Idea - Drying out pipes with silica beads

[tfar]

If you are also a cigar smoker and have frequented this site for more than two days you will know the silica beads (heartfelt or kitty litter) that I am talking about.

It is amazing how hygroscopic they are. So I wonder if that would be a good way to dry out a pipe after smoking it. Let it cool down a bit and remove the tobacco rests and then just fill it with beads.

I bet that will work very nicely. Of course, aerating the pipe is still important for avoiding a too smelly pipe but the beads should help with that, too. In fact, one could actually use the kitty litter that contains the odor binding blue pearls. This would soak up the moisture from even the wettest aromatic baccy and get rid of the smells, avoid ghosts.

This would speed up the recovery process and thus make for a better pipe rotation particularly if you only have three pipes.

One would just need a cup full of beads and those could be reused many times until they get too stinky or too unsightly.

Do you think I am on to something? Or is that just a stupid and possibly dangerous idea? What do you think?

Till

[carbonbased_al]

I wonder if it would hinder the caking process? I also think it might confuse my cat some, and I really don't want him thinking he can do his business in my pipes

[uncballzer]

I don't know if I would put beads into a pipe, but I was thinking of using the dehydrator for a few minutes on the lowest setting to try to dry my pipes out. Might be a little safer and won't get kitty-litter smell to your pipes.

[replicant_argent]

I believe the beads would get "fouled" very quickly and lose any properties they have.
Viper will hopefully see this and be able to set us on the proper path.
Now the Dessicant bead packs you get in Packaged goods, you know, the ones that say "do not eat" on them, those would seem to work well.

[Infin1ty]

I could see using the beads, but if you get kitty litter anywhere near my pipe we may have a problem,

[Mad Hatter]

Not sure if it'll work but it wouldn't hurt to try. I'd be interested in hearing the outcome.

[ghostrider]

I would think that long term use of something like this might actually damage the pipe. If you're storing the pipe with the beads, it will dry out the wood as well, not just the cake.

[pistol]

I would be concerned with with the dust that the silica beads leave behind in the pipe. I wouldn't want to draw that stuff into my lungs accidentally...

[SUOrangeGuy]

Most people that get into pipes end up with more than enough so the resting period is not a problem.

Its an interesting idea but I bet it would stick to the cake and it would be difficult to remove them without damaging the cake.

[uncballzer]

Originally Posted by replicant_argent

I believe the beads would get "fouled" very quickly and lose any properties they have.
Viper will hopefully see this and be able to set us on the proper path.
Now the Dessicant bead packs you get in Packaged goods, you know, the ones that say "do not eat" on them, those would seem to work well.

Read this earlier this morning and didn't put two and two together until the post just above this one about ruining the cake. It may be possible to use the Dessicant bead packs just placed onto of the bowl to draw out the moisture; it probably won't work as quickly, but it's something to try.

[wharfrathoss]

the thing i've found w/beads is that they're better at releasing moisture than abosorbing it-they will, it just takes a while, like days or weeks

i have a lamp w/a shade by the chair i smoke in-i just stick a straight coat hanger across it & rest the bowl of the pipe on the hanger & the bit on the shade w/the bowl pointing down-i do it once a week after cleaning w/alcohol-in the summer i just sit them in the sun

[tfar]

A number of interesting replies here. Let me give you my take on it because I just tried it out overnight.

First, I have to say that the specific kitty litter pearls I mention are the same thing in function as the heartfelt beads and the same thing as the desiccant packs you get with electronic equipment. I am not talking about the clumpy kitty litter we think of primarily when we hear kitty litter.

Second, the beads do not dust at all. I have a 7 pound transparent jar sitting in front of me and there is no dust on the bottom of it. This means that worries about dust getting in your lungs are unfounded. If you are so worried about your lungs you should perhaps give up smoking . Nicotine and tar might be worse than some sand (silica) in absolutely negligible proportions. I mean it's not like working with fiberglass insulation for a lifetime.

Third, yes the beads might get contaminated easily from the ashes. But there are two points that make this a moot point. They will still work well enough even if slightly grey and they are so cheap and you need so little that you can just use new beads. Probably one or two 7lbs jugs should last you a lifetime.

Fourth, fear of drying out the pipe too much. I don't know if you can dry out a pipe too much. They say aged briar is better because it has dried longer. Besides that I am not saying to leave the pearls in there for long-term storage. I am saying to leave it in there overnight.

Fifth, fear of interference with cake. The actual contact area of pearls and cake is minimal. A dry cake is a good cake because it absorbs moisture from your smoke and thus gives you a drier smoke. In my trial I could detect no abrasion or scratches in the cake whatsoever.

Sixth, in my eyes the pearls absorb moisture much quicker than they release it which is also the reason that they work for long-term cigar storage and as a buffer and why they are primarily used as a desiccant. When you look at how quickly the color changes when you expose them to water and how long it takes for the color to change back, you know that they absorb much quicker than they release.

So much for theory.

Here is the result of my trial:

Trial conditions: I smoked a full bowl of Boswell's Smoker's Choice (excellent by the way) in my Ferndown panel pipe. The tobacco was left to dry for about eight hours before smoking but it was still quite moist and would still stick when pressed together. It is one of the saucier tabacs I have. The panel pipe has thick walls that are untreated. Ferndown oil cures their pipes, though. The smoke chamber is deep and narrow. Cake is formed so far primarily on the bottom. I did not use any coating of the walls to form the cake. I use the pipe mainly for aromatics. It has perhaps had 10 bowls burning, so I admit the cake is not huge. But for our purpose that is actually good as this makes the cake more fragile and any abrasion would be easier to detect.

After smoking I passed a pipe cleaner in the stem, swooshed the ashes around the bowl then emptied it out thoroughly and let it cool. Then I filled the bowl to the rim with pearls. It took around 1.5-2 teaspoons. Filling and emptying the pearls is super easy; just use your hand as a funnel.

Results:

After 12 hours of rest I emptied the pearls out. There were some really tiny specs of tobacco on the pearls. You'd have to look twice to see them. The color of the pearls had hardly changed. BUT the cake in the pipe looked just as dry as if i had left it to aerate for at least 48 to 72 hours. No cake damage whatsoever, as I said. The best thing however was the smell. The pipe smelled fresh and clean, very close to neutral and much less smelly than leaving the pipe to simply dry out for three days. The pearls are unscented of course to start with. I emptied the pearls into a little porcelain cup. The ash specs fell right off and separated from the pearls. There is no ash inclusion inside the pearls.


Try it out for yourself, you risk nothing. I tried it out in my most expensive pipe. Use a cob if you are cautious. It will also be interesting to see whether is has the positive effect of preventing ghosts from forming. From what I can tell now it will do precisely that.

I think I will continue to use and recommend the "Till Method".

Let me know when you have tried it out. If you like it smoke a bowl of your favorite stuff in my honor.

Till

[solafid3]

Question, what if you could just stick an enormously large bunch of that stuff (or any desiccant for that matter) in a Tupperware, rest the pipe on top of the Tupperware sealed and let it sit for a day? Wouldn't it do the same thing?

[tfar]

Originally Posted by solafid3

Question, what if you could just stick an enormously large bunch of that stuff (or any desiccant for that matter) in a Tupperware, rest the pipe on top of the Tupperware sealed and let it sit for a day? Wouldn't it do the same thing?

Excellent idea, man! That would be very good because the pearls could work even better in a closed environment and if you are afraid to scratch the cake (which really you needn't be) that is a good solution. I had thought of a ziplock bag but not the tupper ware.

I just did it to two more pipes yesterday and it works great.

Till