Calcium Chloride Pellets

[Konini]

I've been looking around for some Damp Rid for my wardrobes - Brits would know it under some other name, basically it's a double  plastic container,  beads pellets or flakes in the top part suck moisture of the air and liquid drains into the bottom part.  I haven't been able to find anything apart from some Farcent tubs that are non-refillable and would work out very expensive given the humidity at the moment, but google tells me that Damp Rid is nothing more than calcium chloride, and also that it is available at pool supply shops.

 

Is anyone able to tell me if I can get beads\pellets\flakes here in Thailand or is it just powder?  Obviously you can because: Farcent, but I haven't seen refill packs of the pellets.  Indeed, I have no idea even if powder would do the exact same job, it sounds logical that it would, I may be conditioned to think that it has to be in the same form as retail Damp Rid when powder will be totally adequate, just a little messier for the average householder to deal with - I can cope with that, I could make a top container out of a porous fabric.

 

Will be grateful for any help with this, I'm starting to get paranoid about our clothes having a musty, damp smell to them (tried a couple of kilo's of silica beads but too much trouble to dry them out in the numbers I would need for all of the nooks and crannies in various rooms).

[Crossy]

I believe the point of having large granules in the de-humidifiers is to allow the moist air to circulate and expose the largest surface area, powder may not work as well or at all

 

The secret to avoiding those musty smells is ventilation, leave the wardrobe doors open and crack a window to get some airflow.

 

If the room has an aircon you could run it on "dry" for a while (close the window) to get the humidity down.

 

 

[Konini]

Thank you. Surface area makes a lot of sense, I hadn't even thought of it.

 

We have our clothes spread over 3 bedrooms and have another couple of storage rooms - I always leave the doors slightly ajar (have foam squares stuck on to make sure they aren't accidentally closed) even in the dry season, but this year seems to be particularly humid.  Aircon, even when run on dry, really irritates my husband's sinuses so we don't use it, but we have good fly screens on doors and windows and both are wide open day and night apart from when it's too chilly for good airflow.

 

I might keep hunting though, Farcent has the beads in their plastic pots, so it can't be totally impossible to get them.

 

Thanks again.

[sappersrest]

Farcent do sell the beads   .http://farcent.co.th

 

[Crossy]

You need the refillable unit http://farcent.co.th/Products/dehumidifier/dehumidifier_refillable-starter_rose

 

and the refills http://farcent.co.th/Products/dehumidifier/dehumidifier_refillable_refill_rose

 

[Konini]

Thank you both for that - they're scented ones though and only 660g, I'd go through that very quickly even if we could stand the smell; my sister has a jasmine flavoured one in her downstairs toilet and it's overpowering, also very likely that it would transfer to clothing.

 

Proves that they are available though, now it's just a case of finding where from.  I tried the chemist supplier who manages to get me all sorts of things but he drew a blank on these.

 

Any pointers on where to look?

[sappersrest]

Try World Chemicals  Mahidol road Chiang Mai

 

they do have a web site with directions

[Konini]

Thanks - I've sent them an email, not really expecting a reply, but I'll be up that way on Monday or Tuesday so I'll try then.

[Konini]

On 9/9/2016 at 2:07 PM, sappersrest said:

Try World Chemicals  Mahidol road Chiang Mai

 

they do have a web site with directions

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  They replied to my email and have flakes.  I don't know what size or how much, but we will be going there today (if the rain ever stops) to pick some up.

 

Much appreciated.

 

For everyone else - these really are the best thing (apart from an electrical dehumidifier or air conditioner on dry cycle) for getting the moisture out of the air and leaving your clothes without a trace of dampness.

[BKKdreaming]

how much water does it suck out of the air ,  and do you need to change   daily ? weekly ?

 

what happens if you put a large amount in a shipping container before its shipped overseas ?

 

any negatives ?  

 I know when I sent my car by container to Europe there was green "moss" growing inside after being on the water 4 weeks.......

maybe this would have stopped that ?????

 

 

 

[Konini]

On 9/12/2016 at 9:22 AM, BKKdreaming said:

how much water does it suck out of the air ,  and do you need to change   daily ? weekly ?

what happens if you put a large amount in a shipping container before its shipped overseas ?

any negatives ?  

 

Yay!  Picked up my flakes yesterday, 70 baht for a 1kg bag, a lot different to the $10 bargain 1kg refills I would occasionally find and stock up on in Australia. I used to have 2 in each wardrobe in Melbourne, wardrobes were built in and the length of the room.  I would empty the liquid out of them every Saturday when doing the weekly cleanup, and most weeks would top them up a bit, mainly because they look very unattractive and crusty, and a layer of fresh beads on top made them look better.  At different times of the year I would get a little dribble in the bottom of the container to the container being very full and a spill risk - I learned to take a bucket or bowl when emptying during humid times rather than trying to get to the toilet with it (liquid is like slimey water).  Over time, the calcium leaches into the water (hence the slime), and the amount in the top of the container goes down - it kind of disintegrates and sometimes can reform in the water containers, so when it's going down you need to top it up.

 

Here in Thailand, it's very humid so I will be checking on them every few days until I know how quickly they fill up; here in Chiang Mai it isn't terribly humid all year round, just during the rainy season and even then it's drier on some days than others.  Anywhere south of here will get the humidity much worse and much more often than here, so I'd check every day until I was confident I could leave them longer.  This year we have had a couple of particularly humid days when the (wooden) floors look really dirty but I can't get them to look very clean because there is a tangible covering of water on it and as soon as you walk on it there are footprints.  Same thing with the glass top coffee table, no matter what I did to it yesterday it wouldn't come clean - I mean it was clean, it just didn't look it, it was streaky and smeary and when I tried to polish it off with a clean dry cloth it just made it worse.  It's the 3rd such day in the last couple of weeks, and the first time I've noticed it here.  This is what spurred me on to try and find the flakes or pellets, if we lived anywhere that is humid more than a few days a year I would have hunted this down years ago.

 

It would have made a huge difference to your car during shipping.  My research trying to find out if I could get the pellets or beads has informed me that this product is used extensively in shipping containers, seemingly anything coming from or going to the tropics uses huge quantities of it, probably with the liquid being diverted straight out of the container rather than having human intervention.

 

I don't know of any negatives to it, except I found it to be expensive in Australia.  At 70 baht a kilo it won't be.  I'm currently fashioning double large rectangular containers with 'baskets' on top of them to hold the calcium and solid containers to catch the water.  I'm going to put 2 in each wardrobe and one in the store room and smallest bathroom which we really don't use apart from storage but doesn't have an external window. I'll probably make a different sized/shaped one for a couple of kitchen cupboards where I keep spices and other loose food.  Hopefully this will be enough, probably it will be overkill but as I think I said earlier, I have a real thing about that musty smell on clothes or shoes and will go to any lengths to avoid it.  This will take up the greater part of the 4 1kg bags I bought (told you it was overkill) , there will be a bit left for topping up but I'll be able to pop down to the chemical supply shop (who sell borax and Epsom Salts in bulk I noticed whilst in the shop) and get more when I need it.

 

It's also available in 25kg bags, which would probably work out a lot cheaper, but we only have a motorbike for carting things about and it would be enough to last a very long time.

 

It's one of those things that you buy and think it's a gimmick and doesn't do anything - until you go to it and see all of the water it's pulled out of the air in the last however many days.  I recommend it to everyone, in England people leave them scattered about caravans and holiday cabins that aren't necessarily opened up and aired every day.

[BKKdreaming]

thanks for your post , 

 

now  to complicate it a little ,

maybe you can make a warning light or buzzer , that goes on when the water gets to a certain level

 

and please post some pictures of the  containers  when you get them done, 

 

Cheers

[SantiSuk]

Sounds messy! I don't know why I have never found humidity to be a problem in Thailand (on clothes etc). I remember what it was like - ie what a pain it was - from when I rented our first marital apartment in the north of England 40 odd years ago; in a 3 storey Victorian villa with water in the basement.

 

So I'm wondering why some in Thailand have problems and some not, with a view to advice for those building or renting new.

 

Our house in southern Sisaket (which admittedly is a drier part of Thailand compared to coastal and central plains areas) is concrete build, has open-plan walk-in wardrobes US-style and tiled flooring. We do have aircon but it's only on a couple of hours a day max in rainy season. Anyone else have comments on what might prevent or promote humidity problems in the tropics when it comes to design?

[Konini]

On 9/13/2016 at 10:14 PM, BKKdreaming said:

 

and please post some pictures of the  containers  when you get them done, 

 

 

The photo is a lot bigger than I wanted, but you get the meaning.  Mouse is for scale.  It's just a case of spending some time at the market (not supermarket, they don't have enough choice on sizes), find either a basket or a container and within the same shop keep on trying different sizes until you get a match, ideally you want the basket to sit inside but fit over the top of the container so it doesn't go completely inside.  If you really struggle, you could get one that is not exact, but as long as the basket part fits into the water catchment part, you could use a small container or something else to hold the basket up.  You can do this with round or square containers, it really doesn't matter, but you need one at least the size of a family sized yoghurt carton, the ones that hold 1kg.  With them this small, if you have a wardrobe the length of your room or close to it, I would put one in each corner.  I honestly don't know if two small ones are better than one big one, someone with chemistry qualifications could probably answer that, but two has to be better than one whatever the size in my opinion.

 

You need at least 3cm between your basket and the bottom of the container so the basket isn't sitting in the water it catches.  If you really can't get at least that, you'll need to check and possibly empty the containers every day.  Trust me, you don't want to forget to do that, because you'll never forget the slime that you have to clear out.  My containers are larger than they need to be, but I've got a thing about musty smelling clothes.  I used 2 x 1kg bags for 6 containers this size.  I want to get a couple more of a smaller size so I can tuck them away without fear of knocking them over in a couple of places.  I will be keeping an eye on them for the first couple of weeks, I expect them to go a bit crusty after a week or so and maybe need topping up because they need it rather than to hide the unattractive crusty surface in two or 3 weeks, it really depends on how humid it is and therefore how much moisture they pull out of the air.

 

Highly recommended, especially if you are going away and shutting your place up for a few weeks.

 

I have a sewing machine and lots of muslin and could very easily have made the basket part, but they were 7 baht each.  The containers were 15 baht. Do NOT put the lids on, I told the stall I didn't want them even.  If you think that you will be clumsy and knock them over, there is the matter of the liquid spilling (not so important because there isn't so much carpet here) but you could buy a metre of cheap material at the market and tie your calcium flakes up like a Christmas Pudding.