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Method that might save you some distilled water!

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someonesomehere

Rising Star
I distill my own water on the stove, and have gotten quite a good technique down! Even so, it takes energy and time for it to collect any usable amounts.

If you have an erlenmeyer flask or simply a bottleneck bottle, you might be in a situation like me where you have to add extra water simply to raise the level to the correct height for easy and clean pipetting.

Enter glass marbles! I just chuck in however many I need and no need to use my precious distilled water. The marbles will raise the aqueous layer, and I like to think that the marbles might even help in the mixing process (although I might be wrong...).

Haven't heard anyone talk bout this subject, so thought it might help someone :thumb_up:
 
That´s a cool idea. Thank you very much.
I have this perfect bottle for extractions, but i always have to add a little water
to get the soup in the neck.

I actually have glass marbles at home.

Thanks again for making me feel stupid and have a gud one
 
Interesting, never though about doing that. I would definitely be worried about mixing with glass marbles however, and would have to recommend caution and extra safety steps. Maybe having the entire flask inside a large HDPE container just in case the marbles crack the flask.

However I get deionized water in 5 gallon jugs for very cheap where I am located so I'm not likely to try this method out. Could be very useful for people that don't have cheap easy access though. Thanks for the idea!
 
Interesting to have missed this, but there's precedent for this idea:
downwardsfromzero said:
If you didn't want to dilute the solution, careful addition of, e.g., stainless steel ball bearings could raise the level of the liquid sufficiently to facilitate pipetting. Using magnetic material expedites the subsequent removal of the displacement aid.
Click to expand...
Use of a magnet would help with lowering the balls safely into the liquid as well.
 
Yea you would definitely have to be careful when mixing, don't want a mess now do we...

But I mostly use this method at the very last pull so that I can get that last annoying little layer!
 
Glad to know it works for you :thumb_up:

Another one I've heard of, if the soup is in a wide mouthed vessel. Gently lower an inverted funnel that just fits into the vessel and the thin layer of naphtha will get gathered into the neck. It may require a long pipette to retrieve the naphtha.
 
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