Little trouble w/ humidity

[T.G]

Originally Posted by stx.dead.I

It has a digital hygrometer in there. The xykar humidifer is filled with the beads. and the seal sucked originally but now that I have done a small bead of sealant around the perimeter the seal seems a lot better now. I did the flashlight test and zero light was seen through the lid.

FWIW, the "beads" in Xikar humidifiers are a misnomer. They are actually super absorbent polymer gel (aka: "SAP") in spherical form. Some other example devices that use SAP are the Humi-Care jars, water pillows, cigar mechanic humidifers and aqua beads for plants. They are more for storing and releasing humidity than they are for absorbing it from the air, and they tend to work slowly.

When you hear people speak of "beads" here, they typically are referring to either HCM beads or heartfelt beads. Both of wich react much faster than SAP and will actually absorb humidity from the air to bring a humidor back down to their set point if it is high.

[stx.dead.I]

Originally Posted by T.G

FWIW, the "beads" in Xikar humidifiers are a misnomer. They are actually super absorbent polymer gel (aka: "SAP") in spherical form. Some other example devices that use SAP are the Humi-Care jars, water pillows, cigar mechanic humidifers and aqua beads for plants. They are more for storing and releasing humidity than they are for absorbing it from the air, and they tend to work slowly.

When you hear people speak of "beads" here, they typically are referring to either HCM beads or heartfelt beads. Both of wich react much faster than SAP and will actually absorb humidity from the air to bring a humidor back down to their set point if it is high.

So you are saying the xykar doesn't use "beads" it uses SAP crystals. You think I should get some beads to add into the humidor?

[T.G]

Originally Posted by stx.dead.I

So you are saying the xykar doesn't use "beads" it uses SAP crystals. You think I should get some beads to add into the humidor?

If you like how your cigars are smoking, then there's no reason to change anything.

I used a SAP Crystal-Jel jar from CI in one 40qt cooler for years with moderate success. Overall it worked, humidity swung a bit, but for the most part, not unbearable. But problems would almost always arise when I would add recently purchased boxes of cigars, as most vendors ship a bit on the wet side so that the cigars don't dry out in transit. Or when my region would experience high humidity for a week or two. This tended to cause all the other cigars in there to suck up the extra moisture and now I had a cooler full of cigars that were all overhumidifed for my tastes. So I started dryboxing cigars a few days before smoking them, which meant I had to plan days in advance what and when I would want to smoke, this didn't always work out. Then I started leaving new shipments out on the counter for a week or more before putting them in the cooler. This was a lot of work, especially as my storage grew, and it didn't completely solve the problems. I often didn't like how my cigars smoked or the work involved.

Then I got beads from Shilala (now sold under www.HCMbeads.com). I don't have to do any of that **** anymore. I just put the cigars in the humidor, cooler, storage tub, close the lid and forget about them. My hydrometers always read the same and I like how things are smoking now that I have them at 63%.