Distilled Water

[jason_recliner]

FWIW, perhaps nothing.

The tap water here is already enviably good by world standards, though I still taste it. So I use a standard domestic, activated carbon, gravity filter for all consumption: drinking water, sparking water, coffee, tea, etc. Boiling for rice and pasta excepted.
I have use filtered in my "Distilled water only" steam iron for 25 years, and six years in my motorbike battery.
I've used it in a small (tiny) test run of silver in Lazersteve's cold nitric bisulfate recipe, with no clouds appearing. So I'm happy.

Naturally, your mileage may vary and your brand of filter may vary. But a fistful of dollars may gain you a whole lot more usable F, Fe and Cl filtered litres than continually shelling out for distilled.

 

[heliman4141]

Thanks for the replys guys,
Ill do a test on the water i get at the stores machine for any chlorine then, if any ill just leave the cap off a few days. I reuse the distilled water jugs as refills so no contaminates like milk etc can sneak by. Its all i drink too even my pets get only R0, the lime in my city water is the worst ive ever seen. Hard on kidneys it is! :?

 

[goldsilverpro]

Those of us in the country can have a lot of iron in our water, which would start precipitating out PM's.

Why would it do that?

 

[patnor1011]

There are small water distilling units producing 1.5l of distilled water per hour. I run it long enough to make 15-20l which last me quite long. These units cost about 50-80 euro but compared to what distilled water cost in shops can pay for itself in no time.

 

[gcdrummer02]

Those of us in the country can have a lot of iron in our water, which would start precipitating out PM's.

Why would it do that?

Iron is higher on the reactivity series? Wouldn't it displace anything below it?

 

[g_axelsson]

Those of us in the country can have a lot of iron in our water, which would start precipitating out PM's.

Why would it do that?

Iron is higher on the reactivity series? Wouldn't it displace anything below it?

What you have in the water is iron ions, not iron metal as in nuts and bolts.

Göran

 

[fishaholic5]

I collect the water from the dehumidifier I run to dry the air in my workshop, it gives me about 30 litres a day of chlorine and fluorine free water if I need it

Cheers Wal

 

[4metals]

it gives me about 30 litres a day of chlorine and fluorine free water if I need it

OMG. Where do you live in a swamp!

 

[fishaholic5]

it gives me about 30 litres a day of chlorine and fluorine free water if I need it

OMG. Where do you live in a swamp!

Hahaha, pretty close if the mosquito's are anything to go by :lol:
I think the climate description is the wet tropics

Cheers Wal

 

[Palladium]

Here in Bama the humidity is tropical in the spring and summer time.
My air conditioner RUNS, not drips, water 24 hours a day!

 

[zito]

Those of us in the country can have a lot of iron in our water, which would start precipitating out PM's.

Why would it do that?

Iron is higher on the reactivity series? Wouldn't it displace anything below it?

What you have in the water is iron ions, not iron metal as in nuts and bolts.

Göran

So I can just ignore the rusty brown iron precipitate? I'm slowly working towards beginning refining here, and the water quality has been one of my concerns. Distilled water runs around $1 Canadian per liter here in town, but I am relieved to hear I can use the reverse osmosis bottled water from our water cooler for most things.

 

[g_axelsson]

Unless you are aiming for high purity gold your iron containing water should be okay. Filter off any solid particles first.

If you want to be on the safe side, you could use a bubbler and bubble some air through the water for a while and then filter. That will oxidize the iron so it wouldn't affect the refining and any particles formed could be filtered off.

Göran

 

[zito]

Unless you are aiming for high purity gold your iron containing water should be okay. Filter off any solid particles first.

If you want to be on the safe side, you could use a bubbler and bubble some air through the water for a while and then filter. That will oxidize the iron so it wouldn't affect the refining and any particles formed could be filtered off.

Göran

Excellent, thank you for that information and advice. The water issue is something that bothered me, simply because of the cost and hassle of hauling in distilled water, which was something I thought I would need to do.

 

[123cp456]

would good old tap water be ok for making copper sulfate electrolyte?

 

[Shark]

I use tap water. Our local “city” water is better than most around here to start with.

 

[richoc]

You never know what is added to your cities tap water!
I made the mistake of using tap water and got a endless white unknown substance blocking my process.
I will only use distilled water now, even for ice cubes that I intend to use, processing.
Just get a few gallons at Walmart, they are around $1 each.

 

[goldshark]

Why would it do that?

Tap water can have a host of dissolved elements in it. One of the most prevalent is calcium. Our community well system has higher concentrations of calcium than whole milk. I haven't seen an analysis in a while, so I cannot give exact figures, but do recall it having more than twice the amount of milk. Overdosing on Ca leads to kidney stones. Don't know if you have ever had them, but it is very painful. Kinda like getting knifed in the back.
Even distilled water can have a multitude of chemicals in it. This is because there are a host of predominately carbon compounds which will evaporate at temps used for water distillation. Distilled water is not Chemically pure water, only distilled.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Tap water can have a host of dissolved elements in it. One of the most prevalent is calcium. Our community well system has higher concentrations of calcium than whole milk. I haven't seen an analysis in a while, so I cannot give exact figures, but do recall it having more than twice the amount of milk. Overdosing on Ca leads to kidney stones. Don't know if you have ever had them, but it is very painful. Kinda like getting knifed in the back.
Even distilled water can have a multitude of chemicals in it. This is because there are a host of predominately carbon compounds which will evaporate at temps used for water distillation. Distilled water is not Chemically pure water, only distilled.

Anything of concern will be removed during distillation.
Volatiles will if designed properly overshoot the exit of the column, especially if one run an open ended one.
Or if it is a real concern just boil it some time, before the column are closed so any volatiles will have gone into the air.
Then it will for all practical purposes be as clean as your receiving vessels are.
Which in turn maybe where it is sinned the most.
Clean water into a dirty container will give you.... Expensive dirty water.

 

[Lightspeed]

Water here in Australia to buy is ridiculously expensive.
I have tried every brand available at supermarkets and one from a lab supply.
Supermarket DW is around $3:50 for 4 litres.
Water from the lab supply was $40 for 20 litres.
I have tested all of them, boil down a sample in a clean pyrex glass container, all of them showed varying degrees of contaminant residues, the lab sourced water was the best of them, but still had contaminants, mostly carbonate residues.

It really depends on what your final product goal is, and your chemical process, even if I do Agcl, I still will not use untreated tap water.

After the silly cost of water and how much I go through, I just bought a 5 stage RODI unit. I use this exclusively now, cost of RODI resin is negligible for amount of water I treat. Sediment filter and carbon filter are replaced regularly, chlorination filter and pre filter can be reverse flushed under pressure at the end of the day its the most economic for my needs, I can make 0 ppm/tds water all day long, or just turn a inlet tap to bypass the RODI resin get drinking water at 30 ppm/tds.

 

[war_child]

I got this little number for free a few weeks ago from inside a property getting remodeled. I haven't tried it out, or tested the product yet, but it looks like it will be simple enough for me to distil tap water now. Hopefully no more buying gallons of "distilled" water from the grocery store. Has anyone used something like this for refining? I'm wondering if there will be any problems using distilled water from this thing.