Diluting issues

[denanbob]

My chlorine is super high and I only have the Walmart 6-way test kit where the chlorine only goes up to a "5". So I was going to try the dilution method to see what my true chlorine was. However, the more water I add, the more ORANGE the water turns. Not yellow. I was going to use like 3 vials of the water and 5 drops of the OTO solution. Then mix and pour back into the vial and multiply the readout by 3. However, the more water I add, the oranger in color it gets. Anyone have an explanation for this? Am I not doing this right? Thanks much!

[SUNNYDAYS]

Make sure you are using distilled water not tap water.

[shadowman]

Is the distilled water dilution only true for the "yellow" type test? My Taylor K-2006C says to use tap water but it is the FAS-DPD test. I am using filtered water from the refrigerator tap. Is this OK?

[CarlD]

The ONLY way to be sure your diluting water is free of any chemicals (especially chlorine) is to use steam-distilled water. It's available at any supermarket or discount drug chain and costs less than $2. for a gallon. Since a gallon contains 128 ounces, and the shot-glass dilution method uses 1.5 ounces each time, that gallon will last you all summer.

What's the big deal? $2 for the proper distilled water is less than one gallon of ultra bleach.

[halefmly]

Distilled water is only 66 cents for a gallon at WalMart.

[CarlD]

Distilled water is only 66 cents for a gallon at WalMart.

Yeah, that's less than $2, right?

[waterbear]

The problem with tap water is that it is often sanitized with choramines. You can try testing your tap water for FC and CC and see if there is any present and if there isn't then it's probably ok to use but since distilled water is so cheap and readily available why bother?

[denanbob]

Thanks everyone! I got distilled water and it turned out better. My chlorine is finally down to a manageable "5" and the kids are swimming again! I don't know WHAT my husband did, but we haven't added chlorine in 9 days and we've had hot sunny days to burn it off. It must have been WAY up there! LOL!

[chem geek]

If you have a water filter (usually with activated carbon/charcoal), then that usually strips any chlorine or chloramine from the water. I know it does in my case as I've tested it. In fact, it's a good way to know when a water filter is too old and needs to be replaced -- you start to measure some chlorine or monochloramine if it needs replacement. Bottled water (i.e. spring water) is also likely to not have chlorine or monochloramine in it, but you can always test a suspect water source on its own to be sure. Carl is right that actual distilled water is the safest bet, but these other options have also worked for me. In particular, if you are diluting to measure TA or CH (for some reason -- usually dilution is not required for these tests), then using distilled water is really the only way to do that properly.

Richard