OK- here's some data on something that doesn't work for humidification...
My wife used those little crystals that swell up abot 1000% into a rubbery gel when you add water as decorative vase fillers at our wedding reception. My mom uses them to mix with potting soil to improve its water holding capacity. You can't use them as hydration media for your humidor.
Yesterday I had the brilliant insight that maybe they were the media in the gel pack humidifiers. I ran two experiments. In one, I added just distilled water to the crystals and placed in a tupperware with a digital hygrometer. In the other, I used 50/50 propylene glycol solution. The one with pure water climbed all the way to "HI" humidity. That hygro reads up to at least 92%; I'm not sure exactly where "HI" kicks in. The one with PG solution stabilized at about 92%.
Both of these are clearly too high for your humi. Now, I suppose it is possible that with further chemical tweaking, you could achieve success, unfortunately, I don't have any pure PG to play with. I'm thinking that maybe this is the stuff they use in water pillows, etc, but that there is a specific chemical additive mixture that they use.
Just doing my part in the furthering of penny-pinching humi control! I think I'm going to try the cat litter bit next. It makes sense that a cat litter has hygroscopic properties. However, I have hard time believing that a product that is not engineered to maintain a particular RH will do so as well as the heartfelt beads, but at the price per pound of cat litter, it's worth a look-see.
My wife used those little crystals that swell up abot 1000% into a rubbery gel when you add water as decorative vase fillers at our wedding reception. My mom uses them to mix with potting soil to improve its water holding capacity. You can't use them as hydration media for your humidor.
Yesterday I had the brilliant insight that maybe they were the media in the gel pack humidifiers. I ran two experiments. In one, I added just distilled water to the crystals and placed in a tupperware with a digital hygrometer. In the other, I used 50/50 propylene glycol solution. The one with pure water climbed all the way to "HI" humidity. That hygro reads up to at least 92%; I'm not sure exactly where "HI" kicks in. The one with PG solution stabilized at about 92%.
Both of these are clearly too high for your humi. Now, I suppose it is possible that with further chemical tweaking, you could achieve success, unfortunately, I don't have any pure PG to play with. I'm thinking that maybe this is the stuff they use in water pillows, etc, but that there is a specific chemical additive mixture that they use.
Just doing my part in the furthering of penny-pinching humi control! I think I'm going to try the cat litter bit next. It makes sense that a cat litter has hygroscopic properties. However, I have hard time believing that a product that is not engineered to maintain a particular RH will do so as well as the heartfelt beads, but at the price per pound of cat litter, it's worth a look-see.
