shilala beads

CoopnGA said:
Scott, Thanks for the help. I didn't have a fresh sponge to work with, so I placed a wide round bowl in the base of my humi, and filed it about an ince deep. This is the most surface area that I could come up with at the moment. The RH is up to 70% only after two hours. I'm going to let it set overnight, hopefully I'll be good to go by then.

Coop
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Hey Coop,
When you take it out in the morning, leave the dish nearby.
You'll need to wait at least a few hours to see if you've done the beads any good.
Maybe leave the water in overnight, take it out in the morning, check the humi after work, then put it back in if necessary. Wait till the following morning and repeat the process as necessary.
After doing this a couple times you'll get a feel for how long it takes.
If you get a chance, stop by the grocery store or something and get one of those little sponges. They work about 70 times better than a pan of water. They move things along really well. You'll be glad you got it. :tu
 
Just received my HCM beads...with an extra bag thrown in!!!

Put them in the cooler, just waiting to check the RH% later on!!

Thanks again Scott!
 
These Shilala beads...ho hum...they are so boring. :D

They do nothing but sit there keeping everything at 65% RH. Hygrometer never moves. Boring really. What happened to the wild swings in RH we used to gut wrench over? And what to do about all the bottles of PG solution lying around? Might as well just drink up the distilled water, yes?

Sigh, did I say boring? :r
 
Did anyone ever have to add a pan of water yet?
I've talked to a few guys who added a pan of water when they didn't need to and I had them take it out, but I've not talked to anyone who has had to readjust the beads yet.
Mine have been going strong for three months, about ten pounds all told, and although I use Hydras for backups, I've never had to fill a Hydra.

The HCM beads work wonderfully at putting water into the air.
I've only been able to do limited testing on how they take water out of the air.
They score a 13.5MRh putting out water at 65%/70F and a 6.5MRh at 65%/70F taking water out of the air, for an average of 10.0MRh.
The less water the beads have in them, the quicker they take water out of the air.
That goes with all the beads I tested.
The "set and forget" beads had a range. If I dried them out, they sucked up water from the air faster. If I loaded them up, they gave up water slower. To balance them out, they really needed to have the right ratio of water, around 11% of their weight, iirc.
I'm babbling.

Oh yeah...
I'm getting real close to being done with every test I can conceivably do.
As soon as the ambient RH gets sustainably higher than 65% here, I have one more battery to do. They're redundant tests. I have to gather real world data to see how closely it matches lab test data.
When that's done, I can launch a website around all this crap.
Then what started as fun and turned into work will be fun again. :)
 
I added a small sponge with some distilled to the cooler...just wanted to make sure as they had to travel to Canada...with the hygro at the top of the cooler it was 65% and when I moved it to the bottom, it went up to 68%...Took the sponge out and will check again in the morning!!!

So far so good!!:tu
 
shilala said:
Oh yeah...
I'm getting real close to being done with every test I can conceivably do.
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I have an idea for one but it would involve sacrificing some beads. Put a set number of beads in a fixed amount of water at known temperature and measure the change in temperature. Then compare to the expected temperature change based on the mechanism involved. This would help to verify the "how is the heat produced" question that you and I have been discussing.
 
fizguy said:
I have an idea for one but it would involve sacrificing some beads. Put a set number of beads in a fixed amount of water at known temperature and measure the change in temperature. Then compare to the expected temperature change based on the mechanism involved. This would help to verify the "how is the heat produced" question that you and I have been discussing.
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The only problem is that there are no numbers on "the expected temperature based on the mechanism involved".
That data doesn't exist because no one needs it for any application that I'm aware of.
What I can tell you is that the last batch I made up, I preconditioned in a great big stainless steel pot.
I weighed the bead volume, calculated the amount of water that I guessed would bring me to 65%, and made an incredible amount of steam and heat.
It was 40 degrees out and I was afraid the pan was going to burn the picnic table, but it didn't.
In the end, the beads ended up at 85%, so my calculations worked pretty good. Far better than I had expected.
I pulled those calculations out of my ass based on the values I got from tests, and felt that I may be a little bit high on water weight. I thought I should adjust downwards a bit, but didn't because I was tired with the numbers and just wanted to get on with it.
When I recalculated, I found that I was off by 2%, and that can easily be accounted for by all the steam I lost.
So I was pretty stoked about the results.
Showed me my numbers weren't all for naught.

So the answer to "how much heat?" is "A LOT". :)
I can accept that.
Or I could build a dessicator box, pump the beads down to 30"hg, purge with nitrogen and repeat 10 times, to get them to 0%RH in order to come up with a btu/lb value that's of no use to me.
I'm just not willing to do the legwork. :D
Last thing...
You wouldn't be sacrificing any beads. HCM beads laugh at water.
It's HCS beads that explode in water, much the same as the "set and forget" beads.
 
so if you apply water directly to Shilala beads, they produce a lot of heat but do not degrade at all?
 
jamz said:
so if you apply water directly to Shilala beads, they produce a lot of heat but do not degrade at all?
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Yes, exactly.
But you run the risk of melting whatever they are in and hurting yourself.
Therefore we NEVER pour water directly on any beads ever.
The sponge trick is the rule for maintaining any bead product, and will extend the life of any bead type by a huge margin.
 
shilala said:
The only problem is that there are no numbers on "the expected temperature based on the mechanism involved".
That data doesn't exist because no one needs it for any application that I'm aware of.
What I can tell you is that the last batch I made up, I preconditioned in a great big stainless steel pot.
I weighed the bead volume, calculated the amount of water that I guessed would bring me to 65%, and made an incredible amount of steam and heat.
It was 40 degrees out and I was afraid the pan was going to burn the picnic table, but it didn't.
In the end, the beads ended up at 85%, so my calculations worked pretty good. Far better than I had expected.
I pulled those calculations out of my ass based on the values I got from tests, and felt that I may be a little bit high on water weight. I thought I should adjust downwards a bit, but didn't because I was tired with the numbers and just wanted to get on with it.
When I recalculated, I found that I was off by 2%, and that can easily be accounted for by all the steam I lost.
So I was pretty stoked about the results.
Showed me my numbers weren't all for naught.

So the answer to "how much heat?" is "A LOT". :)
I can accept that.
Or I could build a dessicator box, pump the beads down to 30"hg, purge with nitrogen and repeat 10 times, to get them to 0%RH in order to come up with a btu/lb value that's of no use to me.
I'm just not willing to do the legwork. :D
Last thing...
You wouldn't be sacrificing any beads. HCM beads laugh at water.
It's HCS beads that explode in water, much the same as the "set and forget" beads.
Click to expand...

If you ever do that again I would love to see a video! Well, maybe love would be a strong word, but it would be cool to see one.
 
fizguy said:
If you ever do that again I would love to see a video! Well, maybe love would be a strong word, but it would be cool to see one.
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The only thing I could shoot the video with is my phone, and I'm guessing that wouldn't be much good.
I'd like to dump water on the beads and fry an egg in a pan. That'd be awesome. :D
 
shilala said:
The only thing I could shoot the video with is my phone, and I'm guessing that wouldn't be much good.
I'd like to dump water on the beads and fry an egg in a pan. That'd be awesome. :D
Click to expand...

Send me the beads and I'll video it. Well maybe not. I'd probably keep them. :tu
 
jamz said:
so if you apply water directly to Shilala beads, they produce a lot of heat but do not degrade at all?
Click to expand...

I should add to that answer.
The beads never degrade.
They are far less likely to capture things that are in the air because all the pores are a perfect 4 angstroms wide. Add to that, there's no greasy chemicals that will help dust and airborne particles to stick.
If for some reason they get dirty or otherwise compromised, they can be steam cleaned into like new condition.
HCM beads are a lifetime investment. Period.
Add to that the fact that they work more than twice as good as any other product out there, and they're some badass beads.

The only negative I can see so far as HCM beads are concerned is that they require that a guy learn a maintenance process to keep them perfect, and you can't just squirt water on them.
They also require that a guy has a good calibratable hygrometer and is willing to salt test on a reasonably regular basis.
 
shilala said:
I should add to that answer.
The beads never degrade.
They are far less likely to capture things that are in the air because all the pores are a perfect 4 angstroms wide. Add to that, there's no greasy chemicals that will help dust and airborne particles to stick.
If for some reason they get dirty or otherwise compromised, they can be steam cleaned into like new condition.
HCM beads are a lifetime investment. Period.
Add to that the fact that they work more than twice as good as any other product out there, and they're some badass beads.

The only negative I can see so far as HCM beads are concerned is that they require that a guy learn a maintenance process to keep them perfect, and you can't just squirt water on them.
They also require that a guy has a good calibratable hygrometer and is willing to salt test on a reasonably regular basis.
Click to expand...

Is the maintenance different from the HCS beads?

shilala said:
You'll hurt yourself!!!
Click to expand...

I rack04 release any and all liability to shilala. Signed rack04. :)
 
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