Long, round, firm, porous containers for kitty litter

[Ropey]

Being thinking of taking a giant leap into kitty litter.

For cigar humidification. Got some "Mimi" brand $4 for 4 lbs at Walmart.

However, I don't really care for the idea of using nylons to hold it in a big, somewhat-spherical blob. I use several smallish tupperdors, and something like that would fill the space poorly.

Therefore I'm thinking about using some aluminum tubos with holes punched in them. I'm just not sure if they would allow enough vapor transfer and I obviously don't want anything to mold.

Here's a pic, lemme know if you think something like this would work for some 40-count tupperdors:



If anyone has any other ideas for a good, cheap container like the above, I'm all ears.

[TreySC]

Don't know why it wouldn't work. I've seen other guys use single cigar coffins with holes drilled in them.

[Tobias Lutz]

I think that would work fine

[Sticky B]

Sounds to me like OP has a misunderstanding of how KL works.

If you just add water to HF beads and put them into the container, they won't just read whatever RH they were designed for either. That's not how you use this type of media.

A grasp of the concepts makes using these things a whole lot easier.

But first: what is your desired RH? Honestly, I would have kept the one that was at 62, and probably not added water to any of it. Perfect, works right out of the bag.

Seriously? No one is going to comment on the phrasing of the title of this thread? Am I the only one whose mind is in the gutter?

Nope. Not the only one- why do you think any of us actually clicked on this thread?

As (mostly) men, we've already (mostly) all learned to pretend like we're not looking at something once we're caught, or in this case, when it's not there.

[cheaphumidors]

Nope. Not the only one- why do you think any of us actually clicked on this thread?

As (mostly) men, we've already (mostly) all learned to pretend like we're not looking at something once we're caught, or in this case, when it's not there.

Whew! I thought maybe I had been hanging around cigar forums too long

[gordo1473]

Only one way to find out

[Ropey]

Woops I've already experienced the downside of kitty litter: the fact that its performance depends almost entirely on the amount of water that's in it. I thought I read that it had a "set-point" of 68 RH. Guess not.

I made two of the above tubos and put some KL in one. Poured some distilled water in, shook it a little, capped it, and stuck it in a plastic bag with a hygrometer. After about 10 minutes it was rock-solid at 68. I thought "Great!"

Then I took some more KL, put it in the other tubo, wet it, shook it and stuck it in an identical plastic bag. Guess I used slightly less water this time, because the hygrometer went down to 62! I pulled out the tubo and added a little bit more water, put it back in the bag. Currently the hygrometer reads 74 and rising!

Not sure I'm gonna stick with the KL. Already seems like more work and uncertainty than I want to deal with. I don't want to have to measure water and so forth to find just the right balance.

Guess the Heartfelt beads are "pre-trained" for a specific RH... maybe I'll think about those.

[Upstatemax]

Woops I've already experienced the downside of kitty litter: the fact that its performance depends almost entirely on the amount of water that's in it. I thought I read that it had a "set-point" of 68 RH. Guess not.

I made two of the above tubos and put some KL in one. Poured some distilled water in, shook it a little, capped it, and stuck it in a plastic bag with a hygrometer. After about 10 minutes it was rock-solid at 68. I thought "Great!"

Then I took some more KL, put it in the other tubo, wet it, shook it and stuck it in an identical plastic bag. Guess I used slightly less water this time, because the hygrometer went down to 62! I pulled out the tubo and added a little bit more water, put it back in the bag. Currently the hygrometer reads 74 and rising!

Not sure I'm gonna stick with the KL. Already seems like more work and uncertainty than I want to deal with. I don't want to have to measure water and so forth to find just the right balance.

Guess the Heartfelt beads are "pre-trained" for a specific RH... maybe I'll think about those.

It sounds like you barely gave it a chance to work...

Pretty much all of these systems need at least a few days to level off. Especially if you add water directly to the litter. It's immediate reaction seems to be to push moisture out. That's why a lot of people place a water source near it and let it absorb water vapor, to avoid humidity spikes and damaging the crystals.

[OnePyroTec]

A little history on Kitty Liter. The first people who figured out it works and started pushing the concept were laughed at severely from guys & gals who "knew" these guys were crackpots. Over time, peoples minds were changed one person with an open mind at a time until no one (or not many) is laughing at using Kitty Littler any longer. I had the pleasure of having dinner with one of the innovators of using Kitty Litter just over a decade ago. I asked him point blank "how does it work?" He said it is the simplest thing you could ever think of. He told me to "train" Kitty Litter, you simply put it in an ice chest with a Cigar Oasis that is set to what ever % you want to have...be it 65% or 70% or anything else...and close the lid for a couple weeks. When that fan quits coming on you know you are at your desired humidity level and you are good to go.

[Ropey]

He said it is the simplest thing you could ever think of. He told me to "train" Kitty Litter, you simply put it in an ice chest with a Cigar Oasis that is set to what ever % you want to have...be it 65% or 70% or anything else...and close the lid for a couple weeks. When that fan quits coming on you know you are at your desired humidity level and you are good to go.

That's not the simplest thing I could ever think of.

Especially since I have neither an ice chest nor a Cigar Oasis. And I don't particularly want to screw around with a cigar humidification system.

Bovedas -- which I've been using -- are 0% maintenance. My only problem is that they are "slow to respond" to temperature-change-induced RH swings.

I'm not the type of guy who laughs at a new idea or laughs at the concept of using KL for humidification. I've read old threads where people got into huge arguments about KL vs non-KL. I really don't care either way. I just want something that's as little maintenance as I can have; I have enough to occupy my mind.

If HF beads lock on to a certain RH and don't let go, then I'll be happy to throw those in my DIY containers.

(FYI, my DIY containers seem to work well with vapor transmission. There are 16 columns of pushpin-punched holes in each tubo. Punching the holes was extremely easy, though a bit time-consuming. I just eyeballed it. I used La Gloria Cubana 'Gloria en Cedro' tubos for the project.)