Chemicals for recharging TWP

[MadMorf]

Ok, I've just spent several hours visiting every hardware store within a 20 mile radius, looking for Lye and Muriatic Acid...

With no success...

Any clues to other possible suppliers?

 

[liquid]

Lye: look in the cleaning section of your local supermarket or hardware store and look for Red Devil Lye Drain Opener. It's 100% lye according to the label. The one I picked up yesterday from the supermarket was an 18 oz bottle of lye.

Muratic Acid: Did you ask the clerk in the stores specifically for muratic acid? It's a common cleaner for cement and whatnot and it comes in a 1 gallon plastic jug.

Shane

 

[Bryan]

Lye, should be in any decent sized Supermarket. Muriatic Acid at any decent hardware store or a pool centre as it's used as a means of lowering PH.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
I wonder if anybody know any resin recharging service available? Kent, I believe, used to do it, but not anymore.

I have a couple gallon of mixed resin stored in DI water, and never able to find time to separate and recharge it... any help?

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Mad:

I hope that you realize the complexities involved in recharging a TWP. You cannot simply run the fluids through it as you could if it were a single resin. You need to separate the resins and treat them differently.

[ February 25, 2002: Message edited by: Randy Holmes-Farley ]

[ February 25, 2002: Message edited by: Randy Holmes-Farley ]</p>

 

[MadMorf]

Ok, I found Lye right where Liquid said...

Who knew that hardware stores wouldn't have it in the plumbing department? (Rhetorical...)

As for the Muriatic Acid, I was looking in the pool care sections of the hardware stores...Didn't think to look in the cement cleaners...

Randy: I have read the TWP recharging instructions...

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Mad:

OK, it seems like an awful lot of work to me, but if cost is a big object then go for it!

 

[Anonymous]

It's actually not too bad--the first time takes about 2 hrs, but after you've separated the resins that first time, it doesn't take long at all.

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

Lye = Sodium Hydroxide = Caustic Soda. It's a very common industrial chemical (second most used chemical in the World I think) and is available from chemical supply stores etc. It costs about the same to buy 5lb as it does to by a 50lb sack i.e. you can buy a life time's supply for next to nothing.

Muriatic acid = Hydrochloric acid. A swimming pool shop will have this.

Please be very careful with these chemicals - especially when you're dissolving the lye in water. Eye protection and gloves are essential. These chemicals will blind you if you splash them in your eyes. The fumes from either chemical are really nasty too - I wear a face mask when diluting the acid.

 

[Ralph1]

Hi MadMorf
If I were you I would buy a TDS meter.Then you could tell when to recharge your resin. Dont rely on the color change! It is also helpful when rinsing the resin after you charged them, Lets you know when to stop rinsing the resin. I would also get saftey goggles made for chemical splashes,look for goggles with no air holes on the sides.
Just for the record I cant stand charging my resin anymore.I didnt mind the charging part, it was the rinsing part I hated! It took for ever and ever to rinse. If I had to continue charging the resin I think I would quite the hobby!I just bought an RO/DI unit last week and I will never ever charge DI resin again!
Good Luck and be careful.
Ralph