Any idea of the optimum temperature for moisture adsorbtion using silica
gel? I'd like to dry out some delicate stuff ( a camera) and I'm guessing a
moderate temperature increase will drive the moisture off more quickly but
it's no use if the silica gel I'm packing around it fails to take it up.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

"fred" wrote in message ...
Any idea of the optimum temperature for moisture adsorbtion using silica
gel? I'd like to dry out some delicate stuff ( a camera) and I'm guessing
a
moderate temperature increase will drive the moisture off more quickly but
it's no use if the silica gel I'm packing around it fails to take it up.

AFAIK room temp will suffice.
Although a slightly higher drier heat will allow better evap'

On 3 Jun, 15:37, fred wrote:
Any idea of the optimum temperature for moisture adsorbtion using silica
gel? I'd like to dry out some delicate stuff ( a camera) and I'm guessing a
moderate temperature increase will drive the moisture off more quickly but
it's no use if the silica gel I'm packing around it fails to take it up.

the hotter the faster

NT

In article . com,
writes
On 3 Jun, 15:37, fred wrote:
Any idea of the optimum temperature for moisture adsorbtion using silica
gel? I'd like to dry out some delicate stuff ( a camera) and I'm guessing a
moderate temperature increase will drive the moisture off more quickly but
it's no use if the silica gel I'm packing around it fails to take it up.

the hotter the faster

That's what I was thinking but I didn't want to get into the zone where it
ceases adsorbing and starts releasing. I'm unlikely to want to take the
camera above 50deg C.

I've got a few packs dried out ready to start tonight.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

fred wrote

I've got a few packs dried out ready to start tonight.

(at the risk of being flamed for not paying attention, but I haven't
spotted the other thread, and my newsfeed has been quite erratic for a
couple of days so tracking stuff has been not so easy ...)

How does one go about drying the packs?
--
Roger Hunt

Put it in a warm oven for about half an hour

Sam Farrell
"Roger Hunt" wrote in message
...
fred wrote

I've got a few packs dried out ready to start tonight.

(at the risk of being flamed for not paying attention, but I haven't
spotted the other thread, and my newsfeed has been quite erratic for a
couple of days so tracking stuff has been not so easy ...)

How does one go about drying the packs?
--
Roger Hunt

Sam Farrell wrote

How does one go about drying the packs?
--
Put it in a warm oven for about half an hour

Oh! Easy-peasy. Thanks.
--
Roger Hunt

On 3 Jun, 21:50, fred wrote:
In article . com,
writesOn 3 Jun, 15:37, fred wrote:

Any idea of the optimum temperature for moisture adsorbtion using silica
gel? I'd like to dry out some delicate stuff ( a camera) and I'm guessing a
moderate temperature increase will drive the moisture off more quickly but
it's no use if the silica gel I'm packing around it fails to take it up.

the hotter the faster

That's what I was thinking but I didn't want to get into the zone where it
ceases adsorbing and starts releasing. I'm unlikely to want to take the
camera above 50deg C.

If you go that high you wont need the gel in the first place, the heat
alone will boil the water away. Youre limited in practice by what the
camera is ok with.


NT

In article , Roger Hunt
writes
fred wrote

I've got a few packs dried out ready to start tonight.

(at the risk of being flamed for not paying attention, but I haven't
spotted the other thread, and my newsfeed has been quite erratic for a
couple of days so tracking stuff has been not so easy ...)

Lots of old threads on google groups:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu2vd5
or
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?as...ng=d&hl=en&as_
epq=silica+gel&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ugroup=uk.d-i-y&as_usubject=&as_u
authors=&lr=&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=&as_mind=1&as_minm=1 &as_miny=19
81&as_maxd=5&as_maxm=6&as_maxy=2007&safe=off

How does one go about drying the packs?

C'mon, that's the easy bit to find ;-). In theory you can go up to hundreds of
degrees for proper non-indicating Silica Gel but the pack material will burst
into flames. Indicating (colour change on adsorbtion) should be dried at
120 to 150 deg C to avoid damaging the indicator. Mine is good quality
non-indicating stuff and I dried it at 130 deg C in a fan oven for a few hours
but was disappointed to find the packs discolouring (to brown) so I would
recommend keeping the temp a bit lower, perhaps 120 or less.

What is more difficult to find is the temp at which they stop adsorbing and
start drying themselves. This would let you dry stuff at an optimum
temperature but I have yet to find this level of detail.

In the end I've given up on the Silica Gel route and am drying the camera
by blowing warm filtered air into the open orifices.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

In article .com
, writes
On 3 Jun, 21:50, fred wrote:
In article . com,
writesOn 3 Jun, 15:37, fred wrote:

Any idea of the optimum temperature for moisture adsorbtion using silica
gel? I'd like to dry out some delicate stuff ( a camera) and I'm guessing a
moderate temperature increase will drive the moisture off more quickly but
it's no use if the silica gel I'm packing around it fails to take it up.

the hotter the faster

That's what I was thinking but I didn't want to get into the zone where it
ceases adsorbing and starts releasing. I'm unlikely to want to take the
camera above 50deg C.

If you go that high you wont need the gel in the first place, the heat
alone will boil the water away. Youre limited in practice by what the
camera is ok with.

See my other post, I am going the warm air route but it would be nice to
know that knee point at which the adsorbtion starts to drop off for future
reference.

Somehow water vapour has managed to condense between the LCD and
its backlight, a total ball-ache.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

fred wrote
In article , Roger Hunt
writes
fred wrote

I've got a few packs dried out ready to start tonight.

(at the risk of being flamed for not paying attention, but I haven't
spotted the other thread, and my newsfeed has been quite erratic for a
couple of days so tracking stuff has been not so easy ...)

Lots of old threads on google groups:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu2vd5
or
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?as...ng=d&hl=en&as_
epq=silica+gel&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ugroup=uk.d-i-y&as_usubject=&as_u
authors=&lr=&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=&as_mind=1&as_minm= 1&as_miny=19
81&as_maxd=5&as_maxm=6&as_maxy=2007&safe=off

Thank you - a very gentle flame indeed. I deserved worse.
How does one go about drying the packs?

C'mon, that's the easy bit to find ;-).

I'm just about to look, if the electricity supply lets me.
There have been six brown-outs in the last twenty minutes and each time
the bloody system switches itself off just as I'm finishing this
message. It's infuriating!

In the end I've given up on the Silica Gel route and am drying the camera
by blowing warm filtered air into the open orifices.

Best of luck with that. (I recently purchased at auction a rather grubby
Pentax MX, but after Hoovering out the sawdust(!) and cleaning the muck
off (bird****?), it seems in very good nick.)
--
Roger Hunt

In article , Roger Hunt
writes
fred wrote
In article , Roger Hunt
writes
fred wrote

I've got a few packs dried out ready to start tonight.

(at the risk of being flamed for not paying attention, but I haven't
spotted the other thread, and my newsfeed has been quite erratic for a
couple of days so tracking stuff has been not so easy ...)

Lots of old threads on google groups:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu2vd5

Thank you - a very gentle flame indeed. I deserved worse.

No flame intended or deserved.

How does one go about drying the packs?

C'mon, that's the easy bit to find ;-).

I'm just about to look, if the electricity supply lets me.
There have been six brown-outs in the last twenty minutes and each time
the bloody system switches itself off just as I'm finishing this
message. It's infuriating!

Ah, presumably you're in the sticks, although I've never had need of one
perhaps you could do with a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply),
alternatively a loan of a transient logger could persuade your leccy supplier
to sort out your supply (a poor joint on an local overhead perhaps?).

In the end I've given up on the Silica Gel route and am drying the camera
by blowing warm filtered air into the open orifices.

Best of luck with that. (I recently purchased at auction a rather grubby
Pentax MX, but after Hoovering out the sawdust(!) and cleaning the muck
off (bird****?), it seems in very good nick.)

Thanks, I'll give it a few days of drying unpowered but this is modern ultra
compact digital muck and they just can't handle a bit of (minor) abuse, I'm
not optimistic.
--
fred
Plusnet - I hope you like vanilla

fred wrote
In article , Roger Hunt
writes

There have been six brown-outs in the last twenty minutes and each time
the bloody system switches itself off just as I'm finishing this
message. It's infuriating!

Ah, presumably you're in the sticks,

Forest of Dean, and I don't mind at all - I have wall sconces and
candles and stoves and an open fire, so there is no suffering involved.
although I've never had need of one
perhaps you could do with a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply),
alternatively a loan of a transient logger could persuade your leccy supplier
to sort out your supply (a poor joint on an local overhead perhaps?).

I was given a link to a most interesting flywheel powered ups, in
uk.rec.sheds ....
http://www.genpropower.com/powerware_pf2_flywheel.htm
In the end I've given up on the Silica Gel route and am drying the camera
by blowing warm filtered air into the open orifices.

Best of luck with that. (I recently purchased at auction a rather grubby
Pentax MX, but after Hoovering out the sawdust(!) and cleaning the muck
off (bird****?), it seems in very good nick.)

Thanks, I'll give it a few days of drying unpowered but this is modern ultra
compact digital muck and they just can't handle a bit of (minor) abuse, I'm
not optimistic.

Look on the bright side - as capitalist consumers it is our duty to
chuck these things away immediately and support the economy by going
into debt to buy another, better, camera.
Repairing things harms the economy by reducing cash-flow, and done
deliberately is nothing less than antisocial and even subversive.
--
Roger Hunt