I have a questions I haven’t found answered anywhere, but maybe someone here can help out.

First, some background:

I have bought this silica gel with indicator a while ago and have used it in my AMS and also for storing my filament in ziplock bags.

I now want to dry some of the silica gel, and have looked at the various options there are. I want to rule out the use of my kitchen appliances, as I am not fully convinced of the silica with indicator being really fully non-hazardous. I also recently bought a Creality Space Pi dryer, which I would like to use for drying my silica as well. Of course I would need to print a container for that, and since I only have PLA and PETG available at the moment, I wouldn’t be able to drive the dryer too hot.

Online you can find many different opinions about the ideal drying temperature for silica gel, ranging from 60°C to 145°C.

Efficient energy usage is no big concern for me with this, as my PV modules produce a lot of excess power during the current season.

Question:

What temperature should I dry the silica gel at, and does a longer drying time at lower temperature equal the same results as a quicker drying at higher temperature?

Or does higher temperature actually remove more humidity overall, which a lower temperature can maybe not achieve regardless of time?

  • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    For the love of God, or whatever, people!

    STOP recommending that people use food preparation things to heat up material you have no clue about how safe they are. It’s likely you are recommending people to poison themselves!!

      • elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        While pure silica gel should not be very toxic, colored silica gel has compounds that produce that color change.

        You’ll notice that silica gel is not sold as “pure”.

        The thing is that none are food grade, so it’s perfectly legal to have impurities, and from what I have read, the coloring agents are toxic. Usually not worrying in the amounts used in the hobby, but still, what I warn people is about heating, breathing, etc products or materials which produce suspensions, aerosols, vapors for which we have little research or data.

  • myplacedk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    A little tip for when you try out different methods: Check the weight of the silica gel, to check your progress.

    For example: Take a container from the AMS, weigh it. Give it an hour in a food dehydrator. Weigh it. Repeat until weight no longer drops. Give it a couple hours or more in an oven that’s at least 100 °C. Then weight it again.

    Now you know how long it takes in the dehydrator, and how well it works.

    Later you can weigh it again, and compare to the weight out of the oven. Now you know how much water is in there.

  • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    I microwave mine in a ceramic bowl on 30-40% power (in an 800w unit) for 20-30min, stir and give it another 20-30min. That usually restores them to a dry state and doesn’t cause issues with overheating them.

    • PlasticExistence@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      This is the only way I’ve been successful with a microwave dry. For a standard 1000-1100 watt microwave, drop the power down to 20%.

      I normally toss them into my food dehydrator while I’m drying filament rolls though so I don’t need another step.