conservagel is gone?

blurr

Brothers, has anyone purchased conservagel beads recently? Looking online to add a few pounds to build a new fridge, I see that conservagel is showing a not available on their beads page. In its place I see now they are trying to promote some gel. Super disappointed after how amazing my conservagel beads worked for ooh 4 years now I'm not going back to one way gels. The big net retailers push gels but they leave me very unsatisfied so anyone bought good beads recently. Besides heartfelt, that place is expensive I can a get silica gel cheaper for my cat if you know what I mean.

marineatbn03

have you tried cigarmony.com? I have also found beads on ebay for cheap.

jadelt

blurr:

Brothers, has anyone purchased conservagel beads recently? Looking online to add a few pounds to build a new fridge, I see that conservagel is showing a not available on their beads page. In its place I see now they are trying to promote some gel. Super disappointed after how amazing my conservagel beads worked for ooh 4 years now I'm not going back to one way gels. The big net retailers push gels but they leave me very unsatisfied so anyone bought good beads recently. Besides heartfelt, that place is expensive I can a get silica gel cheaper for my cat if you know what I mean.

I am sold on the Heartfelt stuff...... I bought a pound, a couple of half pound bags and a couple of his tubes and I am good for a long long time.... and he has great service.

blurr

marineatbn03:

have you tried cigarmony.com? I have also found beads on ebay for cheap.

I have avoided any Ebay purchases I've seen too many people selling cat litter pearls calling them humidor beads. Yes the chemical makeup may be the same but delve into the issue on forums and I don't want to have to "setpoint" my beads. Heart felt work great just conservagel was half the price and they sell by the bag in pounds. I make my own containers so I don't want to pay 30 for a few ounces of generic silica beads in a fancy plastic tube when I can buy bulk silica beads for less than 20 a full pound. Least I could until conservagel stopped it. Ahhh capitalism seems too convenient they dropped the best deal affecting all bead Sellers. Must be coincidence...

catfishbluezz

I'm going to try the cat litter route actually, with a spare humi and a 65 Boveda pack dude. Can't hurt to try, and I've read plenty of good reviews...and seen the eBay cat beads in action lol

MVW67

catfishbluezz:

I'm going to try the cat litter route actually, with a spare humi and a 65 Boveda pack dude. Can't hurt to try, and I've read plenty of good reviews...and seen the eBay cat beads in action lol

I trained kitty liter for cooler with sealed boxes right at 68-69.

catfishbluezz

MVW67:

catfishbluezz:

I'm going to try the cat litter route actually, with a spare humi and a 65 Boveda pack dude. Can't hurt to try, and I've read plenty of good reviews...and seen the eBay cat beads in action lol

I trained kitty liter for cooler with sealed boxes right at 68-69.

what did the training entail? Curious....I've heard nothing but good things with either exquisicat or litter pearls. I was plannin on a huge bowl in a seasoned humi and a 65rh pack on it. Close it up for a week and see where it's at.

MVW67

catfishbluezz:

MVW67:

catfishbluezz:

I'm going to try the cat litter route actually, with a spare humi and a 65 Boveda pack dude. Can't hurt to try, and I've read plenty of good reviews...and seen the eBay cat beads in action lol

I trained kitty liter for cooler with sealed boxes right at 68-69.

what did the training entail? Curious....I've heard nothing but good things with either exquisicat or litter pearls. I was plannin on a huge bowl in a seasoned humi and a 65rh pack on it. Close it up for a week and see where it's at.

Put in with 69% heartfelt beads for about 1 1/2 weeks and have been good ever since.

catfishbluezz

MVW67:

catfishbluezz:

MVW67:

catfishbluezz:

I'm going to try the cat litter route actually, with a spare humi and a 65 Boveda pack dude. Can't hurt to try, and I've read plenty of good reviews...and seen the eBay cat beads in action lol

I trained kitty liter for cooler with sealed boxes right at 68-69.

what did the training entail? Curious....I've heard nothing but good things with either exquisicat or litter pearls. I was plannin on a huge bowl in a seasoned humi and a 65rh pack on it. Close it up for a week and see where it's at.

Put in with 69% heartfelt beads for about 1 1/2 weeks and have been good ever since.

water them much? Or put them in dry?

MVW67

catfishbluezz:

MVW67:

catfishbluezz:

MVW67:

catfishbluezz:

I'm going to try the cat litter route actually, with a spare humi and a 65 Boveda pack dude. Can't hurt to try, and I've read plenty of good reviews...and seen the eBay cat beads in action lol

I trained kitty liter for cooler with sealed boxes right at 68-69.

what did the training entail? Curious....I've heard nothing but good things with either exquisicat or litter pearls. I was plannin on a huge bowl in a seasoned humi and a 65rh pack on it. Close it up for a week and see where it's at.

Put in with 69% heartfelt beads for about 1 1/2 weeks and have been good ever since.

water them much? Or put them in dry?

just misted them once and closed lid, after that just misted them once every 3-4 weeks

marineatbn03

blurr:

marineatbn03:

have you tried cigarmony.com? I have also found beads on ebay for cheap.

I have avoided any Ebay purchases I've seen too many people selling cat litter pearls calling them humidor beads. Yes the chemical makeup may be the same but delve into the issue on forums and I don't want to have to "setpoint" my beads. Heart felt work great just conservagel was half the price and they sell by the bag in pounds. I make my own containers so I don't want to pay 30 for a few ounces of generic silica beads in a fancy plastic tube when I can buy bulk silica beads for less than 20 a full pound. Least I could until conservagel stopped it. Ahhh capitalism seems too convenient they dropped the best deal affecting all bead Sellers. Must be coincidence...

I bought my beads from ebay, one of the online retailers sells them on there. I think I paid 15 for half a pound and they are beads not kitty litter. 70% and hold there with no effort.

MJD715

I've never seen or used the beads before, but I saw my mom using these gel beads at my brothers wedding and it sounds like the same sorta idea. http://www.batteryoperatedcandles.net/10100-03-clear-p-floral-water-gel-beads.html

MVW67

MJD715:

I've never seen or used the beads before, but I saw my mom using these gel beads at my brothers wedding and it sounds like the same sorta idea. http://www.batteryoperatedcandles.net/10100-03-clear-p-floral-water-gel-beads.html

Oh yes, forgot about this my wife picked up some stuff to preserve flowers from a funeral, at a craft store, worked great and I was looking and it is silica also, thinking I should do a trail run.

jadelt

MVW67:

MJD715:

I've never seen or used the beads before, but I saw my mom using these gel beads at my brothers wedding and it sounds like the same sorta idea. http://www.batteryoperatedcandles.net/10100-03-clear-p-floral-water-gel-beads.html

Oh yes, forgot about this my wife picked up some stuff to preserve flowers from a funeral, at a craft store, worked great and I was looking and it is silica also, thinking I should do a trail run.

I thought that stuff was just like the GEL that is sold in small jars...... it is a one way..... only gives off humidity doesnt take it up....... beads on the other hand are two way..... give humidity and take away when needed. At least that is what I was taught.

MVW67

jadelt:

MVW67:

MJD715:

I've never seen or used the beads before, but I saw my mom using these gel beads at my brothers wedding and it sounds like the same sorta idea. http://www.batteryoperatedcandles.net/10100-03-clear-p-floral-water-gel-beads.html

Oh yes, forgot about this my wife picked up some stuff to preserve flowers from a funeral, at a craft store, worked great and I was looking and it is silica also, thinking I should do a trail run.

I thought that stuff was just like the GEL that is sold in small jars...... it is a one way..... only gives off humidity doesnt take it up....... beads on the other hand are two way..... give humidity and take away when needed. At least that is what I was taught.

nope beads will post this evening. Beads i believe;)

blurr

Is is true that using walmart or petco silica, once trained to say 68, then it will always hold that? I'm under the assumption when they say "once trained" in reality it means once in your humi with cigars at a steady RH you like. If thats the case, well with a full humi each cigar is basically a humidity source, so all that together equals a pretty stable system with the littler pearls just slowly releasing enough moisture to manage upkeep. If this is true, then the litter Pearls aren't truly "holding" a certain RH setpoint they are just maintaining a steady humidor by releasing small amounts of moisture at a constant rate, controlled mainly by increasing or decreasing exposed silica surface area and/or misting with more distilled.

Or am I wrong on this, that once trained for a few weeks in say an empty 68rh environment, I can then put them in even any humidor and they will tend to stay "set" at 68rh? I'll give it a try if this is the case.

The other downsides I've heard are Litter Pearls tend to get musty moldy smells, and they tend to release a lot more Silica Dust (always good to be smoking). As cheap as it is, throwing it out every few months wouldn't bother me, but having to retrain more pearls would bother me. And worst of all you would have to check your humidors regularly because if they start smelling musty you better get them away from your expensive stash within a short time frame. This means it takes away the best part of beads, little maintenance! I can charge my beads in my conservagel humis and seriously pretty much forget about it for 2 months. Granted I check even my ager every few days but you get my point.

catfishbluezz

blurr:

Is is true that using walmart or petco silica, once trained to say 68, then it will always hold that? I'm under the assumption they say "once trained" means once in your humi with cigars at a RH you like. If thats the case, well with a full humi each cigar is basically a humidity source, so all that together equals a pretty stable system with the littler pearls just slowly releasing enough to manage upkeep. Or am I wrong on this, that once trained for a few weeks in say an empty 68rh environment, I can then put them in even any humidor and they will tend to stay "set" at 68rh? I'll give it a try if this is the case.
The other downsides I've heard are Litter Pearls tend to get musty moldy smells, and they tend to release a lot more Silica Dust (always good to be smoking). As cheap as it is, throwing it out every few months wouldn't bother me, but having to retrain more pearls would bother me. And worst of all you would have to check your humidors regularly because if they start smelling musty you better get them away from your expensive stash within a short time frame. This means it takes away the best part of beads, little maintenance! I can charge my beads in my conservagel humis and seriously pretty much forget about it for 2 months. Granted I check even my ager every few days but you get my point.

The guys I have heard use them swear by them for years. I have seen the musty weird brown thing happen with heartfelt too and gel. I believe once they are trained to an Rh, they keep that Rh. There is some crazy threads on CA and BOTL
http://www.botl.org/community/forums/archive/index.php/t-8580.html
http://forums.cigaraficionado.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7666095/m/496104573/p/1

Seems like the training for rh is more how much you use. More for less rh, less for more rh.

Poker_Slob

cheaphumidors.com has beads for a great price

MVW67

Jadelt, you were right they are a gel silica small like sand, but can reactivated so I am assuming they will go both ways. Will run some trials and let people know, 5lbs $10-15 if they work it would be great. Here is what it looks like

Smokindaddy

Cigarmony.com sells the beads you are looking for. I have bought two pounds from them and they work great

KingoftheCove

maybe time for me to post this again - something I posted in another forum back in Feb.
============
Disclaimer!
1) I'm not a KL preacher/basher or a Heartfelt preacher/basher. Just an older guy on a budget, with a growing cigar habit. I have purchased Beads and accessories from Heartfelt a few times.
2) I live in one of the world's friendliest climates with respect to cigar storage. Here in Santa Cruz, CA, the RH and temperature stay between 60 and 70 for probably 7 months a year, and does not stray far from that the other 5.

I bought these beads.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HWE6F0/ref=pe_175190_21431760_cs_sce_dp_1

I bought this cooler
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000G64I1A/ref=pe_175190_21431760_cs_sce_dp_p2

After much research, I decided to go for it doing the "on-the-fly" method, using the KL without any "training". I made five 1/4lb. KL trays, shallow, covered with pantyhose, and set in 5 full cigar boxes (which came from a RH stable environment) and multiple plastic trays with loose sticks (also from a stable environment) totaling about 250+ cigars...there's still quite a bit of room in the cooler.

Put it all in there (the KL being dry), and waited 12 hours, RH was at 58%.
Moderately misted one of the KL trays.
12 hours later, RH at 62%. Moderately misted a second tray.
12 hours later, RH at 65%. Did nothing.
12 hours later, RH at 68%. Did nothing.
It is now 36 hours later, RH still holding at 68%.
It's still very early in the game, but I'm a happy camper.
Very easy and cheap for me to set-up additional coolers now, which I'm sure I'll be doing sooner than later.
Your mileage may vary.
================
Well that was then, and it's now 9 months later, and all my humis and my cooler (now 430+ cigars), have been rock solid at 68, dipping to 67 or up to 69 on occasion, depending on temp.
My "smoking" humi runs at 65, as I have mainly 65rh Heartfelt beads in there.

One good trick when using KL is to get a flour sieve to shed all the smaller flakes/dust BEFORE putting it into your home-made containers. I don't care about losing 10% - 15% of the litter (as dust/small flakes) because I only paid $3.62/lb for it.

blurr

Sounds good king thanks for your experience. I am going to have to try some. It all boils down to it being the exact same material just shaped different, so I guess its worth a try.

Also the color changing/browning beads do is not a problem at all, it doesn't affect the performance and its pretty common. Happens for me at about the time they start picking up that wonderful cigar/cedar smell.

I've also ran into HCM beads online. Does anyone have any experience with these? Claims they don't turn brown (not that that is a problem) and the site has plenty of info on performance. Seems like the top of the line as far as beads, just expensive. I'm still going to try some litter pearls. Hitting wally world pretty soon I guess.
Cigarmony beads look pretty good quality they are just a tad pricey but you know you are getting a good product. Think they come in at $42 for 1lb of 65 or 70rh.

Roberto99

KingoftheCove:

maybe time for me to post this again - something I posted in another forum back in Feb.
============
Disclaimer!
1) I'm not a KL preacher/basher or a Heartfelt preacher/basher. Just an older guy on a budget, with a growing cigar habit. I have purchased Beads and accessories from Heartfelt a few times.
2) I live in one of the world's friendliest climates with respect to cigar storage. Here in Santa Cruz, CA, the RH and temperature stay between 60 and 70 for probably 7 months a year, and does not stray far from that the other 5.

I bought these beads.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HWE6F0/ref=pe_175190_21431760_cs_sce_dp_1

I bought this cooler
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000G64I1A/ref=pe_175190_21431760_cs_sce_dp_p2

After much research, I decided to go for it doing the "on-the-fly" method, using the KL without any "training". I made five 1/4lb. KL trays, shallow, covered with pantyhose, and set in 5 full cigar boxes (which came from a RH stable environment) and multiple plastic trays with loose sticks (also from a stable environment) totaling about 250+ cigars...there's still quite a bit of room in the cooler.

Put it all in there (the KL being dry), and waited 12 hours, RH was at 58%.
Moderately misted one of the KL trays.
12 hours later, RH at 62%. Moderately misted a second tray.
12 hours later, RH at 65%. Did nothing.
12 hours later, RH at 68%. Did nothing.
It is now 36 hours later, RH still holding at 68%.
It's still very early in the game, but I'm a happy camper.
Very easy and cheap for me to set-up additional coolers now, which I'm sure I'll be doing sooner than later.
Your mileage may vary.
================
Well that was then, and it's now 9 months later, and all my humis and my cooler (now 430+ cigars), have been rock solid at 68, dipping to 67 or up to 69 on occasion, depending on temp.
My "smoking" humi runs at 65, as I have mainly 65rh Heartfelt beads in there.

One good trick when using KL is to get a flour sieve to shed all the smaller flakes/dust BEFORE putting it into your home-made containers. I don't care about losing 10% - 15% of the litter (as dust/small flakes) because I only paid $3.62/lb for it.

I also went the KL way. Not because I wanted to do it on the cheap but because it was the most convenient way to get silica and after alot of looking around I decided for myself that silica sand and silica beads are made with the same ingredient...silica. I also went without 'training' the KL because I could not understand the science behind it. I have had a similar experience to you king, my humidors run stable humidity ~ 70% for the past year. Have not had any problems with smell or browning. Have not replaced any yet.

blurr

What brand do you use Roberto? Haven't checked in my local walmart recently, but last year when I last looked in pet supplies they only had the Mimi Litter brand. Not many people had any experience with it, but I know if its unscented and its silica its worth trying. Maybe they have a new brand when I stop tonight, since it did just convert to a Super Wally-world. Thats right my little podunk town is bigtime now!

allsmokedup

I've used the Mimi stuff since Feb of this year in my cooler. I've not had a single problem.

I didn't train anything, just put it in the cooler with a shot glass of water and cigars and then pulled the shotglass when it got to a RH of 68ish. It has stayed in the 68-70 range. The litter stays in a little cream cheese container and I have no dust problems since I don't move it about.

blurr

allsmokedup:

I've used the Mimi stuff since Feb of this year in my cooler. I've not had a single problem.

I didn't train anything, just put it in the cooler with a shot glass of water and cigars and then pulled the shotglass when it got to a RH of 68ish. It has stayed in the 68-70 range. The litter stays in a little cream cheese container and I have no dust problems since I don't move it about.

Well at least I know the Mimi works if thats all they have. Good that means I can get started building soon. I have a 300ct diablo and 100 ct. glasstop that need to merge with my tupperdor into a large fridge. AFter how great the tupperdor (64qt. rubbermaid) works, I figure why mess around with wooden humis. Its all going into one place soon.

Rain

jadelt:

blurr:

Brothers, has anyone purchased conservagel beads recently? Looking online to add a few pounds to build a new fridge, I see that conservagel is showing a not available on their beads page. In its place I see now they are trying to promote some gel. Super disappointed after how amazing my conservagel beads worked for ooh 4 years now I'm not going back to one way gels. The big net retailers push gels but they leave me very unsatisfied so anyone bought good beads recently. Besides heartfelt, that place is expensive I can a get silica gel cheaper for my cat if you know what I mean.

I am sold on the Heartfelt stuff...... I bought a pound, a couple of half pound bags and a couple of his tubes and I am good for a long long time.... and he has great service.

Looking to pick some up.