Live data from Hacker News

A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

news.utexas.edu

21–30 of 106 posts

Re: A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

#21
Nearly all passive water-from-air devices described in articles are based on false claims. Peltier-based, desiccant/absorption/adsorption based, etc. All end up not working, or not existing. This has been common for ~10 years.

Which category does this fall into?:

  - Fraud
  - Incompetence / misunderstanding that wasn't cleared up prior to publishing an article
  - Neither; this works as expected

Re: A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

#22
post #14

depending on actual conditions you are in, it could potentially double (or more) the time before you die of thirst if it was your only source of water.

I do wonder about the tradeoff between excess perspiration due to wearing heavier materials versus the ability to collect water, especially on the days where replenishing fluids is most crucial.

Re: A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

#24

Nearly all passive water-from-air devices described in articles are based on false claims. Peltier-based, desiccant/absorption/adsorption based, etc. All end up not working, or not existing. This has been common for ~10 years. Which category does this fall into?: - Fraud - Incompetence / misunderstanding that wasn't cleared up prior to publishing an article - Neither; this works as expected

The design seems reasonable. It seems like a scaled down version of this MIT one that uses similar principles:

https://news.mit.edu/2025/window-sized-device-taps-air-safe-...

So my vote is for working as expected.

Re: A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

#27
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So a dehumidifier with extra steps.

"extra steps" meaning wearable dehumidifier. Are there other wearable dehumidifiers to produce drinking water? I don't think so. A reductive assessment (to a specific feature) of a novel idea, does not make it less interesting.

You can wear silica gel since about 1918 - only needs some heat to get the water out and cold to condense it.

Then again, why would you want to wear your dehumidifier (ok ok water harvester)? Is it for excursions into damp areas, so that you can then return to your dry home to extract water?

Then, I believe everything in this video still applies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGTRX6pZSns

Re: A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

#29
post #24

Nearly all passive water-from-air devices described in articles are based on false claims. Peltier-based, desiccant/absorption/adsorption based, etc. All end up not working, or not existing. This has been common for ~10 years. Which category does this fall into?: - Fraud - Incompetence / misunderstanding that wasn't cleared up prior to publishing an article - Neither; this works as expected

The design seems reasonable. It seems like a scaled down version of this MIT one that uses similar principles: https://news.mit.edu/2025/window-sized-device-taps-air-safe-... So my vote is for working as expected.

Many thanks for your link to the article, it was a very interesting read; fascinating to learn how glycerol interacts with lithium salts...

Re: A jacket that harvests drinking water from the air

#30
post #11

Makes sense since we're speedrunning the other parts of the Butlerian jihad

I don't know about the rest of you, but if somebody spots Shai-hulud out in the Sahara I'm outta here.

At the end of Dune.... Chani is heartbroken... Needing to get away...

   Oh I'm a leavin' on a Shai-hulud
   Don't know when I'll be back again..
Post reply on HN