Cheap alternatives to "cigar" beads?

[shilala]

Originally Posted by mariogolbee

Thanks for the heads up. I checked them out and they're more expensive than Heartfelt for oz and about the same for a lb. They look cool though.
I couldn't find the right kitty litter pearls at any of the local pet shops until a few minutes ago. I stopped by a new shop on the way to a store across town and they had the 4lb bags of Litter Pearls Kitty Litter for $10.99. I grabbed one for the hell of it and I'll try and run some tests later on in the week. For $10.99 it's worth an experiment.

I could have dug up all the test data and saved you eleven bucks and a lot of time.
You have to precondition the beads prior to using them, too.
You can do that by putting them in an ambient RH that's the same as whatever you wish your setpoint to be, it takes time.
You can also do some mathematical calculations to figure out roughly how much water to add to them to yield a specific RH, but it takes them forever to equalize and become usable.
Simply put, they're a real pain in the butt.
I know where you're coming from though. You'll have fun messing around.