I'm really getting tired of having to bake my silica gel packs to recharge them. Seems like 3 hours in an oven wastes a lot of electricity, and the recharge doesn't last long at all. Besides that, the hassle of it leads me to procrastinate, which isn't good for my coins. Eva-Dry plugs into an electrical outlet to recharge the silica beads. They get good reviews from the general public, but I'd like to hear it from coin collectors. Anybody use these?
Baking my desiccants for 3 hours is such a hassle that I've never actually done it! It seems like it would waste way too much, in my case, gas. Maybe a small toaster oven would be good if you could protect the desiccant container from such close proximity to the heating element. I've also looked into the eva-dry but have never pulled the trigger. I am interested in the responses you get here.
I use the Eva-Dry ones. When the little window shows all the little balls are "wet" I recharge it overnight. I can get somewhat hot though - so I always place it on a marble slab /cutting board as I'm a worry-wart. Though really, it's a hot "warm" as you can hold it with no concern on it's temp even at it's hottest. For me, they last about 2-4 weeks depending upon the seasons. My safes though are somewhat sealed. The floor bolts holes are sealed, and lock holes are sealed (boat caulk) to prevent water penetration "just in case". The door also has a seal around it. Of course, all you have to do is open the door and all the work it does is gone in an instant. I frequently use (and not use) my safes for various stuff, so the eva dry's get a good workout. All the contents are also in sealed containers with their own individual packets and 3M antitarnish strips. Which I replace from time to time, much longer time frames though and only if I really need to. The area these are in also has a dehumidifier which I only run when it's really needed.
Good info, thanks. My coins are in a sealed plastic container. I don't "sub-containerize" the way you do, but all of my coins are in either Air-Tites or TPG slabs, so I guess that provides a another level of protection. Yeah, every time one opens a container it's a start-over situation. But I figure with two of the Eva-Dry devices, I could keep the spare charged and ready to go when needed. I guess I could do the same with the baked silica packs, but past experience suggests I won't go to the trouble.
I use three in each of two large safes and one in each of three small safes. Very convenient. I've used these for at least a decade with no issues. I replace them about every 5 years but I'm not sure why. The larger safes have humidigraphs and they show around 35% humidity pretty consistently. The larger safes are rarely opened so I can go three months or so between"renewals". The smaller safes don't seal nearly as well and I'm in them pretty often, so about once every 3-4 weeks they need to renewed.
