R-870 powder question

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banjomarsh

Bronze Supporter
Aug 4, 2010
34
Pekin, Illinois
Due to the humidity being very high for the last 2 weeks here, my R-870 DPD testing powder has turned to a gooey blob and does not want to dissolve. Can I put it in the microwave to dry it out? Should I store it in the freezer? Do they make some sort of desicant storage bag? I has been perfect all season and then just turned to Crud.
 
@JoyfulNoise can confirm, but if the powder was allowed to get moisture in it, its reliability is probably compromised. As a test, you could just order a new container of R-0870 to be safe, then compare FC test results. But placing the container in the freezer or microwave I doubt will reverse the moisture damage.
 
No idea on the microwave but I can offer this from my experience. There were a couple times I accidentally left my reagents outside in hot humid weather overnight. I started to notice it was getting dark and clumpy. Worked fine and I believe @JoyfulNoise indicated it was fine to use so I continued until it was all gone. Only downside was it stained the FC tube from my kit pretty bad eventually. Got some more advice to clean with dilute acid and tried white vinegar. Voila! Barely swirled the tube half full and I could see the black just melt off into solution. Tube was like new! If you're dealing with the blob I'm guessing you may have the black tube to deal with also. I prevented this by bringing the reagents inside after using and never had the problem again.

I hope this is helpful.

Chris
 
Many of us save those little silica packets from stuff & throw them in the kit next to the powder. Or better yet 1 in a bag with the powder container.
Every since i started doing this my spoon doesn’t get crusty anymore. Old shoe boxes around the house are a great place to find them.
 
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O.K. The first test kit I received also had the DPD powder in a sad state, but it still worked. I have 3 little desicant packs in the T-100 kit, but evidently also compromised. When I took care of cooling towers at work, the DPD powder came in little plastic pillows that you cut open for one time use, I will do some research and try to find some elsewhere, this is frustrating.
 
You can buy the aluminized blister packs from Hach but it’s more expensive. If you buy the Taylor branded powder it comes in a desiccant bottle where the sidewalls of the plastic bottle have built in desiccant. It’s should be a fine free-flowing powder. Also, silica gel packs do have a shelf life and once they are used up they are generally not reusable. If you are using ones that came in another package, chances are they are spent. You can purchase reusable ones on Amazon. But the very best thing to do is to keep the test kit inside your home in an cool, dry, dark place.
 
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