In article , (Doug Miller) wrote:
In article , Minnie Bannister
wrote:
IIRC, calcium chloride absorbs water like crazy and is one of the
chemicals over which we (when I worked in chemical labs a few decades
ago) used to pass certain gases to dry them.

That's correct...

But it is not highly
soluble in water and would take a lot of water to wash it out.

... but this is not. Calcium chloride is much more readily soluble in water
than sodium chloride (common table salt).

Solubility in cold water: CaCl, 74.5 grams/deciliter; NaCl 35.7 g/dl
In boiling water, the difference is even greater: CaCl 159 g/dl, NaCl 39.1
g/dl
[Source: Handbook of Chemistry and Physics]

Oops, sorry, typos: should read CaCl2 instead of CaCl on both lines above. The
solubility numbers are correct, though.