Can I substitute distilled water with RO/DI?

[munchies]

I have a RO/DI system which puts out 0TDS water.
Has anyone tried using RO/DI as a substitute for distilled water?

 

[goldsilverpro]

As long as it removes Cl2/Cl-, which both do.

 

[munchies]

Cheers for clearing that up.
I should be able keep refining costs lower then.

 

[goldsilverpro]

About the only time you need Cl2/Cl- free water is when you're working with silver. Otherwise, most tap water works fine.

 

[Harold_V]

About the only time you need Cl2/Cl- free water is when you're working with silver. Otherwise, most tap water works fine.

I've tried to make that clear as long as I've been on this forum, but have been chiefly ignored.

I used tap water for refining as long as I refined, using distilled water only for making specific testing solutions and for electrolyte for my silver cell, as well as when rinsing recovered silver crystals. That included washing my twice refined gold, as well as added water when I dissolved inquarted gold. The small amount of silver chloride that was created was not an issue, and was recovered in the long term when my waste materials were processed by furnace.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using tap water for most of the operations in refining, the one exception being if your goal is ultra pure elements. Most home refiners add more contamination to their product through poor handling than they'd ever add with water.

Harold

 

[4metals]

I should be able keep refining costs lower then.

Another way to keep the costs lower is to use tap water and add silver nitrate to remove any chlorides as silver chloride, which settles leaving chloride free water. Note there is a slight silver contamination in the water but for use in a silver cell, where most run into problems with chlorinated tap water, this works fine.

 

[Noxx]

It's a good idea but Silver Nitrate is not cheap.

I had good results using a Brita Filter. We did some tests in laboratory on these filters are they are good. They successfully remove Cl ions, color and some organic compounds in water. The filters are made of a mix of activated charcoal and ions exchange resins.

They are good for the amateur refiner...

 

[Oz]

Since I live in a humid area, I just use the water from my dehumidifier.

 

[Noxx]

Ya, it's a good idea too!