Originally Posted by shilala:
When Dave's beads get full of water they can can no longer gather water from the air. The RH will then rise in your humi (vino) if the ambient (surrounding) RH is higher than your humi's setting.
At that point, you have to dry the beads out.
My HCM beads have a much higher capacity for holding water.
The RH will rise slowly over time. When they get higher than we're comfortable with, all a guy has to do is throw them in the freezer for a few 20 minute cycles.
That'll dry out some of the water and lower the bead's RH setting a couple points, and we're back in business.
Think of the dramatic rise that happens with the Heartfelt beads as an "alarm".
When they're full and it's time to dry them out, the RH rises.
Being as it's so wet in FL right now, it shows Dave's beads are doing their job very well. :-)
Mind ya, everything I just said is pretty much Florida specific or Socal specific.
It's the rainy season in those areas and humidity is high. Plus they're not running air conditioners so much, so the RH in the house is round 70-75% rather than 45-50% when they're running air conditioners.
Here in PA it's the freezing cold season and our bead problems are completely opposite. It's gone from 80%RH in the house down to 45%. If it weren't for the two humidifiers I run, it'd be about 0%RH. :-)
Beads up here in the Great White North need to have water added because the ambient RH is so incredibly low right now.
So if you're in the north and you're using Dave's beads and the RH in your humi drops dramatically, it means they've dried out and they need some water.
If you're using my beads, the rh may drop a couple points over the coming weeks and it'll be a big help to add a wet sponge to the vino for a few days.
The only reason that my beads don't tend to need any (or much) attention is because they hold a lot more water than other beads. About 600% more.
So there's a lot more water available to temper dry air and their RH level drops very slowly.
They have a lot more capacity for taking water out of the air, too. So bed's RH doesn't rise very quickly.
Hope this helps!!! :-)
Scott
:-) I have two pounds of Scott's beads and hasn't had a problem regulating my coolerdor with them. It is petty much set it and leave it
:-)
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