I bought a ton of these in various styles a while ago. Useful little things for all sorts of neat chemistry. The two plates are both titanium, the anode being coated in mixed metal oxide to resist corrosion.
Lol, what are you doing watching RUclips videos? You already know to much. Now go out to the barn and make us more videos that we can get in more trouble with our women folk TRYING to duplicate. KIDDING OF COURSE. LOVE THE VIDEOS. YOUR PRETTY GOOD TO CLIVE. ok I’m done yelling😜😉
I think creating an accurate dose of hypochlorous acid in a small quantity of water and then adding it to a larger quantity of waterer to sterilize it would be more consistent, eg make 100ml of hypochlorous acid solution and then use for batches of water 1L+.
for standard 8.25% bleach, it's 6 drops to the gallon you'd have to know the concentration to know how much to add at ~50% you'd only need a drop, any more and you'll need to increase the water
@@dougsteel7414 Here we are diluting a poison/oxidizer to levels our body can tolerate, but many small organisms cannot. If it were homeopathy we would instead be taking something like a bacteria laden solution, diluting it in the world's oceans, then taking one drop as "medicine" for curing an infection.
Chances are the electrodes are Titanium, one will be coated with "Mixed Metal Oxide" (mostly Rhodium Oxide IIRC), at least that's what they use in salt chlorinators for pools.
And titanium is easy to test for. But a lot of titanium products from china actually isn't titanium, as it's too expensive, so some stainless alloy seems more likely, 316 would be suitable, but not too cheap either.
@@HomelabExtreme just using stainless steel as a cheap replacement for titanium would be my worry but that has BIG problems in that you specifically cannot use stainless in electrolytic rust removal as the current can also release carcinogenic chromium ions too and that process is basically the same as here... Post apocalypse I think I'd be banging 2 rocks together to make a spark and boil my water to sterilise it rather than looking for a USB power bank and drinking this.
@@Equiluxe1 depending on the exact grade Inconel is still 14% to 31% Chrome so I'd still like to see a check made that this didn't electrolytically leach any chrome into solution before I drank it.
Hi big Clive! I used to work in swimming pools and some places use this process on a larger scale to produce Sodium hypochlorite for swimming pool treatment. Is safer to buy and store salt and convert it on site where it is needed. I use on of these plug-ins and I use it to make steriliser for my brewing gear (wine & beer) - it's way cheaper than buying steriliser powers, and I always have salt at hand.
@@guitarstitch Those exist already. Hayward makes one called the AquaRite. Fantastic system, well worth the money. The water had never been cleaner, softer and easier on the skin and eyes than with that system. Ours is also paired with a sand filter filled with glass media in lieu of traditional sand. Crystal clear water all season with almost no effort at all.
@@donaloflynn yes exactly. Something about standard pool chlorine and all the related chemicals, are just so much more aggressive to the skin and eyes. On a salt system it won't dry your skin out and you can open your eyes under water without it burning. Not having to buy and screw around with so many chemicals is a great bonus. Glass media is just finer so it can catch much smaller particles, but at the same time doesn't need to be changed as often. Ive found it to be far superior and well worth the money.
To get the most accurate chlorine test, you would need a titrator, I know this because we are ordering one for our lab at work. We are getting false positives for chlorine residuals at work, from Iron and manganese interference. Also I would find out exactly what kind of test stripes you are using. Some measure free available chlorine ( chlorine that is available to to disinfect) some test total chlorine, some test chlorine residual (how much chlorine is in the water). It gets quite complicated. We actually use chlorine gas mixed with ammonia to create chloramines. Which last longer ( they don't off gas as easily). Not as strong as straight chlorine, More common of an disinfectant. Those tablets if I heard you right they were dichloramines. I could go on for a while but this is literally what I have ben studying for the last 15 months. Water Treatment Plant Operation I received my class 2 license just a few months ago. I'd be glad to answer some questions if ya had any. Maybe you already know all this. Cheers from kansas another fine video Sir Clive.
I have one of these and it says makes bleach which is sodium hypochlorite and an alkaline. Yet many folk say that's false and it produces hypochlorous acid. If you google electrochlorination it is said to be the primary way to make sodium hypochlorite for bleach products. What is this device producing? Thx
@@changeagent228 both actually, the electrolysis of concentrated NaCl produce Cl₂ which is soluable in water, forming HOCl (Hypochlorous acid), which then reacts with NaOH in the water (formed by removing Cl⁻ and H⁺ from the water) and form NaClO, which is sodium hypochlorite
In an ironic twist I saw a screen grab from one of your videos tearing down a faulty breaker/rcbo advertising a "voltbox" (scam voltage stabilisation thing that contains a capacitor and an LED for $50). On a brighter note, your website is blocked at work for the filtering category "weapons" so that's exciting.
@@BrainiumBasher9001 `'´ It makes sense if the workplace feels threatened by quality - then clive is sharing 'weapon schematics' with us by exposing any flaws, and suggesting a fix...
Seems like an outside agency is providing badly curated blocking lists. Would be interesting chasing down the source of that misclassification, as those same bad lists might one day be sold to something worse than corporate nanny filters.
In my misspent youth, I did work study in a university lab on behalf of a company that had a suitcase product that converted brine into bleach solution for water treatment. They sell a pen for backpackers for the same purpose. It worked just fine. The target solution was around 1 ppm chlorine. Their claim was that it worked better than simple chlorine because it had many bleaching products. My main takeaway from the experience is how many gross things are in the drinking water. Since part of the experiment was counting colonies on petri dishes. I made a simple cell out of pencil graphite and 9V battery in a glass vial that would make a bleachy smelling solution when you made a salt solution.
I don't believe they make those pens anymore, or at least the company that first brought them out discontinued them a while ago without any replacement. Never seen a knockoff either. I've heard various reasons like issues with government contracts, partnership breakdowns, and issues with a consumer product due to user error. The companies involved still makes chlorine generators for water treatment, but for group instead of personal water treatment. Really wanted one for the novelty back in the day, but they were mad expensive compared to other more productive options.
@@Dunyas Didn´t clive once show such a product for backpack water treatment? Not exactly a Pen, but a device where you could fill in a special tablet (likely salt) and a small amount of water to then create some liquid by the use of electrolysis to disinfect about one liter of water?
I hate giving presentations and I have one due in 3 hours. Hearing your smooth and steady voice really gives me confidence in a weird way, thanks Clive.
If anything turns to shit while you're presenting, a serene "One moment please", as you turn your back to fix it will steady your nerves and reassure your audience of your competence. Go to it!
Our dishes at work are supposed to be (according to food safety anyway) ~100ppm on sanitizer. higher than that is 'a problem'. Your concentration is very much in that range. That unit is pretty effective for the power draw.
I know this is so out of place, but I every time really enjoy his calming voice. It just relaxes me and I can really enjoy to just watch whatever he shows
If you leave one of these running in a saturated salt solution for a couple of weeks, you end up with a decent crop of sodium chlorate (after disproportionating by boiling for a bit to finish the reaction). Always useful to know. The anodes on these seem to be MMO for the most part, cathode is either Ti or stainless steel. Theres a few varieties of them out there.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 I see; so I assume fractional christallisation is done by cooling the boiled solution, harvesting the chlorate crystals whilst the chloride is more soluble and remains in solution, boiling again and repeating?
I have a USB solar panel that folds (3 plate) and I used it to charge tiny quadcopter batteries. It would buzz with a heavy load. The panels would buzz! Six batteries at once. Pretty fast charging my phone at the time. I want one.
@@Visiorary You'll find a power converter in there somewhere - though those typically squeal... I do distinctly remember a sort of "buzz" when I connected a 200W linear-regulated panel to a battery array - as I closed the circuit I could feel the terminal buzzing... On topic though; an array of two solar garden light panels in series would produce some sufficient power for the water sterilizer - for bleach generation you'd need 10 of those arrays in parallel, or wait one hour...
@@Vilvaran 350mA from a 60x120mm 6V panel is EASY, less than $10 to have the panel, so I'm not sure you'd need as many as 10 garden solar panels to get that current. Unless you are talking 0.5V photovoltaic cells individually, not an array in each panel like is much more common, even in garden lights, which in my experience put out 1.5-3.0V.
Bought one of the chlorine generators in 1971 for a trip to Mexico. It used 4 AAA batteries, had a small scoop and a container for salt. Wanted to send you a pic, but couldn't attach.
@@jakerickytan1232 In cooling towers your only trying to kill algea growth and the like. Not as worried about bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. Drinking water however you basically want to kill everything.
1000ppm isn't safe for potable water, but might be used to sanitize equipment/surfaces or contaminated tanks. The water coming out of taps would have to be watered down to 2-4ppm. Anything over 10ppm would be totally undrinkable. I wonder if your thinking about treated sewage water that's reclaimed for cities?
Hey Clive, no need to swirl unless it makes you feel better. 😊 Homeostasis will distribute the pH evenly enough that a strip that big in a volume that small won't be affected. Nature abhors a vacuum after all.
Thanks - nice to see your "tear-down"! In South Africa its common to see salt water chlorinators in swimming pools pools. I made my own unit using titanium aanode electrode and an iridium plated titanium cathode. It worked well but one had to add quite a lot of salt fairly regularly. (I seem to remember the system drawing around 15 amps)
@@neillcoetzer9133 Nah - they're common here in AUS too, a nice and lazy way to chlorinate a pool... ...Oh and the heat + UV light kills chlorine, so a 'perpetual' supply of it is needed or your pool goes green in two weeks! Many people don't cover their pools, so chlorine loss is a concern...
It absolutely amazes me at the odd stuff being floated off of the China coast. I am very interested in the materials used in the electrodes. Thanks for bringing this to us, Clive.
I think a potassium permanganate crystal may be a little easier (and maybe safer!) for water purification in an apocalypse - and it can be used to make fire (with glycerine).
@@manuelh.4147 Yes but the video is not about boiling water it's about using USB power to sterilise water. Anyway a kilo of pot permang would last me a lifetime I suspect if I were only using it to sterilise water.
Add some dye to the water, when the colour goes, assume moderately safe to drink, though might want to leave it standing for a day so the chlorine has can mostly escape and not burn the shit out of your insides
This assumes that the concentration of chlorine compounds that is strong enough to bleach a dye is also strong enough to destroy pathogens. This is not a safe assumption.
Can I smell it? Oh yes please! Just love it! This is the best entertainment and education on the net I have ever found. Well done Sir Clive! Excellent as always.
Great video. 5 volts is about right to gen up some cl- ions and it does. I also suspect stainless steel. Likely 316 stainless, as the more common 304 stainless does have a slight magnetic attraction. The "coating" may be formed when the reaction is done in the solution. Many stainless steels do "stain" but do not corrode in certain environments.
It's a mini saltwater pool chlorinator! Nice!! Where I am, salt water chlorination is the go to for pool owners. Interestingly those pills are stabilised chlorine pills, meaning they protect the chlorine sanitiser from damage coming from sunlight. The stabiliser is known as cyanuric acid and binds to the chlorine to stop UV from destroying it before it has chance to disinfect anything. There are much bigger tablets of that exact same chemical that people can use for their pools.
Thank you for another interesting and informative video Clive. The discoloration of one electrode might be due to electrolysis, not withstanding the lack of colouration at the edges. However reversing the polarity would determine that. I wouldn't want to drink the water either as toxic metal ions may well be released into it. I'd have used graphite for the electrodes if I'd have designed it -cheap and non reactive in this application. -Pete
I would have reversed the polarity too out of curiosity, Graphite is a good call, I still have sheets from nickel plating I did on some old moped restoration, worked a treat, process looks like magic
I had this idea as soon as I saw metal electrodes, I thought "Heck, could I do as well with a bunch of _pencil leads_ stuffed into some wires and hot-snot?"
HOCL was being sold for over £20 for 5 litres to use in room sanitizers- and equally surface sterilisers- covid etc. So I made my own unit. 2.5 grams of pure salt ( no iron cyanide) to 1 litre of 0 ppm TDS water. Here noting you really need pure water Clive.
I have one of those, works great. Using it to make sanitizer. Think the coating is titanium. The coating is to increase the lifespan of the electrodes, because one electrode will eat the anode over time. If you use normal tap water, there will be minerals and other stuff in it, and the chlorine particles will stick to, and the ppl will decrease, Use demineralised water, and your solution, will be stronger.
I work for a water utility... we use this same process on a much grander scale for our on-site sodium hypochlorite production. We can produce up to 15k gallons of 5.5% solution per day.
The special coating is probably some form of anodization, I would guess. There are chemical conversion coatings that can be used that are still somewhat conductive but will stop corrosion.
The electrolysis of salted water has several different products, in addition to the gases released at the electrodes. The anode releases elemental chlorine, and probably some oxygen too if the solution is not very concentrated. The cathode releases elemental hydrogen by decomposing water molecules, which leaves excess hydroxide ions in solution. So as electrolysis proceeds, the solution becomes increasingly alkaline. Some of the chlorine released at the anode dissolves into the solution and reacts with the hydroxide, generating hypochlorite ions, which are the active component of "chlorine bleach". This is essentially how bleach is made industrially, just on a much smaller scale. Though in this small scale process, there will probably be a fair bit of free chlorine in the solution too, hence the intense bleach-like smell.
I think these were not used to sterilize water, but to produce water that can sterilize other things. The electrode might be just graphite or carbon, or coated with graphite or carbon
Promised 1A, but draws only 0.3A. Sounds about right. I bought some "12V 1A" DC switching "wallcubes" from China, a couple of years ago. Put a varying loads on them, and the voltage dropped below 10.8V (10% drop off 12V), at about 350mA. So I concluded that a "Chinese Amp" is about 1/3 of an Amp, used elsewhere in the world. Even here in the US, where we use an "English Amp" instead of a "metric Amp". People say, all Amps are metric, but don't tell that to anybody in Merica !
To purify water, create the concentrated solution and then add a few drops of the concentrate to the bulk of water that you want to purify. It'll be easier to control it that way.
Exactly how I chlorinate my pool here at home. The salt level is about the same as human tears so the water is very pleasant to swim in. We have an in-line electrolysis cell with a very sophisticated control circuit with salt level readout, alert if cell needs cleaning etc. you can put it in boost to superchlorinate after a storm etc. the great thing is no more chlorine tablet handling. The consumable is muriatic acid and you know when to add some by pH reading. No more chlorine smells on body etc. after swimming. My cell has platinum electrodes.
Just to note. The water plants I work at as an I&C tech here in Florida. The target CL2 concentration for finished drinking water leaving the water plants is no more than 3ppm. Above that, there will be complaints. In the most distant from the plant areas of distribution, I believe that the minimum concentration is 0.2ppm. I am not a licensed water plant operator, but I do calibrate and repair the instruments.
Oh wow, 3 ppm seems to be quite a lot. The water treatment stuff we got for our pool recommends not to use the pool if the chlorine measures 3 mg/l or higher and to ideally have it at around 1 mg/l or less (for all those wondering, for water we can assume 1 ppm = 1 mg/l). But then I guess, if a water treatment plant puts out 3 mg/l, that will never be the amount coming out of a tap unless you live next door.
@@alexanderkupke920 yes the CL2 dissipates quickly once it leaves the plant and is in the system. Generally there is some distance between the plants and the first customers. Though there are exceptions and those plants will target a lower CL2 dose. You are correct in that ppm and mg/l are virtually the same. I have operators that want mg/l displayed and others that want ppm. I gave up trying to explain that there is no difference a long time ago 🤷♂️.
the anode is MMO (mixed metal oxide) usually a mix of Iridium/ruthenium or Iridium/tantalum on a titanium substrate. This is done so the anode does not dissolve in the reaction while produching the chlorine compound. The cathode is ideally bare titanium but they could have gone cheaper and used some 316l or such stainless steel. The anode cannot be pure titanium because you will just "anodize" it and this will create a electrically insulating oxide film on it which would stop the reaction . Hence the anode is coated with this metal oxide mix that stays conductive and does not dissolve into the solution. Platinum or platinum coated titanium would also work as an anode but is not used because MMO is usually cheaper.
Good to see something that's not snake oil and actually useful for emergency situations. Probably going to buy one, since we sometimes don't have clean water available here in Chile (thanks Avocado farms for using up everything...)
I'm wondering if dunking two dissimilar metals in a saline solution doesn't cause it's own electrical charge. Yes, it would be minuscule, but the ingredients are there. There is a reason for dielectric connections. Thankyou for another fine video. You have the gift.
It's common after a major flood for tap water to become contaminated. Not 100% sure why, possibly excess runoff in the catchment area puts a lot of organics into the water supply, which is too much for the regular water treatment systems to cope with. So this could be helpful for that situation, if you can figure out how to make it put a reliably safe level of chlorine into the water. Although it's possible just leaving the water to outgas for some time afterwards would be allow the chlorine to dissipate.
Water purification tablets release not chlorine, but chloramines which are longer acting. They release chlorine much slower and therefore more thoroughly sanitize contaminated water by maintaining an adequate chlorine supply for a longer period instead of creating a big spike of chlorine that then evaporates quickly.
I have had 2 varieties of these. First was an electro San, a marine sanitation device that used seawater to create chlorine to sanitize water from the toilet before pumping overboard. And currently have on on my pool pump system to generate chlorine for the water, very handy and the salt water is nice to swim in.
I think the spray bottle one is better than this because it stops itself, doesn't go immediately when plugged in (you have to push the button to start it), has a nice light to look at while it's going, and it lets you immediately contain the solution once it's done
I have a version of this for my pool. My pool has salt level adjusted to about 3500 ppm and then the plates are in a unit with a power supply in the filtered water flow. The system easily generates enough sanitizer for my 25000 gallon pool. It is a fairly complex system monitoring salt level, water flow, temperature etc. it requires cleaning with acid as the plates calcify. But is much better to deal with than chlorine direct.
Good call about not using stainless steel. I seem to remember when looking into electrolysis rust removal that stainless steel shouldn't be used as it can produce chromium hexavalent a nasty carcinogen.
I wondered why stainless steel should be a bad idea, but yeah, the chromium containt that makes it stainless for sure becomes an issue. Didn´t even think about that.
I seem to remember reading somewhere about not using stainless steel electrodes for fear of releasing hexavalent chromium. This might be complete tosh, but I've used them for electrolysis with no problems so far.............the extra thumb is quite handy though !
I regularly camp and that seems perfect to me as I don't like to use the tablets..I can only assume electrolysis is the mechanics here as perhaps sodium and chloride are separated by the ionizing electric currents....but if you don't know the tablets are not recommended for long term use so perhaps this is an better option..but why didn't it work on the one litre test?...Maybe just too much water by volume the cells of an lead acid battery are governed by the size of the lead plates and electrolyte volume too and if not calibrated in this way then it upsets the reaction so if you require an litre of clean drinking water you should perhaps treat in small stages. .? But looks good and better than pumping chemicals into the body as household salt can be trusted so an great and highly informative video thanks from an happy camper..!!
I wonder if they meat one scoop per 1000ml instead of 100ml? Of course in that case you'd think they'd just say 1L instead.Did the "instructions" say how long to run it for?
I like the UVC light bottle you fill up and flip a switch. All life inside the bottle, will be terminated or have their balls cut off! No fuss, no mess, no chemicals.
Just a thought, but as a water sterliser, wouldn't those tablets want to keep the concentration super low to avoid, you know, bleaching the drinking party? :)
The tablets are the same things you use for cold water sterilisation of baby bottles, so should be a really low concentration safe for drinking a small amount.
The electrode is perhaps stainless steel coated with carbon; if bare stainless steel is used, the solution would turn green. Glassy carbon is very resistant chemically, particularly to chlorine
The lead engineer of a "large" water company told me that the consumer water pitchers offered pretty good filtration for typical situations...as long as the filters were changed regularly. I suppose those filters need to be sourced from a reliable source vs. online marketplaces, etc. Big operations may run multiple-stage water processing but I don't know if consumers would benefit by running a variety of processing stages at home. . .
I guess that depends a lot on where you live and what regulations are. I live in Germany and here regulations and controls for drinking water are the same as for food items. So usually unless you have rather hard water, they should not do a lot for you. But of course that may be a different story based on the age of the pipes in the ground or even more so, the plumbing in your house. But you are absolutely right about changing them regularly, as otherwise, they kind of become their own ecosystem and can do more bad than good.
This is the same technology we use in salt water pools. In tandem with cyanuric acid in the water to protect the chlorine from the sun, you can have a cleaner pool with a lower free chlorine than a chlorine tablet fed pool.
You can calculate the quantity of hypochlorite you produce here. It’s current in amps times seconds times the faraday (96486 C/mole) times the number of electrons removed from chloride to hypochlorite (2j times the molar mass of hypochlorite (51.45 g). My calculation for 5 minutes at 300 mA is 24 mg.
@@kasparroosalu The hydrogen from water is reduced at the cathode to hydrogen gas, which is the source of the gas bubbles, but the chloride ion is oxidized to hypochlorite at the anode.
As a truck/lorry driver with the rough roads in the U.S., chlorine cleaners inevitably spill and/or leak all over anything nice. Having a way to create a bleach solution for cleaning when needed sounds like just the ticket! I'll be on the lookout, thanks
We have a Kangen water Filter/maker that is arguably the best on the market. It is the only system that has the US WQA approval and seal. It makes anywhere from 2.5 PH to 14.5 Alkaline, ionized, microcluster, dechlorinated water. Basically 7 different waters. It as a Smart Filter that does take out a lot of the nasties then there are 8 Titanium Plates which these are coated in Platinum. You know how water and oil doesn't mix? Well this water with it micro cluster molecules actually emulsifies the oil and makes it all milky. Pretty amazing to see.
@@bigclivedotcom would love to see you do a video on it sometime. Recently seen someone using a 9v battery in a glass with 2 silver rods from a jeweler (Said don’t use plastic cup or sterling ) But said it’s how colloidal silver is made. I don’t know much about it but your video prompted memory of the other video I seen. Either way thanks for your work !
Was your table salt Iodised or no? Dunno if that'll affect the reactions. Also the taste test is cornerstone of any science experiment. Unfortunately it can only be done once for most experiments; lava for example.
When camping along the Zambezi river in the 60s, my Dad would add Eno to the water...just to make it palatable you know....tough stomachs they had then. I use Eno after too much garlic or red wine, after being woken up with heartburn....
Now I'm wondering what electrode materials could be used to do this safely in an emergency situation. Haven't looked into how various metals would react in this environment. Guess carbon or graphite would be the best bet. 🤔
Graphite rods work fine for this purpose, though they do break down somewhat and you end up with finely divided graphite in your solution that needs filtering off. I've personally built cells for electrolysis using the graphite rods salvaged from inside the cells of lantern batteries.
Our pool salt chlorinator uses a pure NaCl concentration of between 3000 and 3500 PPM and runs at 24V @ 18A. Hard to imagine 5V @ 0.4A would make as much chlorine as it does.
Years ago at least 30+ I used a battery charger hooked to electrodes in the tank of salt water. I was separating it into hydrogen and oxygen, I had a setup so I could catch all the hydrogen and fill a 30 gallon trash bag with it. I then attached my fuse, lit it and let her rise into the air usually exploded 40-60 feet and it was very loud and made an awesome fireball, I started making them in the day and let them loose at night. Looked so cool!!!! Several times I heard the cops driving around trying to find the explosion, my mom said it shook the windows and pictures, in high school I built a heavy duty potato cannon that I used oxygen and acetylene for fuel, would send a potato out of sight and was shaking windows at buddies grandmas house 1/4 mile away. No one worry about safety it would hold 1200 psi bc I checked it by pressuring it with nitrogen, hooked everything up kept it far away while testing etc, it was built with Chrome Molly tuneing I worked in NASCAR and had access to all kinds of stuff. After the pressure test I put a blow out chamber that would pop at 500psi and not explode. I will do some crazy shit but I always do it safe as possible.
I may be reading it differently, but the wording on the box makes it sound like it's a way to make your own disinfectant rather than making clean drinking water.
That's actually kind of smart, at least it is practically applicable well i mean in theory all these survival gadgets usually just quench our paranoia and sit in a drawer. The kind of person that would feel the need to buy a usb water sanitizer is not the kind of person who ends up using a usb water sanitizer
i was thinking about how neat this would be to make relatively high concentration hypochlorous acid virtually for free to sterilise vegetables and whatnot... then i remembered that i live in brazil, where you can literally get little tubs of relatively high concentration hypocholorous acid literally for free at any government-run health clinic to sterilise vegetables and whatnot
"Didn't want to make too many videos of the same thing.." BIG CLIVE'S OZONE GENERATOR EMPORIUM
Big Clive's LED lighting emporium
He's working on his own layer, just for his house. Scottish people don't tan well.
Emporium… LOL! 😂🤣😆😅
Will it carbonate though!?
Lots of us viewers could send him more diverse stuff to reverse engineer but he doesn't want that.
I bought a ton of these in various styles a while ago. Useful little things for all sorts of neat chemistry. The two plates are both titanium, the anode being coated in mixed metal oxide to resist corrosion.
*all ears*
Please stop, you're making BigChlorinator a bit jealous ❤️😂 watch you soon
Oh, hi there!
Do you know how to make a DIY coating for the titanium anode?
Lol, what are you doing watching RUclips videos? You already know to much. Now go out to the barn and make us more videos that we can get in more trouble with our women folk TRYING to duplicate.
KIDDING OF COURSE. LOVE THE VIDEOS. YOUR PRETTY GOOD TO CLIVE. ok I’m done yelling😜😉
I think creating an accurate dose of hypochlorous acid in a small quantity of water and then adding it to a larger quantity of waterer to sterilize it would be more consistent, eg make 100ml of hypochlorous acid solution and then use for batches of water 1L+.
That’s why Chris Jarrett gets the big bucks 😂
That's what I was thinking.
for standard 8.25% bleach, it's 6 drops to the gallon
you'd have to know the concentration to know how much to add
at ~50% you'd only need a drop, any more and you'll need to increase the water
Sounds like homeopathy 🤣
@@dougsteel7414
Here we are diluting a poison/oxidizer to levels our body can tolerate, but many small organisms cannot.
If it were homeopathy we would instead be taking something like a bacteria laden solution, diluting it in the world's oceans, then taking one drop as "medicine" for curing an infection.
Chances are the electrodes are Titanium, one will be coated with "Mixed Metal Oxide" (mostly Rhodium Oxide IIRC), at least that's what they use in salt chlorinators for pools.
And titanium is easy to test for.
But a lot of titanium products from china actually isn't titanium, as it's too expensive, so some stainless alloy seems more likely, 316 would be suitable, but not too cheap either.
I never considered pools may not use chlorine externally but just make it with a'tricity 😳
@@HomelabExtreme just using stainless steel as a cheap replacement for titanium would be my worry but that has BIG problems in that you specifically cannot use stainless in electrolytic rust removal as the current can also release carcinogenic chromium ions too and that process is basically the same as here... Post apocalypse I think I'd be banging 2 rocks together to make a spark and boil my water to sterilise it rather than looking for a USB power bank and drinking this.
I was thinking that it may well be Inconel.
@@Equiluxe1 depending on the exact grade Inconel is still 14% to 31% Chrome so I'd still like to see a check made that this didn't electrolytically leach any chrome into solution before I drank it.
Hi big Clive! I used to work in swimming pools and some places use this process on a larger scale to produce Sodium hypochlorite for swimming pool treatment. Is safer to buy and store salt and convert it on site where it is needed. I use on of these plug-ins and I use it to make steriliser for my brewing gear (wine & beer) - it's way cheaper than buying steriliser powers, and I always have salt at hand.
I was actually pondering this for my own swimming pool as an automated sort of chlorinator. I wonder what all it would take to DIY this....
@@guitarstitch Those exist already. Hayward makes one called the AquaRite. Fantastic system, well worth the money. The water had never been cleaner, softer and easier on the skin and eyes than with that system. Ours is also paired with a sand filter filled with glass media in lieu of traditional sand. Crystal clear water all season with almost no effort at all.
@@iggy151 Easier on the eyes and skin than what? Pouring in liquid or powdered chlorine? What is the reason for using glass instead of sand?
@@donaloflynn yes exactly. Something about standard pool chlorine and all the related chemicals, are just so much more aggressive to the skin and eyes. On a salt system it won't dry your skin out and you can open your eyes under water without it burning. Not having to buy and screw around with so many chemicals is a great bonus.
Glass media is just finer so it can catch much smaller particles, but at the same time doesn't need to be changed as often.
Ive found it to be far superior and well worth the money.
@@iggy151 Thanks! It sounds like I have some research to do. However, there would be a certain geek factor to a DIY system. ;)
To get the most accurate chlorine test, you would need a titrator, I know this because we are ordering one for our lab at work. We are getting false positives for chlorine residuals at work, from Iron and manganese interference. Also I would find out exactly what kind of test stripes you are using. Some measure free available chlorine ( chlorine that is available to to disinfect) some test total chlorine, some test chlorine residual (how much chlorine is in the water). It gets quite complicated. We actually use chlorine gas mixed with ammonia to create chloramines. Which last longer ( they don't off gas as easily). Not as strong as straight chlorine, More common of an disinfectant. Those tablets if I heard you right they were dichloramines. I could go on for a while but this is literally what I have ben studying for the last 15 months. Water Treatment Plant Operation I received my class 2 license just a few months ago. I'd be glad to answer some questions if ya had any. Maybe you already know all this. Cheers from kansas another fine video Sir Clive.
I have one of these and it says makes bleach which is sodium hypochlorite and an alkaline. Yet many folk say that's false and it produces hypochlorous acid. If you google electrochlorination it is said to be the primary way to make sodium hypochlorite for bleach products. What is this device producing? Thx
Good to know that people like you are in charge of our drinking water. Keep up the good work 👍
@@changeagent228 both actually, the electrolysis of concentrated NaCl produce Cl₂ which is soluable in water, forming HOCl (Hypochlorous acid), which then reacts with NaOH in the water (formed by removing Cl⁻ and H⁺ from the water) and form NaClO, which is sodium hypochlorite
@@SodaWithoutSparkles science! Thanks.
Great post, thanks.
“I didn’t think this through did I” “No, I never do” Clive you are awesome
He's certainly more self-aware than I am.
In an ironic twist I saw a screen grab from one of your videos tearing down a faulty breaker/rcbo advertising a "voltbox" (scam voltage stabilisation thing that contains a capacitor and an LED for $50). On a brighter note, your website is blocked at work for the filtering category "weapons" so that's exciting.
Weapons? oh, wow I wouldn´t see that. Except for maybe electrocuted food or carbonated alcoholic beverages...
@@alexanderkupke920 wouldn't not wouldn`t
@@BrainiumBasher9001 `'´
It makes sense if the workplace feels threatened by quality - then clive is sharing 'weapon schematics' with us by exposing any flaws, and suggesting a fix...
Seems like an outside agency is providing badly curated blocking lists. Would be interesting chasing down the source of that misclassification, as those same bad lists might one day be sold to something worse than corporate nanny filters.
In my misspent youth, I did work study in a university lab on behalf of a company that had a suitcase product that converted brine into bleach solution for water treatment. They sell a pen for backpackers for the same purpose. It worked just fine. The target solution was around 1 ppm chlorine.
Their claim was that it worked better than simple chlorine because it had many bleaching products. My main takeaway from the experience is how many gross things are in the drinking water. Since part of the experiment was counting colonies on petri dishes. I made a simple cell out of pencil graphite and 9V battery in a glass vial that would make a bleachy smelling solution when you made a salt solution.
I don't believe they make those pens anymore, or at least the company that first brought them out discontinued them a while ago without any replacement. Never seen a knockoff either. I've heard various reasons like issues with government contracts, partnership breakdowns, and issues with a consumer product due to user error. The companies involved still makes chlorine generators for water treatment, but for group instead of personal water treatment. Really wanted one for the novelty back in the day, but they were mad expensive compared to other more productive options.
@@Dunyas Didn´t clive once show such a product for backpack water treatment? Not exactly a Pen, but a device where you could fill in a special tablet (likely salt) and a small amount of water to then create some liquid by the use of electrolysis to disinfect about one liter of water?
Miox. Still have the "pen" work with 2 123A battery.
Love it. "That smells like a swimming pool exploded"
Have you ever ripped a fart so huge the swimming pool exploded
@@user-njyzcip You’d have bigger problems than just a swimming pool exploding.
Nitrogen trichloride, anyone?
I hate giving presentations and I have one due in 3 hours. Hearing your smooth and steady voice really gives me confidence in a weird way, thanks Clive.
Calm and steady. This is the way.
If anything turns to shit while you're presenting, a serene "One moment please", as you turn your back to fix it will steady your nerves and reassure your audience of your competence.
Go to it!
Our dishes at work are supposed to be (according to food safety anyway) ~100ppm on sanitizer. higher than that is 'a problem'. Your concentration is very much in that range. That unit is pretty effective for the power draw.
I love how you can "see" the bubbles forming on the plates by watching the current drop as they reduce the surface area in contact with the liquid.
I know this is so out of place, but I every time really enjoy his calming voice. It just relaxes me and I can really enjoy to just watch whatever he shows
If you leave one of these running in a saturated salt solution for a couple of weeks, you end up with a decent crop of sodium chlorate (after disproportionating by boiling for a bit to finish the reaction). Always useful to know.
The anodes on these seem to be MMO for the most part, cathode is either Ti or stainless steel. Theres a few varieties of them out there.
Interesting. What happens when you boil (finishing the reaction) and how do you recover the chlorate crystals?
@@somebeinganonymous The hypochlorite disproportionates to chloride and chlorate, you harvest the chlorate with fractional crystalization.
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 I see; so I assume fractional christallisation is done by cooling the boiled solution, harvesting the chlorate crystals whilst the chloride is more soluble and remains in solution, boiling again and repeating?
@@somebeinganonymous exactly
What do you use sodium chlorate for? Can I use it to salt my roast potato?
Clive: "That water is now completely undrinkable". Foodie chef: "That water is now perfect for cooking pasta in".
when people ask how much you need to salt water for pasta and you ask if theyve experienced drowning in the ocean
@@trippcailean9594 Yes, pasta water should taste like ocean water. :)
According to my dad, his (Italian-born) grandfather used to say pasta water ought to be salty like the sea.
I wonder how practical it would be to bypass the battery/usb aspect, and attach a hand crank or solar panel directly
As long as the polarity is correct it should be OK.
I have a USB solar panel that folds (3 plate) and I used it to charge tiny quadcopter batteries. It would buzz with a heavy load. The panels would buzz! Six batteries at once. Pretty fast charging my phone at the time. I want one.
It could be done, however having solar charge a battery and powering it from there would be more reliable (and versatile) IMHO. Good thinking though
@@Visiorary You'll find a power converter in there somewhere - though those typically squeal...
I do distinctly remember a sort of "buzz" when I connected a 200W linear-regulated panel to a battery array - as I closed the circuit I could feel the terminal buzzing...
On topic though; an array of two solar garden light panels in series would produce some sufficient power for the water sterilizer - for bleach generation you'd need 10 of those arrays in parallel, or wait one hour...
@@Vilvaran 350mA from a 60x120mm 6V panel is EASY, less than $10 to have the panel, so I'm not sure you'd need as many as 10 garden solar panels to get that current. Unless you are talking 0.5V photovoltaic cells individually, not an array in each panel like is much more common, even in garden lights, which in my experience put out 1.5-3.0V.
Bought one of the chlorine generators in 1971 for a trip to Mexico. It used 4 AAA batteries, had a small scoop and a container for salt. Wanted to send you a pic, but couldn't attach.
"in the apocalypse"
"the end"
clive knows.
In the water industry, the required strength for disinfection of tools/equipment/parts for use on potable water is 1000ppm.
To control microbiological growth in cooling towers, our spec is 0.3-1ppm chlorine.
@@jakerickytan1232 In cooling towers your only trying to kill algea growth and the like. Not as worried about bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. Drinking water however you basically want to kill everything.
1000ppm isn't safe for potable water, but might be used to sanitize equipment/surfaces or contaminated tanks. The water coming out of taps would have to be watered down to 2-4ppm. Anything over 10ppm would be totally undrinkable. I wonder if your thinking about treated sewage water that's reclaimed for cities?
Hey Clive, no need to swirl unless it makes you feel better. 😊 Homeostasis will distribute the pH evenly enough that a strip that big in a volume that small won't be affected. Nature abhors a vacuum after all.
Thanks - nice to see your "tear-down"! In South Africa its common to see salt water chlorinators in swimming pools pools. I made my own unit using titanium aanode electrode and an iridium plated titanium cathode. It worked well but one had to add quite a lot of salt fairly regularly. (I seem to remember the system drawing around 15 amps)
Huh I'm from ZA and I didn't even realize they were uncommon elsewhere
@@neillcoetzer9133 Nah - they're common here in AUS too, a nice and lazy way to chlorinate a pool...
...Oh and the heat + UV light kills chlorine, so a 'perpetual' supply of it is needed or your pool goes green in two weeks! Many people don't cover their pools, so chlorine loss is a concern...
@@Vilvaran ahh yeah. That I'm aware of. Having to buy a 50 kilo salt bag and chuck it in every 2-3 weeks. Still cool though
6am uploads? I thought I was the only one in Scotland up at Stupid O'Clock!
You are, Clive is in Ramsey, IOM
@@chrishartley1210 same timezone I'm guessing, unless if IoM has a different Daylight Savings date
@@chrishartley1210 Which explains many things ;-)
I suspect he was still awake, given past behaviour.
It absolutely amazes me at the odd stuff being floated off of the China coast.
I am very interested in the materials used in the electrodes.
Thanks for bringing this to us, Clive.
I think a potassium permanganate crystal may be a little easier (and maybe safer!) for water purification in an apocalypse - and it can be used to make fire (with glycerine).
@@manuelh.4147 It's not the type of crystal that perhaps you're thinking of.
It's a crystal...... like salt.
@@manuelh.4147 Yes but the video is not about boiling water it's about using USB power to sterilise water. Anyway a kilo of pot permang would last me a lifetime I suspect if I were only using it to sterilise water.
@@manuelh.4147 Everyone knows you put your crystals out in the moonlight to recharge them
Add some dye to the water, when the colour goes, assume moderately safe to drink, though might want to leave it standing for a day so the chlorine has can mostly escape and not burn the shit out of your insides
This assumes that the concentration of chlorine compounds that is strong enough to bleach a dye is also strong enough to destroy pathogens. This is not a safe assumption.
@@igrim4777 if you wouldn't drink it, it's probabaly a pretty safe assumption
Now I'm wondering about putting 1 in the cistern and have some kind of salt dosing device.
Water softener device? And uv germicidal lights .
Can I smell it? Oh yes please! Just love it! This is the best entertainment and education on the net I have ever found. Well done Sir Clive! Excellent as always.
Great video. 5 volts is about right to gen up some cl- ions and it does. I also suspect stainless steel. Likely 316 stainless, as the more common 304 stainless does have a slight magnetic attraction. The "coating" may be formed when the reaction is done in the solution. Many stainless steels do "stain" but do not corrode in certain environments.
I love how the water sterilization tablets have a warning " do not swallow tablets" written on them.
Still valid. You talking about 1:1000000 parts or less. 1 tab for 20l. You don't want to swallow that
It's a mini saltwater pool chlorinator! Nice!! Where I am, salt water chlorination is the go to for pool owners. Interestingly those pills are stabilised chlorine pills, meaning they protect the chlorine sanitiser from damage coming from sunlight. The stabiliser is known as cyanuric acid and binds to the chlorine to stop UV from destroying it before it has chance to disinfect anything. There are much bigger tablets of that exact same chemical that people can use for their pools.
They use ruthenium oxide coated plates for chlorination of saltwater pools.
its actually coated in graphite, i recently used a set of graphite rods which i salvaged from 6V lamp batteries
Thank you for another interesting and informative video Clive. The discoloration of one electrode might be due to electrolysis, not withstanding the lack of colouration at the edges. However reversing the polarity would determine that. I wouldn't want to drink the water either as toxic metal ions may well be released into it. I'd have used graphite for the electrodes if I'd have designed it -cheap and non reactive in this application. -Pete
Two graphite sticks and a solar panel usb powerbank converted to alligator clips probably wouldn't sell as well as mystery plastic box on ebay though.
Don't drink the water, Clive !
Give it to little Ralfy and see what happens !
I would have reversed the polarity too out of curiosity, Graphite is a good call, I still have sheets from nickel plating I did on some old moped restoration, worked a treat, process looks like magic
I had this idea as soon as I saw metal electrodes, I thought "Heck, could I do as well with a bunch of _pencil leads_ stuffed into some wires and hot-snot?"
@@Vilvaran pencils contain little graphite, don't think any lead but yeah still better
HOCL was being sold for over £20 for 5 litres to use in room sanitizers- and equally surface sterilisers- covid etc. So I made my own unit. 2.5 grams of pure salt ( no iron cyanide) to 1 litre of 0 ppm TDS water. Here noting you really need pure water Clive.
I'm struggling to understand how to make pure hocl and be able to test and make sure it's hocl.
Yep knowing what that metal is specifically is important re the risk of toxic chemistry
I have one of those, works great. Using it to make sanitizer. Think the coating is titanium. The coating is to increase the lifespan of the electrodes, because one electrode will eat the anode over time. If you use normal tap water, there will be minerals and other stuff in it, and the chlorine particles will stick to, and the ppl will decrease, Use demineralised water, and your solution, will be stronger.
Wondering about the viability of a usb-powered woofler now.
Woofler … lol
A sub woofler? sick mate sick sub woofler.
A Wooly Woofler ?
@@travisash8180 Woolen woofler for winter.
Hard to find right now, about 30 bucks on amazon and about a month to ship. I ordered one because this is pretty fascinating to me!
I work for a water utility... we use this same process on a much grander scale for our on-site sodium hypochlorite production. We can produce up to 15k gallons of 5.5% solution per day.
"I didn't think this through did I? No, I never do."
You and me both Clive
The special coating is probably some form of anodization, I would guess. There are chemical conversion coatings that can be used that are still somewhat conductive but will stop corrosion.
The electrolysis of salted water has several different products, in addition to the gases released at the electrodes. The anode releases elemental chlorine, and probably some oxygen too if the solution is not very concentrated. The cathode releases elemental hydrogen by decomposing water molecules, which leaves excess hydroxide ions in solution. So as electrolysis proceeds, the solution becomes increasingly alkaline. Some of the chlorine released at the anode dissolves into the solution and reacts with the hydroxide, generating hypochlorite ions, which are the active component of "chlorine bleach". This is essentially how bleach is made industrially, just on a much smaller scale. Though in this small scale process, there will probably be a fair bit of free chlorine in the solution too, hence the intense bleach-like smell.
If you can design one to turn water into wine, you'd be onto something Clive :)
Carbonated wine, right? :P
Grape idea.
I think these were not used to sterilize water, but to produce water that can sterilize other things.
The electrode might be just graphite or carbon, or coated with graphite or carbon
I would like to see Ralfy's comments on this after using it in a whisky review. 🤔
Promised 1A, but draws only 0.3A. Sounds about right. I bought some "12V 1A" DC switching "wallcubes" from China, a couple of years ago. Put a varying loads on them, and the voltage dropped below 10.8V (10% drop off 12V), at about 350mA. So I concluded that a "Chinese Amp" is about 1/3 of an Amp, used elsewhere in the world. Even here in the US, where we use an "English Amp" instead of a "metric Amp". People say, all Amps are metric, but don't tell that to anybody in Merica !
To purify water, create the concentrated solution and then add a few drops of the concentrate to the bulk of water that you want to purify. It'll be easier to control it that way.
Exactly how I chlorinate my pool here at home. The salt level is about the same as human tears so the water is very pleasant to swim in. We have an in-line electrolysis cell with a very sophisticated control circuit with salt level readout, alert if cell needs cleaning etc. you can put it in boost to superchlorinate after a storm etc. the great thing is no more chlorine tablet handling. The consumable is muriatic acid and you know when to add some by pH reading. No more chlorine smells on body etc. after swimming. My cell has platinum electrodes.
I guess it could be used to clean fermentation parts
Also it's a good way to make Cl2 gas, that will kill most things, might need a bit more power.
This channel & the comments are a gold mine of information. Thanks C
Anything like this needs to have the time depend on the volume.
5 minutes in 100 ml, would be equivalent to roughly 50 minutes in 1 l.
Just to note. The water plants I work at as an I&C tech here in Florida. The target CL2 concentration for finished drinking water leaving the water plants is no more than 3ppm. Above that, there will be complaints. In the most distant from the plant areas of distribution, I believe that the minimum concentration is 0.2ppm. I am not a licensed water plant operator, but I do calibrate and repair the instruments.
Oh wow, 3 ppm seems to be quite a lot. The water treatment stuff we got for our pool recommends not to use the pool if the chlorine measures 3 mg/l or higher and to ideally have it at around 1 mg/l or less (for all those wondering, for water we can assume 1 ppm = 1 mg/l).
But then I guess, if a water treatment plant puts out 3 mg/l, that will never be the amount coming out of a tap unless you live next door.
@@alexanderkupke920 yes the CL2 dissipates quickly once it leaves the plant and is in the system. Generally there is some distance between the plants and the first customers. Though there are exceptions and those plants will target a lower CL2 dose. You are correct in that ppm and mg/l are virtually the same. I have operators that want mg/l displayed and others that want ppm. I gave up trying to explain that there is no difference a long time ago 🤷♂️.
Well I'll be damned if I'm up for a Clive post from across the pond
the anode is MMO (mixed metal oxide) usually a mix of Iridium/ruthenium or Iridium/tantalum on a titanium substrate. This is done so the anode does not dissolve in the reaction while produching the chlorine compound. The cathode is ideally bare titanium but they could have gone cheaper and used some 316l or such stainless steel. The anode cannot be pure titanium because you will just "anodize" it and this will create a electrically insulating oxide film on it which would stop the reaction . Hence the anode is coated with this metal oxide mix that stays conductive and does not dissolve into the solution. Platinum or platinum coated titanium would also work as an anode but is not used because MMO is usually cheaper.
Good to see something that's not snake oil and actually useful for emergency situations.
Probably going to buy one, since we sometimes don't have clean water available here in Chile (thanks Avocado farms for using up everything...)
I'm wondering if dunking two dissimilar metals in a saline solution doesn't cause it's own electrical charge. Yes, it would be minuscule, but the ingredients are there. There is a reason for dielectric connections. Thankyou for another fine video. You have the gift.
It's common after a major flood for tap water to become contaminated. Not 100% sure why, possibly excess runoff in the catchment area puts a lot of organics into the water supply, which is too much for the regular water treatment systems to cope with.
So this could be helpful for that situation, if you can figure out how to make it put a reliably safe level of chlorine into the water. Although it's possible just leaving the water to outgas for some time afterwards would be allow the chlorine to dissipate.
Water purification tablets release not chlorine, but chloramines which are longer acting. They release chlorine much slower and therefore more thoroughly sanitize contaminated water by maintaining an adequate chlorine supply for a longer period instead of creating a big spike of chlorine that then evaporates quickly.
I have had 2 varieties of these. First was an electro San, a marine sanitation device that used seawater to create chlorine to sanitize water from the toilet before pumping overboard. And currently have on on my pool pump system to generate chlorine for the water, very handy and the salt water is nice to swim in.
I think the spray bottle one is better than this because it stops itself, doesn't go immediately when plugged in (you have to push the button to start it), has a nice light to look at while it's going, and it lets you immediately contain the solution once it's done
I have a version of this for my pool. My pool has salt level adjusted to about 3500 ppm and then the plates are in a unit with a power supply in the filtered water flow. The system easily generates enough sanitizer for my 25000 gallon pool. It is a fairly complex system monitoring salt level, water flow, temperature etc. it requires cleaning with acid as the plates calcify. But is much better to deal with than chlorine direct.
impressive that this thing actually works.
Good call about not using stainless steel. I seem to remember when looking into electrolysis rust removal that stainless steel shouldn't be used as it can produce chromium hexavalent a nasty carcinogen.
I wondered why stainless steel should be a bad idea, but yeah, the chromium containt that makes it stainless for sure becomes an issue. Didn´t even think about that.
I seem to remember reading somewhere about not using stainless steel electrodes for fear of releasing hexavalent chromium. This might be complete tosh, but I've used them for electrolysis with no problems so far.............the extra thumb is quite handy though !
Did you find the extra thumb on the ground?
If you did, it's not a thumb.
It's a penis
I regularly camp and that seems perfect to me as I don't like to use the tablets..I can only assume electrolysis is the mechanics here as perhaps sodium and chloride are separated by the ionizing electric currents....but if you don't know the tablets are not recommended for long term use so perhaps this is an better option..but why didn't it work on the one litre test?...Maybe just too much water by volume the cells of an lead acid battery are governed by the size of the lead plates and electrolyte volume too and if not calibrated in this way then it upsets the reaction so if you require an litre of clean drinking water you should perhaps treat in small stages. .? But looks good and better than pumping chemicals into the body as household salt can be trusted so an great and highly informative video thanks from an happy camper..!!
I wonder if they meat one scoop per 1000ml instead of 100ml? Of course in that case you'd think they'd just say 1L instead.Did the "instructions" say how long to run it for?
The main purpose is making concentrated steriliser.
The TCCA Tablets release the chlorine very slowly, there is more in there than you measured. You can acidify the solution to free all the chlorine
I like the UVC light bottle you fill up and flip a switch.
All life inside the bottle, will be terminated or have their balls cut off!
No fuss, no mess, no chemicals.
Just a thought, but as a water sterliser, wouldn't those tablets want to keep the concentration super low to avoid, you know, bleaching the drinking party? :)
Yeah, I figure they'd be for potable water, not a cleaning solution
The tablets are the same things you use for cold water sterilisation of baby bottles, so should be a really low concentration safe for drinking a small amount.
The electrode is perhaps stainless steel coated with carbon; if bare stainless steel is used, the solution would turn green. Glassy carbon is very resistant chemically, particularly to chlorine
I would think that split design is for easy and thorough cleaning.
The lead engineer of a "large" water company told me that the consumer water pitchers offered pretty good filtration for typical situations...as long as the filters were changed regularly. I suppose those filters need to be sourced from a reliable source vs. online marketplaces, etc. Big operations may run multiple-stage water processing but I don't know if consumers would benefit by running a variety of processing stages at home. . .
I guess that depends a lot on where you live and what regulations are.
I live in Germany and here regulations and controls for drinking water are the same as for food items. So usually unless you have rather hard water, they should not do a lot for you.
But of course that may be a different story based on the age of the pipes in the ground or even more so, the plumbing in your house.
But you are absolutely right about changing them regularly, as otherwise, they kind of become their own ecosystem and can do more bad than good.
I think they're graphite electrodes. We used them in chemistry in school to get chlorine off salt water
titanium is commonly used in the salt water pool systems as the electrodes......
This is the same technology we use in salt water pools. In tandem with cyanuric acid in the water to protect the chlorine from the sun, you can have a cleaner pool with a lower free chlorine than a chlorine tablet fed pool.
You can calculate the quantity of hypochlorite you produce here. It’s current in amps times seconds times the faraday (96486 C/mole) times the number of electrons removed from chloride to hypochlorite (2j times the molar mass of hypochlorite (51.45 g). My calculation for 5 minutes at 300 mA is 24 mg.
Wouldn't some of the charge get used for disassociating water?
@@kasparroosalu The hydrogen from water is reduced at the cathode to hydrogen gas, which is the source of the gas bubbles, but the chloride ion is oxidized to hypochlorite at the anode.
Clove
How about experimenting by bumping the voltage up and seeing what effect it has on the reaction.
As a truck/lorry driver with the rough roads in the U.S., chlorine cleaners inevitably spill and/or leak all over anything nice. Having a way to create a bleach solution for cleaning when needed sounds like just the ticket! I'll be on the lookout, thanks
They do a spray bottle version too.
You could probably do the same thing with two pencil leads. The graphite should prevent the production of some terrible ions like chromium.
We have a Kangen water Filter/maker that is arguably the best on the market. It is the only system that has the US WQA approval and seal. It makes anywhere from 2.5 PH to 14.5 Alkaline, ionized, microcluster, dechlorinated water. Basically 7 different waters. It as a Smart Filter that does take out a lot of the nasties then there are 8 Titanium Plates which these are coated in Platinum. You know how water and oil doesn't mix? Well this water with it micro cluster molecules actually emulsifies the oil and makes it all milky. Pretty amazing to see.
So in the MAKE YOUR OWN COLLOIDAL SILVER at home is actually disinfectant??
Controversial area.
@@bigclivedotcom would love to see you do a video on it sometime.
Recently seen someone using a 9v battery in a glass with 2 silver rods from a jeweler
(Said don’t use plastic cup or sterling )
But said it’s how colloidal silver is made.
I don’t know much about it but your video prompted memory of the other video I seen.
Either way thanks for your work !
I paused. “…too many videos of the same thing…?” These don’t also “ionize” the air…do they? I’ll watch more now. Love All your videos.
Noted lack of LEDs XD
Was your table salt Iodised or no? Dunno if that'll affect the reactions.
Also the taste test is cornerstone of any science experiment. Unfortunately it can only be done once for most experiments; lava for example.
Curious what the colour of the strip would be BEFORE running the electrodes.
Interesting. If those are Ralfy's whisky glasses you best give them a good rinse.
Ralfy has LOTS of these glasses. He does occasional whisky tastings, so there are literally boxes of them here.
It's most likely stainless steel, and the coating your describing is simply mineral deposits from your use of it prior to the disassemble.
No, while the metal may be stainless steel one of the electrodes will be coated with any one of a long list of materials to act as a catalyst.
Thanks for sharing
I'd say it is like the
MSR MIOX water purifier.
Get the mix & timing down
You could in theory
purify barrels of water.
😉
BigChlorinator strikes again in the middle of my night
I'm wondering if the purpose of the coating could be to increase surface area for the reaction.
When camping along the Zambezi river in the 60s, my Dad would add Eno to the water...just to make it palatable you know....tough stomachs they had then. I use Eno after too much garlic or red wine, after being woken up with heartburn....
Look for my video on DIY "emo" salts.
Now I'm wondering what electrode materials could be used to do this safely in an emergency situation.
Haven't looked into how various metals would react in this environment. Guess carbon or graphite would be the best bet. 🤔
Graphite rods work fine for this purpose, though they do break down somewhat and you end up with finely divided graphite in your solution that needs filtering off.
I've personally built cells for electrolysis using the graphite rods salvaged from inside the cells of lantern batteries.
from zinc batteries. carbon electrodes!!!!
Our pool salt chlorinator uses a pure NaCl concentration of between 3000 and 3500 PPM and runs at 24V @ 18A. Hard to imagine 5V @ 0.4A would make as much chlorine as it does.
Years ago at least 30+ I used a battery charger hooked to electrodes in the tank of salt water. I was separating it into hydrogen and oxygen, I had a setup so I could catch all the hydrogen and fill a 30 gallon trash bag with it. I then attached my fuse, lit it and let her rise into the air usually exploded 40-60 feet and it was very loud and made an awesome fireball, I started making them in the day and let them loose at night. Looked so cool!!!! Several times I heard the cops driving around trying to find the explosion, my mom said it shook the windows and pictures, in high school I built a heavy duty potato cannon that I used oxygen and acetylene for fuel, would send a potato out of sight and was shaking windows at buddies grandmas house 1/4 mile away. No one worry about safety it would hold 1200 psi bc I checked it by pressuring it with nitrogen, hooked everything up kept it far away while testing etc, it was built with Chrome Molly tuneing I worked in NASCAR and had access to all kinds of stuff. After the pressure test I put a blow out chamber that would pop at 500psi and not explode. I will do some crazy shit but I always do it safe as possible.
I may be reading it differently, but the wording on the box makes it sound like it's a way to make your own disinfectant rather than making clean drinking water.
It is. But the same technology is used in municipal water systems.
Does it keep stray electrical current from getting in the water?
Would 'pure' salt be better? as table salt is usually iodized, has anti-caking agents and can contain sugar.
That's actually kind of smart, at least it is practically applicable well i mean in theory all these survival gadgets usually just quench our paranoia and sit in a drawer. The kind of person that would feel the need to buy a usb water sanitizer is not the kind of person who ends up using a usb water sanitizer
i was thinking about how neat this would be to make relatively high concentration hypochlorous acid virtually for free to sterilise vegetables and whatnot... then i remembered that i live in brazil, where you can literally get little tubs of relatively high concentration hypocholorous acid literally for free at any government-run health clinic to sterilise vegetables and whatnot