Star-san and tap water

Hello,
I've read many threads in these forums concerning the Star San sanitizer. I just bought a 32 oz of it myself yesterday, but I since realized that Star San was having problem with tap water as it renders the solution cloudy. I ordered it online, and I am wondering now if there would be any problems with single usage (i.e. not distillied water) with a water with pH 7.8 ? I mean, make it and using it the same day. Maybe I could use a little more Star San than the directions?

Using distillied water would bring logistic problems as I'm in a small appartment, don't own a car and don't want to transport five gallons of distilled water to my apartment using public transportation/walking.

I'm in Montreal BTW.

(Maybe I can use my Brita filter too... if needed)

I would try the water filter solution first to see if it corrects the problem.

You should be fine. Probably can't store it for repeated use but that is the way I use it and have had no issues.

Using tap water is not a problem at all particularly if you are using it in one day. I used my very hard water for a long time before I finally got around to getting distilled. I always check it with pH strips whether tap or distilled and its fine. The only difference between the two is with distilled its good for months and with my tap it is only good for a few days.

And I still wonder if this is a problem. On the website of five-stars, there's no mention of relationship between cloudiness and desinfectant power. It only says to dilute it in the proper ratio...

it has to be BELOW ph of 3. i made some with tap water. clouded over in 30 seconds. i should have boiled the water to get the chlorine and crap out of it. with distilled water, it stays at 2.8 for over 6 months as i rinse said item with tap water, dry, hit with di/starsan.

If you don't plan to re-use the solution, you will be fine mixing up your Star San with tap water. One thing that might help is to boil your water first, the let it cool overnight and decant the water to another vessel (leave the sediment that forms behind). That will remove some of the hardness of your water and your solution might last longer so that you can re-use it.

mordantly said:

it has to be BELOW ph of 3.

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FWIW, starsan is active at a pH <= 3.5.

So... what is the tap water's pH threshold to use Star-san on single usage?

Honestly, the pH of tap water doesn't matter much. It is the hardness (particularly alkalinity) of the water that matters most. Nearly all tap water is slightly alkaline by design. The hardness and alkalinity defines how much there is in the water by way of minerals to react with the Star San solution -- the lower the better, hence the recommendation to use distilled or reverse osmosis water if you want to keep and reuse your Star San.

Erythro73 said:

Using distillied water would bring logistic problems as I'm in a small appartment, don't own a car and don't want to transport five gallons of distilled water to my apartment using public transportation/walking.

I'm in Montreal BTW.

(Maybe I can use my Brita filter too... if needed)

Click to expand...

I only make 1 gallon at a time with distilled water . I use a 2 gallon garden sprayer for large items and spray bottle for small items. The auto siphon I just transfer some from the garden sprayer to small container and then put it back into the sprayer. I don't see the need for 5 gallons of it as all you need to do is wet the surface and keep it wet for a minute or two some say as little as 30 seconds is good.

springer said:

I only make 1 gallon at a time with distilled water . I use a 2 gallon garden sprayer for large items and spray bottle for small items. The auto siphon I just transfer some from the garden sprayer to small container and then put it back into the sprayer. I don't see the need for 5 gallons of it as all you need to do is wet the surface and keep it wet for a minute or two some say as little as 30 seconds is good.

Click to expand...

That too is a good solution. I was also concerned about where to find distilled water, but a friend of mine just told me that it was easy to find in pharmacies (I have about five pharmacies in a kilometer range, so very walkable). So, maybe preparing only a gallon of solution, more than enough to sanitize my stuff, is a good solution too!

Erythro73 said:

That too is a good solution. I was also concerned about where to find distilled water, but a friend of mine just told me that it was easy to find in pharmacies (I have about five pharmacies in a kilometer range, so very walkable). So, maybe preparing only a gallon of solution, more than enough to sanitize my stuff, is a good solution too!

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That's what I do- buy a gallon of distilled water for $1, mix in the star-san, and store it under my sink. It lasts a long time, and it's handy when I need it. You don't need to mix up more than that at a time- just as long as you pour it in your fermenter, and swirl it around to cover every bit of the surface, it's enough.

I use soft water (water softener) for starsan. It keeps for months, doesn't cloud up & the PH stays below 3.

Erythro73 said:

That too is a good solution. I was also concerned about where to find distilled water, but a friend of mine just told me that it was easy to find in pharmacies (I have about five pharmacies in a kilometer range, so very walkable). So, maybe preparing only a gallon of solution, more than enough to sanitize my stuff, is a good solution too!

Click to expand...

You can use reverse osmosis water, too. It is almost as mineral-free as distilled and works great for Star San. You should be able to find it at any decent grocery store in various sized jugs.