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Xylene / Naphtha in a food dehydrator safe?

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N

Nime

Rising Star
Hello everyone, its been a while since i have posted, i am glad to be back!


SWIMs question was is it safe to put around 100-200ml of xylene in a food dehydrator to allow evaporation? SWIMs main fear is the fumes interacting with the heating mechanism and igniting into a fire ball! SWIM has used a food dehydrator to dry small amount of naphtha before quite safely (10ml of it), but never is such large amounts.

SWIM will have the food dehydrator outside with the cover closed, is that okay?

Thank you for your time and concern.
 
If the dehydrator ever sparks, it might cause a fire. Be careful. It's best not to put large quantities of flammable solvent near anything that might make sparks.

With most dehydrators, the fan and heat source are blowing air over the contents to be dried rather than sucking the air. This means pretty clean air is blowing over the solvent, and the solvent fumes are moving away from the fan and heating elements, not towards them. So in order for a fire to start, a spark must come from the fan or heating elements and shoot out very close to the solvent. In reality, this is not very likely to happen. I've never seen a food dehydrator ever make sparks. Still, the thought of it is scary. A spark in the fan or heater that doesn't shoot out far enough to reach the solvent vapor isn't going to cause a fire, unless the room is filled with solvent vapor and the dehydrator is recycling the vapor through its fan.

This is a scary thing to think about. Definitely don't let it run unwatched. You should have a fire extinguisher ready that's labeled specifically for chemical fires, just in case.

If you use DCM, this isn't a problem because DCM doesn't catch fire.
 
SWIM has put xylene in a 200F oven (closely watched with baking soda and a large towel nearby) without any problems besides the nasty smell. Should be fine.

Naptha might be a little more dangerous, though if SWIM need it to evaporate fast he uses a double boiler. Once again watched constantly.
 
opticuswrangler said:
<-- thinks evaporating with heat may result in a lot of gooey oxide instead of shiny xtals.
Click to expand...

thats is exactly what happened, please visit this thread below and give me your input if you have some time.

This thread here
 
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