Electronics > Beginners
use cat litter to absorb humidity from instruments
malagas_on_fire:
I'm currently have weather with some humidity and the cheapo instruments such usb testers are very prone to fail if not kept with silica bags on the pouches.
Can i use socks and cat litter inside, locked with cable tie, to absorb humidity as an alternative to the silica bags? I'm out of silica bag
RoGeorge:
Don't know about the cat products, but used silica beads can be slowly re-dried in an oven, then reused many times.
kosine:
The material normally used is sodium poly-acrylate. You can also obtain it as water-gel crystals used by gardeners, and these tend to work better than the granules used in litter (and also certain baby products). I think this is because the litter granules are designed to retain the water, whereas the gardening stuff is designed to release it as well. So the formula seems to be different between the two. (I did some tests on this a couple of years ago...)
Sodium poly-acrylate is far more absorbent than silica and can also be dried out and reused. So, yes, you can put some in a sock and use them as suggested.
However, you really need to keep everything in an air-tight container. Otherwise it will just equilibriate to ambient humidity, and you may as well just leave the instruments out in the open.
Best way to redry the stuff is to put it on a baking tray at the bottom of an oven on low for an hour or two. It doesn't melt but can ignite above 200C. Don't try microwaving it.
dcbrown73:
I've used dry uncooked rice in a sandwich bag to absorb moisture from an electronic device before.
People commonly use rice in salt shakers to prevent the salt from clumping from humility.
kosine:
Yeah, I tried the rice trick during my research. Doesn't actually work very well.
Thing is, rice grows in paddy fields, where it's very wet. And if it readily picked up moisture, we wouldn't have to boil it...
My conclusion was that "rice" works depending on where you put it. Try it in a warm dry environment, and yes "rice" will appear to work. Try it in a cold & damp environment, it won't.
The sodium poly-acrylate, however, just works. You can literally dry stuff out in 24 hours - in a fridge at 5C.
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