Thomas Winwood - 16-1-2005 at 03:29
One thing I need and don't have is distilled water. I don't have a still, tap water here is harder than the nipples on a blind lesbian in a
fish market and I don't trust our water filter as far as I can throw it.
Suggestions? (I could always get some from my school, but that would be too easy.)
HRH_Prince_Charles - 16-1-2005 at 04:32
You can get this anywhere. Car places for topping up batteries: B&Q, Halfords. Chemists. You used to be able to get it by the gallon for filling
steam irons to prevent them scaling up.
Saerynide - 16-1-2005 at 05:12
Dont they sell it in the supermarkets where you live? The expensive water is the mineral water/evian type stuff. The cheaper ones are the distilled
water (sometimes theyre made by reverse osmosis, so its not called distilled water, but something like "pure drinking water"
.
Edit: typo
[Edited on 16-1-2005 by Saerynide]
BromicAcid - 16-1-2005 at 08:08
Yeah, I get mine from supermarkets for drinking, but they are usually sold out, even though their shelves hold about 60 separate gallons of the stuff.
They also sell it at local pharmacies for cleaning burns and other wounds, not behind the counter or anything but simply out on the shelves.
garage chemist - 16-1-2005 at 08:15
It is sold as "deionized (or "demineralised" water" in
canisters.
Don't buy bottled water (evian or similar)! It is by no means better than tap water. Actually, water tastes better when it's hard.
You don't have a still? Get one as soon as possible, that's a basic piece of lab equipment.
The water you can make with a still is far purer than any water that you can buy.
I use tap water for almost every reaction, the calcium/ magnesium don't matter in most cases.
When working with silver salts, distilled water is a must though. I once added AgNO3 soln to tap water and it promptly became cloudy from chloride
/carbonate ions.
thalium - 16-1-2005 at 13:04
I use tap water for drinking (it seems to be quite good in the area where I live) and distilled water is very easy to buy. You find it at every gas
station/ supermarket/ hardware store. Bottled water is crap. I once bought one that tasted like plastic...
Kman100 - 16-1-2005 at 13:38
I just purchased a new house about 2 months ago and where I live, the water is extremely hard.
I just got a reverse osmosis system and it seems to do an excellent job at filtering out pretty much everything.
I've done several experiments with my filtered water and so far, everything has gone to completion perfectly.
I would try several different types of water from your local supermarket and see which one works the best. Then, you can purchase galllon quantities
of that type.
FrankRizzo - 19-1-2005 at 14:24
If you live in the US, the most cost-effective way to get distilled water is at your local supermarket. Even if they're sold out, there's
usually a publicly accessible machine in one corner of the store so that you can refill your own containers. The machines usually have a button for
distilled and another for 'drinking water' (filtered).