On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:34:37 -0500 Clayton Family <clay...@skypoint.com> wrote:
> It is funny, I can get it at the grocery store. It is one specific > brand, and says on the label "suitable for laboratory use". Before I > would believe that, however, I felt I needed to round up every single > different brand of distilled water I could find, and test all of them > using the Com 100 EC meter. Surprisingly, some of the brands > registered at 50 uS (micro siemans, or use to be micro Mohs), which > is way too high for me to even consider using it, except in an > emergency, maybe I would think about it, still 50 uS is better than > my tap water, which has lots of minerals in it. None of the others > was as good, and I still test each gallon before I use it, just out > of habit. It is always under 1.5 uS, and occassionally zero. After I > pour some out and use to make cs, the rest in the gallon increases in > conductivity, which is the air going into solution in it. Still, I > use it anyway. I can get very particular, but there is also the limit > of practicality. In practice, it does not make so much of a diff for > me, but that is with low volts. If I felt it was a bigger deal, I > might just make a gallon at a time, instead of a quart. > > I have heard that in different parts of the country, the best > distilled water varies by brand (depends on the equipment used, > source water, and probably other factors too). Some areas say > Walgreens brand is good, but it is not in this area. I have found > that Glenwood Springs distilled water is the best brand around here. > I will have to look for that one. I need to decide what to do about DW, as I really dislike going in to town to shop any more than I have to, and the supermarket I go to has an inconsistent selection (and I really prefer to shop just twice per month). Probably I will either end up getting it delivered or just build a little distillery myself. But currently, I just use whichever brand they have (often it's that Crystal Springs brand distilled, which is distilled, filtered, and deionized). > > How are you keeping the air out of your system? > I'm not. My brew chamber is an Anchor-Hocking 2 gallon glass jar with a glass lid. It's inside a wooden box (the front side opens on a piano hinge) which is inside my bedroom closet, so that helps at least minimize air circulation around it, but of course that's not much of a precaution. > My system is pretty rudimentary too, it is silver wire (.9992) > batteries, wires, and a potentiometer ( or one could use a resistor). > No timer or anything, though that would be easier. > I time mine manually (and stir it manually) as well. 14 gauge .9999 silver wire electrodes, and a ventec neon sign power transformer, which is plugged into a 3 amp variac (I prefer to crank up the voltage slowly just in case anything goes wrong). I do check it often of course, and shut it down if it gets too hot or if I see too much condensation forming. I have to periodically adjust the position of the "upper" electrode, to avoid arcing. The "lower" electrode is 4 feet of the same silver wire coiled in the bottom of the jar. It's all laughably crude, but I do get a brew that is working for me in spite of that. So far I do not have to clean my electrodes at all, which I think may be a good sign that I am avoiding any arcing or corona discharge. Cheers, indi -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
