Question about floral wet foam

[jgbutler]

I've got foam credos in my coolers and using kitty litter as a back up humidity control in my coolers. I bought the foam for those directly from the local florist here in town a long time back. I swap the foam out with new every couple of years and start my credos over fresh.

Due to my total lack of control here lately, I'm having to set up yet another 120 qt Igloo coolerdor. We stopped at Hobby Lobby the other day and I picked up a couple packages of their floral wet foam to make some additional credos out of.

Now my question.....It says on the paper that it contains floral preservatives. What the hell are floral preservatives and will they do anything to my cigars?

When I've picked it up from the local florist, they just always went in the back and brought me out a slab of it (no packaging). I'm not sure if theirs contained these preservatives as well as not. Just wanting to make sure of any possible problems before I create some.

[Smoker06]

I bought and used Hobby Lobby foam many years ago in homemade "credos" (plastic container, slab of foam, nylon stocking , PG and distilled water) in my coolers. Whether the foam contained floral preservative, I don't know. But I had no ill efects and I used them for a couple years before switching to bead.

[jgbutler]

That's what I was hoping to hear Frank!

I didn't really think it would amount to enough of anything to cause problems but thought I'd better check with the crew and see if anyone had an opinion. I was hoping someone would chime in that had been using the Hobby Lobby foam with everything being fine.

I've never bought any of the regular beads and had some trouble getting the kitty litter to stay pretty rock steady, so I've continued to use the foam credos and kept the kitty litter in there to help control humidity a bit. I've been tempted to buy some Heartfelt beads but just haven't pulled the trigger yet. It would cost me a small fortune for enough beads to outfit all of my coolers.

[mealstrom]

I've also used floral foam I picked up from a florist. It's really cheap and easy to cut into the right shape for replacement foam. As far as contaminants I haven't noticed anything. There were a few times that my foam started molding, but I always assumed it was because I was refilling it with tap water. I stopped using it when I discovered beads and gel.

[Eurytos]

the last cooler I setup I was looking for beads and came across these...

http://www.bargainhumidors.com/bh/Pr...CC-CONSERVAGEL


unfortunately they were out when I needed them so I can't vouch for how well they work but I am going to try them for my next cooler since they are about half the price of heartfelt's.

[mealstrom]

Wow, that is a really good price for beads.

[Smoker06]

Originally Posted by Eurytos

the last cooler I setup I was looking for beads and came across these...

http://www.bargainhumidors.com/bh/Pr...CC-CONSERVAGEL


unfortunately they were out when I needed them so I can't vouch for how well they work but I am going to try them for my next cooler since they are about half the price of heartfelt's.

Conservagel is the original beads. They've been around longer than Heartfelt beads. They work great.

But, I didn't know they were so cheap. They used to be priced about the same as Viper's stuff. I wonder what happened?

[Mad Dawg]

Originally Posted by Smoker06

Conservagel is the original beads. They've been around longer than Heartfelt beads. They work great.

But, I didn't know they were so cheap. They used to be priced about the same as Viper's stuff. I wonder what happened?

That's a huge drop in price, for sure. Still, after reading xrundog's thread about kitty litter beads, that's the way I went when I restacked my coolers after building my closet-a-dor. As recommended in the thread, I added water to the litter beads in small increments, until I got the RH I wanted. Since I hit that point, the coolers are holding rock-steady RH.

An 8-pound bag of litter beads cost me about $25, including shipping. That's pretty much a lifetime supply, and I can use the dry beads as a dessicant in my ammo boxes for long-term storage of my stockpile.