How Long Do Orbeez Take to Grow? What Affect Their Growth?

Hey everyone, I am Julie – a DIY lover, and in this post I am going to discuss how long do orbeez take to grow, factors affecting orbeez growth, and how to grow orbeez faster.

Understanding the growth process of orbeez is important if you’re making them for the first time. The time orbeez or water beads takes to reach its full size depends on many factors.

While on an average, an orbeez can take anywhere from 4 hours to upto 6 hours to grow. The actual duration may vary a lot depending on the environmental conditions, size of the water beads, and the amount of water you’re soaking in.

Whether you’re growing orbeez for fun or for the sustainable uses, knowing the growth process can help you achieve the best results.

In this post, we are going to see how long does it take for orbeez to grow, factor affecting the growth rate, and a few tips to speed up the growth process. Moreover, we will also address some common question that you might have if you’re growing them for the first time.

What are orbeez?

Orbeez are tiny hard pellets that expand when they absorb water. These water-absorbent orbeez are great for playing, relaxing, and foot spa because of their soft and squishy nature.

Moreover, these orbeez can be used for many other purposes such as DIY crafts, home decor, foot spa, ice packs, stress relief toys, plant hydration, sensory play, and a lot more.

Orbeez are also referred to as super-absorbent polymer and in dry form, it is known as slush powder. This component is responsible for absorbing the water and expanding its size, becoming a soft and bouncy spherical shape.

This all happens because of the magical component called Sodium Polyacrylate. When the tiny hard orbeez come in contact with water, the water molecules get filled into the space between polymer chains, making the tiny water beads swell and grow in size.

You’ll be surprised to know that an orbeez can grow upto 100-150 times of its original size, depending on the various factors and correct procedure.

The Science Behind Orbeez

The sciene behind orbeez is as exciting and fascinating as their magical growth process.

Orbeez works on the method of polymer science. The science and chemestry behind these tiny orbeez helps you understand how do they grow 100 times of their original size, when soaked in water.

The entire transformation is based on a simple concept of science called “osmosis”. According to the osmosis process, water moves from higher concentration(outside the orbeez) to the lower concentration(inside the orbeez). The process of osmosis is crucial reason how orbeez grows in water.

Going a little deeper, at the center of the orbeez bead, there is a superabsorbent polymer(SAP), a substance that has capacity to absorb large amount of water. This polymer is made up of hydrogel that absorbs and hold the water, making orbeez bigger and bigger when kept under the water for a longer time.

How Long Do Orbeez Take To Grow?

Now that we know what are orbeez and the science behind it, it’s time know how long do orbeez take to grow.

Well in most cases, these orbeez can take from 4 hours to upto 6 hours to fully grow depending on the size of orbeez you want. However, growth speed of orbeez depends on many factors like the humidity, temperature, surrounding environment, and chemicals inside the water. Moreover, it can also depend on the quality of the orbeez.

Hence, it is always recommended that you always use distilled water, that’s little warm. Also, make sure to do not expose directly into sunlight, and keep checking the amount of water on a regular basis.

By following the right procedure and proper care, orbeez can grow bigger and faster without any issues at all.

So, while you’re trying to grow orbeez make sure:

• Always use clean water or distilled water.
• You can add a pinch of salt to extend the life expectancy of orbeez. However, it may slow down the growth speed of orbeez.
• Use warm water to grow orbeez faster.
• Keep orbeez for atleast 4 hours. The longer you soak them, the bigger it would grow.
• Use only high quality orbeez to get better results.

I hope this clears your question on how long does it take for an orbeez to grow.

Factors Affecting Orbeez Growth

While the process of growing orbeez is quite simple and straightforwards, however, there are many factors that can influence the growth rate of orbeez.

These factors have direct correlation with how long how orbeez take to grow. By understanding these factors, you will be able to grow your water beads much bigger and faster.

Let’s look at these factors one by one:

Temperature of the water

In a study carried by International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science, the temperature of the water plays an important role in the expansion of the orbeez and the time taken to grow fully.

According to their experiments, warm distilled water is the most optimum temperature to grow orbeez bigger and faster. Alternatively, cold water can actually slow down the process and it may take a little longer time to reach full size.

Quality of the water:

Quality of the water is one of most important factors in deciding the orbeez growth time. The more impure water you have the longer time orbeez will take. Hence, make sure the water you’re using to grow orbeez is clear, dirt free, and distilled. This way you can grow orbeez bigger and faster.

Amount of the water:

While you are trying to grow orbeez, make sure you’re using the right amount of water to orbeez ration. Too less amount of water can keep your beads undergrowth while too much water can slow down the process.

As a benchmark, always try to make sure you’re using 250 mL water for 100 orbeez. This is one of the best water to orbeez ration to get bigger orbeez.

How To Make Orbeez Grow Faster?

Well, this may sound a bit tricky, however, by using correct technique and materials, you can surely make your orbeez grow faster.

Below are a few factors that can help you speed up the growth of orbeez:

Use warm water

Water temperature is one of the most important factor that may either slow down the process or speed up the process.

By using warm water, you can fasten the growth of orbeez. Warm water increases the soaking capacity and helps water beads absorb water faster.

An important thing which is worth noting here is DO NOT PUT THEM IN BOILED WATER. Boiled water can melt the polymer and deform the shape of orbeez.

To simply give it a bench mark, you can use 110°F warm water to increase the growth rate of orbeez.

Use distilled water

Water beads or water ball are made of polymers. A study carried by ResearchGate, indicates that the hard water can hinder the water absorption in polymers. Which in turns, hard waters can hinder the growth rate of orbeez.

It’s because of the principles of molecular diffusion that help in growing the orbeez balls

When orbeez are put in warm water, the temperature of warm water increases the kinetic energy of the water molecules, making the orbeez grow faster.

Hence, make sure you use distilled water or filtered water. This would help orbeez to grow faster.

Stirring the water

Once you’ve kept orbeez in water container, you can stir the water(with the help of straw) after every 10 minutes. This would help the orbeez to absorb water quickly and removes the accumulated minerals from the surface of water balls.

Before you go ahead, please note that do not stir the water with high speed. Stir it just once or twice in every interval of 10 minutes.

Put orbeez in light

Putting orbeez water container under the light to speed up the growth may sound weird, but putting orbeez under the light can seriously increase the growth rate.

However, this is not too effective method, but it’s worth considering when you want to grow orbeez in just 5 minutes(Just kidding, this isn’t possible).

Use large container

A final way to fasten the orbeez growth is using a large container. Large container will contain high amount of water and may increase the water absorption by water balls.

Does Adding Salt Make Orbeez Grow Faster?

If you put your orbeez in saltwater thinking that this will make them grow faster, then you are wrong. There is no experiment out there that confirms that salt makes orbeez grow faster.

Surprisingly, adding a pinch of salt into orbeez can actually decrease the growth speed of orbeez due to the increase in concentration of water.

The simple reason why this could happen is because of difference between the osmosis that happens between low concentration solution to high concentration solution.

Because salt on orbeez does not make them grow faster, always use warm water instead. Warm water actually increases the osmosis process between orbeez and water, making them grow faster.

What will happen if you take orbeez out of water too early?

Taking out orbeez early from water container won’t have much effect on it. However, as discussed previously, the longer you keep orbeez in water, the bigger they’ll grow.

Same formula can be used here as well. By taking out orbeez midway, they won’t grow to it’s potential size and may look opaque(Not transparent).

Additionally, they may remain harder and won’t be squishy. But, these harder orbeez can be used by those who want to play with the orbeez gun or gel blaster.

What happen if you leave orbeez in water for too long?

While this keeping water balls or water beads in water for longer time can help it grow to it’s maximum size, however, leaving them for too long in water will over saturate it and they’ll start breaking easily.

But, how long is too long?

Well, we recommend you to do not keep orbeez in water for more than 2 days or 36 hours. This duration is more than enough for orbeez to grow to it’s maximum size.

How long do orbeez last?

Orbeez can last from as little as weeks to as long as months. This mainly depends on the surrounding environment of orbeez.

For example, putting them in exposure of sunlight can decrease the lifespan of orbeez and they may start shrinking within a few weeks. On the other hand, if you keep orbeez in moisturized surrounding, it can lasts for months.

But, whenever your orbeez starts shrinking, you can regrow them by again putting them into the water container. They can be used multiple times by continuously regrowing them in water.

You might be thinking – can’t we increase the lifespan of orbeez? Isn’t it possible?

Yes, this is possible. You can increase the lifespan of orbeez by putting them into the jar or air tight bags. Additionally, the best way is to add a spinch of salt when you were growing them for the firs time.

Adding a salt or sugar will decrease the growth speed but increases the lifespan of orbeez.

Why Are My Orbeez Not Growing?

There can be multiple reasons why your orbeez might not be growing normally. For example,  you might have not put enough water in the bowl. This would lead orbeez to not expand to their full size as they need water to grow.

Another reason can be, that you didn’t give them enough time to absorb water. If you keep taking them out of water in a short span of time, they might not be able to properly absorb enough water to grow.

Finally, make sure the temperature of the water isn’t too cold or too hot. As discussed, cold water can slow down the growth rate of orbeez.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

I hop this post was able to clear your question on how long does it take for orbeez to grow.

Let’s have a quick recap.

In this post, we saw orbeez generally takes 2-6 hours to effectively grow to it’s full size. However, in some cases, it can even take more than 24 hours to fully grow.

Factors like the temperature of water, the amount of water you put in the bowl, for how long you keep them in water, and the quality of water are the major factors that determines the speed of orbeez growth.

To get best results, always keep your orbeez in a warm water, use distilled water, and keep stirring it after every 10-20 mins.

Orbeez are eco-friendly so feel free to play with them, use them in your DIY crafts, or foot spa, or you can also use these orbeez to keep your plants hydrated, you can use them for lots of other things as well.