bead problem

[T.G]

Originally Posted by OHMatt

Indirect filling of the beads is the best.

I have never dunked or sprayed my beads to fill them. I keep the beads in tied-off woman's nylons. When RH in my humis drops a couple percent I place a wet (NOT dripping) anti-microbial sponge (such as o cello brand) into the humidor. The water evaporates from the sponge and the beads soak it up and fill. A great thing about indirect filling is that you don't need to use distilled water; all the impurities remain in the sponge.

That's only true for solids and liquid impurities that require significantly more energy to evaporate than water.

Unfortunately, a good portion of the industrial chemicals and some pesticides found in tap water will actually evaporate before the water does. Whether these chemicals will be absorbed or not by the beads, I can't answer, but you are still introducing a number of pollutants + things like chlorine into your humidor.

If you would like to see just how bad the tap water is in your area, enter your zip code on the following website:
http://www.ewg.org/tapwater/yourwater/

Explanations of the pollutants are hyperlinked from the results page for your area.