Re-precipitating Perchlorate for Blues - worth it?

[flying fish]

I'm sure this has been discussed at some point, but I'm having trouble finding it.

 

Is it worth (will it make a noticeable difference) re-precipitating Chinese potassium perchlorate if it is to be used in blue stars? I'm pretty happy with Hardt#6 with this perchlorate, however the thought of making it even better is sort of intriguing.

 

Especially since our club is having a (relatively) friendly "blue competition"

(Little does Hoppy know that I mixed a bunch of baking soda into the CuBenz I sold him...haha, just kiddin')

Edited June 14, 2013 by flying fish

[Peret]

You would have to use lab grade distilled water, or risk making it worse. If your tap water comes from a river it usually contains quite a lot of sodium from agricultural runoff, and deionizers don't take all of it out.

 

Water that comes out of the Colorado downstream of Glen Canyon dam actually tastes salty.

[flying fish]

I figured that much...Fortunately we have a DI water machine at work that is free for me to use.

 

Whether I trust the resistiviity reading on the built in meter is another story... I have never changed the filters on the dang thing and it still reads perfect! Our water is much softer out here in the great lakes, but still...

[taiwanluthiers]

But then that means the water you use to bind stars have to be lab grade too... or else you'd be introducing sodium too.

[flying fish]

I bound my last batch with bottled water, this time I'll either use DI or non-aqueous, 'specially if I went through all the work to wash or re-precipitate the perchlorate. As I said our water is not by any means salty out here in the midwest though.

 

Maybe I'll just try it and see what happens.

 

As a side note, this is kinda fishy. This unit has been running on it's original filter cartridges and is a decade old. According to the manufacturer the cartridges must be changed every 6 months. And yet the RO filter still displays an acceptable ion rejection ratio and the dio-ionizer itself still reads a perfect 18.2.

 

I'm not sure whether the unit is lying to me, or perhaps more likely the manufacturer is lying to me so they can make more money off the overpriced cartridges.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b330/WhyAreAllUserNamesTaken/0614131021_zpsad05b815.jpg

[Mumbles]

The manufacturer is probably lying to you about a new cartridge every 6 months, but a decade is probably stretching it a little bit. It probably depends on use, but I think we changed filters about every year or so. That was probably more of a precautionary thing, but the ohm reading did start to drop a bit IIRC.

[flying fish]

Use probably is the key factor. We've had the machine for a few years now and probably use around a gallon per work day. Before it was in our hands it belonged to the company that we shared the building with. Considering that they gave it to us for free when they moved out, I'm guessing they didn't use it much.

[Peret]

But then that means the water you use to bind stars have to be lab grade too... or else you'd be introducing sodium too.

I do, as it happens - though not lab grade. I can get distilled water by the gallon at the supermarket. It's sold for use in steam irons.

 

However, for binding stars you use a small percentage of water to the total mix, so the stars only receive a tiny percentage of a small percentage of salts. For recrystallization you use a very large percentage of water, probably much more by weight than the chem you're trying to purify, so the impurities become much more significant.

[flying fish]

I cracked my beaker... and then it started raining!

 

Do you suppose I might I risk contamination if I used a stainless steel pot instead of a glass container? I suppose people do use stainless milling media for individual chemicals that need to remain pure...

Edited June 15, 2013 by flying fish