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I'm not "allowed" to dry it in the kitchen, so I plan on throwing it in the filament dryer with something like this.
It maxes out at 65°C but I'm fairly confident 10+ hours should do the trick.
Luckily I live in a place where it lasts forever, so I'm probably only going to be doing it once or twice per year. My current containers are 3+ months old and I'm at 18 and 14% humidity, according to the AMS's.
Sounds similar to my idea, though I don’t know whether 10h at 65°C would yield the same result as less time at 100°C. Printing such a box with PC or ABS would allow higher temperatures I think.
I use a small hotplate at about 125 degrees and an aluminium baking tray. If you spread the beads out thinly it will dry pretty quickly.
Alternatively you can use an old microwave and that should remove moisture from the silica gel in a matter of minutes. You can easily overheat them though and I would never use that microwave for food again.
A little tip for when you try out different methods: Check the weight of the silica gel, to check your progress.
For example: Take a container from the AMS, weigh it. Give it an hour in a food dehydrator. Weigh it. Repeat until weight no longer drops. Give it a couple hours or more in an oven that's at least 100 °C. Then weight it again.
Now you know how long it takes in the dehydrator, and how well it works.
Later you can weigh it again, and compare to the weight out of the oven. Now you know how much water is in there.
The scientific method, eh? 😄
I dry my silica gel in a convection toaster oven at 125°C. I put a temperature probe in the bottom of the tray. The temperature will hold around 100°C while it's drying and jumps up fairly quickly when it's done. It usually takes around 90 minutes.
Don't put indicating silica gel in anything you will use for food, it's toxic. Some types are less toxic than others, but none are completely safe. I picked up a used toaster oven and baking tray from a thrift store and marked them "not for food".
I microwave mine in a ceramic bowl on 30-40% power (in an 800w unit) for 20-30min, stir and give it another 20-30min. That usually restores them to a dry state and doesn't cause issues with overheating them.
This is the only way I’ve been successful with a microwave dry. For a standard 1000-1100 watt microwave, drop the power down to 20%.
I normally toss them into my food dehydrator while I’m drying filament rolls though so I don’t need another step.
lower temps work partially afaik and they will never fully dry the silica gel. You should aim for above 100°C
If you are concerned about safety have one dedicated oven dish for the silica gel and ventilate your oven and kitchen thoroughly after a session.
I do this, I have a toaster oven that lives in my garage solely for shop use. Have some foil to act as a bit of a heat deflector, seems to work well enough.