Have a question about dehydrated AP Solution.

[Paul73]

I had some AP solution that I had used to recover some ram SIMM gold fingers. I used the wrong type of container a coffee pot. I could not get all the separated fingers out of the pot (1 lesson learned the hard way) so I washed them out using softened tap water due to the fact I did not have any distilled water on hand. I reasoned that if I evaporated the water from the solution I should be able to reuse it. Well I put the coffee pot on the heater used to make coffee and turned it on. I checked it after a few hours and the level had decreased slightly so I decided to leave it on longer. I fully intended to evaporate it to the halfway point and then turn off the heat about my usual bedtime but I fell asleep. When I woke up I went to check the liquid level and it had boiled dry. Can this be recovered using distilled water or is it now unusable even if I rehydrate it? There are a few gold finger foils in it. Time to purchase a timer I guess.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I had some AP solution that I had used to recover some ram SIMM gold fingers. I used the wrong type of container a coffee pot. I could not get all the separated fingers out of the pot (1 lesson learned the hard way) so I washed them out using softened tap water due to the fact I did not have any distilled water on hand. I reasoned that if I evaporated the water from the solution I should be able to reuse it. Well I put the coffee pot on the heater used to make coffee and turned it on. I checked it after a few hours and the level had decreased slightly so I decided to leave it on longer. I fully intended to evaporate it to the halfway point and then turn off the heat about my usual bedtime but I fell asleep. When I woke up I went to check the liquid level and it had boiled dry. Can this be recovered using distilled water or is it now unusable even if I rehydrate it? There are a few gold finger foils in it. Time to purchase a timer I guess.

Just add HCl and it will be good to go.
I never use distilled water for my AP.

 

[orvi]

I had some AP solution that I had used to recover some ram SIMM gold fingers. I used the wrong type of container a coffee pot. I could not get all the separated fingers out of the pot (1 lesson learned the hard way) so I washed them out using softened tap water due to the fact I did not have any distilled water on hand. I reasoned that if I evaporated the water from the solution I should be able to reuse it. Well I put the coffee pot on the heater used to make coffee and turned it on. I checked it after a few hours and the level had decreased slightly so I decided to leave it on longer. I fully intended to evaporate it to the halfway point and then turn off the heat about my usual bedtime but I fell asleep. When I woke up I went to check the liquid level and it had boiled dry. Can this be recovered using distilled water or is it now unusable even if I rehydrate it? There are a few gold finger foils in it. Time to purchase a timer I guess.

Distilled water is only essential when processing silver with nitric acid - to avoid formation of insoluble silver chloride. Otherwise, for AR or AP, using distilled water isn´t anything bad, but wasteful - as your AP or AR is already full of chloride ions. Use regular water and you will be completely fine

I assume salts caked to form solid residue on the bottom of the flask. Just pour some water with a bit of HCL - and all salts will redissolve. Could take some swirling, but it will go By evaporation of AP solution you does not get distilled water, but instead diluted HCL. Base metal chloride salts always give off some HCL when heated.

 

[Paul73]

Thanks Yggdrasil and orvi for your quick response.​