OTHERS
Why You Should Never Throw Away Silica Gel Packs
Keep those corona test silica gel packs
Definition
Wikipedia explains that silica gel is a colorless, amorphous silicon dioxide of gel-like, rubbery to solid consistency.
It is very hydrophilic and suitable as a gelling medium, filter, adsorption material, and drying aid.
In short: silica gel helps to dry things or keep things dry
Warning “Do not eat”!
The warning is only to prevent confusion with food like sugar. Because even if the granules are completely non-toxic, they are not suitable for eating.
The industry even uses it to protect spices from moisture.
It is also sold as cat litter. Besides, they want to prevent people from leaving them lying around, so that babies and toddlers could choke on them.
7 Useful tips for silica gel
Silica gel has many uses to protect important and valuable items from damage caused by moisture and humidity. Here are my top 7:
1. Protect your devices
If you want to protect your cell phone, camera, tablet, or anything else from moisture and condensation while traveling, you should pack them in a plastic bag and put silica gel packets inside.
This can have a life-extending effect on your devices.
Even cell phones that get wet can be dried and saved with it, better than with rice, as some recommendations say.
2. Avoid odors and mold
Are you packing books, clothes, and old toys in the basement until the next garage sale?
Add a few packs to prevent odors or even mold from growing.
3. Minimize condensation
If you want to minimize or even prevent fogging of the windows in your car, put silica gel in the car.
Here, though, it should be a larger quantity, e.g. 1 kg, which you can buy on Amazon, for example.
Small packets of silica gel on the instrument panel can also achieve a good effect.
In the bathroom or on the windowsill, for example in the kitchen, silica gel minimizes the fogging of the windows and absorbs some moisture.
4. Use when traveling
When you travel, you can keep your medicines and spices dry with a few packets of silica gel.
5. Important documents
Do you have important documents, such as papers stored in boxes or old photos in a box in the attic or basement?
Add a few packets of silica gel, and they will remain undamaged.
6. After sports
It’s impossible to avoid packing sweaty sports clothes, damp towels, and smelly running shoes in your bag after a workout.
Silica gel binds moisture and odors.
7. After the rain
Did your shoes get wet in the rain?
Put in a few packets of silica gel, which dries them much faster than, for example, newspaper.
Wet clothes can also be dried a little faster with silica packs. Very helpful, especially when traveling.
Recharging your silica gel
Your silica gel packs can become saturated and lose the ability to absorb moisture.
Therefore, it is important to recharge those packages to get the maximum benefits.
Good news: they are reusable over 100 times!
- Preheat your oven to 120°C.
- Place the silica gel beads on a foil-lined baking sheet, either in the packs or empty them onto the tray. I prefer to leave them in the bags, as it prevents a huge mess. 😉
- Bake for 1.5 hours for every 850 grams of silica gel beads.
- Once your silica gel is cooled, store it in an airtight container until you need them.
Join with my link to get full access to all stories on Medium!
About Me — Iris B. Stehn ▪ Twitter ▪ Facebook
