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How Silica Gel Took Over the World

(www.scopeofwork.net)
225 points Hooke | 1 comments | 01 Apr 25 19:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.228s | source
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nvader ◴[01 Apr 25 20:18 UTC] No.43550901[source]▶
I didn't find this in the article, so:

You can "recharge" silical gel by baking in the oven at 120 C for a couple of hours. If you do, be careful to remove the casing before you do, unless it is heat safe.

I have a small collection of oven safe dessicant packs that I keep on hand for emergency drying electronics.

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Graziano_M ◴[01 Apr 25 20:37 UTC] No.43551082[source]▶
You can just microwave them too, on low power. It's much, much faster and power efficient.
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mrob ◴[01 Apr 25 20:45 UTC] No.43551140[source]▶
Also much harder to control. Oven drying has the advantage that you can set the temperature so there's no risk of overheating anything.
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lugvruzzle ◴[02 Apr 25 04:29 UTC] No.43553678[source]▶
is there any harm in overheating silica when drying it out?
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1. pumnikol ◴[02 Apr 25 17:12 UTC] No.43558919[source]▶
Pure silica? It's really just SiO2. It might kind of fragment/ burst if it has a lot of water absorbed and you heat it too fast. Then everything in the vicinity would get sprinkled with fine dust which you shouldn't inhale in large quantities, as it might cause silicosis.