slightly OT - de-mineralised water and de-ionised water re watering houseplants.
 

I recently purchased a steam iron that requires de-mineralised water.
The instructions say not to use de-ionised water (ie the stuff you put
in car batteries) in the iron but that de-mineralised water can be used
to water houseplants.

You cannot purchase de-mineralised water in the UK, so I have had to buy
a plastic jug and some cartridges of grey granules, (presumably permutit
or similar) through which you pass the water. Here are my questions,
with apologies in advance for their number:

Can someone please explain the difference between de-mineralised water
and de-ionised water?

How does the water become de-mineralised by passing quite quickly
through the granules? (I am told that after several uses, when the grey
granules turn brown, they are ready to discard).

Does it work in the same way as a water softener? The water here is
very hard, so I cannot understand how the same granules can
de-mineralise any type of water.

What benefit, if any, is there to houseplants by using de-mineralised
water?

Many thanks in advance.
--
June Hughes

June Hughes wrote:

Can someone please explain the difference between de-mineralised water
and de-ionised water?

IIRC, The crystals are called "ion exchange," substituting sodium for
calcium; not good for many things including people watching their sodium
intake.
Are you sure you can't get distilled water there? It's a common grocery
store item in the U.S. Of course, a lot of people here buy bottled water
which is often inferior to the municipal water from their tap. Don't get
me started on that one...

I hadn't thought of using melted freezer ice for watering sensitive plants;
I have a huge chest type freezer, and it's due for defrosting; winter is a
good time, because I can just stack the contents on the floor of an
unheated garage while I do the deed. One of those little electric "cube"
heaters with fan stuck inside on an upended plastic milk crate does the
trick in short order.

Just so as to not veer too far off-topic, I'm testing a bunch of stored
seeds for germination, in an electric oven with just the inside light bulb
turned on. Holds nicely at 80F/25C or so.

Cheers!


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

In message , Janet Baraclough
writes

The easiest cheapest way to save your steam iron or houseplants
from hard water minerals, is to use rainwater. Failing that, if you have
an old-fashioned freezer that requires periodic defrosting, bottle some
melted ice. Both waters have previously evaporated then condensed again,
which means they don't contain any appreciable amount of groundwater
minerals.

Unfortunately, my freezer has no ice and the outside water is channelled
on to the garden, although I could redirect it to a container for
houseplants. I still can't understand how a few seconds filtering
through the grey granules de-mineralises water.
--
June Hughes

In message ,
writes

There's an explanation here
http://www.lenntech.com/deionised-de...ised-water.htm

That is exactly what I wanted, Martin. Thank-you so much. I actually
understood it:) Fascinating.
--
June Hughes

In message ,
writes
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:49:53 +0000, June Hughes
wrote:

In message ,
writes

There's an explanation here
http://www.lenntech.com/deionised-de...ised-water.htm

That is exactly what I wanted, Martin. Thank-you so much. I actually
understood it:) Fascinating.

Now explain it to me :-)

g
--
June Hughes

"June Hughes" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a steam iron that requires de-mineralised
water.
The instructions say not to use de-ionised water (ie the stuff you
put
in car batteries) in the iron but that de-mineralised water can be
used
to water houseplants.

You cannot purchase de-mineralised water in the UK, so I have had to
buy
a plastic jug and some cartridges of grey granules, (presumably
permutit
or similar) through which you pass the water. Here are my
questions,
with apologies in advance for their number:

Deionising cartridges contain deionising resins.
If I remember rightly, Permutit is not a deioniser proper, but
replaces positive ions by Sodium ions. It is esentially only a water
softener.
I suspect that what your instructions mean is that you should use
permutit to soften the water, because it is the Calcium and Magnesium
ions found in hard water which make scaly deposits which are replaced
by Permutit.


Can someone please explain the difference between de-mineralised
water
and de-ionised water?

Deionising means replacing all positively and negatively charged ions
by the H and OH ions of water itself.
Deionising produces the purest possible water--- even purer than
distilled water. It is a relatively expensive process to deionise
water.
Demineralising in the present context sounds to me like softening the
water..

How does the water become de-mineralised by passing quite quickly
through the granules? (I am told that after several uses, when the
grey
granules turn brown, they are ready to discard).

The deionising and softening resin granules are pretty hungry for ions
and work fast.
When the deionising resin changes colour, it is ready to be discarded.
Permutit, on the other hand, can be recharged by soaking it in a
concentrated solution of kitchen salt.

Does it work in the same way as a water softener? The water here is
very hard, so I cannot understand how the same granules can
de-mineralise any type of water.

See above

What benefit, if any, is there to houseplants by using
de-mineralised
water?

Almost none, except if you have lime-hating plants.

Franz

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...

The easiest cheapest way to save your steam iron or houseplants
from hard water minerals, is to use rainwater.

Rainwater can be fairly acid nowadays.

Failing that, if you have
an old-fashioned freezer that requires periodic defrosting, bottle
some
melted ice. Both waters have previously evaporated then condensed
again,
which means they don't contain any appreciable amount of groundwater
minerals.

That sounds clever.

Franz

"June Hughes" wrote in message
...
In message , Janet
Baraclough
writes

The easiest cheapest way to save your steam iron or
houseplants
from hard water minerals, is to use rainwater. Failing that, if you
have
an old-fashioned freezer that requires periodic defrosting, bottle
some
melted ice. Both waters have previously evaporated then condensed
again,
which means they don't contain any appreciable amount of
groundwater
minerals.

Unfortunately, my freezer has no ice and the outside water is
channelled
on to the garden, although I could redirect it to a container for
houseplants. I still can't understand how a few seconds filtering
through the grey granules de-mineralises water.

It does.

Franz

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

[snip]

When the deionising resin changes colour, it is ready to be
discarded.
Permutit, on the other hand, can be recharged by soaking it in a
concentrated solution of kitchen salt.

Addendum:
And rinsing it in tap water before use, to remove the free salt.

Franz

In message , Franz Heymann
writes

"June Hughes" wrote in message
...
snip

What benefit, if any, is there to houseplants by using
de-mineralised
water?

Almost none, except if you have lime-hating plants.

Franz


It just gets better and better. Many thanks, Franz.
--
June Hughes

In message ,
writes
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 21:31:16 +0000, June Hughes
wrote:

In message ,
writes
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:49:53 +0000, June Hughes
wrote:

In message ,
writes

There's an explanation here
http://www.lenntech.com/deionised-de...ised-water.htm

That is exactly what I wanted, Martin. Thank-you so much. I actually
understood it:) Fascinating.

Now explain it to me :-)

g

Saved by Franz, eh? :-)

I read your post first (ie before that of Franz) but now I see what you
mean:)


--
June Hughes

June Hughes wrote:
In message , Franz Heymann
writes

"June Hughes" wrote in message
...
snip

What benefit, if any, is there to houseplants by using
de-mineralised water?

Almost none, except if you have lime-hating plants.

Franz


It just gets better and better. Many thanks, Franz.

Water does funny things to people's brains, though. A while back one
of the Cheltenham papers carried an article by a "nutritionist"
solemnly revealing that a certain kind of water was easier to
_digest_ than the competition. I was much tickled by the idea of
water being broken down into its constituents in somebody's gut, and
spent some time working out how I might trigger an explosive
recombination of hydrogen and oxygen in somebody's body. Like the
Thai fire-eater who most unfortunately ended his earthly career by
getting hiccups a year or two ago.

Today's Guardian's Bad Science column has a less catastrophic one.
Apparently there's Penta water, which is "ultra-purified,
restructured micro-water": "By disrupting the naturally occurring
molecule clusters in water with high-energy sound waves, they are
able to pass more easily through the body's cell membranes, quenching
the thirst better." This is known as "optimal cellular hydration".

Good to know somebody's cracked the age-old problem of over-sized
clusters of water molecules, isn't it?

Mike.

Mike Lyle wrote:
June Hughes wrote:
In message , Franz Heymann
writes

"June Hughes" wrote in message
...
snip

What benefit, if any, is there to houseplants by using
de-mineralised water?

Almost none, except if you have lime-hating plants.

Franz


It just gets better and better. Many thanks, Franz.

Water does funny things to people's brains, though. A while back
one
of the Cheltenham papers carried an article by a "nutritionist"
solemnly revealing that a certain kind of water was easier to
_digest_ than the competition. I was much tickled by the idea of
water being broken down into its constituents in somebody's gut,
and
spent some time working out how I might trigger an explosive
recombination of hydrogen and oxygen in somebody's body. Like the
Thai fire-eater who most unfortunately ended his earthly career by
getting hiccups a year or two ago.

Today's Guardian's Bad Science column has a less catastrophic one.
Apparently there's Penta water, which is "ultra-purified,
restructured micro-water": "By disrupting the naturally occurring
molecule clusters in water with high-energy sound waves, they are
able to pass more easily through the body's cell membranes,
quenching
the thirst better." This is known as "optimal cellular hydration".

Good to know somebody's cracked the age-old problem of over-sized
clusters of water molecules, isn't it?

Sorry, I missed out the really exciting bit. Apparently they got the
Daily Mirror to believe that this new improved water will "increase
the body's cell-survival by over 200%." Some of us could be drawing
our pensions for an awfully long time.

Why aren't people put in jail for this kind of thing?

Mike.

In message , Mike Lyle
writes

Sorry, I missed out the really exciting bit. Apparently they got the
Daily Mirror to believe that this new improved water will "increase
the body's cell-survival by over 200%." Some of us could be drawing
our pensions for an awfully long time.

Why aren't people put in jail for this kind of thing?

I have now read it. (Yesterday's Guardian). Very odd. I am a bit
surprised at Waitrose magazine. Haven't read that yet.
--
June Hughes

"June Hughes" wrote in message
...
In message , Mike Lyle
writes

Sorry, I missed out the really exciting bit. Apparently they got the
Daily Mirror to believe that this new improved water will "increase
the body's cell-survival by over 200%." Some of us could be drawing
our pensions for an awfully long time.

Why aren't people put in jail for this kind of thing?

I have now read it. (Yesterday's Guardian). Very odd. I am a bit
surprised at Waitrose magazine. Haven't read that yet.
--
June Hughes

Nice site that explains about molecule clusters in water which apparently
can exist

http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/abou****er.html
"Clustered", "Unclustered" and other structure-altered watersThe
"alternative" health market is full of goofy products which purport to alter
the structure of water by stabilizing groups of H2O molecules into permanent
clusters of 4-8 molecules, or alternatively, to break up what they claim are
the larger clusters (usually 10-15 molecules) that they say normally exist
in water. The object in either case is to promote the flow of water into the
body's cells ("cellular hydration"). This is of course utter nonsense; there
is no credible scientific evidence for any of these claims, many of which
verge on the bizarre. There are even some scientifically absurd U.S. Patents
for the manufacture of a "clustered" form of water. At least 20
manufacturers offer nostrums of this kind to the scientifically-naive public
through hundreds of Web sites and late-night radio "infomercials". None of
these claims is supported by credible evidence.