Dry-Packs 750gm Indicating Silica Gel Steel Canister

This is silica gel in a mesh container, with indicating color changing gel in the lid. It works great for cameras and lenses, especially in warm humid climates where mold and mildew thrive. As with important papers, DVD's, and photos, most everything we own is basically food for molds if the conditions are right. Lens coatings too...molds can get into a lens, and they can eat the coatings, reducing your sharp, expensive lenses to a foggy mess with no resale value. I live in Hawaii, and know what I'm talking about.You can't stop the mold spores - they are everywhere - but you can control how fast they replicate by modifying their environment - change the temperature or humidity. Lower temperature and/or humidity means lower growth rates.Many reviews here miss the point, being upset because this or that particular product didn't last long enough. Silica gel is the same in most humidity control products. It's not the product in most cases, it's how you use it. If your container or gun safe isn't air tight, then moisture is getting in all the time, albeit slowly. If you open and close your container often, you're exchanging moist air with the already dried air from the container. The more moisture you allow in, the quicker the silica gel will get saturated and need a recharge.Don't blame the product, try to see if you can keep the moisture out of your protected container - add some cheap weather sealing gasket from the hardware store or plug up holes. Use a few smaller containers instead of a single large one. Get more than one container of silica gel.That last suggestion is the simplest - get more, use a few at a time, store the used ones in zip locks (so they don't continue to absorb moisture waiting to be recharged), then recharge them all at once to save on energy costs. I use two at a time in a 2 cubic foot plastic tub that I keep my birding lenses and camera body inside of - in MY environment (80% humidity and warm), and opening quickly to remove stuff for a photo shoot and getting the cover back on the tub quickly, it's working fine. I did put weather sealing sticky backed foam all around the lid.Oh, and when you see in the description and comments that one of these gel containers will control humidity in a 57 cubic foot area, that -sounds- huge. Actually it's just under a 4 foot cube in size.Hint: get a cheap battery powered humidity monitor (about $15 here on amazon) to keep inside the container. It's better than simply relying on the color changing cap of these gel containers. I used wire through a couple of tiny holes in the clear plastic storage container so I could see the internal humidity any time.When I first put the gel containers inside, the monitor read 82% humidity (that's where I live, on that particular day - your environment is different, of course) . In an hour or so, it was down to 16%. If I hadn't opened the container every few days, it would have stayed that way for a long time. But I use my camera and lenses often, and the daily humidity changes, and the gel does it's job. When the monitor says it's above 30% after sitting closed for awhile, I change the gel containers with recharged ones. Easy.I now have 8 of these containers in a few different sized tubs where I keep lenses, camera bodies, and keepsakes.My only other hint is that the mesh body of these gel containers is thin aluminum with thousands of closely packed holes which allow the air to circulate. They dent easily, and can bang around against your lenses unless you hold them in place somehow. The dents to the gel container don't hurt anything, but having them sliding around your expensive lenses probably isn't a good idea :)

It’s a great way to keep the moisture from your gun safe

As a photography hobbyist and guitar player, I need humidity control in various places in the house. I keep one of these in my safe, one in my camera cabinet, and one near where the guitars are stored. They work great!The one in my safe, the beads turn green pretty quickly which explains the moisture problems I've been having in there. (If you have a fire-safe, you likely have this problem as the material they use to insulate the safe takes YEARS to harden and slowly leaks out of the bottom crease and some gets in the safe.) This is an inexpensive way to protect your important documents or other items that could be damaged by moisture in the safe.The instructions indicate that to re-charge the silica, you must put the entire canister in the oven at 300 degrees for a couple of hours. BEFORE YOU DO THIS (since the instructions mention nothing about it,) unscrew and remove the lid before recharging. If you don't do this, the the plastic window in the lid will melt, and the lid will get permanently sealed to the canister.*** If this review was helpful to you, please let me know! It means a lot to me when I know I've helped someone make a decision on whether or not to buy something. I appreciate reading other people's reviews because they have always helped me. These things are what make Amazon great: the prices and the reviews! If you have a specific question about a review, please contact me through my profile page. I'm more than happy to chat with you about it. Thanks! ***

This is a good design. I wondered how the moisture would be absorbed by the beads inside the canister. It's hard to tell from the pictures online but the canister is a "screen" design allowing the moisture inside. I use it in my safe. My particular application won't help you know whether or not it's as efficient in a larger safe or cabinet, but i think it would do fine. My safe is approx 2.5 or 3 sq ft. and after a few months or so the documents in my safe became damp and limp, and are now dry and crisp. Every so often when I think about it, I shake the canister up a little bit. It's been almost 7 or 8 months and the orange cap has not fully changed color. Keep in mind I'm working with a rather small area.The orange beads on top change color to a dark green as they soak up moisture but they do not make the canister run. I removed the cap tray they sit on (curious to see what was inside) and spilled the entire cap on the floor and inside the canister itself. I spent over two hours sweeping and picking the orange beads off the floor and out of the canister. I could have just cleaned up the floor tossed those out, replaced the cap put the canister back in safe. Hind sight is 20/20. Without the orange beads you'll have to guess when to recharge them. The cap looks like it would melt in an oven (haven't tried yet) but i don't know for sure.I would recommend this to a friend.