Silica gel desiccant

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Ian in Mississauga

Senior Member
A friend saves these packages and puts them in the screen in his model a gas tank over the winter. I did a google search and found that kitty litter is the same chemical. I would appreciate any comments.
Thanks, Ian
 
The major cause of water in your fuel system is the build-up of condensation in your fuel tank. You can minimize this effect by keeping your gas tank mostly full (which will keep the fuel:water ratio properly diluted, which minimizes symptoms). On the flip side, low fuel levels allow large amounts of air to enter your fuel tank which can, in turn, create large amounts of condensation.
 
Ian in Mississauga said:
A friend saves these packages and puts them in the screen in his model a gas tank over the winter. I did a google search and found that kitty litter is the same chemical. I would appreciate any comments.
Thanks, Ian
Click to expand...

Glad you brought this topic up. I too have wondered about putting the packets in my tank screen. Hope we get some more comments on this.
 
If you put only recreational gas-non ethanol gas in the tank you won't have the problem.
Ethanol absorbs moisture and creates all kinds of trouble in A tanks.
 
Silica gel absorbs water until it is saturated and no more can be absorbed.
It can then be regenerated by heating to drive off the absorbed water many many times. But this is hit or miss with with uncoloured silica gel. You need self-indicating silica gel. This is blue when ready to absorb water vapour and turns red when expired, ready to be heated to 70 degrees C or up to 100 degrees or for about 5 minutes in a microwave, when it will again turn blue and be ready to absorb more water.
The uncoloured stuff in the little bags will have long ago been saturated, unless kept in an airtight enclosure after it was last heated and dried out.
And the trouble is you cannot tell when it is dry and when it is saturated and not doing any good.
I think it will be a waste of time using stuff that has already been exposed unless you regenerate it. And then you won't know when it has saturated and needs re heating.
You can buy the self-indicating stuff from a lab supplies stores and pakaging specialists.
Silica gel is not kitty litter in my ccountry. Here it is absorbant clay, perlite, pumice or other absorbant minerals.
SAJ in NZ
 
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