StarSan is different when made with distilled water

Just made a fresh batch of StarSan last night using distilled water instead of my tap water.

Aside from staying crystal clear-- with my tap water it gets cloudy within a few hours-- I've noticed that the distilled water StarSan doesn't seem to foam up as much and is not as soapy feeling on the hand. It also seems to run off of equipment faster and leaves less residue behind.

Just some observations... anyone else experience this? It just feels like it's a better sanitizer when made this way.

-Steve

I am unable to use Star San with our tap water at all. It's so high in dissolved iron and calcium that the Star San will turn cloudy immediately upon mixing, and the pH is too high. So I just mix it a gallon at a time with the 33 cent a gallon RO (reverse osmosis) water from the machine at the grocery store. No problems- Star San rocks.

90% of the time I'll mix up 2.5 gallons distilled water and StarSan. The local store sells the 2.5 gallon bottles of distilled water for about $1.25.

I thought it was me but I have never had the Star San snake. I use distilled water and it really doesn't foam up all that much.

I've been using the 2.5 gallon jugs of distilled from Wally World and it does last longer, but will cloud up over a couple of weeks and a few uses.

If I use my tap water, it's cloudy pretty much right away.

Maybe it's time I got some test strips?

I make star san with RO water, I get the 5 gal jugs for free from work so I just measure out an ounce of star san into a keg, tip the bottle on top and walk away while it fills up. I get quite a bit of foam still, but I have never made it any other way so perhaps this is less foam than you guys are getting. The pH is below 2 when freshly made with RO water and it lasts indefinitely, I keep it till it gets dirty. The best part is like you guys said, it leaves no residue...I use it as a spot free rinse after I clean every piece of equipment.

My carboys are completely spotless