Dehydrator plug question

[nbachert]

I put the beads in the oven for an hour at 250 degrees and they were all blue. I took them out of the oven and they turned pink in a few seconds. Do I need to be really quick getting them back in the plugs, maybe bake them longer or hotter, or just buy new beads? Anyone know? Thanks,

Nick

[Flyguytki]

Nick, heres what I did. You can order a quart of new beads from amazon for $17. When my beads were turning pink i would just replace them and not worry about it.

Where are you at in enterprise? I finished my 7 just over 2 years ago but had to sell it before coming down here to fly 60's. How far along are you?

-david

http://www.amazon.com/ATD-Tools-7886...essicant+beads

[cfiidon]

Microwave works well for drying beads also.

Use a glass jar, dry them, then cap until needed.

Don

[pilotkms]

I baked mine for 10 minutes at 175 without preheating. They turned blue so pulled them out and they sat on the counter while i did something else. Half hour later they were "used up" again. So i repeated the same time & temp but baggied them out of the oven. Still blue the next morning then refilled the "spark plug". All still good a week later.

[g zero]

I used a metal pan and a heat-gun , blowing the hot air into the pan directly on the beads .

[RV7A Flyer]

Reminder to be cautious when using them around your cylinders...Lycoming says somewhere that if you end up spilling them in the cylinder, it has to be pulled.

No, I didn't have that happen to me, thank heavens...

[BillL]

Sorry, I don't have the reference, but you can google.

What I recall is the color is an indicator and it is the last step in absorbing water. The beads need to be baked for more time. I do mine for several hours at 300F in the oven. It is not as humid as LA (Lower Alabama) in the summer.

[xblueh2o]

I have small plastic containers full of desiccant in each drawer of my tool box that are gold when dry and green when wet. I heat them at 250 for 3 hours to recharge them. I noticed when I did a shorter heat cycle they started to change back from gold to green before I got them back to the airport.

[nbachert]

Thanks for the replys guys. I'll try baking longer.

[219PB]

One thing is that if you are using an oven to bake the desiccant you must open the oven door about every ten minutes just for a couple of seconds to let the moisture escape. An oven is designed to keep the moisture in for baking purposes. Heating the desiccant beads to 350F for one hour is sufficient. Mare sure that they are not more than 2 or 3 beads deep. I stir them around about half way through. After one hour you can take them out and let them cool and place in a sealed plastic container. I open the container every 3-4 weeks and recharge my desiccant filled spark plugs. Once the whole jar is exhausted I will recharge the lot.