Sweet/Sour Aroma from a humidor.

[ichett]

One of my 50 count humidor, which is pretty much full of mix NC, has a sweet sour aroma wafting out of the humidor every time I open it. Just this particular one. Should I be worried? Anyone else have a humidor with a sweet/sour aroma?

I've gone through every single stick in this humidor, they all look fine and I've placed any cigar that has a distinct aroma in another humidor. The humidor sits around 70/65% with HF 65% beads.

 

[Hoshneer]

Have you checked the beads to make sure they aren't going bad?

 

[ichett]

Have you checked the beads to make sure they aren't going bad?

The beads are less than 6 months old. But what are the signs the beads are going bad?

 

[Hoshneer]

They have a weird sour smell. They can go bad fast sometimes.

 

[ichett]

Damn that sucks.

 

[javajunkie]

Have you checked the beads to make sure they aren't going bad?

i hadn't heard about beads going bad? anyone with longer-term experience (3+ years)?

and it might not hurt to get both a better description of the aroma, and an idea of the stock you got. the sweet could be from the sticks you are housing, and the sour could just be ammonia content slowly leaching out. i can get that from a lot of habao wrappers, especially with nica filler ("barnyard" much?). but without my scnoz there on sight, i can't say without more info...

and, not doubting either of you, just trying to open up the discussion.

 

[Hoshneer]

My beads went bad because I thought I could use filtered water instead of distilled. You will notice the smell more when you wet them down. Also the other thing that will cause them to go bad fast is if you dip them in water instead of spraying. Its pretty obvious though.

 

[javajunkie]

My beads went bad because I thought I could use filtered water instead of distilled. You will notice the smell more when you wet them down. Also the other thing that will cause them to go bad fast is if you dip them in water instead of spraying. Its pretty obvious though.

oh. got it! i can see the filtered water not being good (i live in a very hard water area). as for directly watering: my understanding was that this caused shattering/ sharding of the beads? the smaller fragments would be more difficult to contain, especially if they were reduced to dust, but should still work, as they are smaller fragments of the same substance. IDK, just from what i have seen on here so far.

my questions still stand, if we can get a little more detail off chett to flesh this out...

 

[Reckless]

Maybe you had chinese last night? jk Hope you get it sorted brother!!

 

[MattSRoss81]

My beads went bad because I thought I could use filtered water instead of distilled. You will notice the smell more when you wet them down. Also the other thing that will cause them to go bad fast is if you dip them in water instead of spraying. Its pretty obvious though.

oh. got it! i can see the filtered water not being good (i live in a very hard water area). as for directly watering: my understanding was that this caused shattering/ sharding of the beads? the smaller fragments would be more difficult to contain, especially if they were reduced to dust, but should still work, as they are smaller fragments of the same substance. IDK, just from what i have seen on here so far.

my questions still stand, if we can get a little more detail off chett to flesh this out...

Echo this - any experts on this?

I never really thought about it, but I never considered beads going bad, and I definitely never thought direct water (instead of spraying) would ruin them - I thought if anything, they'd just crack as stated.

 

[Hoshneer]

All I know is I thought I read that on thier site at one time but I can't find it now. I just threw mine out after two years just last week. They smelled like a mix of butt sweat and lemonade. Hahahaha! We need a linky expert.

I honestly think I'm wrong now because I can't find anything about Heartfelt beads going bad. It says they can smell a little due to absorbing oils in your humidor. Just keep the Gurkhas away from it. lol

 

[YodisMatt]

This is from Heartfelt on the use of non distilled water.

"VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!

You may have noticed that every time I mention the fluid that is added to the beads I say “distilled water”. This is extremely important; anything other than distilled water will ultimately ruin the beads. All the impurities in tap water will be drawn in by the beads and remain there. Ultimately the beads will get plugged up and not work anymore. The same is true with any type of humidifier solution (also known as 50/50 solution) this will also ruin the beads in the long run.

DO NOT immerse you beads in distilled water or dip the beads in distilled water. Trying to add distilled water this way will ultimately rinse out the salts that the beads are impregnated with. This rinsing off of the salts will ultimately make the beads not be able to hold the given rh level that they are set for."

->Link <-

 

[YodisMatt]

Ah ha found another answer.

&#8220; "Sweet" smelling bead are rotten beads. I talked to "Heartfelt" about this about a year ago when a batch of mine turned a horrible "rotten-sweet" smell. They said that this doesn't happen too often but can if the beads "sit" in excess water too long. There is no cure for this. I tried everything. I eventually tossed them. Luckily, only a relatively small amount of beads were in this particular container. The ones in my homemade canvas-mesh containers are still fine after many years and all the beads were from the same original batch.&#8221;

Link also here.

 

[Hoshneer]

Thank you linky expert!!

 

[Reckless]

Damn I'm glad I use kittyliter

 

[MattSRoss81]

Hmmm, now I need to go home and smell my beads!

 

[Hoshneer]

This thread could be derailed so easily. Lmao!

 

[Cigary43]

I learned that beads can and do go bad esp. if they aren't using distilled water....I thought everybody knew that you don't use anything but DW and never to immerse them. I use KL as well but you don't immerse them either as you use DW and just mist it.

 

[Hoshneer]

I learned that beads can and do go bad esp. if they aren't using distilled water....I thought everybody knew that you don't use anything but DW and never to immerse them. I use KL as well but you don't immerse them either as you use DW and just mist it.

Yeah, I knew that as well but I have reverse osmosis and I figured that would be pure enough. That was my mistake. I actually use Kitty litter as well now. It's the exact same thing. I wasn't a believer until I tried it but when I saw it at the store I realized it even looked like the beads. The stuff is amazing and saved me about $75. Lesson learned for me.

 

[MattSRoss81]

I keep hearing about using kitty litter - might be time to actually act on that.