Dry me a river

July 27, 2005 7:50 AM

OK, I'm stumped. Where can I buy desiccants - today?

I'm moving in a few days and want to place some moisture-absorbing goodies in with my stereo and other electronic equipment. I don't have time to have anything shipped to me, so I need to buy something local. (I'm in Madison, Wisconsin, if that makes a difference.) I searched the Yellow Pages for Janitorial Supplies, Packing Supplies, Industrial Supplies, and the local Farm & Fleet - all with no success. Google didn't help, either (it just listed the mail-order stuff). Any ideas about what types of stores might carry these things?

posted by Dr. Wu to home & garden (15 comments total)

We buy stuff called "Damp Rid" at Target. They probably have what you're looking for at any hardware store as well. It's ostensibly for closet moisture but I don't see why it wouldn't work in a package as well.
posted by trey at 8:04 AM on July 27, 2005

I went to a shoe store and asked if they had any absorbent silicon packets, and they gave me about 150.

Other than that, I think you could use Dri-Z-Air, from Home Depot or a similar place. This is a desiccant that would normally trap water and then let it collect into a container - but it should work if you were to pack it in cotton or something.

Last possibility would be a science shop, where they sometimes have desiccants for biology type situations, or come to think of it, arts and crafts stores will often carry them for drying flowers.
posted by BleachBypass at 8:08 AM on July 27, 2005

Arts and crafts shops usually sell desiccant for drying flowers etc. and photo shops sometimes sell it for use in underwater camera cases. I like the shoe store idea though.
posted by caddis at 8:20 AM on July 27, 2005

Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, any craft store, it's called Indicating Silica Gel and will be in the craft section since it's used for flower drying. The little blue specs (which turn pink when they hit about 8% saturation) contain cobalt chloride, a heavy metal salt, so keep away from kids, food or pets.
posted by m@ at 8:27 AM on July 27, 2005

I just went through this too, and found it was very difficult to buy them as such. Ask camera shops who often have stashes of them from inbound cameras - I got about 50 that way.

I tried the flower dessicant from craft shops -- it works, but it is a crystalline substance with a lot of associated powder. We rigged it in pack-your-own tea bag bags, and the powder came through anyway, which we worried about damaging the sensitive electronics and cameras we were using in caves. If you go this route, figure out a better way to hold the dessicant - blotting paper maybe? Coffee filter paper?
posted by Rumple at 8:31 AM on July 27, 2005

Try electronic or radio/telephone supply. United-Desiccants' Desi Pak is what I use for remote sensing equipment; it's mil-spec, and doesn't leak.
posted by scruss at 8:34 AM on July 27, 2005

Thanks, everyone, for your answers! I've made a few calls based on your suggestions:

- the hobby stores in Madison don't carry desiccants
- the local hardware store has the Damp-Rid stuff, but I'm not sure if that's the right choice for cardboard boxes in extended storage

I'm gonna stop by a few camera and shoe stores this afternoon to see if they can throw me a few packets; if not, then I'll head to Home Depot.

This has been very helpful. Please keep the suggestions coming!
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:39 AM on July 27, 2005

Just a tip, (and this is to the best of my knowledge and past practice) when you say "cardboard boxes in extended storage" bear in mind that for desiccant to be effective, the item and the desiccant must be in a "vapor tight" container. Otherwise, you will be trying to dry the entire storage space. Also, desiccant can be "renewed" in the oven.

Back to the product at hand. Grainger carries desiccant and there is a location in Madison. Local stock and if they do walk-up sales would be questions to ask by phone.
posted by Dick Paris at 9:46 AM on July 27, 2005

Walmart (ick) used to carry a cat litter additive that was, in fact, just colour-indicating dessicant. Terrifically cheap, too.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:11 AM on July 27, 2005

Dick Paris, you make an excellent point about sealing the containers. For some reason, I figured that I needed a handful of desiccant packets per box, but maybe I actually could make use of a couple of those Damp-Rid thingies for the storage unit in general. Muchas gracias!
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:51 AM on July 27, 2005

Dr. Wu, for the space the stuff is stored in, just buy a few bags of (cheap) kitty litter. It will suck out HUGE quantities of moisture and prevent it from ever getting near your electronics. Just open them and leave them in the space.

If you were really industrious you could just sew little cloth bags of the stuff and put it in with your electronics, but that's probably going a bit far.
posted by fake at 12:07 PM on July 27, 2005

fake, that is a CAPITAL idea!
posted by Dr. Wu at 12:15 PM on July 27, 2005

Get the "crystal" kitty litter. It's basically the same thing that's in the DO NOT EAT packets.
posted by kindall at 12:44 PM on July 27, 2005

i'm seconding the kitty litter! i had an apartment with a mildew problem (water came up through the floor!) and i was able to get a five-gallon jug of dessicant at petco to help dry it out.
posted by clarahamster at 1:52 PM on July 27, 2005

Kitty litter, here I come! Thanks, all!
posted by Dr. Wu at 3:03 PM on July 27, 2005