The difference is actually in the pore size of the silica gel. The type that is meant to absorb moisture has smaller pores (Wikipedia says about 2.5 nm), while the liquid absorbent type has pores of 4.5 - 7.0 nm.

@BluntUnicorns

2 ай бұрын

Thank you :)

@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307

2 ай бұрын

Point to note unless you have the desiccant in an air tight container the moisture will be immediately replaced! So have one of those units for every 4 cubic meters inside your house and have your house sealed inside a plastic device(never open it!) or otherwise dont bother!

@BrettCooper4702

2 ай бұрын

Could the cat silica be refined? Baked at 420f for 42mins?

@sleeptyper

2 ай бұрын

@@BrettCooper4702 I bake my cat litter at 100 Celsius for one hour when drying my 3D filament desiccants. Same goes with the bead bags that come with every spool.

@sleeptyper

2 ай бұрын

@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 "This easy trick that carbon dioxide sellers don't want you to know."

Only Clive answers the burning questions that I didn't want to know - and still makes an entertaining, interesting and watchable video. How many 8K cameras does he use? How many staff? How many TB or PB of storage does he have to store the raw footage? How many massively powerful editing workstations? NONE. It's just Clive, a laptop, a phone, and a mic.... oh and his hand-built studio lights! Honestly, on the "watchability" scale, Clive's videos BEAT a lot of the more elaborate setups for me.

@tuttocrafting

2 ай бұрын

I'm still wondering if he is using his self made hat-microphone!

@NiddNetworks

2 ай бұрын

@@tuttocrafting I had to mic a guy at an event, he had a baseball cap on, so the lavalier was clipped to the peak. I thought of Clive when I did it!!

@TradieTrev

2 ай бұрын

You've summed up his channel so well!

@jack15900

2 ай бұрын

dont forget the pen and paper instead of a powerpoint graph thing

@squelchstuff

2 ай бұрын

Yep, Clives low key production does not affect the quality of content. Glossy presentations are fine and all, but the content is what brings me back here and several other channels too.

BigClive isn't droll, he just has a dry humor.

@retromodernart4426

2 ай бұрын

It seems to have just gotten drier, after Big Clive spent all that time with the desiccants...

@tactileslut

2 ай бұрын

The less dry ones come out on Saturdays, if I remember correctly. Until then, Patrick Boyle, and don't look away.

@POVwithRC

2 ай бұрын

​@@tactileslut Boyle Appreciator 🫡💰

@goodun2974

2 ай бұрын

The puns are just pore-ing out from this thread!

@jessl1934

2 ай бұрын

Droll doesn't mean what you think it means

My cat watched this with great interest. Mushroom the cat is now a Big Clive fan, I do believe.

@tncorgi92

2 ай бұрын

Give Mushroom some pats for us

@mySeaPrince_

2 ай бұрын

🐾🐾🐾 🐈 💖

@readmorebooksidiots

2 ай бұрын

It has everything a cat would want. Litter reviews, and crinkly bags moving across the screen

@goodun2974

2 ай бұрын

Dried Mushroom go great in soups and stews.....(just kidding of course; I like cats, and cats have owned my wife and I in the past, but my current pack of dogs won't tolerate cats).

@Jimmy_Jones

2 ай бұрын

I don't like Mushrooms. Sorry for the offence.

I would love more videos like this, commercial vs "DIY" solutions.

@2:30 - "90 grams which is 90 ml." Since I started using borosilicate beakers in my kitchen for cooking - like chemistry beakers and such - it dawned on me that I now, as I am much older, wish we had have been taught the metric system. Weighing/measuring quantities is far more intuitive with the metric system.

@jeremiahbullfrog9288

2 ай бұрын

It's also much easier to scale a recipe ... I've started converting all of my ingredient lists to gram weights

@JLneonhug

2 ай бұрын

There is a caveat. 90ml = mg is in reference to water. Anything more dense isn't strictly applicable and would need some tweaking to the weight.

@TechGorilla1987

2 ай бұрын

@@JLneonhugI understand. It's more the general concept that helped me evolve. My wife and I just had a lengthy conversation about dry vs wet weight. She still doesn't get it. I do all the cooking.

@j.f.christ8421

2 ай бұрын

@@jeremiahbullfrog9288 Yeah, cook by weight. Don't use volume as it can be inaccurate due to things like flour being compressed etc. Sifted is bigger than straight from the bag and so on.

@jeremiahbullfrog9288

2 ай бұрын

@@j.f.christ8421 Flour can still be inaccurate due to moisture content... although I think in typical kitchens it's not a huge deal. I can't imagine a bread recipe written in Arizona to work the same in Florida though lol.. Overall I find weighing everything to be much more convenient and repeatable!

It might be worth comparing the price per gramme of water absorbed as well.

@herrpez

2 ай бұрын

I just checked and it seems like the difference is rather significant. The cheapest beads I could find on Amazon cost me around €15 for 1 kg. Conversely, 5 kg of cat sand (the silica gel variety, obviously) was only approximately €10, which breaks down to €2 for 1 kg. Seems like cat sand wins the day on a price to performance ratio.

@BerkeleyTowers

2 ай бұрын

@@herrpez but then you need more units to store the greater volume to acheive the same result........ but, it's good info to know............. cos then you can make choices.......

@ZeroPointAlpha

2 ай бұрын

@@BerkeleyTowers True, but if it absorbs a third what the beads do, but you get 8 times the amount for the same price, that's still a significant amount of drying capacity.

@DUKE_of_RAMBLE

2 ай бұрын

​@@ZeroPointAlpha But having more dehumidifier units running will also mean more power used. So I'd think it might be a wash in terms of cost at the end of a month or year. _(or I could be wrong, which is just as likely lol)_

@jameslawrence8734

2 ай бұрын

@@DUKE_of_RAMBLEYou don't necessarily need a dehumidifier. Leaving it in open air in a closet you wanted to keep drier or a firearms safe to prevent rusting will result in it having a passive effect. I'm actually going to be looking into doing this as a way to keep my firearms in a less humid environment.

I'm in the middle of a 2 hours Border Control show and I stop everything for a Clive video. One of the few creators left that I am actually invested in and who generally makes me feel like my watching and interacting means something to him. Never change, Clive.

Clive: asking all of the hard-hitting scientific questions, and offering up his own blend of humor along the way!

I remember our trying that silica cat litter, and the cats at the time used it once and refused to use it again owing to the noise it made as they peed on it, proper rice krispies type sounds... :P

@ferrumignis

2 ай бұрын

We have used it, it works well for controlling smells but it's very expensive and I hate the amount of hard, scratchy granules the little sods kick out onto the wood floor.

@DJ-es8go

2 ай бұрын

The issue we have had with them is that our cats have particularly sensitive paw pads, and the crystals have uncomfortably sharp edges. I don't know about you but I might not choose to stand barefoot on broken glass whilst urinating either.

@fluffdrgn

2 ай бұрын

@@ferrumignis Try wood pellets! you can find them cheap and they're much cleaner than the regular litters

@aaronmdjones

2 ай бұрын

Imagine feeling like you're urinating on a series of landmines... I'd stop doing that too!

@hippopotamus86

2 ай бұрын

I've tried using it. I prefer the toilet however.

it will be interesting to run the experiment again with the cat litter crushed to a smaller crystals. it will allow to fit more, and increase the surface area.

@user-io2et5bv2s

2 ай бұрын

Oooohhh….good thinking. I like your style. 👍🏻

@Thermalions

2 ай бұрын

Would it increase the amount of moisture absorbed (given Clive already waited until full saturation was achieved), or just increase the rate of absorption thus quicker arrival at full saturation? I'm thinking the latter.

@aerogfs

2 ай бұрын

@@Thermalions The point would be bigger crystals give bigger empty gaps between crystals. The beads are smaller, so not as much air between beads.

@RFC3514

2 ай бұрын

The difference is in the pore size. Crushing cat litter into smaller crystals will make it work _faster,_ but it won't make it adsorb significantly more moisture.

@kcgunesq

2 ай бұрын

@@RFC3514 Except, if you could get more mass of crystals into the same space, wouldn't that allow it to absorb more water?

Neat! I did some experiments in our prototyping lab with two quart jars of cat litter. When I put the fresh, out of the bag crystals in a sealed box, the humidity climbed by more than 20%; if you're going to dry anything, you've got to cook your crystals.

I use the crystal cat litter in my 3D filament storage box and i have been quite happy with it. It dries very well in a tabletop oven. It's in a box that has stainless steel mesh glued to cover the air holes, because that type of silica sheds off some amounts of sand that can be nasty to handle. For the drying, i transfer it to an aluminium food container that you get when you buy prepared food. A hygrometer on the storage lid tells me when it's time to dry all the desiccants - i also reuse the bead bags i get with every filament roll.

@j.f.christ8421

2 ай бұрын

That's what I use it for. And storing powder-coat powders. (Of course powder-coat powders are powders, stoopid language.)

@Guardian_Arias

2 ай бұрын

I like calcium chloride commonly known as "DampRid" it can be found for less than 2 usd per pound and it auto dissolves into the water it traps, giving you a visual indicator of when it has absorbed all the water it can. If you wanted too you could reuse it by boiling the brine water it turns into but its so cheap it might be more cost-effective to simply buy more calcium chloride depending on where you live. It keeps my nylon absolutely pop free.

Those silica gel packs are the perfect snack

@gordslater

2 ай бұрын

they might be a bit too filling

@freakyjason477

2 ай бұрын

"Donut Eat"

@olsmokey

2 ай бұрын

Crunchy too.

@assassinlexx1993

2 ай бұрын

When place right. It stops diarrhea😮

I suspect the crystal cat litter is optimized for capturing liquid (urine) rather than extracting moisture from the air. Maybe to compare this take 100g of each and pour water over them (or submerse in a container of water), then drain the excess water with a sieve, and measure the final weights.

@lasskinn474

2 ай бұрын

smaller bead size helps with the air contact. I'd like to see the normal bentonite test too. it depends on air moisture how it behaves to a big degree (we go through 150 kilos of the bentonite litter a month give or take few tens of kilos. I haven't come up with something to do with it other than have the garbage guys take it away so if anyone has recycling ideas I'm all pis I mean ears)

@bigoldgrizzly

2 ай бұрын

@@lasskinn474 is your cats name 'Sir Krapalot ' ?? .... or perhaps it is a tiger ? ;

Excellent experiment! This would have done in my day for a project in SYS Chemistry.

Interesting results, Clive. FWIW, I save most of the silica gel packets I come across, usually in medication bottles, in (relatively) airtight glass jars. After gentle baking, I then use them to keep my collection of old carbon composition resistors as dry as possible, also in glass jars. It's been working wonderfully for many years.

Thankyou, that was an unexpected result!

i am so in love with your work.

Fabulously concise, clear & useful. Thank you!

As ever it's very interesting you're the best Clive

Oooo I get 'ard when Big Clive shows his working! Love this guy.

That is such useful information!! I have kept those little packets for years, they are so useful. I take a plastic bottle of various sizes, drill some holes in it and fill it with the little packets. I have them in my gun safe, tool boxes, anywhere moisture can corrode something of value. To date, this method has worked flawlessly for me! Great video!

@nnamerz

2 ай бұрын

Don't forget that once silica gel is fully saturated, it will no longer be able to absorb moisture. See my other comment which includes a bunch of other tips & also how to regenerate the silica gel so they can be reused again.

@Multi-Skill-Bill

2 ай бұрын

@@nnamerz absolutely!

Information I'd never use and would never have guessed how much I want to hear about. Great video! :D

Thank you for answering this bro👍

Thank you for confirming this. I have some keepsakes I want to store with some desiccant, but the real stuff is so expensive in bulk that I was looking for other options.

Thank you Dr Clive. Another science experiment completed.

Moisture absorbing ability per unit cost might also be interesting.

I love the way a KatKin cat food ad precedes the Clive vid. I suspect that Gourmet cats prefer real silica gel, over to Clive for that test (with proper fluids).

Wow this is mind bending i never knew such a consumer test was a thing but it is good 😄

Very interesting, now I think you need to test Silica gel as cat litter. Great video 2x👍

Thanks clive this is really usefull to know for 3d printing folks and dehumidifier folks as well

I didn't know there was a substitute. Great job! Thanks, keep working. Good luck.

Thank you again Clive for doing Citizen Science research!

Other than cost/effectiveness, I tried using cat litter silica and (at least the type I bought) where it is cracked rather than in beads it is quite a bit messier to deal with tiny shards of the silica falling out of your container every time it is handled.

@bigclivedotcom

2 ай бұрын

When I filled the container, it was very dusty

Short and informative! Thanks :)

Really interesting investigation Clive never even thought of cat litter being useful thanks 😊

I have been using Wilko silica cat litter for a very long time and it's brilliant stuff!

@rmun386

2 ай бұрын

Was surprised to see the return of the Wilko brand. It seems to now be part of the Range company.

Great video! I also use cat litter, because no restriction of volume and price difference is way more than 3 times.

Nice experiment Clive!

Good info

A purr-fect explanation❗️

Silica gel is technically a surface effect so it is adsorption, not absorption. I was corrected by a professor decades ago on this very subject. Larger pore size results in less surface area per unit mass or volume. Synthetic zeolite molecular sieves are rated in pore size in Angstroms.

Very good review! Thank you!

Interesting. I store my 3D printing filaments with desiccants and oven dried silica cat litter keeps the moisture at a steady 10% RH, where as the round silica beads keep another container at 19% RH (same temperature), though i haven't dried the beads yet, as the indicators are still bright orange.

Hi Clive, the correct word is adsorbent not absorbent 🙂 I have spent may years in the gas processing industry correcting that typo, so unfortunately triggered. It is an interesting example of a mini temperature swing adsorber tower. Most of the surface area for adsorption is internal micro pores rather than external, the pore sizes varying dependent on manufacturing processes. I am not an expert on kitty litter but it is produced via a more "cost effective" manufacturing process that yields fewer, but and larger internal pores hence the lower density and lower capacity W/W.

@RFC3514

2 ай бұрын

The larger pores are deliberate. It's meant to trap liquid quickly.

@grahammilnes7256

2 ай бұрын

In this case, absorb is correct. Adsorb has a different meaning. Look it up if you don’t believe me.

@RFC3514

2 ай бұрын

@@grahammilnes7256 - No, it very much isn't. Everyone understands what it means, but silica *adsorbs,* it doesn't _absorb._

@grahammilnes7256

2 ай бұрын

@@RFC3514 Technical you are correct. I think someone could be forgiven for saying that the porous beads of silica material absorb (hold) water. Just my opinion.

Nice one Clive simple as that. Entertaining, factual, and information I didnt know I needed. I love this kinda shit.

i used the cat litter silica gel for a very different purpose. first i used a coffee grinder to grind it to dust. And then i used it to cover up flowers. White roses. The flower piece of my father's funeral. And you know what happened? It dried perfectly. The leaves of the flowers dried without much change of color. The only thing is that you have to be careful with that dust. You do not want to breath any of it in. Plus, the flower has to be covered all the way, including in between the leaves of the flower. But, the result is very nice. If you make sure you dry it out completely, you can put such a piece of art in clear epoxy and it will last for ever. Just an idea for the cat litter stuff.

@bertjesklotepino

2 ай бұрын

btw, reason for using the cat litter gel is because it was cheaper and easier to get from a store around the corner. I do not know if it makes a difference if you were to use the other stuff. But my experience is that the cat litter stuff is good enough for drying out flowers so you can preserve em for a very long time, and the leaves do not crumple up or discolor much. Sure, they always discolor a bit. I guess unavoidable.

This is good apples-to-apples comparison.

Thanks BC! I've been wondering about this for the last few years. Any photographer will tell you that desiccant is a must for lens storage.

I use the kitty litter in my vehicle over the winter to absorb excess moisture. I put some in a tray, or if I'm feeling particularly adventurous I fill a boot sock and hang it from the coat hook. Seems to work well - thanks for the quantification!

Good to know! I always made the assumption without knowing the true data. Thank you!

Another factor to consider are 1. How easy is it to purchase each product? and 2. What is the cost of 100g of each product? Great video, Clive.

@5ergei

2 ай бұрын

I think the key factors for cat litter material is how well it is suited for cats (i.e. do their feet sink into it etc.), and how easily it can be cleaned by the cat's slave. This can result in very different characteristics than in most other use purposes for silica.

I use the cat litter in porous fabric bags to chuck into all my shoes/boots to stop them from growing bacteria and smelling bad. it works a treat. of the 5 pairs of shoes/boots I use it in only one has developed a smell in the past 2/3 years and its only because they are my motorbike boots that got a bit soaked when i put a foot down during a river crossing.

This was a good one! Keep them coming!🇺🇸

Thank you for answering my pop-up question at the pet store yesterday 😂

Surface area of the crystals compared to the beads. What happens if one crushes the cat litter crystals to the size f the beads, if possible. Theoretically you could fit more crystals into the same volume since there will be less space between the smaller pieces. You can also purchase desiccant crystals in craft stores used for drying flowers. These are the fraction of the size of your standard beads. They too can be recharged in the oven but require to be placed on a tray since they are so fine unless you want to sew them into a cotton bag. So far cat litter crystals have worked fine for me in storing dry goods for food usage.

Well, the experiment came to the conclusion that, yes, silica gel cat litter works as a moisture absorber just not as efficient as dense silica gel. Good job Clive 👍👍

You the man. I've seen that cat litter, but knew nothing. I live in a leaky house, full of electronic toys, wettiness is an issue. This past couple of weeks it's been pouring, I've had a dehumidier running 24/7 in music room. Some bags of the kitty stuff inside gear might help.

These types of soft crystals are also used in cheap cigar humidifiers. The problem I've found with the cat litter type is that when it absorbs moisture the crystals tends to adhere to themselves and even when dried, they stay stuck together, unlike the traditional silica gel beads don't. Subsequent uses of the cat crystals stop working as efficiently.

Thanks for this one. I have wondered about this :)

Thanks for this test. I already considered drying my 3D filament with cat Litter silica gel. Now that I know it is only half as effective I will not go this route. So: You litterally saved me money. 🙂

@tarakivu8861

2 ай бұрын

Check out solid state electric dehumidifiers, a video from clive from 5 years ago: kzread.info/dash/bejne/iJWW04-sZpWvhrA.html That is, if you have some money to burn as the bigger ones can become quite expensive. Though the small ones should be enough for most storage boxes. Maybe paired with some silica gel to quickly initially reduce humidity after e.g. opening the box, the solid state element will then gradually also dry the silica gel.

@capitalinventor4823

2 ай бұрын

By saying that it’s half as effective you are not able to say you will save money by not using it. The cat litter silica gel could still be effective enough to do the job. Comparing the average vehicle to a Porche and following your logic, it would be saving money to buy the Porche because it goes faster than the average car and it gets to the top speed quicker. But the average car is absolutely fine for everyone. One needs to take the cost into account. Even if one has to use double the amount because it is half as effective, if it costs one third of the price then money is saved by using the cat litter silica gel. There was no testing on how fast each product removes moisture from the air. Perhaps the cat litter silica gel is able to bring down the moisture levels in a 3D filament bag faster than the other silica gel product. It would be an interesting experiment.

@ftrueck

2 ай бұрын

@@capitalinventor4823 By saving money I meant: I saved the money buing the cat litter to find out It is not working for drying my filament in the AMS of my Bambulab X1C. Of course, if you have enough space: just double the amount. But in confined spaces you can't do that. So: I saved money in buying a product I can't use in the place I intended it to.

Love random stuff Big Clive

When you think about it chemically, crystals have water of crystallisation associated with them, thats what allows them to have a crystalline structure. The amount of water absorbed by crystals is thus going to absorb less water rather than the amorphous beads which dont have water already in their composition.

Thanks, I was using cat litter crystals for my astronomy camera internal desiccant with similar results. It was sufficient for only two nights of observation, compared to almost a week when using the crystals recommended by the camera brand. But at 1/10th the price, It was worth it. Also the cat crystals I found were much smaller then yours, about only twice the size of regular desiccant beads.

If you need pretty dry, calcium chloride is the way to go - its water absorption is impressive, but it is a one way process, since you can't recharge the crystals. An alternative is molecular sieve - that is fully rechargeable (although at higher temperatures), and substantially out-performs silica gel in both speed of absorption and final (residual) humidity. Nevertheless pretty interesting, and something I too had heard of, but thought was one of those modern day myths. Thanks for sharing this with us all Mr BC!

@whynotdean8966

2 ай бұрын

Well you can "recharge" calcium chloride, it just takes more heat than the beads.

@tarakivu8861

2 ай бұрын

I think if you need constantly low humidity, you can also use a solid state electric dehumidifier. See a video from clive from 5 years ago: kzread.info/dash/bejne/iJWW04-sZpWvhrA.html Though the cost of these might shock you a bit.

@Woffy.

2 ай бұрын

Me thinks it also produces acetylene when wet ? . @@whynotdean8966

@npiper

2 ай бұрын

@@tarakivu8861 wouldn't surprise me, a small town near me tore one of those membranes in their water treatment plant and were on bottled water for something like two months while a new membrane was shipped from somewhere in eastern europe...

@squelchstuff

2 ай бұрын

@@tarakivu8861Stephan at CNC Kitchen channel recently picked up on the solid state dehumidifiers after seeing that video. They are not cheap, but with greater exposure (public as opposed to specialist engineering) the cost might come down as economy of scale the more people start buying them.

i dont have easy access to the silica get to keep my 3D printer filament dry this might be an alternative , i just have to put in double the weight !! thx clive, and may your 3D print's always succeed

@tarakivu8861

2 ай бұрын

No easy access? I can just buy kilos of that stuff online.

@fouzaialaa7962

2 ай бұрын

@@tarakivu8861 your not in butt fuck nowhere africa where shipping costs more then the product itself !!! africa is BIG , bigger then the maps actually portrays it

@shabath

2 ай бұрын

​@@tarakivu8861Amazon isn't that common in Europe, it is there but it can get expensive.

Thank you for using metric!

A nice way to make your own dessicant packs is to get Tyvek polyolefin mailing envelopes and fill them up. Like its use in a house wrap it is vapor permeable.

Super relevant! I recently bought a pack of silica kitty litter to get rid of humidity in my car. I'm not super impressed with the results, but maybe I just need to get another bag....

Good data.

I used to setup and repair copy machines. The new copy machines came packed with bags of silica gel beads as big as my fist!!! 😮 As far as "recharging" goes, I always nuke the bags in the microwave for a bit, but not too long to drive out the moisture!!! There was always steam and evaporated water that I had to let dry off before putting back into the microwave for another heat up cycle!!!

@tarakivu8861

2 ай бұрын

That will probably heat them up too much, recommended is convection at 120°C (thats what the manufacturer of my silica gel recommends)

@Woffy.

2 ай бұрын

Correct, I learnt this trying to dry my socks in the beam box and that didn't work very well. @@tarakivu8861

We used kitty litter on BR train stations, for absorbing 'Bodily fluids', spilled by humans who had "biological mishaps", on our platforms and concourses. Aso good for dropped bottles of red wine, but they left teratzo floors with a grey stain which we then treated with neat bleachand then neutral shoe polish, left the floor spotless.

Over 29000 views on cat litter this is the peek of your career , grate vid 👍👍

Good to know 🤙

Thank you for sciencing.

One more test might be useful. The increased surface area of the cat crystals might make it faster on desicating. Could be usefull on some chemistry experiments.

i got a dog and none of this problems but i watch it anyway,, interesting and good vids like always

Luckily I can get about 50-100g of silica gel a day from work if I need it because one of the products we use comes with 25g packs inside. I collected about 2kg of it for my 3D printing filament storage boxes, and it works well once dried in a low oven. Never been convinced that its of any use for an actual house though, it doesn't absorb anything like enough to do anything useful in open air.

A food review video. Nice!

The cat litter stuff may be formulated for direct wetting from cat pee and not as strong as to absorb ambient humidity from the air before the cat has used it perhaps. Gaz Yorkshire.

Where I live, desiccant beads cost about 3.5x as much as the cat litter version by weight. It works out to be roughly twice as cost effective to use the cat litter, if volume isn't an issue. But for size and space saving, the beads win.

Thanks :)

In the US (and maybe elsewhere), Special Kitty Scooping Clumping in the white 14 lb jug. It's a bit more expensive than some of the other stuff, but it puts off no dust. I mean like, no dust at all even after being used for a month and being dumped into the trash, or when brand new and pouring into the box. One jug fills a standard litter box. Never puts off a smell. Appears to be a combination of silica and clay, but I've not inspected it before.

I use the Compressed wood pellets for Horse bedding. You get a 25Kg bag for 9.00Cad. changing the pan once every 5 days a bag will last 2 months. Its also safe for the kitties, Its bio friendly, Smells great and cleans out way nicer than the Beads

Very good info. I've recently been looking to buy some silica gel (including some of the color changing indicator).

With the price difference I use a sock full of kitty desiccant for less than a small packet of beads. Keeps a sealed plastic container with humidistat monitor at a low humidity. Also, drying in a prewarmed electric oven at 180(F) works a treat. 82(C) for non Freedom Unit locations. Pre-warmed and off so there's no hot elements in close proximity.

It makes sense. I suppose that it only absorbs moisture on the holes it has on the surface, and the same volume of small beads have a lot more surface area than that of the larger crystals.

Ooo, proper science.

Have used silica cat litter in the past to dry things in the past and in a sock in my old car to stop the windows steaming up. Worked well enough for those jobs imo.

purrrfect

I did use crystal litter to keep my lenses dry. In terms of silica gel. This is just one of few substances used as descent. I've seen kind of clay granules too, I wonder how those would work in your dehumidifier.

I still want one of those electronic ones for my filament drybox

Thanks. I won't be using it for my 3d filament vacuum bags! Cheers.

I like the way Clive takes the trouble to convert the modern standard units to those from antiquity. It's hard to imagine people using such strange and archaic units in the present day...

@bigclivedotcom

2 ай бұрын

I actually use both interchangeably. Whichever fits the application.

@DelticEngine

2 ай бұрын

@@bigclivedotcom Up until about around 35 years ago, I did the same. Then I went exclusively metric as it is much simpler, faster and more accurate for calculations when it comes to designing and fabricating precision parts. If I come across something from the old days the I consider might useful at some point, then I will convert it to metric. If both units are used on a data or specification sheet, then I would expect the primary units to be metric.

Brilliant bit of science. This is the kind of thing that puts my mind in overdrive the moment i try to sleep. This happens to everyone though... right?🤔

Interesting. So that's the stuff in those tiny packets. I never thought about it before. Good to know.🤔

for the cat litter, I would assume it's more optimised for capilary action to absorb liquid that has pooled up, whereas silica gel is designed to absorb atmospheric moisture which the cat litter would also do if only to block bad smells.

that's pretty interesting, it's definately good to see the numbers. I feel ot's a bit like occum's razor, like the silica gel manufacturers might have changed their products if they where better one way or the other, I'm gonna guess whoever designed them crunched the numbers too

I love the way the silica beads bounce on the ground

@bertkooijmans4769

2 ай бұрын

I dont i reaallly dont

@bigclivedotcom

2 ай бұрын

I like the way they light up when you look for them with a head mounted light.

@fookingsog

2 ай бұрын

I like how they spin around the cyclone cannister when I vacuum them up!!! 😂