Humidifiers

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


Sep 5th, '11, 19:07
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Humidifiers

by fdrx » Sep 5th, '11, 19:07

I need to buy a humidifer for a small/medium room because humidity is too low where i live for my puer cakes (30-40%)

Do you have any brand/model recommandation?
what about this one http://bit.ly/7QCdAa ?

thank you for your help
Last edited by fdrx on Oct 28th, '11, 18:20, edited 11 times in total.

Sep 5th, '11, 20:38
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Re: Humidifiers

by bryan_drinks_tea » Sep 5th, '11, 20:38

i'm gonna go out on a limb and risk being chastised - but there is nothing wrong with dry stored pu-erh, unless you simply don't like the flavor that aged- dry stored versions give.

Sep 5th, '11, 21:04
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Re: Humidifiers

by fdrx » Sep 5th, '11, 21:04

you're right there's nothing wrong with dry stored puer and i must say that the few wet stored samples i tried tasted horrible to me (but i'm shure it's not always the case!)... but i need to increase the humidity a little (55-65% would be ok i think... and still dry...) in order the tea not to dry out too much and age well. i have a nice collection now and i want to take care of my bings!
Last edited by fdrx on Sep 10th, '11, 11:04, edited 1 time in total.

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Sep 5th, '11, 21:55
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Re: Humidifiers

by Catfur » Sep 5th, '11, 21:55

bryan_drinks_tea wrote:i'm gonna go out on a limb and risk being chastised - but there is nothing wrong with dry stored pu-erh, unless you simply don't like the flavor that aged- dry stored versions give.
There is nothing wrong with dry stored Pu-erh, but 30-40% isn't dry stored. Average humidity in Kunming (which is dry, dry, dry storage) is 70% (varies seasonally). Average humidity in Hong Kong (classic wet stored pu) is about 85% (also varies seasonally), temps in HK are much higher, of course, and HK vendors are known to store tea cakes in basements (with even higher humidity), but still, 30-40% is awful storage for Pu (I have a 10 yr old Xiaguan tuo that's been sitting on a shelf in Lubbock, TX for that whole time, it's pretty dead stuff).

Sep 5th, '11, 22:09
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Re: Humidifiers

by fdrx » Sep 5th, '11, 22:09

yes those days it's very dry... but i must say that a part of the year it's about 45% wich is still too dry...

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Sep 6th, '11, 09:16
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Re: Humidifiers

by gasninja » Sep 6th, '11, 09:16

I am not personally a fan of dry storage. I am worried about my humidity being to dry at seventy five percent. I also realize I am sort of playing with fire if I try to get it to much higher. I think you would want 65 % if you wanted to see your cakes age at all. Given kunmings RH is around 70 and I think their cakes are pretty much in cryostasis. Remember even the famous dry storage cakes such as the 88 ching bing still came from hong kong.

Oct 28th, '11, 22:53
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Re: Humidifiers

by fdrx » Oct 28th, '11, 22:53

I received an ultrasonic humidifier last week. Now the humidity of the room where my puerh jars are is always between 65 and 70%, it works fine until now even if sometimes the humidifier hygrometer seems a little lost and makes the unit works a little too much...
i need to refill it with water each 2 or 3 days wich is ok because it's not a that easy operation

the main problem with such a humidifer is where to place the humidifier: you can't put it in the floor or it can become damaged for being too wet , you need to place the unit in an elevated position... and not in a corner or the hygrometer might be wrong in its calculations

with this unit i can chose between cold mist or warm mist... i choose cold mist because there is zero wet odours like that but maybe the warm mist is better, i don't know... since i'm living in a rather cold area (19ºC in this room everytime) maybe the warm mist would be a better choice, i don't know

my pu cakes are into big handmade jars (not terracotta but kind of) and the lids do allow the air to flow so i suppose i'll let tea like that

i've been using the humidifier for only one week so i'm going to use it a bit longer and i'll let you know how things are going

(my english is weak, sorry if some sentences are not ok)

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Oct 29th, '11, 09:17
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Re: Humidifiers

by TokyoB » Oct 29th, '11, 09:17

I would think that it is not only RH that matters but also temperature. That is at 70 RH, for example, the amount of water in the air will be much higher at 30C than 20C. I presume that the reason Kunming cakes are so dry, even at 70RH, is the lower temperature.

Oct 30th, '11, 09:34
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Re: Humidifiers

by zhi zheng » Oct 30th, '11, 09:34

TokyoB wrote:I would think that it is not only RH that matters but also temperature. That is at 70 RH, for example, the amount of water in the air will be much higher at 30C than 20C. I presume that the reason Kunming cakes are so dry, even at 70RH, is the lower temperature.
I think the relationship between humidity (vapour density) and temperature goes something like this:

The more heat (energy) held in the air, the less likely the water molecules are to condense out (dew point) as the molecules have more kinetic energy, are moving around more and less likely to bond with each other, so the humidty (saturation vapour pressure) is higher.

Air at 35 centigrade has double the saturation vapour density as air at 20 centigrade. i.e. double the maximum amount of moisture/cubic metre, so 70% RH humidity in Kunming means its still a lot 'dryer' than 70% humidity in Jinghong.

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Oct 30th, '11, 12:24
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Re: Humidifiers

by TokyoB » Oct 30th, '11, 12:24

zhi zheng - Thanks for the more scientific explanation.

On a more practical note, for those of us in colder climates, what are your thoughts on the best approach to puerh storage?

Thanks.

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Oct 30th, '11, 13:32
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Re: Humidifiers

by gingkoseto » Oct 30th, '11, 13:32

I think puerh can store well where the air is comfortable for people. 40% is harmful to people (who aren't adapted to deserts :D ) so even not for your puerh, just for yourself, you should get a humidifier.

I don't remember the names. But there are generally two kinds of humidifier, one releasing larger clusters of water steam (hence condensation happens easily), and the other releasing much smaller clusters of water steam (probably the above-mentioned ultrasonic type). The second type is much better for furniture and I assume it must be better for tea too. The second type always advertise about this feature on the package so you can easily recognize it.

Nov 2nd, '11, 02:35
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Re: Humidifiers

by zhi zheng » Nov 2nd, '11, 02:35

Tokyo B,

There must be others on this forum who are better equipped than me to reply to that question since my first brush with Puer tea was in Malaysia 12 years ago and I have been in the sub-tropics (Asia) more or less all the time since then, so my personal experience of storing Puer is different.

Having said that, the thing that I think I would be most concerned about is artificially high levels of humidity with very limited airflow - there doesn't need to be much, but there needs to be some, and it seems to get little attention in the quest to increase humidity.

The other thought would be to organise shared Puer storage in a more suitable climate. If a group of people shared the cost it surely wouldn't be too much. You'd have to have a reliable 'storekeeper' who could monitor the store and post tea to the rightful owners when requested.

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Nov 13th, '11, 10:48
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Re: Humidifiers

by gasninja » Nov 13th, '11, 10:48

I saw one of these recently and was thinking of giving it a try.

http://www.cigaroasis.com/index.php/pro ... -plus.html

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Nov 28th, '11, 16:31
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Re: Humidifiers

by siae » Nov 28th, '11, 16:31

I live in Sweden with very dry winters, probably under 30% when it's driest. Is humidifier the only way to go?

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Dec 2nd, '11, 22:34
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Re: Humidifiers

by Akuma37 » Dec 2nd, '11, 22:34

In cell tissue culture, a tray of water is commonly put into the bottom of the incubator to raise the humidity. Maybe you could use one instead?

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