How to Make your own Silica Gel Desiccant Packets for pennies!

[Music] you've seen them your entire life in every box of ammo or shoes or new purse that you've bought online well today we're going to talk about what exactly is in that little desiccant packet and what you need to know about it and why you would want to make your own it's so simple so stay with us silica gel packets are found in almost everything that we buy from dry goods to ammunition to purses and new coats whatever you get you're often going to find a little silica or a desiccant packet in the pocket or somewhere in that little box of what you order and we really probably haven't done much research except for we know that it's always going to say do not eat on it and probably somewhere you'll see the words silica gel well today I want to talk to us about why we would want to make our own and actually dispel a couple of the myths in fact all of my life like so many of you probably I had thought that when it said do not eat it was because there was a toxic material inside of this little packet that would just be tragic if I let it get in my mouth so as children we never wanted to ever let any of that get into our system well actually the reason that the do not eat is written on here is because it's a choking hazard you notice the size of silica gel packets is pretty small and just the right size for a child to choke on so when it says do not eat mostly it's warning us against that however this is the thing it does absorb up to 40 percent of its weight in water so it is going to really dehydrate them and be hard on them if they ate a whole lot of it that's why we you don't want them eating it or your pets to eat it but if they did it's not the end of the world you probably don't need to pay for an emergency room visit but you might call your doctor and just let them know how much silica gel they ate and the doctor will probably tell you to have them drink a whole lot of water and quickly get it fleshed out of their system but I hope that knowing that it's non-toxic is going to give you a little bit of hope that it's not a tragedy of tragedies if this is consumed incidentally what is inside of a silica desiccant packet its silicon dioxide which is actually a naturally occurring mineral it's it's found in sand or crystals or quartz that's what's in here it's just virtually little rocks that you're seeing and it is indigestible so if by chance your child were to eat some of this just wait a few days or a few hours or whatever and it will come out probably in their excrement in the same form that it went into their mouth this has actually been around forever obviously because it's naturally god-made and there are mines that you can mine it out of the earth clear back as far as 1640 we know that this was known as a scientific curiosity and they were doing experiments that saying what is this silica gel and why is it so cool and and why does it do all of these things so they were already playing with it back then but as early as World War one it was used in their gas masks filters that's what was in there was silica gel also in World War two it was used to dry out their penicillin that they had every man carry some of also it was used to keep their ammo ammunition dry all of their equipment they put silica gel packets in a whole lot of everything during World War two to keep everything dry while it was on the field one thing I want to just mention and we're going to make our own packets here they're super simple in just a moment but the one part of silica gel that you're going to notice is often it's used in cat litter and you can actually buy cat litter in fact in a moment I'm going to encourage you to do that you can buy cat litter that is one ingredient and that is silica gel you can get it in the form that you see here and there are multiple brand names so get whatever brand you find that is just that one ingredient silica gel but it's crystals and they every random few are treated with cobalt chloride which is a blue dye that actually will turn pink once it is exposed to water and the reason that that's a benefit is because it helps you know when your silica gel packet has been used up like how would you know whether this is going to absorb more water or if it's already done its duty and it's good to throw away that's what I've always thought but I learned something new these are entirely reusable all you've got to do is dry them out and use them again to make your own silica gel packets it's so simple you need silica gel cat litter that has only that one ingredient like I mentioned a bag this size and this is a seven pound bag it cost me about $16 incidentally I went to another store and found that I could have gotten it cheaper elsewhere I think I could have gotten it for about 13 US dollars somewhere else but nevertheless I spent $16 on seven pounds this 7 pound bag actually has about 530 servings of silica gel and that's if I make really big packets at least a teaspoon of silica gel in each packet this alone does not even have a full teaspoon in it and this is the largest packet I have here so you're making pretty big packets and it makes 530 of them incidentally coffee filters big giant coffee filters like this generally for 200 of these it's going to cost you about a dollar at the dollar store or many other places you can get them so you're looking at approximately half of a penny per coffee filter and one coffee filter can make a couple of silica gel packets so that's incidentally virtually a freebie part of it so let's do this I'm going to take one coffee filter and I'm gonna cut it oh you could cut it into a square or you could just cut it in half whatever works for you then I'm going to put just about one even teaspoon of this right here in the middle and we're going to take and fold it over four ways hold on and you're always going to staple the top way and then shake it the other direction and staple the other direction what you don't want is anything coming out of any side so I'm going to now that I've gotten one side stapled I'm just going to kind of tap it the other way and staple the next side and there we have our very first silica gel packet that took me maybe ten seconds to do let me show you two other options that you might consider and why you may or may not want to do them you can actually purchase online and I meant to do that before this video but didn't get it done was you can order tea bags that are already made that you just fold over the top and can put loose tea in those are fantastic for this they just cost a few more pennies than $2 $1 for 200 coffee filters so do whatever works for you but you can get those empty tea bags that you just fold over the top and staple those are I can't remember what price they are but I'll put a link down below this video those are excellent for this an option that you don't want to do that you're gonna see a lot of is these little sachets that are cutting that you can just pull the string tight on the reason you wouldn't want this is because the silica gel little crystals are going to easily slip out of that top and a child could easily untie the knot open it up and get curious and start eating that when they're this way and you might even write with a marker silica gel do not I don't think they're gonna touch it as much another option that you can do is take an old cotton pillowcase that might be beautiful from your grandma and still have some edges on it that are pretty but it's not usable anymore this is a perfect example in my rag pile it's just too torn up and the cotton is too thin well this is perfect for cutting into small squares and I can actually hand stitch it and there goes a wonderful helicopter above us but you can hand stitch it and I have a wonderful little cotton version of this what you don't want to do is have something so heavy-duty that it doesn't isn't able to have a nice moisture be able to get through that weave of the fabric so a nice cotton is going to be just perfect for this but cheesecloth is too thin so don't use cheesecloth for this just a nice old cotton pillowcase might be perfect so there you have it I hope you took the time to do this little project with us or do it in the next few days will you take a minute and share this video someone you love write in and tell us how you're using your silica gel packets and how much money you saved from making your own and if you haven't subscribed we want you to be one of us so subscribe hit that bell and it will let you know when we have the next video come out next week until I see you again though will you take a moment and go out and be a blessing to someone today [Music] hey before you go I want to share with you just a quick bit of scripture out of Isaiah 41 this is verses 12 and 13 it says you will seek those who contend with you but you will not find them those who were against you shall be as nothing at all for I the Lord your God hold your right hand it is I who say to you fear not for I am the one who helps you be encouraged today and go spread the word [Music]

Channel: PREPSTEADERS

Views: 209,944

Rating: 4.9195633 out of 5

Keywords: Survival, Homesteading, Prepping, Preppers, prepsteaders, wisdom creek, Silica Gel, Dessicant, DIY, Desiccant, Moisture Absorbers

Id: 4SbSkmcPbJI

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 08 2018