Boveda Humidipak

[OttawaGreen]

Oh and dont worry the jars that are very high are open right now with no lids. Not going to risk mold, was just wondering what my target is before vacation and I guess it is 65%. I want the slowest dry and cure Incan get while still minimizing risk while away.
Thanks!

 

[CareStaker]

That's what I figured guys thanks. So I better get them down to 65% max before I leave in 6 days.
Drying them in paper bags for a day first then and see. Don't want then crunchy on the outside.

That sounds right given how low RH is in our locale. For drying....Good rule of thumb is...

Drying will take as many days as your average RH divided by 10, plus one.

50% humidity, is 5+1, so six days. A stringy haze might dry faster than a dense afghan, so it's just a guide.

When RH is low, drying in bags and boxes will help keep RH up, in order to keep them from drying down too fast.

 

[Radogast]

Oh and dont worry the jars that are very high are open right now with no lids. Not going to risk mold, was just wondering what my target is before vacation and I guess it is 65%. I want the slowest dry and cure Incan get while still minimizing risk while away.
Thanks!

Persons I would risk over drying and cure the moisture back in with Boveda rather than risk moldy from too much moisture.

 

[Radogast]

hey folks...when your bovida's dry up and get stiff, simply fill a bowl with water...flip a smaller bowl upside down in the water, and place pak on upturned bowl, above the water...put a lid on this and in 2 days the pak will be re-hydrated...hth


mojo

I just place my Boveda packs in a glass of water overnight.
The paper wrappers have come out fine the three times I have done this.

 

[Hiker]

Am I the only one that still uses a stem to determine when to jar the buds?
I put them in the jar just before the stems 'snap'.
The time depends on the conditions, ie winter is faster as the rh is lower.

 

[OttawaGreen]

For 15 years i always used the snap stems method and over dried the shit out of it. By the time my stems snap (usually around 4 days here)the bud is so dry it is crunchy and it will break apart with handling. At that point there is no curing, that is speed drying. Many here tell me the taste is improved with a slow dry and cure so that is why I stopped using the stem snap test

 

[OttawaGreen]

Boveda question for you guys:
I noticed you guys are talking about how to recharge them when they get hard and dry inside. So that means that in order for the thing to be able to reduce moisture it would appear that it would have to loose humidity first? The packs that I just got from the manufacture seam to be completely liquid inside by handling them.
So those of you with more experience with these packs than me, do you think that they will be able to absorb more moisture if I leave the brand-new packs I was on the counter at 40% humidity for a day? It seems to me that your anecdotal evidence points to these things needing to be less liquidy in order to take liquid back. What do you think? Or to say it another way which would reduce my humidity of my buds in the jar the most, a brand-new pack, or a pack that was left out on the counter until it was partly hard?

Oh and I just tried to call boveda at 5:30 Eastern time and those lazy bastards had already gone home even though they're in central time.... Maybe they are testing the 62 sometime just after 4:15 ;-)

 

[Radogast]

Boveda question for you guys:
I noticed you guys are talking about how to recharge them when they get hard and dry inside. So that means that in order for the thing to be able to reduce moisture it would appear that it would have to loose humidity first? The packs that I just got from the manufacture seam to be completely liquid inside by handling them.
So those of you with more experience with these packs than me, do you think that they will be able to absorb more moisture if I leave the brand-new packs I was on the counter at 40% humidity for a day? It seems to me that your anecdotal evidence points to these things needing to be less liquidy in order to take liquid back. What do you think? Or to say it another way which would reduce my humidity of my buds in the jar the most, a brand-new pack, or a pack that was left out on the counter until it was partly hard?

Oh and I just tried to call boveda at 5:30 Eastern time and those lazy bastards had already gone home even though they're in central time.... Maybe they are testing the 62 sometime just after 4:15 ;-)

When the packs are left in an open jar or sitting out for several days, they try to moisturize the whole house.
In most climates they dry out. In Georgia they might turn to full liquid.
I imagine lettting then sit out for a day or two would be good to shed some moisture.

You might try calling Boveda again tomorrow for the real 411 on 420.

 

[Graytail]

They'll absorb a little more moisture than they come with. I popped one into a jar of freshly drying buds and it swelled up noticeably - I'd say 20% puffier?

But it'd be great if you could dry 'em out a little first.

 

[OttawaGreen]

Ok that's what I thought. Some of my pacs are laying out in 38% humidity right now. Going to contact boveda to confirm though.

 

[OttawaGreen]

I just emailed them this:

Good morning,
Can you please pass this on to your tech people and I will share the info on the forum 420magazine.com.
Many of us are using your 62 packs to cure and store our cannabis. We love the packs but would like to optimize their use.

When using these to cure the cannabis is still sweating moisture from the stems so we put it in a half gallon jar with a 57g large pack and it has no problem at all keeping humidity up, but the brand new liquid filled packs do not seem very good at bringing humidity down.
So the questions are: Is it a good idea to leave the new packs out of the container for a few days to allow them to lose some moisture first? Would a pack that was left out at 40% RH for a few days be able to bring down the RH a jar of cannabis better than a brand new pack? If I want to maximize the ability of the pack to bring humidity down to allow a slow dry and cure should I leave them out until the begin to solidify? Would that pull more moisture than a new one?

Thanks for the info, I will cut and paste it to share it with lots more people on our forums.

 

[OttawaGreen]

Here is the answer I just received from boveda.

Each of our formulas is designed to keep the environment it is being stored in at the relative humidity level it is designed for and each has a certain capability to add or release a certain amount of moisture as necessary before it starts to lose its ability to control the moisture level inside of the container as it was designed to do. When our chemist is working on a new formula he is constantly making trade offs in order to come up with something that we can produce that will help sustain the product it is designed to be stored with, namely:

-Will the formula have more ability to release moisture or absorb moisture?
-Will it have the ability to maintain a specific level (and sacrifice product life to do that) or is it OK to have it move throughout a range in order to have a longer life?

The 62 RH formula was designed with a limited capability to absorb moisture. It is common for people who regularly use our product to dry their herbs just slightly on the overdone side and then introduce our product to reintroduce that moisture that was lost during the curing process. If the product is too wet it is likely that the Boveda will be able to absorb some of the excess moisture but it is very difficult to tell if it will get all of it.

To answer your question, if you allowed the 62 RH formulation to dry out for a few days and then introduced it to a product that was excessively wet, it would work to pull the moisture out of that product. The problem with this method is there is a tremendous amount of unknowns. For example, a typical large Boveda starts out its life weighing ~67 grams. If you drove out 20 grams of weight by leaving it out in a dry environment and then introduced it to a jar of cannabis that was a little too wet, it may be able to absorb enough moisture to make the cannabis hit the sweet spot you are looking for, it may not have had enough capacity to grab all of the extra moisture from the cannabis, it may have grabbed some of the moisture from the atmosphere in and around the jar. Our new 54 RH formula was designed with more capacity to absorb moisture than to release moisture so that would be the preferable choice to store with something that was a little too wet.

I hope this helps please let me know if there are any other questions I can answer about our products (or if you want to get into the heavy details on specific capacities to absorb or release moisture I can put you in touch with our chemist).

Thank you,

Regards,

Matt Osmundson
Office Manager
Boveda Inc.

 

[Hiker]

So the questions are: Is it a good idea to leave the new packs out of the container for a few days to allow them to lose some moisture first? Would a pack that was left out at 40% RH for a few days be able to bring down the RH a jar of cannabis better than a brand new pack? If I want to maximize the ability of the pack to bring humidity down to allow a slow dry and cure should I leave them out until the begin to solidify? Would that pull more moisture than a new one?

Thanks for the info, I will cut and paste it to share it with lots more people on our forums.

I think their answer provides some valuable insight into their products' intended purposes. It seems like they didn't really give a direct answer though to your questions though did they? Maybe I can help.

I am going to rephrase what you're asking...
If one leaves a Boveda 62 "out" (lets assume RH is < 62), would it then be better at absorbing excess water?
I would think all you do is reduce the amount of water it can release. While it was "out", it would just be trying to bring the space up to 62, right? I doubt it absorbed anything.

I've always assumed these things were some sort of Xylite(sp) that does the 'absorbing' function and there was something else, like maybe that gel stuff used in flower vases and ona gel, that did the function of putting water back into the environment. Of course I don't know how they work, so perhaps that model isn't a good basis to theorize against.

Has anyone cut one open? Did you take pictures?

I bought a case of the large 62's well over a year ago. I only have one that is starting to get a little stiff. I've been unwilling to sacrifice one since they are all still doing their job afaict. I was reluctant at the time due to concerns about their value. I thought they might wear out quickly, but they have proven to be an outstanding value and I recommend them to everyone.

 

[OttawaGreen]

So take one of your stiff worn out ones and put it in a jar of wet ass bud and let's see

 

[Graytail]

So take one of your stiff worn out ones and put it in a jar of wet ass bud and let's see

I've done that, and they plump back up.

 

[MassMedMan]

I got mine today. Going to dry my bud normal and then use them for long term freshness. Who am I kidding.. long term..lol.

Anyway, got mine

 

[OttawaGreen]

I've done that, and they plump back up.

Great thanks for the info. That means I can leave them out until they start
To get hard then put bud in the jars and not worry about mild even if it is 75% going in.

 

[Graytail]

Well ... I wouldn't let them get hard. When they get that dry, they often leave pieces unmoistened when you restore them - you can feel the chunks through the paper, floating in the gel.

Let 'em get skinny, but don't let 'em get hard.

Bovedas are best at keeping humidity stable, and acting as a gauge. If they get plumper, humidity is too high - if they get skinny, it's too low. Using one quart jars and the smaller Bovedas, if one goes dry, a fresh replacement usually doesn't dry out right away, so that gives you a rough idea of capacity. They each contain enough to re-moisten a one quart jar of bud (in my experience).

 

[Radogast]

Well ... I wouldn't let them get hard. When they get that dry, they often leave pieces unmoistened when you restore them - you can feel the chunks through the paper, floating in the gel.

Let 'em get skinny, but don't let 'em get hard.

Bovedas are best at keeping humidity stable, and acting as a gauge. If they get plumper, humidity is too high - if they get skinny, it's too low. Using one quart jars and the smaller Bovedas, if one goes dry, a fresh replacement usually doesn't dry out right away, so that gives you a rough idea of capacity. They each contain enough to re-moisten a one quart jar of bud (in my experience).

With the hard packs, I have felt those chunks in the gel after sitting overnight in a water glass.
The second night, the lumps are gone.
To be clear, the whole pack is soaking in water.

After fully hydrated, I leave them out on the counter 3-4 days to allow a little drying and give them a buffer to absorb moisture.
Most of the work they do for me is adding moisture, thus the drying out in the first place.

 

[Hiker]

This is what I love about
I get to benefit from others' experiences

Thanks Graytail

Most of the work they do for me is adding moisture, thus the drying out in the first place.

Based on the reply from Boveda above, this sounds like the exact purpose they are "formulated" for.

Thanks for your experience too Radogast. I may try to 'recharge' my one pack that is starting to stiffen finally.

FYI, for anyone trying to learn from my experiences with Boveda packs, I use the large packs in 1 gallon glass jars. The jars are ~2/3 full, which is ~2-3 ounces of bud.