DampRidFG60 Refillable Moisture Absorber, 10.5 oz Twin Pack, White to Off-White, Solid

I was so skeptical about this product and honestly don't even remember how I came upon it! I was amazed at the reviews but read the negatives and just knew their experience would be the same as mine. The price wasn't too high, though, and it was actually cheaper to buy a 2-pack here than to buy two at my local big-box hardware store. The first few days were actually disappointing, then it started working, then it started doing weird stuff, so yeaterday I looked it up on the DampRid site and discovered that it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Today I checked it, and it's making more progress. (Details below) Overall, I approve!Here's the situation: We live in Coastal SC where it's warm, if not hot, and humid for much of the year. Even though we run our air conditioning at a reasonable temperature, we still ended up with humidity under our kitchen sink, especially after running the dishwasher, which is right next to the sink. It had started growing mold and smelling mildewy, so I carefully cleaned it up with some bleach (it wasn't that much, but no amount of mold is ok to me). From that point forward, we would keep the cabinet doors open as much as possible, especially during/after running the dishwasher, so that the air conditioning would dehumidify under the kitchen sink. It was helpful, but who wants their kitchen cabinets open all the time? It was like an invitation for our 2-year-old to drink Windex, and I really didn't want to have to find a new place for cleaning supplies. Thus we needed to find a solution because there was no end in sight to this humidity problem.Enter DampRid. The first day I put it in the cabinet under the kitchen sink, the crystals at the top started to gel together and crust over. It stayed that way for two or three days, so I thought it had stopped working. I opened it up and took a disposable chopstick to crack up the crust (which was hard to do) and expose dry crystals. Within a day, the same thing happened again, so I let it be, thinking this thing was a piece of garbage. Then I ran the dishwasher but left the cabinet doors closed. Afterwards the cabinet was warm and musty, as usual, but a few hours later I could see more of the crystals working as well as water on the side of the bucket near the crystals. I checked the next day, and there was actually a little bit of water in the bottom. The next day there was no change in the amount of water in the bottom, but the crystals were one solid mass. I thought, "This can't be right," and went to the DampRid site, which explains that the series of events I was experiencing was exactly how it was supposed to work. Eventually the crystals would dissolve into a gel, then seep down into the bottom portion of the bucket. This morning I looked at it, and there was more water in the bottom, along with what was clearly a gel. The amount of solids in the top portion of the bucket appeared to be reduced, too. So it's working! Also, I know my kitchen cabinets aren't airtight, but this clearly has handled the humidity issue because within a few hours of running the dishwasher (I've done it another time since), the cabinet isn't super humid and musty anymore. I'm glad my refill won't go to waste, either.So what about the other DampRid that I bought? (This was a 2-pack...) I put it underneath my bathroom vanity. Because I was impatient about getting my order from Amazon, I spent three bucks at my local big-box hardware store and bought one, meaning I have three. I put the third underneath my husband's bathroom vanity. We have no moisture/mold/musty issues under those sinks, but I checked them both yesterday and saw a bit of crust forming on the crystals, meaning there is some decent humidity to speak of there, I guess because we are both taking showers in that bathroom. I plan on purchasing a couple more to put under the cabinets in our kids' bathroom in case they can absorb any humidity there. This stuff is inexpensive enough, especially if you buy the large refill packs, that there's almost no reason not to.The only downsides I've found for this product are (1) scents (or lack thereof) and (2) all the warnings and such. I'm concerned that somehow this is going to end up in my kids' hands or eaten by my dogs or something. It feels a little misleading because the DampRid site goes on about how it's non-toxic, safe for kids and pets, etc., but when you get the packaging it's like Happy Fun Ball (I looked at it. Are my eyes ok?). But seriously, it tells you not to touch the crystals with your bare hands because it can cause irritation and to get medical attention immediately if it's ingested. I guess that means it won't kill you but will make you sick? I don't know. As for scents, the only scents available on Amazon or in my local big-box hardware store are this one (unscented) or the lavender one. I wasn't sure I wanted the cabinet under my kitchen sink to smell like lavender, but the fresh linen scent (or whatever it's called) was not available in this product. There are also no other scent choices, so I went with unscented. I'm not unhappy with it but do wish there were other choices in this particular DampRid product.Overall, an excellent product that does exactly what it's supposed to! My in-laws have major humidity issues at their lake house and have to run a dehumidifer constantly, even when no one is there. (Rule #1 when you arrive is, go empty the dehumidifier.) I think the big bucket of DampRid will majorly help, plus it will be helpful for their boat when it's covered up at the end of a stay or stored during the winter.

I originally learned about DampRid while in Property Management. I was living on a lake in a townhouse where my master bedroom and bath were in a loft...Although we were careful to use both our bathroom fan and heat lamp (fan pushes air out, while heat lamp dries the moisture in the air going out, so you aren't left with moisture build-up in your vents) whenever we showered, we still occasionally got some mildew on our bathroom ceiling.According to the health department, mildew or mold usually comes from how we live. I opened windows whenever I cleaned and we lived pretty cleanly. The loft style apartments apparently made it harder to avoid since heat rises from the lower level and our being on the lake.After using bleach to kill off the mildew (1 part bleach and 2 parts water in a spray bottle is effective), using mildew resistant primer, and repainting (two times, months apart), the mildew still came back after some time...My maintenance supervisor finally mentioned DampRid and of course, for just a few bucks, if it helped at all, I was open to try it! I bought it from a local store before finding this two pack available here. I put one in my walk-in closet after reading more about it and one under our bathroom sink. We opened the cabinet door during showers and shockingly never had another mildew problem!It was probably a month before one began to liquify. The salts first start to harden and become one slab of hard goo, for lack of better words, lol. It takes a while before it all liquifies, maybe two plus months but it is effective. Since then, I keep one in each bathroom, one in a linen closet, another in a closet for shoes, and one in our bedroom closet. I only use the fragrance free one but haven't tried any others.Another recommendation by this brand that I also buy here on Amazon (which is scented),  DampRid FG69LV Odor Genie, Lavender Vanilla  It doesn't eliminate moisture quite like this but does make for a nice air freshener if you don't like anything that smells too strong. It is charcoal based and also available in other scents.If you've got a stale smelling basement or garage, a trick I learned that works well is to cut an onion in half and leave it on a dish there for a couple days. The cut onion will have absorbed all of the funky smell, it won't leave behind an onion smell, lol, and then you can toss the onion. Or if you're brave and desperately hungry, you could eat it but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.Uploading some photos so you can get a closer look at how these appear at purchase vs after they've been liquifying (the last photo you can see the water level of one that's almost done). Weird but hey, hopefully this helps someone! Smile.

After fighting humidity, constant wipe-downs and significant cleaning efforts in the freezer based beer and wine fermentation chamber, I finally decided to look into something that would help control moisture over the long term. I looked into the electric units but wasn't quite comfortable with their long term reliability and considered this consumable option for a trial run. Well, I'm into 6 months on my first unit with about 6 10-gallon batches run through the chamber and it's still running well on the original crystals. The chamber stays dry, whether I'm lagering at just above freezing temps, doing an ale around 62 degrees or even saisons at higher temps.I was most worried that I'd have to constantly be changing out the DampRid material, but so far, that hasn't been a concern. Even if I went through a 42oz bag twice a year, that would work...but looks like I'm doing much better than that. At six months, no moisture to report and the stuff looks good, no pooling water or anything. May just replace once a year or so on a maintenance cycle, certainly economical enough and works out to pennies a day.I did have to reduce my air circulation on the internal fan a fair bit when adding this as it was causing my bubblers to dry up within a day, something that would quickly expose the beer and wine to air. (At least I know it's working!) Once I dropped air circulation down to a trickle, I can easily maintain a batch's bubbler for the 2-3 weeks it'll typically stay in the fermentation chamber. Other than bit of tweaking, they pretty much just sit there and suck the water vapors right out of the air.I don't know how well they'd work in a really humid environment, but these units have saved me a lot of cleaning time and other efforts related to brewing beer...so for that, it gets a win sticker!

Product came in clean packages, no rips or tears. Easy to open and setup in seconds. In a couple of days, already seeing some improvements in air quality and air is not too dry.

Dampness

Works well in our basement storage. It collects moisture and stores in the bottom receptacle. Have purchased more than once. My parents were the ones that told me about this product, they used in their Florida condo closets.

Seems like a quality product.

Good