In this article:
Learn how to enter category of water for the chamber, class of water, and update some chamber tolerances. Watch the following video or follow the instructions below.
Glossary of Terms
| Status | Whether the job is in stabilization, drying, or dry confirmed. Drying start and end dates are recorded to help restorers accurately track and report drying performance with precision and transparency. |
| Category of Water | The category of water in the chamber, which could differ from the category at the source of the loss. |
| Class of Water | How much of the materials in the chamber has been impacted to help estimate the starting dehumidification and humidity controls required at the start of the loss. |
| Dew Point Differential | The difference between the surface temperature of the materials and the condensation point of the air. Will default based on industry best practices, but can be edited. |
| Temperature Range | The ideal temperature range in the drying chamber. Will default based on industry best practices, but can be edited. |
| Relative Humidity Range | The ideal humidity range in the drying chamber. Will default based on industry best practices, but can be edited. |
Drying Chamber Settings help you manage the environment in your chamber and ensure that you’re meeting the necessary conditions for effective drying.
- Open the Drying Chamber Settings task.
- You’ll see the drying chamber name and the rooms within the chamber. You can edit these if needed.
Chamber Status
Under Status, indicate whether the job is in Stabilization, Drying, or Dry Confirmed.
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Stabilization: Time preparing the environment safely without spreading contamination. When in stabilization, Hydro equipment recommendations will not include air movers. Stabilization time does not count toward total dry time in reports.
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In Drying: The drying process starts once conditions are stable and the drying strategy is being implemented. Drying Start Date is captured in real time, but can be edited as needed.
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Dry-out Confirmed: Timestamp when the chamber drying goals are met.
At any point, you can reopen the Drying Chamber Settings page to update the status.
- From the Hydro home page, open the chamber.
- Tap the 3 dots at the top right corner of the page.
- Select Manage Drying Chamber.
- Update the Status as desired.
As the job moves through these phases, the drying start and end dates are recorded to provide a precise timeline of stabilization, drying, and dry-out times that are reflected in reports.
Category of Water
Select a Category of Water for the chamber.
| Category 1 |
Water originates from a sanitary water source and does not pose risk from dermal, ingestion, or inhalation exposure (e.g. broken water supply lines, sink or tub overflows with no contaminants, melting ice or snow and falling rainwater). *Sometimes referred to as "clean". |
| Category 2 |
Water contains significant contamination, and has potential to cause sickness if contacted or consumed (e.g. toilet overflows, discharge from dishwashers or washing machines, broken aquariums). *Sometimes referred to as "grey". |
| Category 3 |
Water which is grossly contaminated and contains pathogenic, toxigenic, or other harmful agents. Can cause significant reactions if contacted or consumed (e.g. sewage, flooding from seawater, or ground surface water and rising water from rivers or streams and other contaminated water entering or affecting the indoor environment). *Sometimes referred to as "black". |
At the start of the task list, you identified the category of water at the source of loss. If the water were to sit for a number of days or encounter contaminants as it spread into the chamber, you would change the category of water here, and that would apply just to the chamber, not to the category of water at the source.
As you’re drying jobs, you may have different chambers with different categories of water.
Class of Water
Select a Class of Water for the chamber. This refers to how much of the materials are impacted or the extent of the damage.
| Class 1 | Least amount of water absorption and evaporation load 0-5% expressed as a percentage of all materials surface areas in the chamber. |
| Class 2 | Significant amount of water absorption and evaporation load 5-40% expressed as a percentage of all materials surface area in the chamber. |
| Class 3 | Greatest amount of water absorption and evaporation load 40-100% expressed as a percentage of all materials surface area in the chamber. |
| Class 4 | Deeply held or bound water that may require special equipment or longer drying times. |
Chamber Tolerances
You have some tolerances for the chamber so that you can control the drying environment. These are Dew Point Differential, Temperature Range, and Relative Humidity range. When you fall outside the designated range for these, the app will alert you and your team, to make sure drying stays on track.
A Dew Point Differential is the difference between the surface temperature of the materials and the condensation point of the air. If you’re taking surface temperature readings, the app will alert you when you’re getting too close to that, to let you know if you’re at risk of causing condensation or growing mold on the walls.
If your RH readings fall outside the designated Temperature Range here, the app will alert you. Too high, and you can create secondary damage to the environment such as warping furniture, damaging collectibles, and so on. Too low, and condensation can form on the materials.
Similarly, you’ll be alerted if your RH readings fall outside of your designated Relative Humidity Range. Too high, and it can result in mold or microbial growth. Too low, and you can damage the contents and the structure of the building, causing things like cracked wood, shrinkage of materials, damage to taxidermy, artwork, plants, etc.
With these tolerances, it’s important to know that your admin can set defaults for your organization. So, while they can be modified specifically for the job here, it’s best to check with a supervisor, project manager, or lead technician before making any adjustments.
As a technician you may be instructed to leave these fields as-is, in keeping with your organization defaults. Any alerts triggered on the job will show up in the Job Review page for a project manager or supervisor to keep track of. So in a lot cases, you may not change anything here.
Updated