What is the best solution yall found for baking a lot of media (crx,zeoclear,silica) 10-20kg at a time? We have been using vacuum ovens but running out of space. Was thinking of using a jacketed column w a 180f heater pulling vacuum… any ideas on if this would work or how long it would take at that temp?
With a cold trap of some sort, right? Otherwise won’t your vac inhale all the water released from the media?
I have always thought that glassblowers have a lot of interesting and very well insulated and cheap-per-kW oven-y type equipment.
That area might be worth a look.
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House hold oven, i never vacuumed and just grabbed a goodwill house oven
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Realistically you shouldn’t have to be baking the CRX/Zeoclear but yes that will work, give enough headspace in the column and have some sort of trap to catch that water before it hits your vacuum you can get cheap vacuum rated water traps from Grainger id just use a diaphragm pump either way, 10-20kg at 180f your probably looking at like 8+ hours, bump that temp up a bit closer to like 250f if possible and that will speed it up.
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4x4 tent with shelfs inside.
Place the media in low profile containers and place on shelf.
Get a dessicant dehumidifier and loop it thru the 4x4 tent.
Youll dry everything with ease and dont have to worry about vacuum or anything like that.
From my weight tests a dessicant dehu is sufficient to hit less than 0.05% moisture content. Thats 0.5g of water per kilo of powder. Most powders if not sealed up will soak in about 5% of their weight in water if its really humid
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What kind of media are you using?
Where are you located?
How are you storing media?
Have you tried a run without pre baking?
@Concentrated_humbold is right about using a regular oven for basic drying. No convention, just heat.
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@Thetetraguy can you explain what you mean when you say “loop it thru the tent”? Just add active ventilation exhausting and blowing back into tent?
Ventilated ovens (105°C) work well for drying material.
is there a reason not to use a microwave ? I cant find a reason … and before you say the air circulating… just put a lid over it, science can be practical … I think 
2¢
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Look at how a dessicant dehumidifier works and then it should make sense. Theres usually 15% of the air volume shoved somewhere else, leave that exhausting outside the tent and everything else is looped thru
Properly prepared and stored media should not need to be baked. If you are noting a considerable difference after baking you may be losing more than just what you want.
The amount of water content in a clay adsorbent has a direct impact on what it will adsorb, reducing the content too far can have a detrimental affect on your end product and on the durability of your media which can lead to a reduction in flow due to the formation of additional fines.
Our media is prepared to reduce water content to 10% or less in each product, then stored in air tight containers to ensure additional water isn’t wicked from the environment. Never bake again!
Give us a call at (619) 913-2770 9a-9p PT 7 days a week and get a free sample to see how much simpler life can be, and save money while you do it with the lowest prices on the market!
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put it into a hot car
Every time I think of having to dry large amount of media I immediately think of these badass scientific drying ovens that go for somewhere around 10 to $20,000… But then I remember… I’m a cheap bastard and I’m not an idiot. So I start looking for used commercial size convection ovens which I can get fairly cheaply. But that’s just me, I’m a cheap bastard. I’m sure you guys have much more class than I do and prefer to spend the extra money on the scientific stuff.
Sticking it in your home oven and cracking the oven door a couple of inches to let vapors escape and setting the temperature to 150°c or more (depending on how much temperature your media can handle) for about two to three hours usually does the trick as well if that’s big enough
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Double cone, jacketed, vacuum, dryer.
used it for isolate but it would do media extremely well. this is a small one but it would do 50kgs of isolate at a time.
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