humidity absorbing packets Art Morris recommends

[neverspook]

Hi all,

Some time back, Artie Morris mentioned some humidity absorbing packets in his email Bulletin. These apparently do not need to be refreshed in any way and are reportedly very effective. He says he keeps them in his camera bag all the time.

Unfortunately I can't find where I wrote down the name/website for this product and can't seem to find it in Artie's archived Bulletins.

I am hoping someone here can tell me what the name of this product is and/or a website to it.

Thanks,
Roberta Olenick
Vancouver, BC
http://www.neverspook.com

[Paul Skoczylas]

I can't imagine a humidity absorbing pack that needs no refreshment (unless it's disposable)...

But I'd have a look at http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=53828&cat=1,43326. There are a couple of Lee Valley stores in the Vancouver area you should be pick these up at.

-Paul

[Jia Liu]

This is what he uses http://www.zorb-it.com .

[dougc]

Hmmmm....

[neverspook]

Thanks, Jia. Zorb-it, that's what I was thinking of.

Roberta Olenick
Vancouver, BC
www.neverspook.com

[Joe Elliott]

I bought 6 of the 4"X4" packets after I read Artie's e-mail bulletin. They are very reasonable in price with free shipping. I keep one in my shoulder bag, one in my backpack and one in my laptop bag. They never need to be re-conditioned and last forever. I really like them, the perfect answer to the age old problem of moisture and humidity..........Here's the link, you must order direct from their website and they accept PayPal.

http://www.zorb-it.com/Scripts/prodList ... Category=2

[James Stephens]

Artie promotes Zorb-It in the #298 bulletin and mentions therein that he will soon be switching to Zorb-It Ci.

http://www.zorb-it.com/usermods/faq.asp ... iTM%20work
"Zorb-It Ciâ„¢ works in exactly the same way as Zorb-It but then adds a third unique chemistry to the process of controlling relative humidity and maintaining it at the daily average"

I went with Zorb-It Ci from the get go.

[Ken Kovak]

Typical "adsorbent packets", e.g.: silica gel or molecular sieve, require heat to be "regenerated" or some materials can be regenerated in a microwave oven.

The only way this stuff works is if periodically, i.e.: daily, the Zorb-It packet is placed into a lower relative humidity environment. That, for example would be your home or hotel room with the air conditioning running. But if you are out in a high humidty environment for a couple of days in a row this material will stop adsorbing moisture probably after 12-24 hours or so.

The same idea holds if you are in a very dry environment for an extneded period. After a while the Zorb-It will stop giving up the mositure it holds unless it is placed in an environment with enough humidity for it to adorb mositure from it's surroundings.

Ken

[ejmartin]

Somebody here pointed me to this site:

http://www.silicagelpackets.com/

came in very handy in Costa Rica

[Steve Fines]

I remember those packets Artie recommended.

It seems that to lower humidity in your camera bag, the packet has to take a water molecule out of the air and somehow "fix" it to the packet, so it can no longer contribute to humidity.

How can a packet do this by chemical means and not become saturated?

If it was battery powered and producing H2 and O2 I suppose it would not become saturated, but that is clearly not the case here.

If it really does work then great, but I just don't see how a chemical packet could be everlasting and not need recharging or replacing.

[Scott Fairbairn]

I remember those packets Artie recommended.

It seems that to lower humidity in your camera bag, the packet has to take a water molecule out of the air and somehow "fix" it to the packet, so it can no longer contribute to humidity.

How can a packet do this by chemical means and not become saturated?

If it was battery powered and producing H2 and O2 I suppose it would not become saturated, but that is clearly not the case here.

If it really does work then great, but I just don't see how a chemical packet could be everlasting and not need recharging or replacing.

I believe it works like a capacitor or reservoir, it absorbs during periods of high humidity, then releases the moisture when the humidity is lower. That way it gets around the "refreshing" that others require.

[Steve Fines]

I believe it works like a capacitor or reservoir, it absorbs during periods of high humidity, then releases the moisture when the humidity is lower. That way it gets around the "refreshing" that others require.

I see.

So if one were going to be in a high humidity environment for any extended period of time these would become saturated and ineffective.

[James Stephens]

According to http://www.zorb-it.com/usermods/technicalinfo.asp, under "How Zorb-It granules control Relative Humidity?":

Zorb-It conservatively has a 1,000% greater capacity to absorb water vapor than silica gel.

[Scott Fairbairn]

I believe it works like a capacitor or reservoir, it absorbs during periods of high humidity, then releases the moisture when the humidity is lower. That way it gets around the "refreshing" that others require.

I see.

So if one were going to be in a high humidity environment for any extended period of time these would become saturated and ineffective.

That would seem to be the implication.

[Ken Kovak]

So if one were going to be in a high humidity environment for any extended period of time these would become saturated and ineffective.

That's exactly right! Based on their description you have about 12 hours before it becomes saturated and will need to be placed in a lower humidity environment so it can "regenerate".

Ken

[signgrap]

So if one were going to be in a high humidity environment for any extended period of time these would become saturated and ineffective.

That's exactly right! Based on their description you have about 12 hours before it becomes saturated and will need to be placed in a lower humidity environment so it can "regenerate".

Ken

Ken, So would you be able to regenerate these in an oven or air conditioned environment?
If yes I assume that it would take as long to regenerate to a dry state as it took to become saturated providing the difference in relative humidity was same.

[billwright]

The humidity absorbing packets are called Silica Gel Packets... you can find all types of Silica Gel based information and products here:

http://www.silicagelpackets.com/

[George DeCamp]

Ken, So would you be able to regenerate these in an oven or air conditioned environment?
If yes I assume that it would take as long to regenerate to a dry state as it took to become saturated providing the difference in relative humidity was same.

I am certainly no authority on this stuff but when I did a lot if diving we would put silica packs in our camera housings. After a while they did get "used up" or saturated. What we were told is throw them in the microwave and dry them out....then good as new. Always did that and they worked fine. Perhaps we never needed them to begin with though...who knows!

[Ken Kovak]

Ken, So would you be able to regenerate these in an oven or air conditioned environment?
If yes I assume that it would take as long to regenerate to a dry state as it took to become saturated providing the difference in relative humidity was same.

I do not know if this material would stand up to being regenerated at temperature in an oven. The relative humidity in a warm or hot oven is certainly less than ambient, but again higher temps may be problematic for the adsorbent they are using.

The maufacturers description says it "regenerates" in a lower relative humidity environment, which an air conditioned room likely would provide. As far as the time for this to happen, as this is clearly an "equilibrium" process, I suspect the times are very similar given simialr differences in the humidity.

Ken

[Joe Elliott]

I do not believe that these packets should ever be put in a microwave oven for any reason. I purchased 6 of them and one side is smooth, thin plastic material and the other side is a permeable paper material. A microwave oven would totally destroy the packet by either melting the plastic or igniting the paper sides and heaven forbid what might happen to the substance inside the packet. These packets never have to be re-generated and they last forever according to the manufacturer. Go to their website and learn all about this new product for yourself. This new product IS NOT a silica gel product, it is something new and totally different, in that it never needs to be re-generated like silica gel does.

www.zorb-it.com