# Can Water Be Freeze-Dried?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305 "2006-03-06T22:08:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/1 "2006-03-06T22:08:32Z")
Can water be freeze-dried in the way that say, coffee can be freeze-dried? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/2 "2006-03-06T22:10:32Z")
Sure thing. To reconstitute, just add water. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/3 "2006-03-06T22:13:10Z")
I should bottle it and sell it at an insanely high price. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/4 "2006-03-06T22:20:34Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > I should bottle it and sell it at an insanely high price. Just imagine what we could charge for freeze-dried homeopathic remedies!! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/5 "2006-03-06T22:23:11Z")
In freeze drying, first a substance in frozen so that all the water is in the form of ice crystals. Then the water is sublimated off. This is like evaporation, but entails going from solid to vapor rather then from liquid to vapor. The result is that all the water that was in the substance is gone. What remains can be restored to its original condition (or very nearly so) by adding water back to it. So if you freeze dry, say, a liter of water, you end up with everything that was in it except for the water. All you have to do to restore it to its original condition is add a liter of water. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/6 "2006-03-06T22:24:49Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > So if you freeze dry, say, a liter of water, you end up with everything that was in it except for the water. All you have to do to restore it to its original condition is add a liter of water. Just to pick nits, all you need to add is a liter of _pure_ water; otherwise you’ll end up with a liter of water with roughly twice the normal amount of… stuff… in it. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/7 "2006-03-06T22:28:53Z")
[Dehydrated water](http://www.sq7.org/omnipedia/index.php/Dehydrated_water) ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/8 "2006-03-06T22:30:02Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Just to pick nits, all you need to add is a liter of _pure_ water; otherwise you’ll end up with a liter of water with roughly twice the normal amount of… stuff… in it. Unless it was pure water you freeze-dried in the first place! ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/9 "2006-03-06T22:52:47Z")
Doesn’t this one come up every three months or so? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/10 "2006-03-06T23:05:00Z")
When I was a kid, the anwer to this was “Just add milk!” on the silly premise that powdered milk was re-constituted by adding water, and that the reverse could be done. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/11 "2006-03-07T04:02:52Z")
I bought some powdered water, but I don’t know what to add to it. – Steven Wright 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/12 "2006-03-07T15:19:23Z")
I remember reading this in a Gyro Gearloose comic. He’d invented two powders which, when mixed, produced gallons upon gallons of water. He was very successful selling these powders during a town water shortage, until the citizens realized that the reason there _was_ a shortage was because Gyro was consuming immense amounts of water in his lab to produce the powders. ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/13 "2006-03-07T18:21:57Z")
> [@Gary T](#): > > In freeze drying, first a substance in frozen so that all the water is in the form of ice crystals. Then the water is sublimated off. This is like evaporation, but entails going from solid to vapor rather then from liquid to vapor. Isn’t the the same mechanism that causes freezer burn? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/14 "2006-03-07T18:41:43Z")
Oooh! This question makes me dizzy, and kills puppies too. _Cute_ puppies! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/15 "2006-03-07T18:45:16Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > [Dehydrated water](http://www.sq7.org/omnipedia/index.php/Dehydrated_water) You can get that at the same place you get lefthanded stovepipe wrenches and rolls of shoreline. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-water-be-freeze-dried/347305/16 "2006-03-07T19:43:36Z")
> [@caveman](#): > > Isn’t the the same mechanism that causes freezer burn? Yes. The commercial process uses much more expensive equipment and is much quicker, but the basic physics are the same.