Advice re: home-brew water


http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1132333988&openflup&1&4

Hi, I'm trying to upgrade the ingredients that I use in my cleaning solution (VPI 16.5).
I used to combine 3 parts drugstore distilled water to 1 part Isopropyl alcohol plus a few drops Photoflo.

I'm going to use Technical-grade 99.6% alcohol, and I recently got some Triton X-100 and X-114 to replace the Photoflo (which is supposed to be undesirable).

The last thing I need is good water, especially to rinse.
I did find some $55 a gallon water, but I think that's overkill, and there's the possibility that an opened gallon (which will take me a year to use) will become contaminated due to simply being opened.

This leads me to my question: I'm not sure if the link I opened this with works or not, but it's an extremely thorough water analysis where the author ('Justin time') recommends Rain Fresh bottled water (http://www.rain-fresh.com/stepprocess.htm).

The problem is that this isn't (never was, I'm told) distilled water, nor is it deionized.
Has anyone used this and can confirm that it's the thing to use?
I'm guessing that the 10-step process that is referred to on the Rain Fresh link more than compensates for the lack of distillation and deionization, but I'm looking for confirmation. Is 'Justin time' out there? I wrote an email, but he doesn't seem to have posted here in a long time.

2nd question: does anyone know if either of the Triton's (110, 114) is better?

Thanks for any help.
charlieo

Showing 2 responses by rushton

Charlieo, I haven't used the Rain Water brand water, but the description in the link you provided looks as though they've processed through a number of good filtering steps (including both absolute filtration and reverse osmosis filtration) that should create a good water to use in your cleaning regimen. Justin_time's post is considered by many here to be pretty well definitive, so I'd be confident in his recommendation.

The NERL Diagnostics Reagent Grade water is perhaps one of the best waters available for the rinse step (which is by far the most critical, and benefits the end results most, in the use of an ultra pure water). As you point out, the cost is high and buying in 1 gallon containers presents some challenge if one will not use it within a reasonable time after opening. Nevertheless, purchasing the 9800-1 which contains four 1-gallon containers does get the cost down to about $30 per gallon. (This is where fellow vinyl nuts living nearby come in very handy. :-) )
.
Charlieo, I vacuum to dry (two rotations on the VPI) but then do a double rinse with the reagent grade water. I'm having very good results. But, I never trust the vacuum to get the LP dry enough to place directly into an inner sleeve; it always sits for at least an hour for additional air drying.
.