Well, thanks to Hazman i am now using active hydration.

Then, thanks to SeanGAR i am now cooking with gas. He let me know about some hydration crystals that i could find at a local craft store.

Here's the Idea:

People claim that unwanted fungle infections can occur to the original cigar oasis' foam core. So i figured that i needed to switch to something that had less of a risk of mold, and would work equally as well.

The best part is... I NEVER have to buy another oasis cartridge. I will simply buy 2 bucks worth of hydro crystals and put them in this now emptied cartridge.

This is the last cartridge you'll ever have to buy!!


Anyhow, i wanted to take you through the process that i blindly kinda "made up".


We start off with the two packages.

The "Cracked ice" was 5.99 and it makes 2.5 gallons. The Water jewels were 99 cents and are for 1 gallon... so i bet the 99 cents jobber will last 1-2 years. BOOM.

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OK, now, how we started off. I took Seans advice and broke up all the material in the old cartridge.. and ran water through it to expell the broken chunks. 25 minutes later, worked like a charm.

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Here are the two poking/crushing utensils..
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And here is a piece of the floral foam. i didnt see any mold. But, i wanted to make sure that it never happens!
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Here are the water jewels. they are perfectly round, not chipped or rugged.
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And, i used a microwaved spray bottle of water to wet them. I started off misting them, but just ended up soaking them, they ate the water up nicely. I think it took about 2 hours to get them to "juicy".
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Here we have the 5.99 cracked ice, i decided to use this set in the end for my oasis. Note - i used 1/2 a tablespoon of beads in each case. they all ended up puffing up to about 20x the original size.
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i started out with a sauce cup... but that was dumb, it outgrew the cup within 20 mins.
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Here they are.. side bu side, about 10 mins into thw whole thing... about 2-3 times their original size.
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a little further in....
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approaching 40 mins... note, they are only about 5-6 times the original size.. but you will see that they RAMP UP considerably in 16 minutes.
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1.5 hours in.... fully sized... they didnt grow any further in the next hour....
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5.99 ice
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Jewels
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Side by side...
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The Jewel... before.. .and after.
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2.5 hours... Ready to go in the oasis. I put them in via a funnel i made from the handle of a gallon bottle.
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All Done...
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I'm bagging these up.
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So yeah, i'm overall happy... i hope i did it correctly. ITs nice to know that it's only going to cost me a couple bucks a year to keep it up.

A word of caution... make sure to clean the cartridge thoroughly, make sure to clean it with hot soapy water.

Give the crystals (whichever ones you use) a couple of hours to fully puff out. you dont want to over fill the cartridge. Also, i know this...The round ones reqire a half tablespoon MAX! The cracked ice could use a "dash" more..
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I understand the concept and your pics are great. But exactly how do you are you planning to regulate humidity? The Oasis will continue to add humidity, but without a regulating agent how will you keep a constant Rh if it rises above your set point(summertime)?
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I've often thought about removing the foam in my Hydra and replacing it with some of the Heartfelt beads (I already have a bunch so why not?).
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its my understanding that the oasis is a "trial and error" thing (the older ones)... you have to go with it and check your hygro...

The Cigar oasis has a dial from "on less often" to "on more often"... you turn it up or down accordingly.

MAybe you are confused at what i did... all i did was replace the floral foam with somethign else... it does the same thing. the oasis doesnt regulate anyhting, you must decide how you want to regulate it by cranking the dial.


SO, i it spikes up to 70%.... i'll simply turn the dial down which in essence... will not fan that much air...
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I've been using Super Absorbant Polymers from www.watersorb.com. for years. They look similiar to those you pictured and work better than the foam. I use them in Cigar Oasis, Hydra and my Set n Forget

Beads will not work as they do not hold enough water.

It should be no different the Oasis/Hydra will not turn on unless humidity drops below your set point just as with the foam.
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CF is right... its no different, its just replacingthe foam.. does the same thing.. .but cheaper! and updated!
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I forgot to mention that I toss some copper wire into the mess of hydrated crystals ... copper has antimicrobial activity.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/...s/microbes.php
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can i get that sutff at lowes? straight copper?
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I think that's a great idea. Those floral foam deals just get clogged even if you only used distilled water.



You wont find anything copper in Michigan... all the meth heads have already stolen it. :-)
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Rofl.


Down here catalytic converters are being stolen left and right. There's about $300 worth of copper in them, so they're disappearing off of trucks and SUV's pretty regularly.
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if theres 300.00 worth of copper in a catylitic converter.. .why are they only like 100 bucks? i know that metal is universally market priced. and to build somethign with 300.00 dollars worth of copper.. that company is going to pay at least 250.00 for that copper..

???
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That looks like it will work good in your cabinet. Pretty good job there. :-)
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HellifIknow. :-) I honestly just know about it from a few regulars at the shop who are officers. Warned us to park somewhere safe. Two days later there was a big story on the news about it and it made the paper when a theft ring got busted up for stealing "cats". So again, hellifIknow.



Forgot to mention, I use PG solution on my crystals and crank my Oasis to max. It always runs the fan (thus I keep air circulating) but the PG + crystals keep me running between 68 and 71 all the time. I don't have a single issue with cracks, splits, or bad sticks due to lack of or excessive moisture in that Vino. Now my low RH box is a different story though. That one I carefully keep and eye on to make sure I add PG as needed to prevent it from getting too high (over 65).
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That's what I've been using the past couple of months too. Cheap and they work great!
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Great info on the crystals.

As an aside....Don;t sell the floral foam short. In my big boxes I use a large block from the florist...The block lasts more than a year before getting what I think is plugged I might add water once over the year. In a stand up freezer without reefer stuff.

The beads aren't really "doin it" for me...
I'm gonna try the crystals with PG solution.
I've used pg for >30 years and I know how to use it...The biggest "thing" with any substance to control humidification is experience.
Maybe I haven't given the beads enuf time to try out..
Tom
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i got the heartfelt 65% amd they jsut didn't do the trick.... that's why im here
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Wow, I'm surprised.... I dont hear of too many folks having problems with the beads, oh well.... hopefully your Oasis will work out well for ya'.

Thanks for the well put together post..
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GREAT idea!
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