Gels in the Fridge

What say you…??

I haven’t religiously been following any particular storage choice, but starting to think when I keep them in the fridge they run more consistently and last longer.

Here in Qld, it gets stinking hot and I think a constant cool temp, is best.

Thoughts…??

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My own experience is that I only ever kept them in the fridge when stored at home, and in an Esky when out in the field.

Grown, quick strain and straight into a 2ltr Coke bottle in the fridge.
Would still have plenty of moisture in the bottle and sealed off air tight.

Gels used to store for months and still stay consistent :ok_hand:

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Yep fridge.

Only gels I wouldn’t put in the fridge were Ultra Elites.

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Just sold the fridge I had in the shed. Found some elites that had been in there for over a year in airtight containers. Ran them through the ACR and they worked fine. They had dropped to around 7.1mm

Many of my OOTB test gels were always stored the same method, and was surprised at the consistency of these cheap gels which were always at least 3-6 months in storage :thinking:

Any benefit to freezing them?

Waste of time. They either shrivel up or stick together. Also damages your blaster.

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Yeah…… freezing is a stupid idea.
People think that it will give them “steel ball bearing” gels…… but in reality, it’s just a completely batshit insane idea when all the actual physics are realised :roll_eyes:

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What’s the consensus on drying? :thinking:

I usually drain my gels really well then alternate between two paper towel lined strainers until they’re reasonably dryish before bottling them and putting them in the fridge.

It’s a pain in the arse but works for me… I hate filling a mag and seeing water dribbling out of the speedloader.

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I do the same just use tea towels instead of paper.

I never ever fully dried out my gels for storage.

I would grow them to size and separate the amount that was required for immediate use.

These gels were drained, rolled around through a tea towel to remove excess water and then placed in the speed loaders in the fridge for transport in an esky to wherever we would be playing that day.

All of the excess gels from growing were simply poured through a sieve and then stored in 2 litre Coke bottles in the fridge until required.

If they sat in the fridge for too long and looked like they were starting to lose size, would simply add a bit more water to the bottle, give it a shake and make sure to simply rotate the bottle until they were required :+1:

I used to do that until the missus went crook about all the wet tea towels :wink:

The highly technical trick was finding decent tea towels that didn’t leave cotton fibres all over your gels :roll_eyes::joy:

I grow my gels, strain the water off, then leave them in whatever bottle they will stay in, upside down with a lid full of 6mm holes. after 10mins give a bit of shake to drip out the excess, then store until use on my bar sink. There is little sunlight, but I have never used the fridge, though I do aircon in summer so they never see higher temperatures, except on the field when my missus leaves the bottles in the sunlight :angry:

I’ve wondered about that… drain holes in the storage bottles. :thinking: