noobish Boveda question.......

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KingoftheCove
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

10 years ago

I won a few of these packets (65rh) which are supposed to keep 50 cigars humidified.
I have no experience with them.
They arrived today, and they basically feel like water ballons.
Full of squishly liquid.
So, what if these packets were asked to lower the RH to 65, in a 100ct humi sitting at 69rh?
I'm wondering how they'll be able to take in additional moisture, as they feel really "full" to me.

If they were asked to raise the RH from 61 to 65?....heck....no problem there.

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zerohourhero
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

KingoftheCove wrote:

Boveda Packets both take in and expel humidity. They feel like waterballoons now but as they expire they will crystalize and harden letting you know it's time to replace them.

I've found they work better than many of the other options (Humidification pucks, crystal jars etc) because of their two way nature.

They're what I've been using in my humidor for a long time.

You can get them in varying levels depending what you prefer to keep your humidity at, and they also make a seasoning variant.

So for your questions for a 100 Ct Humidor, you'd want two 65s.

Remove all other humidification. Set those in there, let it sit for a day or two and it should level out.

Edited by user 10 years ago | Reason: Not specified

Thunder.Gerbil
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

Boveda Packets both take in and expel humidity. They feel like waterballoons now but as they expire they will crystalize and harden letting you know it's time to replace them.

zerohourhero wrote:

No need to throw them out, they can be recharged quite easily. Just put them in a sealed tupperware container with a small bowl of water or a moistened sponge and they will absorb moisture and rehydrate. If you have a small scale, the small packs should be 8g after rehydration, the large ones 60g. If you are over that number, it's not a big deal, just leave them out on the counter until they drop down to that range, once they have done that, the salt concentration will be correct and they will start maintaining the advertised humidity again. I have yet to find a lifespan on them as I have some packs that I got back in 2006 or 2008 (around there - might have even been 2004 - I don't even remember anymore) that are still working fine after being recharged a number of times.

Edited by user 10 years ago | Reason: Not specified

frankj1
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

but the King seems to be asking how could fully loaded Bovedas absorb even more humidity when asked to lower RH from 69 to 65.

zerohourhero
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

Thunder.Gerbil wrote:

I did not know that. Thank you for that bit of information.

Thunder.Gerbil
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

but the King seems to be asking how could fully loaded Bovedas absorb even more humidity when asked to lower RH from 69 to 65.

frankj1 wrote:

If the packs are under their spec weights (8g and 60g respectively) they will absorb excess humidity above the rated value of the pack, accounting for variances. IIRC, it's +/- 2% for the regular packs, +/- 0.5% for the calibration pack - although the calibration packs are never filled to 8q, or at least I've never seen one that full, maybe that has something to do with it.

If they are past their rated weights, then chances are they won't absorb much, as the concentration of the salt solution inside them has been diluted and will be more interested in "getting rid of excess water" than absorbing it.

Thunder.Gerbil
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

I did not know that. Thank you for that bit of information.

zerohourhero wrote:

Welcome. Even if the pack turns into a cracker, it will still absorb moisture, it just takes time. Some people have reported success with dunking them in water for a day, when I tried this, the outer print layer around the pack peeled off. I'll stick to what I know works which is the let it absorb it on it's own method. I'm not in any rush...

Whistlebritches
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

I did not know that. Thank you for that bit of information.

zerohourhero wrote:

Same here Pal.........I got some that came out of AF boxes 10+ years ago.I keep a dozen or so in a lock n lock container with a shot glass of water.I use them when I travel.I have forgotten these in my travel humi,pulled them out dry as a bone......toss in the lock n lock.Next time you visit the bowl the boveda pack should be full.I've never weighed mine.......just grab and travel.

Edited by user 10 years ago | Reason: Not specified

KingoftheCove
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

10 years ago

Thunder.Gerbil wrote:

Thanks for the info TG.
These packs are weighing about 62.3gm to 62.5gm each.
Should I simply use them when they get to 60gm?
Or maybe let them drop to 56/57gm?
(I need to lower the rh in 2 of my wood humis by a few points)

danmdevries
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#10

I run Bovedas and HF beads in my big humidors.

They can take on a lot of water even fresh out the pack.

Seriously, they'll swell to the point you'd expect em to burst.

I've not added any water for over a year now to any of them. New boxes of American market cigars recharge the media well. But, I have a pound of beads and a dozen bovedas in each, so there's significant buffer zone.

cacman
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#11

From my understanding Broveda packs come approx 80% of full capacity, allowing "room" to absorb excess moisture. TG has nailed the weights for those that have an accurate scale, and offered other great info. But beware they will burst if exposed to too much moisture when recharging. Makes a heck of a mess and is difficult to clean up. Slow recharge is best. I do not recommend dipping them in water like a water pillow. At my altitude and ambient temp & humidity, sealed in ziplock bags with shots of water can take a couple weeks to recharge. Found that the higher the temp, the faster the recharge.

IME, based on a Robusto average, the small packs are suitable for approx 25-35 cigars or 1 box. The larger packs suit 75 to 100 cigars at the most. However with the larger vitolas and ring gauges the smaller the amount of cigars the packs will suit.

KOTC - IMHO if your packs are overweight simply "dry box" them for a couple hours if you feel the need like TG offered. However I've not experienced any problems with a spike in the rH when dropping them in the humi a little heavy. If you really need to drop the rH, drop in a drier pack that's seeking moisture and not fully recharged. As TG also said it will still absorb moisture. And if you're keeping multiple wood humidors I'd also suggest moving to a cooedor. It's a lot easier to keep the proper environment is one large space as opposed to multiple smaller spaces.

tamapatom
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#12

I have a humidor in a low humidity location and the bovedas dry out and get hard. I have another humidor in a high humidity location. After using bovedas in the low rh location until they become crispy critters, I move them to the high rh humi to draw out excess moisture. When they become full balloons, its time to rotate them back to the one that needs higher rh. So if you need bovedas to always reduce rh and never raise it, you need an alternate way to dry out packs or trade bovedas with someone that has boveda in low rh environment.

Thunder.Gerbil
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#13

KingoftheCove wrote:

You'll be fine. There is a range that the packs can be charged past the sale weight numbers (8g and 60g respectively) and still function normally. Looking at my notes from some tests I did on another forum, it looks like a bone dry small pack weighs about 3.3g for the salt and packaging, which means when a sale weight it's about 4.7g water. I found that 8g packs still maintained advertised humidity up to about 9.4-9.5g total weight. Which equates to about 30% charge past the sale weight.

I didn't test with large packs, but assuming the concentrations scale linearly, a 60g pack would have about 25g salt and packaging, 35g water. 30% over would be an additional 10.5g of water, so total weight of about 70-71g.

In short, you're fine. Just put the packs in the humi.

Edited by user 10 years ago | Reason: Not specified

KingoftheCove
Herf-A-Holic Topic Starter

10 years ago

#14

Thunder.Gerbil wrote:

=d>
A most excellent and informative answer.
Thanks!

dstieger
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#15

I've tried a variety of 're-charge' set-ups and what works best for me is:

Zip-Loc screw-top container (believe it is the 4-cup size) and a shot glass.

Put shot glass in center of the plastic container, fill shot glass about 3/4 full of distilled water and then put about same level of distilled water in container (on the outside of the shot glass.) Stack Boveda and Humi packs on top of the shot glass -- ziploc is narrow enough to stack packs without worrying about them falling into the water. Shot glass allows increased water surface area for evaporation. Rotate packs weekly to avoid Cacman's mess. Only takes 2 or 3 weeks to recharge a stack of 5 or 6 packs.

Whistlebritches
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#16

dstieger wrote:

My setup is almost exact except for the distilled water.I use regular tap water in my shot glass.As water evaporates contaminants will stay in the shot glass and not clog up your Boveda pack.Every 3 or 4 refills I just wash my glass good to remove all the build up.I store my bowl on a shelf in my humidor..........easy access.

Thunder.Gerbil
Herf-A-Holic

10 years ago

#17

Whistlebritches wrote:

Unless the contaminant is liquid and has a lower boiling point than that of water, in which case it will evaporate out first into the packs, leaving it up to the membrane if it penetrates or not.