I have been asked by many buyers:

 

There are several sellers on ebay now selling the humidity beads. 

 

They are a totally different products. 

 

I personally would never use the beads in my humidors.  The beads are a hard silica that you find in most of the new high end kitty litters.   They can absorb some moisture. 

 

An ounce of beads will absorb about 2 teaspoons of water and therefore only give off 2 teaspoons of water before having to be recharged. My gel is a cross-linked polymer gel is a potassium-based polymer specifically formulated to last up to 10 years.  You may have seen something similar to them used in baby diapers or the plant industry. The only problem with using those for cigars is that most are sodium-based super absorbent polymers. They start to degrade within one year and many have other products like scents and fertilizers added. The crystals are like space age super sponges. The high quality crystals we sell will absorb about 400 times their own mass of distilled water.   One ounce of the gel will absorb almost 2 gallons of water and therfore has more mositure to release before having to be recharged.

 

Also, the gel shrinks when it releases moisture and all of our products are in crystal clear containers so you can easily tell when it is time to recharge them.  The Silica beads do not change sizes so it is often very difficult to tell when it is time to add water other than after you humidity gauge start to noise dive.  If you want to try the beads just find someone that has a cat and ask for a cup of their kitty litter. 

 

I have found that unless you are in a area with VERY VERY high humidity area of the country and you normally have to REMOVE moisture from the air in your humidor there is no reason to use the beads. 

 

If you want to maintain a 70% RH then the best solution is to use the gel and about once a year soak them with a 50/50 solution of glycol.  Make sure to only do this about once a year.  The water evaporates from the gel but the PG does not.  If you use a glycol solution every time you recharge the gel it will saturate the gel with PG and it will not hold water any more.  

 

I hope this helps. 

 

Larry