Sciencemadness Discussion Board

dH20 UK

bandito - 26-10-2005 at 09:47

Hey,

Does anyone know of a simple source of distilled H20 in the UK? I've tried Halfords, and they ALWAYS seem to be sold out...? Tried other motor shops and they all sell de-ionized water... There must be a simple source, without distilling my own?

What do you other UK'ers use? Finding anything chemistry related in the UK seems like a nightmare(at least locally anyway). Or i'm just crap at looking and checking all the wrong places... :( :P

Any advice apprieciated.

Bandito.

neutrino - 26-10-2005 at 18:01

Please search before posting. I'm pretty sure this has been discussed around here somewhere before.

bandito - 26-10-2005 at 23:51

I did search but only found one thread related to what i'm asking and it still didn't have an answer.

I've since been told that even Halfords sells de-ionized water and not distilled.. Boots apparently don't stock it any more either. I've looked in all the motor places and they keep trying to sell me de-ionized water, and when i tell them i need distilled, they tell me "just boil your kettle, thats distilled water"... :mad:

What sort of reception would i get if i contacted a local university and asked if they had a student supply store of some sorts, even though i'm not a student?

Why's it so hard to find dH20 in UK? I found carcinogenic solvents much easier than this... :(

purified?

bandito - 27-10-2005 at 04:33

I've been phoning some local pharmacies and they all say distilled water has been discontinued for years. The only thing they sell is 'purified water'... Is this good enough?

Please, any advice would be great...

Darkblade48 - 27-10-2005 at 07:08

Quote:
Originally posted by bandito
I've been phoning some local pharmacies and they all say distilled water has been discontinued for years.


That's pretty shocking, here in Canada, we can get distilled water at the local grocery store, at a pharmacy, etc....it's pretty abundant

vulture - 27-10-2005 at 13:07

What the hell is wrong with di-ionized water instead of distilled water? The reason why distilled water is being sold less is because it's much more energy intensive to produce.

Furthermore, unless you are going to do fusion experiments or have a clean room, it isn't going to matter.

garage chemist - 27-10-2005 at 14:43

De-ionized water is pure enough for every application a hobby chemist will ever encounter. Distilled water is just unnecessary.

Silver nitrate, dissolved in tap water makes a very turbid solution due to chloride and carbonate impurities.
When dissolved in deionized water, the AgNO3 solution is crystal clear. A very good indicator of purity.

bandito - 28-10-2005 at 00:32

Wow, i really wish i knew that earlier... lol Was pulling my hair out trying to find distilled. Everything i've ever read always emphasized using distilled water. You guys obviously aren't lying tho. :)

Thanks for the help, i might not go bald now.

DrP - 24-11-2005 at 08:56

I get 25 kg bottles of distilled water from Univar. Likely they just sell B2B though - Give them a call and see.

0208 8585806

IrC - 24-11-2005 at 13:41

When I am playing around with my glow powder formulas I need distilled, as trace amounts of other metals really mess it up. I bought 4 really cool looking retorts off ebay and spent one day making 500 ml of distilled water. It took forever, crapped out the glassware which was really hard to clean of the white deposits all over the glass. It also took twice the alcohol in my little lamps as I made water. In fact it was this distilled water thing that lead me into the whole stupid walmart harrasment over replacing my alcohol story I posted elsewhere on the board. The next time I needed distilled water I bought two gallons at walmart for 64 cents each. Luckily for me, this time they didn't refuse to sell me two of them and bring in a cop to talk to me like happened over the two cans of SLX alcohol. Of course, it's only a matter of time before I end up on the buying distilled water watched list.