Active Humidification & Water Gel

[Sadden]

Hello everyone. I am enjoying my aristocrat quite alot. I am looking at improving the S&F by changing out the wick for some water gel beads. http://www.crystalwaterbeads.com/wholesale-deals/1lb-bag-regular-water-beads-90-packs-choose-color


Some of you are going to ask why.

Well Bob recomends changing the wick out every 3 months. At 15$ ea. thats 60$ a year on wicks. A bag of these costs 20$ and will last presumably several years. Also more surface area is going to mean that the S&F will be able to bring the humidor back up to 65% faster than with just the wick.

So has anyone done this?

We have used them before for decorations. Even just using shitty tap water it took well over a year before they got janky. And that was with twigs and flowers and womanly decorative crap getting moved in and out of them all the time.

[AdamJoshua]

I have many questions but I'll let those that know more than a simple country boy like me ask them.

:po

[pnoon]

I don't see it as an improvement. You are investing thousands in your cigar collection. And now you're worried about a few dollars more per year to properly maintain them? Sorry, I don't see the logic. And, fwiw, I change the wick in my S&F every 6-9 months and it's just fine.

:2

Does that product even regulate RH to a set point?

[Sadden]

Nope. Not supposed to. Just a media to retain water and create surface area.

And im not too terribly worried about the cost. These just seem like a better alternative. More surface area. No standing water. Cheap. I have roughly 400$ worth of HCM beads being made into custom sized bags for my humi. Going to combine passive and active humidification.

Searching here and "other places" i have found several people that have with hydras and such. A small packet of beads seems to oulast the units themselves.

[AdamJoshua]

I hit petsmart.com and got fine mesh media bags (made for fishtanks ) for a couple bucks each, they are perfect to hold the beads.

Correction .99 each and they are pretty large.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754135

[Sadden]

The water gel beads will be going in the Set and Forget unit.
The HCM beads are coming in 4x one pound bags and 6x eight ounce bags.

[arlinliss]

Not using water defeats the function of the humidifier.

If you want to use beads, use beads but replacing them in the Humidifier in place of the wick and water is nonsense. By using beads where water was intended you are fooling yourself.

Wick can be bought here (http://www.filtersfast.com/P-Kaz-WF1-Humidifier-Filter-Compatible.asp) and then cut to size.

[mithrilG60]

None of the major active humidification systems use water absorbent gel for a reason, there is no real advantage. The Set-and-Forget and Avallo Acclumator have both been around for a long time, I'm sure if they could have improved their product by the addition of a couple cents worth of crystals over a wick that costs several dollars to buy and produce (their staff cut and glue raw wick material to size) they would have. Just follow the manufacturers instructions about intervals between water and wick replacement and you'll be fine.