Using Tap Water with Alconox, Inc. Cleaners

Q. Can using tap water to make a 1% solution of Alconox cause there to be some undissolved Alconox particles?

A. It will depend on the tap water.  You can certainly use tap water to formulate any of our detergents.

It is possible that the tap water is very hard, and the undissolved Alconox® Powdered Precision Cleaner particles being observed are actually white precipitates of calcium and magnesium carbonate. In extremely hard water (water that is very high in calcium and magnesium content) we would recommend to use higher (2-3% or greater) concentrations. This would assure that there is sufficient chelating agent present to tie up the calcium and magnesium to avoid formation of insoluble precipitates of calcium and magnesium.

These insoluble precipitates are the likely source of the observed particles.

If particularly hard tap water is indeed in play, it is not unusual for it to take a little longer to formulate the wash solution.  First the insoluble carbonates are formed, and then the chelating and sequestering agents work on these to react with the calcium and magnesium (water hardness).  Eventually the carbonates go back in to solution.

Another solution would be to use softened water, purified water, or to simply dilute the hard water 50/50 with softened or purified water instead of using just hard tap water for your wash solution.

In short, tap water can indeed be safely used to formulate detergent solutions.  It need not be high purity.  Rinse water on the other hand, will depend much more on water quality depending on the critical nature of the cleaning application.

To request any Alconox, Inc. detergents for free, please complete the questionnaire at Get Sample. For more information about any one of our Alconox, Inc. detergents, consult the technical bulletin for each product. Or click here to access each of our detergent’s Safety Data Sheets.

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