I have a couple questions about shuttle humidification. First, does anyone know the optimal level of humidity to keep shuttles? I have seen plenty of information regarding how to humidify, but nothing that says what the best humidity is. Second, has anyone used or considered using cigar humidification beads to maintain humidity in tubes? I was thinking of picking up some and throwing them in a mesh bag and dropping that into shuttle tubes. They are supposed to maintain a relative humidity of about 70% - I just want to know if that is too high or too low.
Please share which brand and model of shuttles which you had determine were more durable after conditioning. Thanks!
I would like to put my 2 cents in this often asked question. 1) If the shuttles are fresh, you don't need to humidify/steam it before use. My experience is when I get YY shuttles and they are always fresh from warehouse, they last longer than any other brand at same price point. 2) For other brands, I know dealers buy them by bulk (ie in big container) then sell them slowly, Often time, you get shuttles that sitting there for 6 month already. These shuttles need to be humidified/steamed 48 hr before use. 3) IMHO, humidity of about 55% to 60% over 48 hr is good. You don't want anything longer than that because the cork used for the head will become soft.
Just want to share my 2-cents, I overhumidified my shuttles because I steamed them inside the food steamer. Most of them became too soft on the cork head and unable to fly as fast as they should be. What a waste!!! Also, how to humidify them to 'revive' 5-year old shuttlecocks w/o overdoing like what i did?
I just bought a few dozen of shuttlecocks from a home-industry shuttlecock maker n they include a pouch of silica gel inside each tube. However their shuttlecocks are quite decent n last quite well. I don't know if those pouches help or not but they should be inexpensive to add considering each tube only cost US $4.00.
Silica is used to keep the humidity in a package lower. Meaning it's keeping your shuttles drier than the surrounding air. That may be a good thing, depending on where the manufacturer stores them. But it is the opposite of what the original poster is looking for.
I read somewhere it should be kept about 55-70% humidity. My country Indonesia at this time is around 80-95%, so the manufacturer is doing his job.
Sounds good. Let us know if you see much difference over time between these and your other shuttles without the silica.
It seems like I am getting more breakage with the silica pouches. They seem to take too much of the humidity out of the tubes before I play the shuttles. Oh well.
I've seen some people put their leftover shuttlecock inside drybox. Because worried that the cork will get soft, is it advisable to do this way?