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:

	It is my understanding that distilled water is pH 7.0 only in theory.
Even freshly distilled water picks up CO2 from the atmosphere and
becomes acidic, or so I am told. In various labs with various stills I
have never seen distilled water that is pH 7.

Geoff

--
***************************************************************
Geoff McAuliffe, Ph.D.
Neuroscience and Cell Biology
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
675 Hoes Lane  Piscataway, NJ 08854
voice: (732)-235-4583; fax -4029   e-mail: mcauliff@umdnj.edu
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