Cheaper keezer moisture solution

To get a nice dry keezer environment, it's not necessary to spend $20-40 bucks on an evadry. The internals are only silica gel and a heating element. Far cheaper to buy bulk silica gel in the form of the newly-marketed crystal cat litter, dump it in a sack (for instance, an old pillow case), and dry it out every month or two by sticking it the sun or an oven at 150-200 degrees for a few hours (make sure your sack is not a synthetic fabric if you take the latter route). The nice thing about this solution too is that if you get a spill, you can stick the sack of silica gel directly on it and it absorbs it within a minute or so. You can rinse off the sack and dry it in the same way as above. My wife picked up a 4lb sack of silica gel (this one) from WM for $4 dollars. 4lbs is considerably more silica than even the largest Evadry.

Interesting. I know people use this stuff to humidify their humidors for cigars. You are using it to dry the air not release moisture into it.

j1n said:

Interesting. I know people use this stuff to humidify their humidors for cigars. You are using it to dry the air not release moisture into it.

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It says in the description that it ABSORBS moisture. I don't know how someone would use it to humidify anything?!?!?

kh54s10 said:

It says in the description that it ABSORBS moisture. I don't know how someone would use it to humidify anything?!?!?

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Well they do, and it works. The one the OP listed is in this thread on good kitty liter for humidors.

http://www.cigar.com/cs/forums/thread/660564.aspx

You spray it with RO water then you put it in your humidor and it releases moisture.

"Silica Gel" cat litter?
That's a new on on me!
It is usually "diatomaceous earth", like "speedi-dri" for absorbing oils spills, 'cept with a dust control agent, and sometimes a fragrance added.

Is it scented?.......( I clicked on the link, but nothing happened for me but a blank page!).


Edit: got it to work, sez it's "silica sand"...........Same stuff as silica gel?

Silica sand is the same thing as silica gel. They deem it "sand" because cats don't like to walk on granules above a certain small size. Pure marketing. It's the same stuff. The reason it works to release moisture in a humidor is that it absorbs so very much. 1 lb silica gel absorbs .81 lbs fluid, according to the product description. Under low heat, it will have a lot of moisture to release over time. The eva dry is probably a quarter of a pound of silica gel, to compare.

Oh, and no the stuff I got was not scented as far as I could tell.

fwiw, the eva-dry 500 weighs roughly 28 ounces before the shrink wrap is breached, and will hold just over 5 ounces of water before it's pretty much loaded. I'm going to guess the silica gel weighs around 8 ounces...

Cheers!

You can also pick up silica gel from craft stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby where they sell it for drying flowers. A bit pricier, though. We use it in our lab cooler at work in an open beaker. When we need to recharge it we microwave it for about 5 min.

Also I found this on some AR15 Forums:
"Here's the deal- most motorcycles are made in Japan, Yes? They are shipped to the U.S. in crates packed in "containers". These containers are of course exposed to saltwater air during transit as they simply sit stacked on a deck.

In order to ensure that they arrive without rust- these are new bikes- each one is "crated" with a dessicant bag about the size of a large tube sock. These are tossed at the dealership when the bikes are uncrated. A case of beer will get you in a month all the freaking dessicant- REAL dessicant you could ever use."

The cat litter works great, I made a tube last night with a hot glue gun and tossed it in, I had droplets on the walls of my fermentation chamber and this morning dry as a bone!
Thanks for the idea!

I'll definitely have to try this. I have one of the smaller eva-dry units in each of my 5 cu ft fermenter freezers and they can't keep up. I'm thinking that a sock filled with the stuff and tied off might make a simple solution.

Ha, I wish I had seen this last week before I ordered my Eva-dry....

I know what route to take next time though

Great Idea! Thanks for posting this!

I'm gonna have to try this too. My Eva can't keep up in the summer humidity. I really need to stop opening the keezer lid all the time.

I wish the ol' hag would let me move the keezer from the garage into the house.





Wait... She's in the house... Going to get some of this kitty litter now...

I picked up some of this to give it a try. I put it into a few panty hoses and placed them in my keezer. Haven't checked back on it yet. Just wondering if anyone sees an issue with using panty hose?


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forcabrew said:

I picked up some of this to give it a try. I put it into a few panty hoses and placed them in my keezer. Haven't checked back on it yet. Just wondering if anyone sees an issue with using panty hose?


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Anything washable and breathable. All your essentially doing is containing the crystals in something instead of putting them in a "litter box". Easier to move out of the way when your working in your FC.

Great Post, I am geting tired of sopping up the water in the bottom of my kezzer. Off to get some kitty litter.

forcabrew said:

I picked up some of this to give it a try. I put it into a few panty hoses and placed them in my keezer. Haven't checked back on it yet. Just wondering if anyone sees an issue with using panty hose?


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My wife said they are called knee highs. 33cents a pair at Walmart I filled 2 pairs so pretty inexpensive


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forcabrew said:

Just wondering if anyone sees an issue with using panty hose?

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I met her in a club down in old SoHo. Well she drank champagne, that tastes just like Coca Cola. C-O-L-A cola.

forcabrew said:

My wife said they are called knee highs. 33cents a pair at Walmart I filled 2 pairs so pretty inexpensive


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Well not to sound like a drag queen but knee-highs are only knee-high. Lol back in the day, women wore the ones that actually went all the way up over their panties. Hence the name "panty hoes". At least that's what my grandmother told me! Boom! Lol. They all work fine. Even socks, cut up t-shirt, beanie, muslin bag, ect...

Checked the keezer last night and its bone dry. This stuff works great


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He said "bone dry".........

Thanks for the idea. I have two Evadrys that are falling behind.

I'm going to have to try this

This is a great idea. And the litter is so cheap to replace that it makes reactivation "optional".

Great idea -- thank you! Going out for kitty litter today.

The Evadry unit simply sucks; total waste of money. Just can't keep up with the moisture, and I don't even live in a humid area.