TDS Meter FAQ
TDS meter accuracy
In you case (multiple jars with TDS showing up inappropriately) the ’slipperiness’ on the sides of the jar is MUCH more likely to be EZ Gel (see Gerald Pollack’s work) than lye. See more below.
What I discovered…
TDS meters are limited to detecting CHARGED ions…
This has TWO important considerations.
First consideration
the water may NOT be pure even if the meter reads 0 TDS.
https://mywaterearth.com/what-does-a-tds-meter-measure/
Note the chart that LESS than 300 ppm is considered EXCELLENT water quality.
With sodium as one of the common minerals.
More links:
https://www.aquasana.com/info/education/tds-meter-what-is-it-and-do-you-need-it
https://www.hydroviv.com/blogs/water-smarts/tds-meters-and-testers
https://ozelink.com/tds_meters/faq.htm
OK, so going to the SECOND consideration and my AH HA moment…,
The TDS meter measures IONS or CHARGED PARTICLES.
It indiscriminately measures ALL charged particles.
The ExW IS A CHARGED PARTICLE!
It is a negatively charged plasma form of water (lots of extra electrons).
So the rising TDS in Brown’s Gas bubbles water is NOT all ‘contamination by lye’
The TDS meter is adding in the ExW, which is incredibly HEALTHFUL
Note that FISH can not only LIVE in Brown’s Gas bubbled water (bubbled continuously) but they THRIVE; growing 3x faster than their peers in a nearby tank getting ONLY air bubbled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB4OUboB0ZM&feature=youtu.be
Obviously the fish could NOT thrive if the water wasn’t SUPER HEALTHY
So now to your ‘slipperiness’ on the sides of the jar. EZ gel is VERY slippery and is negatively charged. EZ gel forms on hydrophilic (water loving) surfaces.
https://ecee.colorado.edu/~ecen5555/SourceMaterial/Pollack13.pdf
The EZ Gel is NOT lye (NaOH) it is not water either (H2O), it is a unique gel (H3O2).
So when you ‘clean’ the gel off the inner walls of the jar, you are putting negatively charged ions into the water, but they are not necessarily LYE ions, it’s much more likely that they are a combination of ExW and EZ Gel.
What does a TDS meter measure?
What does a TDS meter measure?
In reality, a TDS meter measures the electrical conductivity of water or, in other words, the total amount of mobile charged ions found in water. If an element is dissolved in water and can conduct electricity, it is called an electrolyte.
Salt, for example, is an electrolyte. This conductivity measurement is then put through a statistical regression equation to convert it to a concentration measurement such as Parts Per Million (ppm).
But some materials (sugar, for instance) is NOT an electrolyte. Therefore it will not register whatsoever on a conductivity or TDS meter. Check out the video below to see what we mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K34cV_IjysQ&feature=emb_logo
This is one reason why a TDS meter is only an estimate of the true TDS.
A TDS meter is simply not capable of indicating ALL the types of dissolved solids that might be present in the water or at which level those specific contaminants (or minerals) are present.
Net Ionic Equation Example
The net ionic equation for the reaction that results from mixing 1 M HCl and 1 M NaOH is:
H+(aq) + OH–(aq) → H2O(l)
The Cl– and Na+ ions do not react and are not listed in the net ionic equation.
How to Write a Net Ionic Equation
There are three steps to writing a net ionic equation:
- Balance the chemical equation.
- Write the equation in terms of all of the ions in the solution. In other words, break all of the strong electrolytes into the ions they form in aqueous solution. Make sure to indicate the formula and charge of each ion, use coefficients (numbers in front of a species) to indicate the quantity of each ion, and write (aq) after each ion to indicate it’s in aqueous solution.
- In the net ionic equation, all species with (s), (l), and (g) will be unchanged. Any (aq) that remain on both sides of the equation (reactants and products) can be canceled out. These are called “spectator ions” and they don’t participate in the reaction.
The ionic strength of 0.0087 mol/L NaOH is 0.0087 mol/L.
https://socratic.org/questions/how-do-you-calculate-the-ionic-strength-of-0-0087-m-naoh
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), or lye, does not have a charge. It is an ionic compound composed of sodium (Na+) 1+ and hydroxide (OH-) 1- ions. When they combine to form the ionic compound sodium hydroxide, the 1+ and 1- charges cancel each other and the compound is neutral.
TDS meter is a simple device
that creates a small small current between the 2 electrodes. Depending on the connectivity it measures the PPM.
This is my understanding.
That is one way to look at it and the most common.
You need to take another step deeper.
First, as per the above understanding, the TDS meter doesn’t create a ’small current’ It creates a small VOLTAGE or potential difference.
There are two electrodes, the anode is charged positive and the cathode is charged negative.
NO CURRENT flows (indicating 0 TDS) if there are no ‘conductive’ ions in the solution.
Which is why your statement above is ’technically’ incorrect.
If there ARE conductive ions, they will gravitate to the appropriate electrode (+ ions to the cathode to receive an electron and – ions to the anode to give up an electron). The electrons being received and given up create the ‘current’ (electron flow) that the meter then ‘assumes’ to be TDS.
So this is why it’s important to understand that the TDS meter creates a voltage, not a current; at least not directly. Indirectly there will be a current flow if there is:
1. an electrolytic solution (called a catalyst) so the meter itself turns into a mini-electrolyzer
2. charged ions already existing in the solution that add/subtract electrons to/from the above process.
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) disassociates (into Na+ and OH-) when dissolved in water making the water highly conductive because it now becomes an electrolyte solution.
IF my AH HA theory is correct… The electrons in the ExW and potentially the EZ Gel will also affect the TDS reading, because in the end, the TDS meter is measuring ELECTRONS, not the actual impurities in the solution.
Another way to measure ELECTRONS is with an ORP meter. And THAT is exactly what the Spanish Study (I’ve sent you twice) does… So this collaborates my theory / hypothesis.
Net Ionic Equation Example
The net ionic equation for the reaction that results from mixing 1 M HCl and 1 M NaOH is:
H+(aq) + OH–(aq) → H2O(l)
The Cl– and Na+ ions do not react and are not listed in the net ionic equation.
How to Write a Net Ionic Equation
There are three steps to writing a net ionic equation:
- Balance the chemical equation.
- Write the equation in terms of all of the ions in the solution. In other words, break all of the strong electrolytes into the ions they form in aqueous solution. Make sure to indicate the formula and charge of each ion, use coefficients (numbers in front of a species) to indicate the quantity of each ion, and write (aq) after each ion to indicate it’s in aqueous solution.
- In the net ionic equation, all species with (s), (l), and (g) will be unchanged. Any (aq) that remain on both sides of the equation (reactants and products) can be canceled out. These are called “spectator ions” and they don’t participate in the reaction.
The ionic strength of 0.0087 mol/L NaOH is 0.0087 mol/L.
https://socratic.org/questions/how-do-you-calculate-the-ionic-strength-of-0-0087-m-naoh
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), or lye, does not have a charge. It is an ionic compound composed of sodium (Na+) 1+ and hydroxide (OH-) 1- ions. When they combine to form the ionic compound sodium hydroxide, the 1+ and 1- charges cancel each other and the compound is neutral.
TDS meter is a simple device
that creates a small small current between the 2 electrodes. Depending on the connectivity it measures the PPM.
This is my understanding.
That is one way to look at it and the most common.
You need to take another step deeper.
First, as per the above understanding, the TDS meter doesn’t create a ’small current’ It creates a small VOLTAGE or potential difference.
There are two electrodes, the anode is charged positive and the cathode is charged negative.
NO CURRENT flows (indicating 0 TDS) if there are no ‘conductive’ ions in the solution.
Which is why your statement above is ’technically’ incorrect.
If there ARE conductive ions, they will gravitate to the appropriate electrode (+ ions to the cathode to receive an electron and – ions to the anode to give up an electron). The electrons being received and given up create the ‘current’ (electron flow) that the meter then ‘assumes’ to be TDS.
So this is why it’s important to understand that the TDS meter creates a voltage, not a current; at least not directly. Indirectly there will be a current flow if there is:
1. an electrolytic solution (called a catalyst) so the meter itself turns into a mini-electrolyzer
2. charged ions already existing in the solution that add/subtract electrons to/from the above process.
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) disassociates (into Na+ and OH-) when dissolved in water making the water highly conductive because it now becomes an electrolyte solution.
IF my AH HA theory is correct… The electrons in the ExW and potentially the EZ Gel will also affect the TDS reading, because in the end, the TDS meter is measuring ELECTRONS, not the actual impurities in the solution.
Another way to measure ELECTRONS is with an ORP meter. And THAT is exactly what the Spanish Study (I’ve sent you twice) does… So this collaborates my theory / hypothesis.
Is measuring for TDS an effective way of seeing if your water is clean?
https://www.clearlyfiltered.com/blogs/blog/understanding-water-and-total-dissolved-solids-tds
The answer for tap water is ABSOLUTELY NOT! TDS meters are a gimmicky way of trying to show you that your water is either clean or dirty by giving you a number, therefore convincing you that the number is either good or bad. Without knowing exactly what is in your tap water, and what concentration those dissolved solids are present, it is impossible to determine the cleanliness of your water using a TDS meter.
The long answer is that this theory backing TDS meters is quite sound for controlled laboratory/manufacturing scenarios where the parameters affecting the conductivity of a solution are known. In this case, TDS will be a convenient and accurate means of assessing an unknown concentration of a known solute, but outside of these controlled situations such methodology is insufficient. The linear regression for TDS must be calibrated for both a solution’s solvent as well as its mixture of solutes, but if one does not know all these factors? It is at this point that TDS meters become ineffective means to assess one’s water quality.
For example: Calcium, a mineral shown to be beneficial to human health, typically carries an ionic charge of +2. This means that when a molecule of a calcium salt is dissolved into water it “frees up” 2 electrons which in turn are now available to complete the circuit between the two probes on the TDS; the transit time goes down and thus the TDS reading goes up.
If we were to add Bromine, a chemical known to be highly poisonous to humans, this salt typically carries an ionic charge of -1. So if we add a molecule of a brominated salt, only one electron would be “freed up” to complete the circuit between the two probes, and again the electrical transit time would decrease and the TDS reading would increase, but in this specific instance the reading would only be half as much as when we added the Calcium (because it only had half the amount of ionic charge).
Essentially, the TDS would go up twice as much for the healthy mineral as it would for the highly poisonous one. In both instances the TDS will increase, but only in one instance is the water unsafe to drink and, furthermore, the solution with a lower TDS is much more poisonous while the solution with a higher TDS is perfectly safe. In this instance the only thing a TDS meter is really good for is determining the absolute purity of the water, not its overall quality, and this distinction is important as pure water is different from contaminant free water.
There is an additional concern regarding common TDS meters available for consumer use and that is their sensitivity. As stated before, nearly all TDS meters convert a conductivity reading into a measurement of concentration, part per million (ppm), but the most concerning water contaminants have negative health consequences when present at at concentrations that are far less than even 1 ppm.
For example the the EPA’s federal action level for lead is 15 Parts Per BILLION (ppb). This means that for a standard TDS meter purchased via Amazon (or one that comes with a ZeroWater pitcher) would not register any lead until it contained nearly 70 times (66.667 times to be more accurate) the legal limit and even then it would only read 1 ppm, assuming the solution only contained pure water and pure lead!
