Has anyone experienced this before? I just noticed tiny spots of what appears to be mold. I thought they were mold resistant.

And I'm referring to the HF beads. ?!?

Mold-resistent does not mean mold-proof. BTW, have you used ONLY distilled water from day one? If not, it may not be mold, it may be mineral deposits.

Yes, I have. They're tiny dark spots mostly on the beads that sit at the bottom.

Could be water pooling down there and giving the mold spores something to home in on. You may be adding too much water.

Toss the ones that have the mold, rinse the rest in distilled water, clean the receptacle and you should be good to go. Shake/stir the receptacles occasionally to avoid future similar problems. I usually do that when I recharge the beads with distilled water.

If you're touching them or if anyone else has that's the source. I use floral beads for mass humidity and HF to regulate. My daughter ran her fingers through them and voila mold spots.

Run them in the oven at 150° for an hour or two. It's how you fix em when they have been over humidified should be enough to kill the mold.

Thanks guys. I'll try that.

Simply too wet.

Dry em out, and lightly recharge. Should only be half clear beads, half white beads.

I overcharge mine, but also keep a bunch of Boveda packs in there with em. The Bovedas recharge on the HF overcharge and all is well.

I had a similar situation once. Beads tightly packed in a nylon sleeve at the bottom, and against the wall of my desktop. My method of overcharging combined with the limited airflow led to some mold spots on the sleeve. Now I keep the sleeve elevated off the floor of the humidor with a 3"x2"x3/4" block of Spanish cedar in the middle of the bottom of my desktop humidor, with the two dividers on either side. Allows for mire airflow around the media, and haven't had the issue since.

Thanks. It only happened to the ones in a desktop I seldom use. The lack of airflow must've contributed to it.

Wow. Never heard that before.
An hour or 2 is a large span of time. What do you look for when doing it? Is there a key indicator or color change of when it's time to remove them.

Never had a problem with HF, but with the cheaper CI gel beads.

Thundergerbil is the expert here and honestly I'm going off of memory from his post. It was at least 4 years back, but I'm pretty good with useless info.

I had it happen to mine once, just ran hot water over them in a colander and let them air dry...worked fine...they are extremely resilient.

I don't know what it will do to functionality of the beads, but 30 minutes at 150 deg. F will kill most environmental molds; it would help to rinse them off first.

BADASSS DOG MAN.......

Are you sure it's mold? Cigar mold is usually bluish-white and looks "hairy". Other forms of mold might look like you describe. See instructions for treating the beads and humidor, below.

Could it instead be tiny flakes of tobacco from years of storing cigars in there? If so, no sweat. Rinse them off and allow to partially dry, they'll be fine.

Or could you be seeing eggs or fecal matter from (dreaded even more than mold) tobacco beetles? Or even tobacco "dust" from a beetle infestation? If beetles or larvae are involved, inspect every cigar in that humidor immediately, then bag 'em in a ziplock freezer bag, remove as much air as possible, and freeze them (zero degrees Fahrenheit or colder) overnight to kill the critters. Let them return to room temperature gradually while still sealed in the bag; transferring to a refrigerator as an intermediate stage might not be a bad idea.

While the cigars are going through the freezer treatment, rinse the beads and perhaps pop them in a low (150 degrees F sounds about right) oven long enough to kill any mold or beetle eggs, vacuum out every last trace of black specks in the humidor, maybe even gently wipe the interior (especially the corners, poke cloth in with a toothpick) with vodka; the alcohol should provide a degree of disinfection. You may need to re-season the humidor after the vodka evaporates, and of course you'll have to rehydrate the beads after they cool. Or if it's a relatively inexpensive humidor, either toss it out or give it to the kids (after cleaning) as a pretty box for storing small non-edible items such as crayons or Green Army Men.

What you are seeing in the jar is a collection of impurities around the crystals They are harmless. You can simply scoop out the dark colored crystals.

^ without seeing them you can't say that.

I've seen it first hand it is possible that it is or is not mold as you say. If they are HF your recommendation of scooping them out is ok, but I'd still make sure and bake them to kill any possible spores.

One of the reasons I am sure it was mold is because the mesh they were in had dark spots as well. So I took the beads and did 150 deg for 30 minutes and there are still a few with the dark color. I'll try it one more time and see what happens.
Thanks for all the input.

You may still see the dark color after baking them; you're killing the mold but not physically cleaning the beads, so there may be some "dead mold residue" left afterwards.

That's why I suggested rinsing the beads off with hot water in a colander as a first step. It cleans them off AND they dry off pretty quickly.