enzymes seem to need to be kept dry or thier activity degrades, especially hn-zyme
retinyl acetate loses potency from moisture absorption (biofilm do well in moist conditions and start digesting the supplement)
i put the dessicants in a compact 9 litre tabletop toaster oven, at about 80C for a minimium of 72 hours, but in fact i just leave some dessicants in and the oven running permanently at about 73C? so i can always replace the dessicants in supplement bottles with dried dessicants from the toaster oven if i think they need it and pop the warm dessicants straight into the supplement bottle
24 hours is too short to dry the dessicants properly at these temperatures, though 24 hours may be ok at about 90-95C in dry weather, damp weather needs longer
the plastic envelope limits how high a temperature you can go
dessicants taken out for use on a dry day will be dryer than those taken out on a damp day, so i tend not to change dessicants on rainy, damp or humid days
dessicants are actually drier on dry air days
the oven should be clean so no fat vapour enters or coats and clogs the pores of the dessicants, i use the small benchtop toaster oven i have only for drying dessicants
the dessicants are placed in a bit of aluminium foil folded over with the pillow paks
inside so that any direct radiant heat doesn't melt the plastic paks
the aluminium should only have one gentle fold and the pillow paks inside open to the air via the very loose/high fold
convection ovens seem to work well, permit a higher temperature for a shorter time
gas ovens may be too moist and may have issues with chemicals being absorbed into the dessicant pores (good for cooking though)
110C/230F seems a bit high for the paks to handle with the seams opening
if the oven is to hot the plastic paks will break open at the edges when you handle them
if i am not going to store the dessicants i will pop them almost straight from the oven into the supplement bottle. just needs a few seconds in air to cool that bit necessary
if i am going to store the dessicants dry, i put them into a small glass jar
with an airtight lid to cool down and be stored, i do put the glass jar
(without the lid) briefly in the oven before using it just to dry any
moisture out of it and then pop the hot dessicants into the warm jar
then put the lid on
supplement powders especially are vulnerable to moisture, particularly
vitamin c and retinyl acetate. vitamin c generally seems very susceptible to degradation by moisture.
the commonly used silicia gel dessicants start to re-emit vapour above 35C which is a tricky problem, basically they need to be stored in a cool dry place
a bit of masking tape on the bottle makes a good surface to write the date of placing a dry dessicant in the bottle so you have some idea of how long since the the dessicant was dried
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if drying just the unpacked gel, 284F/140C for several hours (depending on the bulk) in an oven may be ok - i do this for drying the gel sold for cat litter for keeping my gunpowder dry
interestingly, the blue in this chinese cat litter silca gel doesn't turn pink even if immersed in water for months, maybe they are worried about cobalt toxicity and don't use it, just pretend to?
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long periods of damp weather are murder on supplements, its best to write on a bit of masking tape on the side of the supplement bottle when you last refreshed the dessicant, and learn to judge by mouth feel how damp the supplement is - retinyl acetate needs to be really crisp in texture
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very dry tablets seem to get quite hard and difficult to cut, haven't noticed any loss in potency though?
there may be an extreme of overdrying that is destructive to supplements, too compressed or something, not sure about this