Moisture absorbers, also called silica gel, are small packs, usually 1-2-5 gr that we put inside the inner plastic to protect your coconut charcoal from absorbing moisture.
As you know, charcoal is very hygroscopic and easily absorbs moisture from the air. If the moisture of briquettes is too high, for example, more than 8%, it will make your briquettes light up longer, possibly get more cracks, and output less heat. Basically, high moisture is a silent killer of your hookah coals.
During production, after the drying oven, we make our briquettes at a 3-4% moisture level; during weathering and packaging, it will stabilize at 6-8%. But we need to make sure the moisture inside the briquettes doesn’t increase. That is why we add moisture absorbers.
For 1 kg inner plastic, we are using our standard 1 gr “natural” moisture absorber (silica gel: SiO₂ ⋅ nH₂O (hydrated silicon dioxide)). It is safe for humans and is even used in food packaging too.
It is enough to protect 1 kg of charcoal from excess water. For 10 kg bulk packaging, we use 10 gr silica gel absorbers.
In Indonesia, there are two main types of moisture absorbers used for packing shisha charcoal: “natural” and “white types”. White type is contains Calcium Chloride (in the photo, it is the round, semi-transparent drops on the right side). And “Natural” is made of reusable and eco-friendly clay mixed with charcoal. Absorption capacity for White is about 33%, while for “Natural” it is 20%.
We are mostly using “natural” as its price per ton of charcoal is aprox 3 USD, while for the “white ” it is 8 USD. But the performance (ability to absorb moisture) is almost the same.
Moisture absorber with your Brand
Yes, we can also make moisture absorbers with your own brand. So when your customers open boxes with your charcoal, they will also see the branded silica gel inside.
But the minimum order for it is 500 kg of silica gel, enough to fill 160 tons of charcoal.
Container Size Moisture Absorbers
For shipping shisha charcoal inside the containers, we are also using “container size” 1 kg to 3 kg moisture absorbers to protect your charcoal from water.
Inside a 40 “ft container, we add 12 “green” color moisture absorbers, and in a 20″ft container we usually add 6 moisture absorber packs
