Distilled Water Los Angeles

[JohnRoberts]

"And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids."

I LOVE that movie.

Get an RO unit from amazon - they are so cheap most stores can't afford to carry them any longer. Then... add a 10" post filter to it with DI resin, preferably the color changing kind. Then you will have pure, precious fluids for cleaning things, and making kick butt coffee... or grain alcohol.

Actually coffee nerds will tell you RO water is too pure for perfect brewed coffee... Third Wave water additives use a blend of magnesium sulfate, calcium citrate, potassium bicarbonate, and alkalinity to tweak pure water for ideal coffee brewing.

We use that water here for the ultrasonic cleaners, soldering sponge when used, the CNC mist, CNC coolant base, and basically for cleaning all kinds of stuff in a safer manner than tap water.

I got into RO water decades ago, when my tap water would kill my beer brewing yeast (too much clorox or whatever added to kill microbes in the water supply).

JR

 

[Whoops]

Cool,
I have to be honest, never felt any difference in soldering itself with distilled vs tap water,
I have a very very good JBC iron, solder joints are always top notch with any type water on the sponge, I think I could even put swamp water on the sponge and the solders would still be great.

 

[13engrsapper]

I still like my ro coffee sorry.

 

[13engrsapper]

purity of our fluids

 

[Electrobumps]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have RO water, but that can still contain solids. Not sure about coffee, but it makes a much better cup of tea than the stuff that comes out of the tap in LA. One thing I did learn is that British water has little to no Magnesium in it.

I need it to clean my U87 capsule so need it to be distilled and as pure as pure can be.

The only distilled water I have seen in stores has added electrolytes. My local Ralphs don't currently stock pure distilled. CVS doesn't have any stock, I saw it all the time in CVS last year when I didn't need it! I'll try Rite-Aid or An auto shop.

 

[Whoops]

I need it to clean my U87 capsule so need it to be distilled and as pure as pure can be.

I've cleaned quite a few U87 and U67 capsules in the past with distilled water,
just one really important advice if you use a small brush don't make any pressure at all in the brush against the membrane, if you do that the gold sputtering will start to come off, move the brush as lightly/soft as humanly possible. And use a very soft brush
I learned by doing that mistake.

After cleaning I dry the capsule out by putting it inside a well closed Tupperware with the capsule on one side and quite a few silicon gel bags on the other side, I leave it there for 1 week

This is Neumann doc on cleaning capsules:

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Cool,
I have to be honest, never felt any difference in soldering itself with distilled vs tap water,
I have a very very good JBC iron, solder joints are always top notch with any type water on the sponge, I think I could even put swamp water on the sponge and the solders would still be great.

I changed a bunch of things about how I solder all at once when I went from C grade to A grade, so my hunch may not be reliable. That said the few times I have used tap water since I have felt the difference, could well be in my mind though.

 

[crazydoc]

I guess it's good I don't solder much any more. I use well water on a cut up dollar store sponge, wipe the tip of my 50 yo Weller W-TCP intermittently with a dry paper towel, and use yard sale Kester solder in various configurations. My last real diy PCB project years ago used SMT and seemed to come out OK.

But thanks for the info.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I use RO water on my soldering sponge mainly because it is easier to refill my repurposed plastic soda bottle. I do not expect any difference between that and tap water.

Tip life does seem to be affected by tip temperature.

These days I don't do much soldering other than for repairs.

JR

 

[Electrobumps]

I haven't used water on a sponge for soldering in over 15 years. I use brass wool, no thermal shock on the tip.

 

[13engrsapper]

Not only solder tip longevity, I feel it makes a difference to solder joint integrity.

I watched some Nasa tutorials back in the day and wiping the solder with alcohol, using silver solder and distilled water for teh sponge took me from C grade soldering to perfect joints. To be fair I got a Metcal at the same time which is like having superpowers.

Isn't the Metcal an amazing beast? First thing I did was solder two pennies together, took about 10 seconds

 

[13engrsapper]

I haven't used water on a sponge for soldering in over 15 years. I use brass wool, no thermal shock on the tip.

We are typically using the brass these days too

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Isn't the Metcal an amazing beast? First thing I did was solder two pennies together, took about 10 seconds

Truly a joy to use, soldering went from something I dreaded to easy.

 

[Whoops]

I haven't used water on a sponge for soldering in over 15 years. I use brass wool, no thermal shock on the tip.

I was using a Brass wool some years ago until one day I realized my Tip laster 5 times less than the iron tip of my colleague that was using a sponge instead. Tips are expensive and I realized then that the brass wool was scratching to much the tip and making it a bit thinner everyday. Changed for the sponge with distilled water and now my tips last a long time.

 

[13engrsapper]

I was using a Brass wool some years ago until one day I realized my Tip laster 5 times less than the iron tip of my colleague that was using a sponge instead. Tips are expensive and I realized then that the brass wool was scratching to much the tip and making it a bit thinner everyday. Changed for the sponge with distilled water and now my tips last a long time.

interesting

 

[Gold]

Isn't the Metcal an amazing beast? First thing I did was solder two pennies together, took about 10 seconds

What models are you talking about. I once tried one of the cheaper models and didn’t think it was anything special. I haven’t tried the MX series. I have a feeling The MX series is what gets the accolades.

 

[13engrsapper]

What models are you talking about. I once tried one of the cheaper models and didn’t think it was anything special. I haven’t tried the MX series. I have a feeling The MX series is what gets the accolades.

Hey Paul,

We use the MX- I think my station is the older one we picked up, an MX-5200 series. I love their desoldering gun as well. Every once in awhile the US surplus places online will have tips available really cheap. But to be honest Ive been using the same tips for several years now (5?)

 

[Gold]

Hey Paul,

We use the MX- I think my station is the older one we picked up, an MX-5200 series. I love their desoldering gun as well. Every once in awhile the US surplus places online will have tips available really cheap. But to be honest Ive been using the same tips for several years now (5?)

Last time I looked Metcal desoldering stations all used shop air. That’s a no go for me. I want a self contained vacuum.

 

[13engrsapper]

We use filtered air from a screw compressor - but ya, self contained would be nice. All that stuff gets done out in our dirty/loud shop area anyway so it's not a big deal for us. But ya, I would hate to have to run an air hose through the house to use it, lol.

 

[Electrobumps]

You should be able to get distilled water at a grocery store like Frys, Safeway, krogers.

Kroger's distilled water contains magnesium and sodium. So I would not recommend that for anything other than drinking. Anything sold in stores with food is probably designed for drinking, not industrial/cleaning purposes. Maybe I should try and distil my own!