When the unexpected happens, it’s important to have the right tools to restore your home to its original state. When flooding threatens to damage a home, desiccant often becomes an important tool for disaster cleanup experts working to stop the effects of water damage. Blue Ridge Property Restore, located in Martinsburg, WV, uses a desiccant dryer to help salvage items that have otherwise been destroyed by flooding.

What Is Desiccant Drying?

Desiccant compressed air dryers use a material called desiccant to dry compressed air during disaster cleanup. You might have already seen desiccant in use before — think of the small bags filled with silica gel or activated alumina that are used to keep the contents of pill bottles dry. This material acts like a magnet for water, and moisture is easily attracted to the desiccant’s surface.

Desiccant drying systems purify the air by absorbing any excess moisture that’s present. They usually have two identical towers that are both filled with desiccant. While one tower works to draw the moisture out of the surrounding air, the other is going through what is referred to as regeneration.

During the regeneration phase, the desiccant is dried in order to remove present water before it is reused. These dryers typically run through four stages — drying, heating, cooling, and re-pressurizing. Once the process is complete, the system will switch towers to begin using this newly dried tower to continue with water removal while the other begins regenerating.

Is your home in need of water damage restoration? Residents of eastern West Virginia, south central Pennsylvania, central Maryland, and northern Virginia all rely on the disaster cleanup team at Blue Ridge Property Restore to recover from emergencies quickly and help return homes damaged by flood or fire to their natural state. Learn more about their water damage restoration methods and services online, or call (304) 262-8100 for a free estimate.