Dessicant Packages.

[astrodav]

On my most recent trip to LR-VA, I found a cache (plastic Folgers Coffee jug) with a silica dessicant package glued to the inside of the lid, & also another tossed into the log-book baggy. Now granted this cache has only been in service for about 10 days, but it was BONE dry inside .... DRIER than dry .... it was DRY!!

It may have just not got rained on yet, dunno. But these coffee cans aren't known to be the most leak-proof containers out there, & this one was completely exposed to the weather .... no overhead cover at all.

That has me thinking that just maybe those packets have something to do with that. One thing's for sure, they won't HURT anything. And it seems cheap insurance against a wet/damp inside of container. The greatest benefit will most likely be the one placed inside the log-books ziplock. I'm sure this won't help at all with a cache which actually gets water inside of it, as in rain. But I bet it'll do the trick for just general condensation & perhaps a very tiny leak.

I've only just begun searching up places to buy these. Out of the 2-3 sites I have looked at, they are aligned towards industry & wholesale, thus sell these by bulk. I'm sure that I'll eventually find where I can buy them by the piece, or at least...say, 50 at a time.

But I haven't looked enough yet to find the latter. The bulk prices are right around $190 average before shipping. The sizes range from 3/4 X 3/4 inch up to 3 X 4 inches. The former might work for a micro, but not an ammo can. (They usually don't suffer from leakage, but never does hurt to take precautions) The latter would be fine for the cans, but would be too big for, say, a common size bison tube. Since they are flexible, I think that about 1 X 1 might be the best all-around size. One of them can be crammed into the log-baggy of a bison tube & still fit inside. And you can always double up for the bigger containers.

This size has 5,000 of the packets, or about 4 cents each. Would a few people want to buy a box of these & split the cost & quantity? I only want about a hundred if buying by the piece. But I bet when I find a place doing that, they'll be 20 cents instead of the 4 cents bulk. Even if only 10 people wanted to go in on this, that'd just be 20 bucks each for 500 packages each, enough to last a lifetime & more.

Lemme know if interested. If we get a group together, ya'll can PayPal me the money or give it to me at an event or something. I'll do the ordering & distributing as soon as I could.

I'll be looking around for different prices & a place to buy smaller quantities. I'll post those findings later, if there are others who express interest about it in this thread.

EDIT: Okay, that didn't take long. Yes, they are available in smaller quantities, at usually a higher price per piece. I've found several places which sell different sizes, usually 100 to 500 at a time, depending upon size. They range from 8 to 12 cents per bag. So the more affordable solutions are out there, if you don't mind paying 2-3X the price per piece compared to bulk, listed above. But the offer still stands. If enough are interested, post here & I'll find us the best deal we can get on however many we need.

[captaincooder]

I've been saving all of the little ones I come across, and I've got about twenty. The problem is that they need to be recharged. You have to bake them in the oven for several minutes to dry them out. Some of the bigger units turn colors indicating wet or dry. Therefore, I had second thoughts, because I don't want to be replacing the little sachets over and over and over and over. I can imagine they would get saturated very quickly. It seems to me the log (and that's what you care about, right?) goes through the following phases: a bit damp--> damp--> wet, but signable--> waterlogged--> mush. Most cachers are good about telling you when it needs to be replaced, so I'll just wait until they tell me. It amazes me that there are some caches with pages of dry logs from years ago, and there are others that just constantly have to be replaced every other month.

[pshelto]

They do suck water out of the air, so they're perfect for caches. I haven't seen any in my packages since I started considering them, but I think it's a great idea to place them in caches that allow them. Of course, caches need to be waterproof beforehand, but these will help with the condensation that builds up.

[mike-ski]

As a guy that uses this for other things. The only problem is that they are limited to how much moisture they can handle like what the captain said. It's kind of like a glass of water...when it's full-it's full. I would say that if you know you have a fairly dry cache and you want to keep it that way I think it would work. Just my .0234 cents worth.

[astrodav]

I may just order 3 or 4 dozen small ones to use strictly inside the log-baggie. That may be the best use for them. I'll probably too order a dozen or 18 somewhat bigger ones to test them out in the caches themselves.

I've found several places that sell them either by the piece, or in small lots of 10, a dozen, or 25. This usually runs around 10-15 cents each.

I also found a place which will send you free samples of several sizes of their packets, postage paid & all. I picked about 8 of them, ranging from tinier than I had thought to bigger than a cache can usually fit. But in between were some which seemed the ideal size for baggies, and others for containers about the size of a medium L&L.

[wilddav]

i can buy ammo boxs for 10dollars here in searcy