this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Ooohhh another dehumidifier!

But no no no no, this time, THIS time, MIT is involved so it MUST be true, because MIT would never link it's mlname to yet another Sammy product, right?

OOOHH, And this device will even get water out of desert air, you say? Like like all the other water out of dry air products that were all such obvious scams that any 15yo could use highschool physics to explain it to you?.

Well call me sold, I'm all in in this one! By the way, I have this nice heat little bridge in my backyard, you'd LOVE it! Pay first, the. I'll show ya, promise!

And just to make it really really clear: no, I haven't read the article and yes, it's a scam, and how do I know? Basic physics and, you know, seeing these devices come by every 2-4 years like clockwork and every damn time some university is funding it or attaching their names to it for some reason. I don't even need to read the article at this point.

Here is a question: can universities please require that students have taken some basic physics courses before they allow them to start dumb scams like this?

Edit: come at me Lemmy, down vote all you want, I'm still right

[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

I never understood why people keep falling for the 'dehumidifer will solve world water shortages' thing over and over. It's an old idea and there is damn good reason you don't see this 'obvious' solution deployed everywhere. (Check out the WaterSeer video if you would like to know more)

[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 20 points 1 day ago

Now all I need is a droid that speaks the binary language of moisture vaporators…

[–] stroz@infosec.pub 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Are the plans open source, freely available online? Or is this a situation where you need at modern manufacturing facility to produce one?

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Or is this a situation where you need at modern manufacturing facility to produce one?

Probably the second one:

The team also shaped the hydrogel into a dome-like origami array, like a sheet of bubble wrap. The unique structure increased surface area and maximized how much the material could swell so it would hold more water vapor. The team then sandwiched the gel between two glass panels roughly the size of a small window, both coated with a cooling chemical layer, and added tubing to collect the water.

Assuming I'm wrong, you'd still need a ton of those for a single person. They got approximately 5.5oz in one night from one panel in death valley, but a quick Google says you need about 32oz per hour in high heat. You'd need just under 6 panels/person/hour you need water, which takes away from the idea that this is portable or really usable for hiking when you'd need like 80+ of these things to get anywhere close to having enough water for one day.

5.5 wizards of oz?

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Might work better where it's more humid. Might bring humidity to more bearable levels if you have a lot of them?

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But when it's really humid, there's usually much better ways of getting water.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

But you also want to get humidity out of air so it's still a perk

[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Interesting. That design sounds a lot like vapor chambers that cell phones use for cooling. Just, not sealed.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 1 points 11 hours ago