[meteorite-list] RE: Desiccants

From: jbaxter112_at_pol.net <jbaxter112_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:17 2004
Message-ID: <27245.162.119.64.112.1051751010.squirrel_at_webmail.po.com>

Hi Ryan,

I bought a 6lb. can of silica gel a couple of years ago from Desiccare,
Inc. at www.desiccare.com. I think it was $18 then and it's $21 now. I
also bought a packet of their humidity indicator cards. By reheating the
silica to dry it out every two or three weeks I've been able to easily
keep several display cases at less than 10%RH with only that one time
expense of the can of silica gel, so I can vouch for the fact that silica
gel is economical and works great. I assume it is also pretty inert and is
unlikely to harm the meteorites (I'm not so sure about calcium chloride in
that regard. I'd suspect it might promote rusting. Some of the more
knowledgeable chemists on the list can probably comment on that.)

Regards,
Jim Baxter

> How about using activated clay or calcium chloride desiccant packets?
> Would any of you prefer using one of these types over silica gel? Any
> recommendations anyone?
>
> -Ryan
>
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Received on Wed 30 Apr 2003 09:03:30 PM PDT