Silica gel desiccant showdown - normal versus crystal cat litter

[@slaur42]

The difference is actually in the pore size of the silica gel. The type that is meant to absorb moisture has smaller pores (Wikipedia says about 2.5 nm), while the liquid absorbent type has pores of 4.5 - 7.0 nm.

[@BluntUnicorns]

Thank you :)

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

Point to note unless you have the desiccant in an air tight container the moisture will be immediately replaced! So have one of those units for every 4 cubic meters inside your house and have your house sealed inside a plastic device(never open it!) or otherwise dont bother!

[@BrettCooper4702]

Could the cat silica be refined? Baked at 420f for 42mins?

[@sleeptyper]

@@BrettCooper4702 I bake my cat litter at 100 Celsius for one hour when drying my 3D filament desiccants. Same goes with the bead bags that come with every spool.

[@sleeptyper]

@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 "This easy trick that carbon dioxide sellers don't want you to know."

[@NiddNetworks]

Only Clive answers the burning questions that I didn't want to know - and still makes an entertaining, interesting and watchable video. How many 8K cameras does he use? How many staff? How many TB or PB of storage does he have to store the raw footage? How many massively powerful editing workstations? NONE. It's just Clive, a laptop, a phone, and a mic.... oh and his hand-built studio lights! Honestly, on the "watchability" scale, Clive's videos BEAT a lot of the more elaborate setups for me.

[@tuttocrafting]

I'm still wondering if he is using his self made hat-microphone!

[@NiddNetworks]

@@tuttocrafting I had to mic a guy at an event, he had a baseball cap on, so the lavalier was clipped to the peak. I thought of Clive when I did it!!

[@TradieTrev]

You've summed up his channel so well!

[@jack15900]

dont forget the pen and paper instead of a powerpoint graph thing

[@squelchstuff]

Yep, Clives low key production does not affect the quality of content. Glossy presentations are fine and all, but the content is what brings me back here and several other channels too.

[@TechGorilla1987]

@2:30 - "90 grams which is 90 ml." Since I started using borosilicate beakers in my kitchen for cooking - like chemistry beakers and such - it dawned on me that I now, as I am much older, wish we had have been taught the metric system. Weighing/measuring quantities is far more intuitive with the metric system.

[@jeremiahbullfrog9288]

It's also much easier to scale a recipe ... I've started converting all of my ingredient lists to gram weights

[@JLneonhug]

There is a caveat. 90ml = mg is in reference to water. Anything more dense isn't strictly applicable and would need some tweaking to the weight.

[@TechGorilla1987]

@@JLneonhugI understand. It's more the general concept that helped me evolve. My wife and I just had a lengthy conversation about dry vs wet weight. She still doesn't get it. I do all the cooking.

[@j.f.christ8421]

@@jeremiahbullfrog9288 Yeah, cook by weight. Don't use volume as it can be inaccurate due to things like flour being compressed etc. Sifted is bigger than straight from the bag and so on.

[@jeremiahbullfrog9288]

@@j.f.christ8421 Flour can still be inaccurate due to moisture content... although I think in typical kitchens it's not a huge deal. I can't imagine a bread recipe written in Arizona to work the same in Florida though lol.. Overall I find weighing everything to be much more convenient and repeatable!

[@petermoore9504]

It might be worth comparing the price per gramme of water absorbed as well.

[@herrpez]

I just checked and it seems like the difference is rather significant. The cheapest beads I could find on Amazon cost me around €15 for 1 kg. Conversely, 5 kg of cat sand (the silica gel variety, obviously) was only approximately €10, which breaks down to €2 for 1 kg. Seems like cat sand wins the day on a price to performance ratio.

[@BerkeleyTowers]

@@herrpez but then you need more units to store the greater volume to acheive the same result........ but, it's good info to know............. cos then you can make choices.......

[@ZeroPointAlpha]

@@BerkeleyTowers True, but if it absorbs a third what the beads do, but you get 8 times the amount for the same price, that's still a significant amount of drying capacity.

[@DUKE_of_RAMBLE]

​@@ZeroPointAlpha But having more dehumidifier units running will also mean more power used. So I'd think it might be a wash in terms of cost at the end of a month or year. _(or I could be wrong, which is just as likely lol)_

[@jameslawrence8734]

@@DUKE_of_RAMBLEYou don't necessarily need a dehumidifier. Leaving it in open air in a closet you wanted to keep drier or a firearms safe to prevent rusting will result in it having a passive effect. I'm actually going to be looking into doing this as a way to keep my firearms in a less humid environment.

[@tammyhollandaise]

Neat! I did some experiments in our prototyping lab with two quart jars of cat litter. When I put the fresh, out of the bag crystals in a sealed box, the humidity climbed by more than 20%; if you're going to dry anything, you've got to cook your crystals.

[@bertjesklotepino]

i used the cat litter silica gel for a very different purpose. first i used a coffee grinder to grind it to dust. And then i used it to cover up flowers. White roses. The flower piece of my father's funeral. And you know what happened? It dried perfectly. The leaves of the flowers dried without much change of color. The only thing is that you have to be careful with that dust. You do not want to breath any of it in. Plus, the flower has to be covered all the way, including in between the leaves of the flower. But, the result is very nice. If you make sure you dry it out completely, you can put such a piece of art in clear epoxy and it will last for ever. Just an idea for the cat litter stuff.

[@bertjesklotepino]

btw, reason for using the cat litter gel is because it was cheaper and easier to get from a store around the corner. I do not know if it makes a difference if you were to use the other stuff. But my experience is that the cat litter stuff is good enough for drying out flowers so you can preserve em for a very long time, and the leaves do not crumple up or discolor much. Sure, they always discolor a bit. I guess unavoidable.

[@TechGorilla1987]

I'm in the middle of a 2 hours Border Control show and I stop everything for a Clive video. One of the few creators left that I am actually invested in and who generally makes me feel like my watching and interacting means something to him. Never change, Clive.

[@conto7032]

I would love more videos like this, commercial vs "DIY" solutions.

[@curtishoffmann6956]

BigClive isn't droll, he just has a dry humor.

[@retromodernart4426]

It seems to have just gotten drier, after Big Clive spent all that time with the desiccants...

[@tactileslut]

The less dry ones come out on Saturdays, if I remember correctly. Until then, Patrick Boyle, and don't look away.

[@POVwithRC]

​@@tactileslut Boyle Appreciator 🫡💰

[@goodun2974]

The puns are just pore-ing out from this thread!

[@jessl1934]

Droll doesn't mean what you think it means

[@jeremyboyce7921]

Clive: asking all of the hard-hitting scientific questions, and offering up his own blend of humor along the way!

[@Multi-Skill-Bill]

That is such useful information!! I have kept those little packets for years, they are so useful. I take a plastic bottle of various sizes, drill some holes in it and fill it with the little packets. I have them in my gun safe, tool boxes, anywhere moisture can corrode something of value. To date, this method has worked flawlessly for me! Great video!

[@nnamerz]

Don't forget that once silica gel is fully saturated, it will no longer be able to absorb moisture. See my other comment which includes a bunch of other tips & also how to regenerate the silica gel so they can be reused again.

[@Multi-Skill-Bill]

@@nnamerz absolutely!

[@sleeptyper]

I use the crystal cat litter in my 3D filament storage box and i have been quite happy with it. It dries very well in a tabletop oven. It's in a box that has stainless steel mesh glued to cover the air holes, because that type of silica sheds off some amounts of sand that can be nasty to handle. For the drying, i transfer it to an aluminium food container that you get when you buy prepared food. A hygrometer on the storage lid tells me when it's time to dry all the desiccants - i also reuse the bead bags i get with every filament roll.

[@j.f.christ8421]

That's what I use it for. And storing powder-coat powders. (Of course powder-coat powders are powders, stoopid language.)

[@Guardian_Arias]

I like calcium chloride commonly known as "DampRid" it can be found for less than 2 usd per pound and it auto dissolves into the water it traps, giving you a visual indicator of when it has absorbed all the water it can. If you wanted too you could reuse it by boiling the brine water it turns into but its so cheap it might be more cost-effective to simply buy more calcium chloride depending on where you live. It keeps my nylon absolutely pop free.

[@shuypnini9715]

it will be interesting to run the experiment again with the cat litter crushed to a smaller crystals. it will allow to fit more, and increase the surface area.

[@Thermalions]

Would it increase the amount of moisture absorbed (given Clive already waited until full saturation was achieved), or just increase the rate of absorption thus quicker arrival at full saturation? I'm thinking the latter.

[@aerogfs]

@@Thermalions The point would be bigger crystals give bigger empty gaps between crystals. The beads are smaller, so not as much air between beads.

[@RFC3514]

The difference is in the pore size. Crushing cat litter into smaller crystals will make it work _faster,_ but it won't make it adsorb significantly more moisture.

[@kcgunesq]

@@RFC3514 Except, if you could get more mass of crystals into the same space, wouldn't that allow it to absorb more water?

[@RFC3514]

@@kcgunesq ​ - It's not really the _mass_ that matters (otherwise everyone would be using the finest possible silica powder, or blocks of solid silica), it's the total surface area. Solid balls of silica would have higher _mass_ but wouldn't do much in terms of trapping moisture. The way these crystals work, the "outer" surface area is just a small percentage of the total (and doesn't trap moisture as well as the interior). What really matters is how many holes they have, and how small those holes are. Silica doesn't absorb liquids, it _adsorbs_ them (meaning they collect on its surface). Crushing the cat litter into smaller crystals might allow (slightly) more efficient packing and slightly faster adsorption, but that won't change their internal hole structure, which is what really matters.

[@zebrasprite]

My cat watched this with great interest. Mushroom the cat is now a Big Clive fan, I do believe.

[@tncorgi92]

Give Mushroom some pats for us

[@mySeaPrince_]

🐾🐾🐾 🐈 💖

[@readmorebooksidiots]

It has everything a cat would want. Litter reviews, and crinkly bags moving across the screen

[@goodun2974]

Dried Mushroom go great in soups and stews.....(just kidding of course; I like cats, and cats have owned my wife and I in the past, but my current pack of dogs won't tolerate cats).

[@Jimmy_Jones]

I don't like Mushrooms. Sorry for the offence.

[@KeanM]

I suspect the crystal cat litter is optimized for capturing liquid (urine) rather than extracting moisture from the air. Maybe to compare this take 100g of each and pour water over them (or submerse in a container of water), then drain the excess water with a sieve, and measure the final weights.

[@lasskinn474]

smaller bead size helps with the air contact. I'd like to see the normal bentonite test too. it depends on air moisture how it behaves to a big degree (we go through 150 kilos of the bentonite litter a month give or take few tens of kilos. I haven't come up with something to do with it other than have the garbage guys take it away so if anyone has recycling ideas I'm all pis I mean ears)

[@bigoldgrizzly]

@@lasskinn474 is your cats name 'Sir Krapalot ' ?? .... or perhaps it is a tiger ? ;

[@SigEpBlue]

Interesting results, Clive. FWIW, I save most of the silica gel packets I come across, usually in medication bottles, in (relatively) airtight glass jars. After gentle baking, I then use them to keep my collection of old carbon composition resistors as dry as possible, also in glass jars. It's been working wonderfully for many years.

[@inverse2k1]

Thank you, you earned a new subscriber here. Short video, very effective, high information density, straight to the point. Exactly what I was looking for, without added fluff.

[@keithjurena9319]

Silica gel is technically a surface effect so it is adsorption, not absorption. I was corrected by a professor decades ago on this very subject. Larger pore size results in less surface area per unit mass or volume. Synthetic zeolite molecular sieves are rated in pore size in Angstroms.

[@twocvbloke]

I remember our trying that silica cat litter, and the cats at the time used it once and refused to use it again owing to the noise it made as they peed on it, proper rice krispies type sounds... :P

[@ferrumignis]

We have used it, it works well for controlling smells but it's very expensive and I hate the amount of hard, scratchy granules the little sods kick out onto the wood floor.

[@DJ-es8go]

The issue we have had with them is that our cats have particularly sensitive paw pads, and the crystals have uncomfortably sharp edges. I don't know about you but I might not choose to stand barefoot on broken glass whilst urinating either.

[@fluffdrgn]

@@ferrumignis Try wood pellets! you can find them cheap and they're much cleaner than the regular litters

[@aaronmdjones]

Imagine feeling like you're urinating on a series of landmines... I'd stop doing that too!

[@hippopotamus86]

I've tried using it. I prefer the toilet however.

[@Alan_AB]

Another factor to consider are 1. How easy is it to purchase each product? and 2. What is the cost of 100g of each product? Great video, Clive.

[@5ergei]

I think the key factors for cat litter material is how well it is suited for cats (i.e. do their feet sink into it etc.), and how easily it can be cleaned by the cat's slave. This can result in very different characteristics than in most other use purposes for silica.

[@janisvaskevics93]

Great video! I also use cat litter, because no restriction of volume and price difference is way more than 3 times.

[@Subgunman]

Surface area of the crystals compared to the beads. What happens if one crushes the cat litter crystals to the size f the beads, if possible. Theoretically you could fit more crystals into the same volume since there will be less space between the smaller pieces. You can also purchase desiccant crystals in craft stores used for drying flowers. These are the fraction of the size of your standard beads. They too can be recharged in the oven but require to be placed on a tray since they are so fine unless you want to sew them into a cotton bag. So far cat litter crystals have worked fine for me in storing dry goods for food usage.

[@terrym1065]

Well, the experiment came to the conclusion that, yes, silica gel cat litter works as a moisture absorber just not as efficient as dense silica gel. Good job Clive 👍👍

[@VikingRul3s]

Thank you so much for this test! I've always wondered why/if it's worth spending 10-15x more on the beads. Thanks to you we now know the answer, which unfortunately would be a "it depends"

[@zh84]

Excellent experiment! This would have done in my day for a project in SYS Chemistry.

[@Charun1982]

Interesting. I store my 3D printing filaments with desiccants and oven dried silica cat litter keeps the moisture at a steady 10% RH, where as the round silica beads keep another container at 19% RH (same temperature), though i haven't dried the beads yet, as the indicators are still bright orange.

[@fouzaialaa7962]

i dont have easy access to the silica get to keep my 3D printer filament dry this might be an alternative , i just have to put in double the weight !! thx clive, and may your 3D print's always succeed

[@tarakivu8861]

No easy access? I can just buy kilos of that stuff online.

[@fouzaialaa7962]

@@tarakivu8861 your not in butt fuck nowhere africa where shipping costs more then the product itself !!! africa is BIG , bigger then the maps actually portrays it

[@shabath]

​@@tarakivu8861Amazon isn't that common in Europe, it is there but it can get expensive.

[@621pw]

I use the kitty litter in my vehicle over the winter to absorb excess moisture. I put some in a tray, or if I'm feeling particularly adventurous I fill a boot sock and hang it from the coat hook. Seems to work well - thanks for the quantification!

[@michaelfisher9671]

Moisture absorbing ability per unit cost might also be interesting.

[@dcallan812]

Very interesting, now I think you need to test Silica gel as cat litter. Great video 2x👍

[@cnt369]

Thank you for confirming this. I have some keepsakes I want to store with some desiccant, but the real stuff is so expensive in bulk that I was looking for other options.

[@Jawst]

I have been using Wilko silica cat litter for a very long time and it's brilliant stuff!

[@rmun386]

Was surprised to see the return of the Wilko brand. It seems to now be part of the Range company.

[@RobDucharme]

3:39 I wanted to make sort of a "slab coffin." The purpose of it would be to place a non-seasoned wood slab inside, dump silica gel all over it, and then close up the "coffin" (think crate, I guess). And then see how much faster you could safely season a wood slab by pulling out moisture for turning into shelves or tables. I wanted to use the silica cat litter, but I can see that would probably be a waste of time. If I can find the silica gel beads in bulk, that would be idea.

[@brapamaldi]

I use the cat litter in porous fabric bags to chuck into all my shoes/boots to stop them from growing bacteria and smelling bad. it works a treat. of the 5 pairs of shoes/boots I use it in only one has developed a smell in the past 2/3 years and its only because they are my motorbike boots that got a bit soaked when i put a foot down during a river crossing.

[@phils4634]

If you need pretty dry, calcium chloride is the way to go - its water absorption is impressive, but it is a one way process, since you can't recharge the crystals. An alternative is molecular sieve - that is fully rechargeable (although at higher temperatures), and substantially out-performs silica gel in both speed of absorption and final (residual) humidity. Nevertheless pretty interesting, and something I too had heard of, but thought was one of those modern day myths. Thanks for sharing this with us all Mr BC!

[@whynotdean8966]

Well you can "recharge" calcium chloride, it just takes more heat than the beads.

[@tarakivu8861]

I think if you need constantly low humidity, you can also use a solid state electric dehumidifier. See a video from clive from 5 years ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJLFomCpa5d8jK8 Though the cost of these might shock you a bit.

[@Woffy.]

Me thinks it also produces acetylene when wet ? . @@whynotdean8966

[@npiper]

@@tarakivu8861 wouldn't surprise me, a small town near me tore one of those membranes in their water treatment plant and were on bottled water for something like two months while a new membrane was shipped from somewhere in eastern europe...

[@squelchstuff]

@@tarakivu8861Stephan at CNC Kitchen channel recently picked up on the solid state dehumidifiers after seeing that video. They are not cheap, but with greater exposure (public as opposed to specialist engineering) the cost might come down as economy of scale the more people start buying them.

[@fookingsog]

I used to setup and repair copy machines. The new copy machines came packed with bags of silica gel beads as big as my fist!!! 😮 As far as "recharging" goes, I always nuke the bags in the microwave for a bit, but not too long to drive out the moisture!!! There was always steam and evaporated water that I had to let dry off before putting back into the microwave for another heat up cycle!!!

[@tarakivu8861]

That will probably heat them up too much, recommended is convection at 120°C (thats what the manufacturer of my silica gel recommends)

[@Woffy.]

Correct, I learnt this trying to dry my socks in the beam box and that didn't work very well. @@tarakivu8861

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Have used silica cat litter in the past to dry things in the past and in a sock in my old car to stop the windows steaming up. Worked well enough for those jobs imo.

[@Paul-FrancisB]

Hi Clive, the correct word is adsorbent not absorbent 🙂 I have spent may years in the gas processing industry correcting that typo, so unfortunately triggered. It is an interesting example of a mini temperature swing adsorber tower. Most of the surface area for adsorption is internal micro pores rather than external, the pore sizes varying dependent on manufacturing processes. I am not an expert on kitty litter but it is produced via a more "cost effective" manufacturing process that yields fewer, but and larger internal pores hence the lower density and lower capacity W/W.

[@RFC3514]

The larger pores are deliberate. It's meant to trap liquid quickly.

[@grahammilnes7256]

In this case, absorb is correct. Adsorb has a different meaning. Look it up if you don’t believe me.

[@RFC3514]

@@grahammilnes7256 - No, it very much isn't. Everyone understands what it means, but silica *adsorbs,* it doesn't _absorb._

[@grahammilnes7256]

@@RFC3514 Technical you are correct. I think someone could be forgiven for saying that the porous beads of silica material absorb (hold) water. Just my opinion.

[@ralphj4012]

I love the way a KatKin cat food ad precedes the Clive vid. I suspect that Gourmet cats prefer real silica gel, over to Clive for that test (with proper fluids).

[@anyheck]

A nice way to make your own dessicant packs is to get Tyvek polyolefin mailing envelopes and fill them up. Like its use in a house wrap it is vapor permeable.

[@fxm5715]

Where I live, desiccant beads cost about 3.5x as much as the cat litter version by weight. It works out to be roughly twice as cost effective to use the cat litter, if volume isn't an issue. But for size and space saving, the beads win.

[@JamesTK]

Those silica gel packs are the perfect snack

[@gordslater]

they might be a bit too filling

[@freakyjason477]

"Donut Eat"

[@olsmokey]

Crunchy too.

[@assassinlexx1993]

When place right. It stops diarrhea😮

[@_SurferGeek_]

These types of soft crystals are also used in cheap cigar humidifiers. The problem I've found with the cat litter type is that when it absorbs moisture the crystals tends to adhere to themselves and even when dried, they stay stuck together, unlike the traditional silica gel beads don't. Subsequent uses of the cat crystals stop working as efficiently.

[@therealchayd]

Thankyou, that was an unexpected result!

[@paulsaulpaul]

In the US (and maybe elsewhere), Special Kitty Scooping Clumping in the white 14 lb jug. It's a bit more expensive than some of the other stuff, but it puts off no dust. I mean like, no dust at all even after being used for a month and being dumped into the trash, or when brand new and pouring into the box. One jug fills a standard litter box. Never puts off a smell. Appears to be a combination of silica and clay, but I've not inspected it before.

[@marcdraco2189]

Oooo I get 'ard when Big Clive shows his working! Love this guy.

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

As ever it's very interesting you're the best Clive

[@ReadGospelOfJohn]

I did use crystal litter to keep my lenses dry. In terms of silica gel. This is just one of few substances used as descent. I've seen kind of clay granules too, I wonder how those would work in your dehumidifier.

[@theman83744]

Information I'd never use and would never have guessed how much I want to hear about. Great video! :D

[@wisher21uk]

Really interesting investigation Clive never even thought of cat litter being useful thanks 😊

[@denispol79]

Thanks, I was using cat litter crystals for my astronomy camera internal desiccant with similar results. It was sufficient for only two nights of observation, compared to almost a week when using the crystals recommended by the camera brand. But at 1/10th the price, It was worth it. Also the cat crystals I found were much smaller then yours, about only twice the size of regular desiccant beads.

[@Paxmax]

The beads are normally handled in such a way as to remain "unused" until deployment. With cat litter maybe regular moisture isn't a big part of product function. Maybe cat litter must be re-dried before use?

[@f-s-r]

It makes sense. I suppose that it only absorbs moisture on the holes it has on the surface, and the same volume of small beads have a lot more surface area than that of the larger crystals.

[@ladedk]

Super relevant! I recently bought a pack of silica kitty litter to get rid of humidity in my car. I'm not super impressed with the results, but maybe I just need to get another bag....

[@PhDLunaticUK]

The beads have a much greater surface area for adsorption to occur on than the larger crystals- assuming all the beads are identical, and all the crystals are, it would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between particle surface area and water uptake, rather than just by mass

[@djayers]

You the man. I've seen that cat litter, but knew nothing. I live in a leaky house, full of electronic toys, wettiness is an issue. This past couple of weeks it's been pouring, I've had a dehumidier running 24/7 in music room. Some bags of the kitty stuff inside gear might help.

[@AB-Prince]

for the cat litter, I would assume it's more optimised for capilary action to absorb liquid that has pooled up, whereas silica gel is designed to absorb atmospheric moisture which the cat litter would also do if only to block bad smells.

[@ahmeterhanarik]

i am so in love with your work.

[@ralphshoop8822]

Other than cost/effectiveness, I tried using cat litter silica and (at least the type I bought) where it is cracked rather than in beads it is quite a bit messier to deal with tiny shards of the silica falling out of your container every time it is handled.

[@bigclivedotcom]

When I filled the container, it was very dusty

[@springwoodcottage4248]

Fabulously concise, clear & useful. Thank you!

[@Mike_5]

Wow this is mind bending i never knew such a consumer test was a thing but it is good 😄

[@theoriginalbabycub]

When you think about it chemically, crystals have water of crystallisation associated with them, thats what allows them to have a crystalline structure. The amount of water absorbed by crystals is thus going to absorb less water rather than the amorphous beads which dont have water already in their composition.

[@bertkooijmans4769]

Thanks clive this is really usefull to know for 3d printing folks and dehumidifier folks as well

[@d.t.4523]

I didn't know there was a substitute. Great job! Thanks, keep working. Good luck.

[@PaddyGilroy]

Nice one Clive simple as that. Entertaining, factual, and information I didnt know I needed. I love this kinda shit.

[@Gazr965]

The cat litter stuff may be formulated for direct wetting from cat pee and not as strong as to absorb ambient humidity from the air before the cat has used it perhaps. Gaz Yorkshire.

[@chrism2964]

Luckily I can get about 50-100g of silica gel a day from work if I need it because one of the products we use comes with 25g packs inside. I collected about 2kg of it for my 3D printing filament storage boxes, and it works well once dried in a low oven. Never been convinced that its of any use for an actual house though, it doesn't absorb anything like enough to do anything useful in open air.

[@jezko1976]

The difference in material plays some role, but shape do as well. Sphere has largest surface (compared to other shapes with same volume). If you compare total surface (which can absorb moisture from air) of many small spheres to total surface of less larger cubes (or prisms), you'll see masive difference.

[@NoHandleToSpeakOf]

Sphere as a shape, have the least surface for a given volume. But I agree that small size and large number can compensate that.

[@jezko1976]

@@NoHandleToSpeakOf So I mixed that up. Thank you for checking.

[@shawnsg]

​@@jezko1976also for what it's worth most of the surface area comes from the internal pores.

[@sixtyfiveford]

Good info

[@o0OMouseO0o]

The smell is going get a bit funky if you're going to be recharging the used silica gel cat litter.

[@bigclivedotcom]

Just smoke that poop off.

[@TechGorilla1987]

LMFAO!

[@psirvent8]

Maybe someone else already mentioned it by now but it makes sense to me that cat litter doesn't absorb as much ambient moisture as beads because if it did it could get already saturated by the point the cat makes use of it.

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

It would be interesting to see if it is a surface area issue. A quick few minutes with pestle and mortar would reduce both down to a consistent size.

[@chrishartley1210]

Surface area is probably a significant issue but while the beads are presumably pure silica gel, it is quite likely that the crystals have a proportion of other things such as deodorants. A worthwhile test nonetheless.

[@squib308]

It's hard to bust up silica gel pellets - they're very hard and tend to shoot out of your mortar and pestle. I imagine the cat litter would be much easier to bust up. The silica gel shas a huge surface area. Dunno what's in the cat litter but it could just be bigger pellets of silica gel - and or mixed with other stuff

[@franktuckwell196]

We used kitty litter on BR train stations, for absorbing 'Bodily fluids', spilled by humans who had "biological mishaps", on our platforms and concourses. Aso good for dropped bottles of red wine, but they left teratzo floors with a grey stain which we then treated with neat bleachand then neutral shoe polish, left the floor spotless.

[@Hitstrekker]

Excellent research Sir thank you !

[@barrieshepherd7694]

Would it be possible to smash the cat litter crystals into smaller pieces, increasing the surface area for absorption? Or are they too 'rubbery'?

[@bigclivedotcom]

They are hard.

[@mattmanyam]

Silica is not silicone.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

@@mattmanyam ?????????

[@thefixitgal]

I use the Compressed wood pellets for Horse bedding. You get a 25Kg bag for 9.00Cad. changing the pan once every 5 days a bag will last 2 months. Its also safe for the kitties, Its bio friendly, Smells great and cleans out way nicer than the Beads

[@kendexter]

i got a dog and none of this problems but i watch it anyway,, interesting and good vids like always

[@V8-friendly]

I, as a retired electronic engineer, always like your scientific approach when looking into something. This time, something that didn’t require a schematic 🐈. We have a cat, and it always amazes me, how much cat pee that clay type litter can absorb without starting to release any smell - quite impressive.

[@Aaron48219]

Thanks BC! I've been wondering about this for the last few years. Any photographer will tell you that desiccant is a must for lens storage.

[@Scodiddly]

My question is whether the cat litter is significantly cheaper.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It's easier to get.

[@j.f.christ8421]

My question is don't you have Google? For the lazy, the answer is yes.

[@DelticEngine]

I like the way Clive takes the trouble to convert the modern standard units to those from antiquity. It's hard to imagine people using such strange and archaic units in the present day...

[@bigclivedotcom]

I actually use both interchangeably. Whichever fits the application.

[@DelticEngine]

@@bigclivedotcom Up until about around 35 years ago, I did the same. Then I went exclusively metric as it is much simpler, faster and more accurate for calculations when it comes to designing and fabricating precision parts. If I come across something from the old days the I consider might useful at some point, then I will convert it to metric. If both units are used on a data or specification sheet, then I would expect the primary units to be metric.

[@markdeghoul5879]

Thank you for answering this bro👍

[@doifhg]

that's pretty interesting, it's definately good to see the numbers. I feel ot's a bit like occum's razor, like the silica gel manufacturers might have changed their products if they where better one way or the other, I'm gonna guess whoever designed them crunched the numbers too

[@inbillsmind3048]

Over 29000 views on cat litter this is the peek of your career , grate vid 👍👍

[@pr0xZen]

I've had really good experience using calcium chloride. It's not practical to dehydrate so consider it a consumable (it's inert so disposal of "spent" material as waste is unproblematic). It liquifies when it absorbs a lot of moisture so this must be accounted for with choice of container, application in mobile circumstances etc. But unlike silica gel it can absorb up to 7 times its own weight, and its absorption rate increases exponentially with relative humidity increase. It absorbs moisture down to a much lower RH level than silica gel too (at least that's my experience). It's also dirt cheap.

[@CapnKetchup]

Very good review! Thank you!

[@PuchMaxi]

Nice experiment Clive!

[@alexa.davronov1537]

This is really nice experiment. Thansk for sharing!

[@adama1294]

One more test might be useful. The increased surface area of the cat crystals might make it faster on desicating. Could be usefull on some chemistry experiments.

[@newmonengineering]

It would be interesting to put them both into a Blender and make them powder and compare the results. Maybe surface area has a play in it, maybe shape helps air flow not sure but it would be interesting to see if powdered form works the same or not

[@rays5163]

i think the weight might also be different simply because an individual crystal is larger than a bead and also not round so it might not pack as dense.

[@Loscha]

Thank you again Clive for doing Citizen Science research!

[@davidschaer8974]

You need to add the following into the experiment: the cost of silica gel in bead form vs. The cost of silica gel in kitty litter form. While the beads might be more efficient at absorbing humidity, i suspect that the cost-to-efficiency ratio would favor the cat litter. At the end of the day, it's all about how much water can you pull out of the air given a certain amount of money.

[@PCBurn]

With the price difference I use a sock full of kitty desiccant for less than a small packet of beads. Keeps a sealed plastic container with humidistat monitor at a low humidity. Also, drying in a prewarmed electric oven at 180(F) works a treat. 82(C) for non Freedom Unit locations. Pre-warmed and off so there's no hot elements in close proximity.

[@BrettCooper4702]

What was the cost difference? I wonder if a bigger 3D printed case would work better for the cat crystals and if adding a fan to blow room air would also help it to absorb the moisture.

[@mduvigneaud]

Very good info. I've recently been looking to buy some silica gel (including some of the color changing indicator).

[@piconano]

The desiccants are a lot smaller and have more surface area. I think both are made of the same silica material. Maybe the cat litter has more air pockets to make it lighter and fluffier?

[@TopEndSpoonie]

Thank you Dr Clive. Another science experiment completed.

[@vegas272007]

How do you always know the random things I am looking for?! I need a new desiccant pack for my Headlight to keep a little bit of moisture out. The one in the cap cover is hard as a rock!

[@d00dEEE]

Clive, your table needs one final line: cost/gram-absorbed... If kitty litter costs only a quarter (for example) as much as beads, then may save money by using it if volume/space is not an issue.