Hi Roger and others,
I have about a pound-weight of silica gel, and as soon as it turns pink from
the "dry-state" blue, I warm up the oven in the kitchen to just under water
boiling-point and pop the gel in there for at least 30 minutes - until it turns
bright blue again, anyway.
As far as I know, the stuff can be re-cycled like this until it all crumbles to
dust. No need to discard the small packets if you want to use the gel again
and again. Once it's full of all the moisture it can absorb, it's not doing
anything useful re protecting your (camera, binoculars, whatever) from
moisture.
my $0.02 ..... Brian
> Regarding silica gel, is it not necessary to recharge it reasonable
> regularly by warming it up? In my local hardware store, I can buy a
> 'dehumidifier' that consists of a holder for a large bag of silica gel (I
> think), that sits over a water holder. Instructions are to replace the
> silica with a new refill when it begins to drip water into the water
> holder. That suggests that silica gel can get pretty wet once the original
> wrapping round a camera or lens box is removed.
> Anyone know the correct answer? I know that the small packets of gel often
> have instructions printed on them to throw them away.
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