Humidor water reservoir help.

[maduro]

Good day all. This morning while I was refilling my humidor water reservoirs I noticed something I had not seen before. The water in all three of them had turned a cloudy white color. The water had no smell other than the customary cedar smell it picked up from the humidor. I poured the water out and added fresh water. Not sure how relative this is but each reservoir holds approximately 1.2 liters of water. In the winter months the water needs to be topped up every six weeks. The only water I use is distilled water. If anyone has any theories or if this has happened to anyone else please let me know.  

Peace

[JohnS]

Before my current occupation I worked in the Water Services industry and cloudy water occurred as a result of turning off pressurised pipes and those pipes filling with air. Is any air getting into the reservoirs?

[maduro]

Hello JohnS thank you for your response. The reservoir is somewhat open to the air. I have included a picture it at the bottom of this post. By the way I have had the unit, three of them for one and a half year now and have never seen the water turn cloudy. Also the white mesh filter gets replaced once a year, every August.

Cheers

  

[Colt45]

Might the reservoir need cleaning? Or on the flip side, has it been cleaned with some type of detergent, leaving some residue?

[maduro]

Colt45 thank you for responding. No it has never been cleaned for it has not  needed it until now perhaps. However when using distilled water it is my understanding there should not be any mineral residue let behind. I guess the mystery continues.

Cheers.

[PigFish]

You should understand that these are expanded paper wicks. While the paper should not break down, sometimes it does... I have a lot of experience with them and that is the only conclusion that I have ever come to. I have had the exact same problem before.

It might not be the paper however. It could very well be some form of pollution in the air getting stuck on the wick which may come off when the humidifier is refilled. It could also be corrosion from aluminum if this is a cooled unit and the unit recycles water.

I am betting on the paper break down as I am sure that you don't use what I use and I have had a similar problem. It does not happen to me often, nor do I recall my customers complaining about it, so I pass it off as a freakish occurrence.

I take apart the entire humidifier, which in my system is pretty simple, toss the wick, clean the box with some Simple Green, rinse, rinse again wth some distilled water and put in a new wick. If I am really lazy, I remove the fan and cover plate and toss the box in the trash and start over. Since I make the stuff, it affords me some luxuries.

Best of luck! -Piggy

[maduro]

Mr. PigFish,

Please let me start off by saying thank you for your feedback. I must say your opinion of the problem makes total sense to me. Something I forgot to previously mention is the water did not turn a milky white color  until I disturbed the reservoir by moving it out of the humidor so that could top it up with. Also I'm ruling out the corrosion from the aluminum for I don't have a cooled humidor. Thank you again for helping to solve this mysterious and freakish occurrence.

Cheers.

Maduro

[PigFish]

Cheers mate. Glad to be of help.