Panacea Water Gems

So, I got my cooler(dor) prepped and was doing some research on HF beads and KL. My wife saw me on the laptop looking at KL on Amazon and thought I might have lost a few marbles since we don't own a cat. After explaining the purpose of the beads, she told me she saw similar "round thingies" at the craft store that was used in vases to preserve flowers.

I found the product online and the item description seems like it should work. Price online was $7.99 for a liter of these gems but I found them on sale at the store for about $3.00 -- not bad!

Linky -----> Panacea Clear Water Gems

I put a small amount of these in an open tupperware type container and placed it inside the coolerdor. After about 4-5 hrs, the RH reached about 90%. Looks like they have quite a bit of surface area so I took the lid and put about 6 small holes in it essentially turning it into a big water pillow. That did the job and for this past week, I was able to maintain a constant 70-71% RH.

Obviously, like kitty litter, they require some trial & error to get them to sustain your target humidity level but, thus far, they do seem like they're doing a pretty good job. Only difference may be shape and size. This may be a good psychological alternative to some members here that can't get over the idea of placing kitty litter next to their fine cigars. The price is also extremely affordable as I could imagine that one of these products could take care of a pretty large humidor.

I'm not sure if this type of product has been mentioned here before so I thought to share my findings.

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Comments

Bob Luken

I like the way you are being innovative and seeking solutions. I don't know if the craft store gel "balls" have been used or discussed here or not. I have noticed similarities between some of my humidification devices that contain gel "balls". Quite a few cigar humidifiers use similar gel balls. (Humi-Care Black Ice) Maybe the craft store products are the exact same thing. In my experience with the cigar humidifiers that have the gel balls is they will eventually cause higher than desired humidity readings. I use them to add humidity to my humis and coolers but only as a temporary method of raising humidity and allowing the KL to absorb the moisture indirectly instead of spritzing the kitty litter.

webmost

I'm convinced that's the same type foam that's inside the plastic humidifier thing that came with my humidor. But I didn't soak it with water -- I soaked it with that propylene glycol solution, so that it wouldn't get up to 90%.

Since then, I've been adding a spoon or two of distilled when needed. No idea if that's the right way to go --- just winging it here.

If the foam ever gets cruddy, I guess I can go to the florist and get some more. I suppose the humidifier snaps open so you can replace the stuff.

Gray4lines

That is very cool and looks like a fine alternative to any kind of beads. Id assume it's the same as any gel you might find. Good idea!

Bob Luken

webmost:
I'm convinced that's the same type foam that's inside the plastic humidifier thing that came with my humidor. But I didn't soak it with water -- I soaked it with that propylene glycol solution, so that it wouldn't get up to 90%.

Since then, I've been adding a spoon or two of distilled when needed. No idea if that's the right way to go --- just winging it here.

If the foam ever gets cruddy, I guess I can go to the florist and get some more. I suppose the humidifier snaps open so you can replace the stuff.

We're not talkin' 'bout foam. It's more of a gel in the shape of little marbles or balls. But good idea on the PG solution. If I ever use green foam again I'll PG the sh!t out of it. .

New Boots

A while ago my daughter had a ton of these things....if only I'd known

dr_frankenstein56

now that i have seen this, I really wonder if these gel balls fall into the same catogory as the Nerf "Xploders" that my kids seems to have all over the place. we have literally buckets of these balls for the kids to use in there toy guns. I wonder if these would work for the humi as well? and they come in really cool colors too!

Aj

WaltBasil

Might be a good idea for someone with the time and means to come up with a type of box. Could be fabricated. Could be something bought and modified for this. But put a rotating adjustable vent. Like on a smoker. How you adjust your vents on the bottom and top to attain your desired temperature. I'm sure it would work and could be especially useful, because a change in the environment could cause you to need more or less humidification. Drilling holes could work, but have a means to cover them if necessary when your ambient environmental RH goes up during rainy season or so. Great idea variant2!

dr_frankenstein56

WaltBasil:
Might be a good idea for someone with the time and means to come up with a type of box. Could be fabricated. Could be something bought and modified for this. But put a rotating adjustable vent. Like on a smoker. How you adjust your vents on the bottom and top to attain your desired temperature. I'm sure it would work and could be especially useful, because a change in the environment could cause you to need more or less humidification. Drilling holes could work, but have a means to cover them if necessary when your ambient environmental RH goes up during rainy season or so. Great idea variant2!

What about a plastic spice container with the different opening selection on the top? washed out of course....

Aj

variant2

dr_frankenstein56:
WaltBasil:
Might be a good idea for someone with the time and means to come up with a type of box. Could be fabricated. Could be something bought and modified for this. But put a rotating adjustable vent. Like on a smoker. How you adjust your vents on the bottom and top to attain your desired temperature. I'm sure it would work and could be especially useful, because a change in the environment could cause you to need more or less humidification. Drilling holes could work, but have a means to cover them if necessary when your ambient environmental RH goes up during rainy season or so. Great idea variant2!

What about a plastic spice container with the different opening selection on the top? washed out of course....

Aj

This is what I'm using at the moment. Without the lid, the humidity level quickly reaches over 90% so I got the idea to punch some holes through the lid after looking at the water pillows. Maybe I got lucky with the water, gem and lid hole ratio but, thus far, I get a steady ~70%

Walt & AJ, I was also thinking about an adjustable opening as you have mentioned. I'm beginning to test my wife's patience as I keep pilfering her kitchen supplies for ideas

WaltBasil

variant2:
dr_frankenstein56:
WaltBasil:
Might be a good idea for someone with the time and means to come up with a type of box. Could be fabricated. Could be something bought and modified for this. But put a rotating adjustable vent. Like on a smoker. How you adjust your vents on the bottom and top to attain your desired temperature. I'm sure it would work and could be especially useful, because a change in the environment could cause you to need more or less humidification. Drilling holes could work, but have a means to cover them if necessary when your ambient environmental RH goes up during rainy season or so. Great idea variant2!

What about a plastic spice container with the different opening selection on the top? washed out of course....

Aj
This is what I'm using at the moment. Without the lid, the humidity level quickly reaches over 90% so I got the idea to punch some holes through the lid after looking at the water pillows. Maybe I got lucky with the water, gem and lid hole ratio but, thus far, I get a steady ~70%

Walt & AJ, I was also thinking about an adjustable opening as you have mentioned. I'm beginning to test my wife's patience as I keep pilfering her kitchen supplies for ideas

I'm sure the good wife will draw the line at using her great grandmother's corningware set. LOL.

That is exactly what I was thinking about for an easy setup. If you ever need more RH becasue of the weather, drill another hole and when it becomes too much, you could slap a peice of scotch tape over it and it will be there for you if you need it again.

Makes me wonder how much space something like that could humidify.

WaltBasil

dr_frankenstein56:
WaltBasil:
Might be a good idea for someone with the time and means to come up with a type of box. Could be fabricated. Could be something bought and modified for this. But put a rotating adjustable vent. Like on a smoker. How you adjust your vents on the bottom and top to attain your desired temperature. I'm sure it would work and could be especially useful, because a change in the environment could cause you to need more or less humidification. Drilling holes could work, but have a means to cover them if necessary when your ambient environmental RH goes up during rainy season or so. Great idea variant2!

What about a plastic spice container with the different opening selection on the top? washed out of course....

Aj

That would work too, I'm sure. Use the powdered onion one. Hand out the new "Acid Onion." hehe.