Linda

The water coming out of our still is usually approx. pH 6.5.  Now and
again, the pH will vary away from that and during those periods people
culturing cells complain that their cells get sick or just up and die.  It
turns out that the stuff dumped into the city water supply by up river
business operations and/or citizens makes a big difference.

Anytime a material is distilled,  there are carry overs into the
distillate that are undesirable.  These cannot be eliminated but only
minimized.  Usually, if you are not already doing so, the best way is to
distill water that's been passed through deionizing columns.  You then
distill the water to remove as many orgainics as you can.  Various phenols
will still carry over but usually you can live with them.

Like I say, it depends on what the upriver folk are putting into your city
water supply.  Here in Alabama, the state government has appearently never
heard of the Clean Water Act so the Auburn water can be pretty exciting.

Yours hoping you're further upriver than many,

John Carroll Dennis
Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology
109 Greene Hall
Auburn University, AL  36849


On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Linda Jenkins wrote:

> Histonetters,
> 	Even though I'm from the "Hills of Tennessee" the workings of
> "stills" continue to elude me.  Checked the pH of  our building's distilled
> water as it came out of the tank - it was 5.1 and the regular tap water
> going into the distiller was 6.3.  Last spring I cleaned the distiller's
> 500gal Nalgene holding tank with a procedure that used Chlorox, lots of
> rinsing, hydrogen peroxide, lots more rinsing.  This cleaning procedure
> came straight from Nalgene headquarters and took about two weeks to
> complete.  In the meantime, the 20+yr old distiller was left sitting idle.
> I know most appliances do not appreciate being left idle for great lenghts
> of time.  Any thoughts on what could be happening to cause such a low pH?
> 				Thanks,
> 				Linda
>
> *********************************
> Linda Jenkins, HT
> Clemson University
> Department of Bioengineering
> Clemson, SC
> **********************************
>
>
>