Silica gel desiccant showdown - normal versus crystal cat litter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.พ. 2024
- I've come across various articles claiming that silica gel based cat litter can be used as a moisture absorber, so I decided to test that and see how well it actually worked.
The cat litter I used was Bob Martin Felight cat litter, which I think is the silica gel based version.
Most notable difference was the lightness of the cat litter crystals. For a specific volume the cat litter is significantly lighter than the solid beads. I think it's optimised to be porous.
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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.
Thank you :)
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!
Could the cat silica be refined? Baked at 420f for 42mins?
@@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.
@@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307 "This easy trick that carbon dioxide sellers don't want you to know."
BigClive isn't droll, he just has a dry humor.
It seems to have just gotten drier, after Big Clive spent all that time with the desiccants...
The less dry ones come out on Saturdays, if I remember correctly. Until then, Patrick Boyle, and don't look away.
@@tactileslut Boyle Appreciator 🫡💰
The puns are just pore-ing out from this thread!
Droll doesn't mean what you think it means
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.
I'm still wondering if he is using his self made hat-microphone!
@@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!!
You've summed up his channel so well!
dont forget the pen and paper instead of a powerpoint graph thing
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.
I would love more videos like this, commercial vs "DIY" solutions.
My cat watched this with great interest.
Mushroom the cat is now a Big Clive fan, I do believe.
Give Mushroom some pats for us
🐾🐾🐾 🐈 💖
It has everything a cat would want. Litter reviews, and crinkly bags moving across the screen
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).
I don't like Mushrooms. Sorry for the offence.
Clive: asking all of the hard-hitting scientific questions, and offering up his own blend of humor along the way!
@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.
It's also much easier to scale a recipe ... I've started converting all of my ingredient lists to gram weights
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.
@@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.
@@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.
@@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!
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
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.
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.
@@ferrumignis Try wood pellets! you can find them cheap and they're much cleaner than the regular litters
Imagine feeling like you're urinating on a series of landmines... I'd stop doing that too!
I've tried using it. I prefer the toilet however.
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.
That's what I use it for. And storing powder-coat powders. (Of course powder-coat powders are powders, stoopid language.)
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.
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.
It might be worth comparing the price per gramme of water absorbed as well.
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.
@@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.......
@@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.
@@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)_
@@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.
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.
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.
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).
Moisture absorbing ability per unit cost might also be interesting.
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.
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)
@@lasskinn474
is your cats name 'Sir Krapalot ' ?? .... or perhaps it is a tiger ? ;
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.
Oooohhh….good thinking. I like your style. 👍🏻
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.
@@Thermalions The point would be bigger crystals give bigger empty gaps between crystals. The beads are smaller, so not as much air between beads.
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.
@@RFC3514 Except, if you could get more mass of crystals into the same space, wouldn't that allow it to absorb more water?
Very interesting, now I think you need to test Silica gel as cat litter. Great video 2x👍
Those silica gel packs are the perfect snack
they might be a bit too filling
"Donut Eat"
Crunchy too.
When place right. It stops diarrhea😮
Thank you Dr Clive. Another science experiment completed.
Excellent experiment! This would have done in my day for a project in SYS Chemistry.
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"
i am so in love with your work.
Thank you again Clive for doing Citizen Science research!
Information I'd never use and would never have guessed how much I want to hear about. Great video! :D
Oooo I get 'ard when Big Clive shows his working! Love this guy.
Fabulously concise, clear & useful. Thank you!
As ever it's very interesting you're the best Clive
Great video! I also use cat litter, because no restriction of volume and price difference is way more than 3 times.
Really interesting investigation Clive never even thought of cat litter being useful thanks 😊
This is really nice experiment. Thansk for sharing!
Short and informative! Thanks :)
I didn't know there was a substitute. Great job! Thanks, keep working. Good luck.
Nice experiment Clive!
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!
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.
@@nnamerz absolutely!
Very good review! Thank you!
Wow this is mind bending i never knew such a consumer test was a thing but it is good 😄
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.
Thanks clive this is really usefull to know for 3d printing folks and dehumidifier folks as well
Excellent research Sir thank you !
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.
Nice one Clive simple as that. Entertaining, factual, and information I didnt know I needed. I love this kinda shit.
Thank you for answering this bro👍
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.
Thankyou, that was an unexpected result!
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.
Thank you for answering my pop-up question at the pet store yesterday 😂
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!!!
That will probably heat them up too much, recommended is convection at 120°C (thats what the manufacturer of my silica gel recommends)
Correct, I learnt this trying to dry my socks in the beam box and that didn't work very well. @@tarakivu8861
Over 29000 views on cat litter this is the peek of your career , grate vid 👍👍
This was a good one! Keep them coming!🇺🇸
I have been using Wilko silica cat litter for a very long time and it's brilliant stuff!
Was surprised to see the return of the Wilko brand. It seems to now be part of the Range company.
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.
Love random stuff Big Clive
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.
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.
Thank you! That was useful to know :)
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 👍👍
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.
When I filled the container, it was very dusty
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.
Good info
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
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.
The larger pores are deliberate. It's meant to trap liquid quickly.
In this case, absorb is correct. Adsorb has a different meaning. Look it up if you don’t believe me.
@@grahammilnes7256 - No, it very much isn't. Everyone understands what it means, but silica *adsorbs,* it doesn't _absorb._
@@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.
Thanks for this test. I already considered drying my 3D filament with cat Litter silica gel. Now that I know it is only half as effective I will not go this route. So: You litterally saved me money. 🙂
Check out solid state electric dehumidifiers, a video from clive from 5 years ago: th-cam.com/video/Vabq-s62IVM/w-d-xo.html
That is, if you have some money to burn as the bigger ones can become quite expensive. Though the small ones should be enough for most storage boxes.
Maybe paired with some silica gel to quickly initially reduce humidity after e.g. opening the box, the solid state element will then gradually also dry the silica gel.
By saying that it’s half as effective you are not able to say you will save money by not using it. The cat litter silica gel could still be effective enough to do the job. Comparing the average vehicle to a Porche and following your logic, it would be saving money to buy the Porche because it goes faster than the average car and it gets to the top speed quicker. But the average car is absolutely fine for everyone. One needs to take the cost into account. Even if one has to use double the amount because it is half as effective, if it costs one third of the price then money is saved by using the cat litter silica gel. There was no testing on how fast each product removes moisture from the air. Perhaps the cat litter silica gel is able to bring down the moisture levels in a 3D filament bag faster than the other silica gel product. It would be an interesting experiment.
@@capitalinventor4823 By saving money I meant: I saved the money buing the cat litter to find out It is not working for drying my filament in the AMS of my Bambulab X1C. Of course, if you have enough space: just double the amount. But in confined spaces you can't do that. So: I saved money in buying a product I can't use in the place I intended it to.
Thanks for this one. I have wondered about this :)
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.
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!
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.
A food review video. Nice!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
No easy access? I can just buy kilos of that stuff online.
@@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
@@tarakivu8861Amazon isn't that common in Europe, it is there but it can get expensive.
I'll be thinking about this video next time my cat takes a crap somewhere in my house...
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.
A purr-fect explanation❗️
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....
Brilliant bit of science. This is the kind of thing that puts my mind in overdrive the moment i try to sleep. This happens to everyone though... right?🤔
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!
Well you can "recharge" calcium chloride, it just takes more heat than the beads.
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: th-cam.com/video/Vabq-s62IVM/w-d-xo.html
Though the cost of these might shock you a bit.
Me thinks it also produces acetylene when wet ? . @@whynotdean8966
@@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...
@@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.
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.
i got a dog and none of this problems but i watch it anyway,, interesting and good vids like always
This is good apples-to-apples comparison.
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.
Very good info. I've recently been looking to buy some silica gel (including some of the color changing indicator).
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.
"And as such, "
Big Clive is Scholar's Lore confirmed.
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.
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.
Good data.
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.
I was about to warn BigClive about the litter holy wars. From the title I thought he was comparing cat litters. Glad he didn't LOL
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.
Good to know!
I always made the assumption without knowing the true data.
Thank you!
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.
Damn. I was wrong. Thought the litter had better absorbtion based on its density. Very helpful. I will use the balls in my nitrogen concentrator if I can find a good deal on ebay.
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.
Thank you for using metric!
Brilliant posting Clive 🤜🏼🤛🏻👉💎👈‼️
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...
I actually use both interchangeably. Whichever fits the application.
@@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.
Once upon a time I had 10kg 'luxury cat' in my car, mostly in old socks. Left against the windscreen it worked wonders for trapping the condensation. There was the one time where I had to explain that, no, this isn't 10kg of illegal drugs.
Your vid title should also be that of a cheesy dance track, euro-scot fusion
🐱 Speaking of kitty litter. My upstairs neighbour decided to put some of his regular beige kitty litter on the frozen icy path to make it less slippery. This worked reasonably well but now that it has all melted the cat litter has turned into a horrible muddy sludge. Disgusting but funny at the same time :-)