[glend (Glen)]

I recently purchased a ZWO dessicant tablet kit from a local ZWO retailer, with the view to replace the original tablets in my June 2016 Version 1, 1600MM-C. When the kit arrived it was obviously for the new dessicant tube versions of the ZWO cameras, they were much thinner in height, and lacked the black shim material used on the version 1 cameras (used to provide compression holders when the cap is screwed down). I emailed Sam at ZWO about the change in dessicants and how i could possibly use the thin tablets in a 1600. He advised that they no longer produce the thick tablets for version 1 1600s and that only the tube type dessicants are available. I thought this was pretty lame given the large number of Version 1 cooled 1600s that were sold; seeming to me as a way to force upgrades to Pro versions which use the tube. I have not heard anything about ZWO offering to upgrade Version 1 cameras with the new housing, or offering discounts to existing Version 1 owners to buy Pro versions. This also potentially devalues Version 1 cameras on the second hand market.
Sam's suggested that the original dessicant tablets could be dryed out in a microwave oven and thus continued to be used into the future, but this ignores a couple of important facts. First, there were cases of owners having tablets which shed material in the housing and this stuff settling on the sensor making a service necessary (in fact ZWO produced a Service PDF on how to do this); secondly, there is no source for the little adhesive dots that are placed on the top of the tablets to hold them in place against the camera housing when it is screwed on; and third, zapping the tablets in the microwave will destroy them over time, by making them chalky and more likely to drop power or fragments inside the sensor cover area.
I regard this as a poor move by ZWO, which ignores and isolates early supporters of the cooled 1600 cameras, people who through their reviews and use of the cameras provided much needed endorsement to the market.. Suppliers should have the obligation to continue to supply "consumable" components, like dessicant tablets, for their cameras.