Beads or not to Beads

[Volusianator]

Man, it's just the opposite for me, the top is about 6% more dry than the bottom.

 

[Boppa-Wasch]

I use an "Oust" fan in mine...

 

[daniyal]

With that information, I took all three hygrometers and placed them on the bottom of my new cabinet, about 6" off the floor of the humidor. After 48 hours they all read the same, 69% RH. Now, the part that gets me to believe that the beads are not as accurate as I'd thought, is that I have two pounds of 65% beads in a tray on the floor of the humidor, and they're still all white, none of them are soaking up any RH to bring things closer to 65% on the bottom of the cabinet.

Thoughts?

I do not think the beads are the best for soaking up excess humidity but do a great job of regulating it if your humi was seasoned to hold around 70% RH it will take a few days before the humidity settles down to 65%. With my coolidor I experienced much the same a 65% puck-ifier I bought from Cigarmony shows 72% humidity but settled down to 65% after a while. In my case I oversaturated the beads so it took a while before some dried out and I got the optimum humidity I was looking for. However I have also noticed that if you use too many beads a similar problem occurs.

Some BOTL's suggest that the premium kitty litter crystals or water sorb are a better option to soak up excess humidity you may want to look in to that option though they haven't been treated to maintain a certain humidity level so you have to condition them some what.

Edit: a quick search turned up this link http://www.botl.org/community/forums/showthread.php?t=8499