How to Dry Wet Sand
Found on beaches, gardens, in playgrounds and in hourglasses, sand consists of eroded particles of rock and minerals. Compared with dry sand, wet sand is heavier, cooler to walk on and less pliable. The moisture in wet sand acts almost like an adhesive material, preventing the individual grains from moving as much. If you're collecting sand for an hourglass or art project or need to prepare a sandbox or garden, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to dry moist sand. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Attach an extension cord to a hairdryer and plug the extension cord in. Walk the hairdryer over to the area where the sand is, such as out to your garden or to a sandbox. Turn the hairdryer on to the low fan setting, but to high heat. If the fan is set too high, it will just end up blowing all the sand around, creating an big mess.
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Hold the hairdryer over the surface area of the sand, concentrating on one spot for around 10 seconds. Move the heat of the hairdryer over to another spot, holding it again for 10 seconds. Repeat this process until you have dried the entire surface area of the sand.
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Take a small shovel and scoop up the surface layer of sand, exposing damper bottom areas of sand. Hold the hair dryer over these areas for 10 seconds, moving on to neighboring areas, until all the bottom layers of sand are dry.
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Turn off the hairdryer and run your fingers though the sand. Assess how dry all the sand is. You make need to go over specific parts of the sand or certain bottom layers again.
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Tips & Warnings
If you don't have an extension cord that is long enough to reach the outside area where the sand is, you may need to transport the sand inside with buckets or pans and blow dry it there.
References
- Photo Credit sand art image by Greg Pickens from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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A much faster way to dry it is either in an oven in a baking pan, or on a stove in a frying pan (recommended method).
