in the warmer weather you might run into problems keeping your RH low enough. In the OP you mention that beads weren't doing the trick for you... my is keep them in there anyways as they'll act as a desiccate should you ultimately need it.

[neoflex]

Originally Posted by bobarian

I still dont understand how you will be keeping humidity lower than ambient during the moist months. As Silhound said, he is using PG to accomplish this task. If ambient humidity rises to 80%, how will turning off the Oasis remove the excess humidity? During the winter your system should work great, but I am concerned with the warm humid months.

I use a Cigar Oasis in my cabinet too and I also keep beads in there just to help keep things regulated in the summer months just in case. More often than not if your dealing with a large capacity humidor and it's well stocked your Rh should not drive too far on the high side even in the summer months, but it is good to have a fail safe.
Thanks for the tip on the Oasis, I will have to try this mod over the holiday since I am due for a new cartridge.

[Silound]

bobarian:

Here's a post I made a while back on CS about silica gel and PG. Hope it helps to clarify about the effectiveness of combining them. And if the ambient RH is too high, dry gel crystals can always be added to wick out moisture.

Originally Posted by silound

Here's a brief rundown for you:


Propylene Glycol is a diol alcohol (a type of organic alcohol), meaning it contains two hydroxyl groups in it's chemical structure, and it has an asymmetrical carbon atom. Because of this, the liquid is hygroscopic, meaning that it has a natural ability to attract water molecules from the surrounding environment. Because PG is also fully miscible (term that means the property of liquids to mix in all proportions, forming a homogeneous solution), it will eventually release moisture into the air when the relative humidity drops below that of the PG solution's proportion of water.

Purchased PG solutions are mixed at approximately 60-40 distilled water/PG. Because there is already water in the solution, the PG has attracted and mixed with it. In other words, PG solution is water AND PG, so it sets a baseline for the PG to balance at around 70%. This is why if you add PG solution to an already well humidified environment (70+%), it takes a little more time to balance out than if you added it to an environment nearer 70% RH.

The gel (crystals in Xikar humidifiers) that you wet with PG solution is simply a silica that absorbs and extrudes water based compounds, hence organic alcohols like PG that are water based. When combined, the gel will absorb the PG solution, which will in turn attract water from the surrounding environment, or eventually give it up to humidify the air.

The silica beads are similar to the gel in function (chemically different though). They are also a desiccant, which means they will also absorb humidity from the air. Depending on the chemical bonding order of the atoms, various forms of silica have various absorption levels, rates, and capacities.


The one myth to debunk. Plan silica gel or beads do NOT "extrude" moisture. Rather when the ambient humidity drops below a point, the beads simply dry out as the humidity is wicked back out of them. The bonding order and surface area of the silica used determines how fast they lose humidity (or gain it).

Because of PG's natural willingness to "give off" moisture, silica gel and PG solution will help bring humidity UP faster, while silica beads will take longer to lose moisture. Dry beads will always trump dry gel to remove excess moisture, and that I don't have a real good answer to.


Anyway, hope that helps some!

[DonWeb]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

I forgot to mention that I toss some copper wire into the mess of hydrated crystals ... copper has antimicrobial activity.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/...s/microbes.php

It's a cool thing you're doing - not that I would expect anything different.

The copper doesn't impart any metallic tang?

[s15driftking]

CF is right... its no different, its just replacingthe foam.. does the same thing.. .but cheaper! and updated!

[s15driftking]

can i get that sutff at lowes? straight copper?

[HK3-]

I think that's a great idea. Those floral foam deals just get clogged even if you only used distilled water.



You wont find anything copper in Michigan... all the meth heads have already stolen it.

[Silound]

Originally Posted by HK3-

I think that's a great idea. Those floral foam deals just get clogged even if you only used distilled water.



You wont find anything copper in Michigan... all the meth heads have already stolen it.

Rofl.


Down here catalytic converters are being stolen left and right. There's about $300 worth of copper in them, so they're disappearing off of trucks and SUV's pretty regularly.

[Jay Hemingway]

Originally Posted by Silound

Rofl.


Down here catalytic converters are being stolen left and right. There's about $300 worth of copper in them, so they're disappearing off of trucks and SUV's pretty regularly.

it is actually "platinum" that is in cat converters. that is what these things are being stolen left and right for. not copper.