First winter with Heartfelt beads

[carl9son]

I'm looking for some advice from other BOTL members who live in a cold, dry climate during the winter (I'm in MN) and use Heartfelt beads.

I'm concerned about my 75-count humidor. This is the first winter I'm using Heartfelt beads and I find myself needing to re-wet them roughly every 2-3 weeks, depending on the weather. I've found that the colder (and drier) it gets, the more frequently I need to re-wet. Anybody else experiencing this kind of thing? During the summer months my humi was rock steady but this winter I've had fluctuations of around 5% humidity on about a 3 week cycle just due to the beads drying out so quickly.

The humi's in the lowest level of the house, which stays around 65 degrees. But the ambient humidity decreases significantly the colder it gets. By design I actually upsized the amount of beads I'm using in anticipation of the drier environment, but I'm surprised at how frequently I'm re-wetting the beads.

Should I be concerned about that cyclic humidity fluctuation? Anybody else from the great frozen north needing to really stay on top of their humidity like this?

 

[dpricenator]

the colder and dreir it gets the more you have to wet the beads? Makes sense to me. Cold air is dry air. this is why you bought beads. you are doing the right thing.

 

[iCraig]

the colder and dreir it gets the more you have to wet the beads? Makes sense to me. Cold air is dry air. this is why you bought beads. you are doing the right thing.

Yup. dprice hit it on the head I think

 

[La Chupacabra]

I live in Ma. I have to wet my beads once a week for the humidors and once a month for the coolerdor. in the winter that is.

 

[GoingPostal]

yeah that is going to happen. now it doesn't get that cold out here in CA. My only suggestion is put some more beads in there or have extra ready and wet just to swap out.

 

[mwlabel]

I do the same thing. Coincidentally I live an hour south of you lol. It's just the way it is living in this climate

 

[Treinenwj]

Yep. I'm in WI and constantly have to check my beads in the winter. In the summer I barely ever have to add DW.

 

[carl9son]

Well it's good to know I'm not the only one. I guess the northern climate requires a little due diligence sometimes. Thanks for the feedback, fellas.

 

[Jfire]

The one other thing is the Humi itself. I have a small coolidor w a half lb of beads in it and havn't filled it for 8 weeks right now. It has a almost perfect seal. My guess is if you were to find one and place the 75ct in it just for test purposes you would find out the humidity would stabilize almost over night in the desktop.

 

[skynyrd09]

the colder and dreir it gets the more you have to wet the beads? Makes sense to me. Cold air is dry air. this is why you bought beads. you are doing the right thing.

Not really correct at all. In the winter months especially in the mid-west the air has more humidity outside than in the summer. The issue is the heating of the home creates a dry environment. I purchased some Heartfelt beads as well this winter and noticed the same thing I was re-wetting them every 2-3 weeks. I then decided to check the humidity outside the humidor and it was around %25-29.... really low. I did some research and installed an entire house humidifier to work with my furnace. Brought the relative humidity in my house up to a comfortable %45. I have yet to re-wet the heartfelt beads in my humidor... it has been about 7.5 weeks.

 

[keinreis]

I would guess that since it is cold, you are running your heater in your home. Heaters tend to make for dryer air. In my desktop I find myself having to add water more often when I run my heater. The wineador not so much, but I would bet it is sealed better then the desktop.

 

[WarHorse]

I've been wrestling with this myself with some drops in rH. I think I may need to plan a re-seasoning of the humi before next winter to establish a good internal humidity as I think my box went a little dry. I think I need some beads too, as I believe I'm a little under required capacity.

 

[Zedman05]

As the temperature drops outside, it losses the ability to retain moisture, hence the reason you hardly get snow the colder it gets. I know your problem well, it happens every winter, and will continue every year for you. You need to just be a little bit more dilligent in your watch of the humi.
A lot of people are right: the colder it gets the more the furnace runs, which removes humidity as well, and to start off very low in the first place is not good to start off with. The only thing that will help you is if you go and purchase something that seals completely from the evnvironment as a humidor is actually meant to "breathe" moisture and temperatures to atmosphere.
Humidity and temperature are on a curve, but once you get very cold outside, it doesn't take much to have problems. Thought to ponder: air is twice as dense at -30 as at 32 F, so keep that in mind as you cannot hold moisture in cold air.
Just my 2 cents. eace:
Oh btw, you think your humidity is low, we are at 7-10% outside air right now heh.

 

[skynyrd09]

Current RH Humidity in the United States outside.

http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/maps/us/humidity.html

Not sure how you are getting 7-10% RH Humidity outside.

 

[carl9son]

skynyrd09 is that a bottle of Oberon?!

I've actually been tossing around the idea of installing a humidifier on my furnace. I think a lot of the problem is that we've kept the house about 7 degrees warmer than we typically do during the winter due to our new addition (5-month-old little girl). So I'm curious to see how things will go next winter when I won't be running the furnace as often.

 

[Dr. Xikar]

Winter in Ohio - Recharge my beads every weekend. Just the way it goes.

 

[skynyrd09]

skynyrd09 is that a bottle of Oberon?!

I've actually been tossing around the idea of installing a humidifier on my furnace. I think a lot of the problem is that we've kept the house about 7 degrees warmer than we typically do during the winter due to our new addition (5-month-old little girl). So I'm curious to see how things will go next winter when I won't be running the furnace as often.

Yes Bell's Oberon, the greatest summer brew of all time!

 

[Danilo]

I've been wrestling with this myself with some drops in rH. I think I may need to plan a re-seasoning of the humi before next winter to establish a good internal humidity as I think my box went a little dry. I think I need some beads too, as I believe I'm a little under required capacity.

You do not need to "re-season" your humidor... you just need to get something that keeps humidity where it needs to be (Boveda, Beads etc...)
even if you had a few drops, you do not need to empty it out, and redo everything.

 

[EricF]

I find I have the opposite problem living in South Florida. During the summer the ac is constantly on sucking the humidity out of the air and I tend to recharge more often than in the winter. I have not recharged my beads since winter started and they are holding rock steady at 65% and the ac is hardly on now but that will soon change!

 

[onlydominican]

This is the first winter I'm using Heartfelt beads and I find myself needing to re-wet them roughly every 2-3 weeks, depending on the weather.

I am in Connecticut and this has been a brutal winter. I am using beads like you, and I am recharging them every 8 to 10 days. I wish I only had to do it every 2-3 weeks like you.