To Desiccant or not to Desiccant - That is the Question

[1chris5]

I have been thinking of a boot dryer DIY and am looking for suggestions. I note on a quick tour of youtube there are 2 basic designs. One design uses a house floor vent to dry the gear and the other design uses PVC configuration with detachable hair dryer. After considering both designs, I am not satisfied with either. First my floor vents are not really accessible and we don't keep the house particularly warm so the flow is not very powerful nor hot. Second, the hair dryer method may be inherently dangerous. Even at low setting, should a hair dryer be run for 15 or 20 minutes? I would set the hair dryer up on a timer to make sure I don't forget about it and let it run too long. My thought is maybe fill socks or cloth tubes with desiccant and try to suck the moisture out of the boot. I am not sure what a lot of desiccant cost but this is the method I now favor. What are your thoughts and suggestions? Here are youtube videos of the first two options:
Hair Dryer Method:

Vent Method:

 

[pais alto]

First off, unless the room is particularly cold or moist, you don't need heat to dry your boots overnight. I'd think desiccant would need replacing and run up your cost. If you want to construct a simple box and tube thing, look at these. Those are what I'll use if I ever build a boot dryer:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJ2J2K0/

 

[Monique]

First off, unless the room is particularly cold or moist, you don't need heat to dry your boots overnight.

I think this may be person-specific? After a spring skiing day or an AT day, I've sweat enough that the liners don't dry overnight unless I run the dryer. And that's in Colorado.

 

[Monique]

I think this may be person-specific? After a spring skiing day or an AT day, I've sweat enough that the liners don't dry overnight unless I run the dryer. And that's in Colorado.

Wait, I take this back. You said heat, not "any dryer." Sorry! Carry oN!

 

[Mike Thomas]

You want to move air, don't use high heat. If you took the design for the hair drier and substitute a small fan you will be good without risking burning your house down.

 

[Eleeski]

We have a boot closet with a radiator style heater warming the closet. The closet gets quite warm but the radiator heater does not overheat. Not only are the boots dry the next morning but they are comfy warm. Simple, safe and not particularly expensive (just the electricity to heat the boot closet and what leaks out warms the house).

Eric

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

We have a boot closet with a radiator style heater warming the closet. The closet gets quite warm but the radiator heater does not overheat. Not only are the boots dry the next morning but they are comfy warm. Simple, safe and not particularly expensive (just the electricity to heat the boot closet and what leaks out warms the house).

Eric

That's brilliant! I need to do this the next time we renovate. Is the radiator heater a portable unit, an independent unit, or is it connected to a forced air system?

 

[hbear]

We just bought a few of those Dry Guys type boot dryers from Costco when they were on sale. I think we paid about $40 each. Each dryer has four ports and can do a pair of boots and gloves or 2 sets of boots pretty easily. Boots are dry after a cycle, think it's 90mins?

It's great as we just put a couple in a duffel bag when we travel and we are good to go.

Unless you have a small army and don't mind being limited to a fixed place, not sure the limitations are worth it to build your own....especially when the cost isn't that bad to buy.

I mean after materials and time, you are pretty much in line with buying a new boot dryer unit. Doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

[mdf]

We just bought a few of those Dry Guys type boot dryers from Costco when they were on sale. I think we paid about $40 each. Each dryer has four ports and can do a pair of boots and gloves or 2 sets of boots pretty easily. Boots are dry after a cycle, think it's 90mins?

It's great as we just put a couple in a duffel bag when we travel and we are good to go.

Unless you have a small army and don't mind being limited to a fixed place, not sure the limitations are worth it to build your own....especially when the cost isn't that bad to buy.

I mean after materials and time, you are pretty much in line with buying a new boot dryer unit. Doesn't seem worth it to me.

I had one of those 4-port units and liked it a lot. Unfortunately, the fan started to rattle at the end of the first season and failed in the middle of a ski trip the second.

The other non-electrical method that works quite well is newspaper - stuff one end in the toes, fan the other end out in the open to act as a wick. But I did not have any newspaper.

Which led to my backup solution - warm a bunch of heavy silverwear (stainless, actually) over the toaster, dump it in the boots, cycle when it cools. Repeat about 15 times. Don't get the silverwear too hot to hold.

 

[Philpug]

I leave my boots in my heated boot bag over night was the second setting and they are warm and dry the next day.

 

[Chris Walker]

I plug in my heated boot bag when I leave for the mountain and my boots dry as I'm sitting in traffic on I-70.

 

[raytseng]

Agree, the main design priciple for your dryer is air flow, not necessarily heat or dessicant.

Dessicant in terms of silica gel will absorb very little moisture from the target when it is in an open environment. It will suck up all the moisture from the air instead. To dry flowers, need to put flowers in silica gel and enclose the whole thing in an airtight bag, otherwise all the drying power is wasted on the air.
Then it takes a huge amount of time and energy (like 3hrs at 350F) to repower the silica..
Your alternative is like damprid, but that changes from a solid to a brine, which will not work unless you want ruined slimed salt liners.

if you are intent on DIY, one aspect is you want it to portable for travel or not? If it's for home, you have all the space in the world to fiddle an intricate device.
If you want portable, then the materials you are looking for would be more along the line of computer fans and USB as your power supply. Instead of looking at DIY youtubes, you should just look at the commercial designs and try to replicate.

If you choose to go with the tube design though, one of the most important pieces is the endpiece that 1) direct it to the toes and 2) splits the chamber. The split allows for a smooth return path, and can easily provide double the efficiency if designed right by someone who has even rudimentary knowledge of aerodynamics and fluid flow.

Or if you want to just KISS, then you can make up for poor and rudimentary design with just more time, more power or more heat with your the device.

The only economically practical reason if you want to do DIY, is for example you run a rental shop and you need to dry a hundred boots a day; and the companies quoted you like thousands for a rack drying system, and you're like I can do it way cheaper than that.

 

[Eleeski]

That's brilliant! I need to do this the next time we renovate. Is the radiator heater a portable unit, an independent unit, or is it connected to a forced air system?

It's just a plain 110V portable electric radiator. I run it on the low wattage setting but crank the thermostat way up. The closet is a stand alone storage cabinet not a built in. Easy retrofit for our mud room. The boots are always dry. The radiator doesn't get too hot for gloves so I can put soaked dripping gloves on the radiator directly and they are dry for tomorrow.

Travel is tough. I can't bring my closet with me so other solutions are still needed. If you visit me though, you'll have the heated closet!

Eric

 

[Sibhusky]

Boot sticks. From the minute I get home until I put them on the next day. Dry, THOROUGHLY warmed. When my 12 year old sticks failed (might have been five years older) I bought two more pair as they seem tough to find these days.

 

[graham418]

I thought I saw some Boot / Glove dryer combo. A tube with blower and heater that you stick in your boots, and sticks far enough out of your boots that you stick your gloves on. Did I just dream that or does it exist? My gloves usually get wetter than my boots

 

[KingGrump]

Seirus boot dryer.

Good concept. Poor execution.
Noisy. Extremely poor durability.
Had one, will never buy again.

 

[raytseng]

there's also this creepy thing to stick on tubes so the air can actually get into the fingers. for peet dryers.
http://www.thewarmingstore.com/peet-glove-dryports.html?productid=peet-glove-dryports

I suppose sticking with the DIY theme, you can also get handy with some wire coat hangers to make your own glove spreader to promote airflow and drying.

 

[Tony S]

Dessicant is fine if you're a counter-tenor. Talk about outliers, though.

 

[Karl B]

About 10 years back I bought a Seirus boot dryer. The lady at the ski shop told me as she rang up the sale that I would be back within a month. Seems that they had some serious warranty issues with them.She was right, I was back twice more that season to exchange the dryers. I decided at that time to exercise some of my fabrication skills and build myself an industrial duty boot dryer out of PVC tubing and a 120V muffin fan from W.W. Granger. You DO NOT need heat to dry your boots. A soft gentle movement of air with an exit is sufficient. The unit pictured below will dry a pair of boots in about 30 minutes but will hold up if it is forgotten and left on all night. The Seirus unit cost $49.95 and I have less than $40 in mine. With the PVC tubes and elbows you do not need to glue the joints and therefore you can break it down as necessary for travel or storage.

 

[pais alto]

About 10 years back I bought a Seirus boot dryer. The lady at the ski shop told me as she rang up the sale that I would be back within a month. Seems that they had some serious warranty issues with them.She was right, I was back twice more that season to exchange the dryers. I decided at that time to exercise some of my fabrication skills and build myself an industrial duty boot dryer out of PVC tubing and a 120V muffin fan from W.W. Granger. You DO NOT need heat to dry your boots. A soft gentle movement of air with an exit is sufficient. The unit pictured below will dry a pair of boots in about 30 minutes but will hold up if it is forgotten and left on all night. The Seirus unit cost $49.95 and I have less than $40 in mine. With the PVC tubes and elbows you do not need to glue the joints and therefore you can break it down as necessary for travel or storage.
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That.
Is.
BITCHIN!