UK distilled water?

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PRR

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It is truly distilled, not deionized.

You are obviously not looking for lowest-lowest price. The water costs as much as gasoline, and the shipping costs more; but probably cheaper than any other aspect of this hobby. We used to be able to buy distilled water in a local shop, but I have not seen any other than deionized in decades.

They probably have the wrong "Kleinschmidt" on their history page. They found the guy who worked toward what became TeleType. It appears the still engineer was another Kleinschmidt, R V.
 
It is truly distilled, not deionized.

You are obviously not looking for lowest-lowest price. The water costs as much as gasoline, and the shipping costs more; but probably cheaper than any other aspect of this hobby. We used to be able to buy distilled water in a local shop, but I have not seen any other than deionized in decades.

They probably have the wrong "Kleinschmidt" on their history page. They found the guy who worked toward what became TeleType. It appears the still engineer was another Kleinschmidt, R V.

Yeah I really am not fussed on costs I just want the cleanest water possible I read deionized is actually still got flaws in the water which can affect records.

I live in the UK so I don't mind sending off for this stuff but I don't know how I can test or verify it is clean.
 
H.A.,
For whatever reason, distilled water is cheaper and more readily available in the US than in the UK. Any grocery store or mass merchandiser in the US has distilled water at less than $1 per gallon. This water will almost always test below 1 or 2 ppm on a TDS meter.

If I were in your shoes, given the higher costs and limited distribution for distilled water in the UK, I would consider a multi-stage RO and de-ionization filter like this one:
Mutli-Stage Filter RO+de-ionisation. Or,
Multi-Stage RO Water Filter.


You can run water through one of these filters twice, and easily get to 10ppm or below, which is more than good enough to clean records extremely well in an ultrasonic cleaner. If you're cleaning lots of records and your alternative is paying UK prices for distilled, this unit will save you lots of money, even counting in filter changes.

Good luck,
B B
 
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PRR

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...I don't know how I can test or verify it is clean.

I see no reason to doubt them. They have a picture of the right machine, and say they have pre-filters too. (These would not improve the product, but may mean less cruft in the still.) They are probably at least as hyper about "pure" as you are.

Sure, they could have a rusty bucket in the Thames and poly bottles they find along the banks. I've been buying "Spring Water" which it turns out is not from the original spring but from the town water mains (which taps the same aquifer and is State-tested). But as rip-offs go, there must be easier schemes than bottle water. My "Spring" water is fully disclosed as bottled municipal water. (I can actually go to the old farm and for 25 cents fill my jug from the original spring-pipe-- but it is no longer tested for safety.)
 
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It is truly distilled, not deionized.

... We used to be able to buy distilled water in a local shop, but I have not seen any other than deionized in decades......

Keeping it local :)

I'm looking at a bottle of 'Poland Spring' distilled water.

the label states that the source is the auburn municipal water supply LOL - But..

"purified by steam distillation"


What am i missing?
 
Ha, my page was stale, I didn't see PRR's post edit before mine when I posted. My reference to the municipal supply was making jest at the PS dynasty.

However, PRR seemed to indicate that you cannot buy Distilled, only De-ionized. I had a gallon of poland spring distilled at an arm's reach and was wondering if this was actually not distilled as I had thought.
 
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PRR

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...'Poland Spring' distilled water.
the label states that the source is the auburn municipal water supply LOL - But..
"purified by steam distillation"

Poland Springs' main product is Natural Spring Water.

This comes from Nestle-owned wells drilled into aquifers that have/had a spring. (They are experts on interpreting the laws for "spring water".)

As long as they have trucks going everywhere, they expanded their range of products. Sparkling Water. Sparkling Flavored Water. And even Distilled water.
https://www.nestle-watersna.com/asset-library/Documents/PS_ENG.pdf

Spring water should from (or near) a spring. Distilled water is NOT spring water-- there should be none of the minerals that keep spring water from being flat and lifeless. The filtering and distilling process ensures that. Spring water is semi-precious: there are only so many places with good springs and good transportation. It is entirely reasonable they take the raw stock for Distilled from any convenient clean cheap source. It is likely that surface waters or sand-wells (typical municipal sources) have less mineral content to crud-up the still.

Your label, and the PDF above, indicate that PS's distilled water IS distilled. I may have been looking in the wrong places.
 
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H.A.,
For whatever reason, distilled water is cheaper and more readily available in the US than in the UK. Any grocery store or mass merchandiser in the US has distilled water at less than $1 per gallon. This water will almost always test below 1 or 2 ppm on a TDS meter.

If I were in your shoes, given the higher costs and limited distribution for distilled water in the UK, I would consider a multi-stage RO and de-ionization filter like this one:
Mutli-Stage Filter RO+de-ionisation. Or,
Multi-Stage RO Water Filter.


You can run water through one of these filters twice, and easily get to 10ppm or below, which is more than good enough to clean records extremely well in an ultrasonic cleaner. If you're cleaning lots of records and your alternative is paying UK prices for distilled, this unit will save you lots of money, even counting in filter changes.

Good luck,
B B

I had been considering buying one for actual drinking anyway but someone told me in terms of drinking you want some minerals in there. Anyway I digress.

Yes this might make more sense I have about 1500 records and I am the kind of guy where until I clean each one there will be a niggling voice telling me the records not clean when playing it as all mine are second hand!

I think for now i'll do that, Tergikleen and see how it goes.
 
Given it's winter in UK so hanging laundry out is not an option, if you have a condensing clothes dryer wouldn't that be a free source of distilled water? Assuming you've written off the electricity cost by drying clothes; not drying wet laundry just to feed your URC.
 

PRR

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Dryer exhaust has to be full of lint?

It's not a "boil", just warm evaporation. Many other things will evaporate in the same temperature range; oils, solvents, but notably the plasticizers in poly clothing.

Quite cheap filters will stop lint. Carbon filter will hold a lot of other crap. You can DIY about any level of filtering you need. But off-hand, without experience, I don't think dryer drip would be my first choice source.
 
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I have to agree.. If you can afford an ultrasonic cleaner even DIY, some sort of distillation set up if necessary should be within reach, and much surer results.

Perhaps this discussion is moot, Tesco GB apparently sells deionized water which I would think is suitable for this use? £ 1.00 for a 2.5L bottle, not as cheap as here in the U.S. but not exorbitant either. It is intended for use in lead-acid car batteries (accumulators) which don't like tap water much so I can't imagine it wouldn't do the job. It seems to be used for much the same stuff we use distilled water for here in the U.S.
 

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I have to agree.. If you can afford an ultrasonic cleaner even DIY, some sort of distillation set up if necessary should be within reach, and much surer results.

Perhaps this discussion is moot, Tesco GB apparently sells deionized water which I would think is suitable for this use? £ 1.00 for a 2.5L bottle, not as cheap as here in the U.S. but not exorbitant either. It is intended for use in lead-acid car batteries (accumulators) which don't like tap water much so I can't imagine it wouldn't do the job. It seems to be used for much the same stuff we use distilled water for here in the U.S.

Awesome I might test that

Also thinking of buying some of this, meant to be purer again
Ultrapure Water - Buy from the UK's leading B2B chemical suppliers, ReAgent.


And
Triton X-100 Nonionic Surfactant Detergent | TALAS

Have not found anywhere for Hepastat or iso alcohol which i believe are the final two pieces of the puzzle for a good clean.
 
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Surgical spirit contains a small amount of castor oil so you would want to avoid that and rubbing alcohols.

Denatured spirits might be the thing, but you'd have to make sure the only other thing in it is water.

I would think an industrial supply house in the U.K. would stock isopropanol or 2-propanol which are common chemical names for what we call isopropyl alcohol here.
 
kevinkr said:
If you can afford an ultrasonic cleaner even DIY, some sort of distillation set up if necessary should be within reach, and much surer results.
I believe that in the UK you need a licence for a still, even if you only use it for water.

Many years ago in our school chemistry lab we produced our own distilled water. The teacher told me that when they bought a new still (as the old one was worn out) they had someone from Customs and Excise come to witness the old still being broken up so it was unusable

The two main domestic uses for deionised water are car batteries and smoothing irons. Few people now have chemistry sets, as Health'n'Safety means that something I could do safely 50 years ago is now extremely dangerous.
 
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It's a sad world we live in, I remember very well burning myself, blowing things up, and otherwise creating mayhem with a Scottish made Thomas Salter Chemistry set bought at an Innovation in Geneva when I was 13 or so.. Also got a Mamod stationary steam engine there that year.

Was not able to find a good photo of the set which might have been a set 2.
 

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