Humidity Bead System® vs Boveda®
We decided to outline some of the pros and cons of using either the Humidity Bead System® or Boveda® when it comes to keeping your pot fresh. In the search for finding the ultimate pot humidifier, these two methods, thus far, have proven to be the most beneficial for keeping pot fresh.
The chart above shows a comparison of two large 62% Boveda® packs and one small Humidity Bead System®, which required one tablespoon of water. Each were placed inside of a small Cannador® for two months and were both opened once every five days to read the relative humidity using a digital hygrometer. The room temperature averaged 56°F and 32% RH during the course of two months.
Humidity Bead System®
Pros:
- Rechargeable: The beads can be reused over and over by simply adding distilled water once every 3-4 weeks, depending upon how dry the environment is. This feature is great because there’s no waste.
- Revival: When it comes to reviving dried out pot, the Humidity Bead System® does a great job at rehydrating the trichomes to make the buds fluffy, and it only takes 24 hours to notice a difference. It’s also because of the fluctuation in RH. When you first hydrate the bead system, the RH tends to start out little higher until it begins leveling off.
- Large Sized Containers: This system is better for larger sized containers because of the surface area of the beads. It takes more time for the beads to dry out when more beads are saturated, so you can scale up or scale down in terms of humidity.
Cons:
- Room for User Error: The Humidity Bead System® works extremely well once you’ve mastered the ratio of water that keeps your container at the right RH, but there is room for error if you over or under hydrate. Because it’s a sustainable product, it takes some practice getting used to.
- Effort: Monitoring the RH does take effort when using this system. Once the beads begin to turn white, it’s time to rehydrate, and for some, this is simply too much work.
Boveda®
Pros:
- Simplicity: This is definitely a product where you can ‘set it and forget it.’ These packs don’t need much attention and can last up to 6 months depending upon how much exposure to air they receive.
- Flexibility: The gelatinous nature of these packs allows them to fold and bend, so you can adapt them to whatever sized container you have.
- Accuracy: The fluctuation is minimal (1-2%), but overall, this is negligible when it comes to storage. It’s more important to focus on ranges (i.e. 50-60%) when it comes to humidifying pot.
Cons:
- Lifespan: These packs do not fare well in arid environments, so unless they’re kept in an airtight container, they will dry out very quickly. This can be costly over the long run.
- Power: The overall power of these packs is limited to the size of the container as evinced by the small test we ran with two large packs versus one small Humidity Bead System®. This isn’t very meaningful if you’re only storing small amounts, but if you want to store more than an ounce, you might want to think about a system with a little more strength.