"Total Hardness"?

[PeeBee]

This is a better link to that spreadsheet: Water Defuddler. It can be downloaded without Google Sheets interfering.

It's updated because I'd got some locked cells that shouldn't have been locked. Phosphates have been added alongside Nitrates to get better ion balances for figuring "Alkalinity". And my Water Analysis got an update the other day (after 2-1/2 years with the previous one). The "basic" analysis hasn't been updated (Ca, Mg, HCO3, Alkalinity, and loads of "Hardness" trite) so I've applied the "Defuddler" to come up with the missing stuff ... that'll be a good test of its ability (although it was never designed for those purposes!).

So, originally Dwr Cymru had "Total Hardness" as 54.54 ppm as CaCO3; the "Defuddler" reflects that with Calcium 19.66ppm. I've got "Hardness" down as 66.66 ppm as CaCO3 (I've been applying 1.01 increments 'cos it looks tidy!), which although it's a 12.12 increase in those daft CaCO3 units, only bumps the Calcium ions up to 24.02ppm. I reckon I'll be within 1ppm (but must allow Dwr Cymru the same error, so therefore plus/minus 2ppm), but I've no idea when Dwr Cymru will publish the results .... better put a time limit of two months.

Place your bets please. All currency as pints of beer when we next meet (eh ... ).

[PeeBee]

... Phosphates have been added alongside Nitrates to get better ion balances for figuring "Alkalinity". ...

I'm not sure about this entry, needs more work on it. For the time being, just "null" it, or add a reading if you have one (for Phosphate).

[PeeBee]

While working to get a brew on I uncovered my Salifert "Calcium" kit. Well, got to give that a go! Proper work gets put aside (yet again ... will I ever brew another beer?):

I measure out my water, add the crystals and give a ten second "swirl" (actually, I just hold the test tube and my "defective" limbs subject it to a suitable "orbital" motion ... handy!). Read the instructions and ... damn! I should have put the ten drops in before mixing. Never mind, a practice run! The syringe of reagent is posed over the test tube ... where it successfully catches the test tube and tips it over.

Well, I like a challenge. Test is set up again, I'm a bit impatient getting it done, and the flippin' stuff turns "blue" very unexpectedly. Heck, I'd only just started! I look back at my earlier "theoretical" work, I should only be expecting 20-odd ppm, thought it was 40? I read the instructions again ... they say I can use half the sample and double the results for a rough test. Should work the other way?

Twice the sample, 20 drops, two scoops of crystal, test tube secured in bowl of flour and carefully add the reagent, drop by drop. The sample changes to blue, it's taken ... (squint) ... 0.095ml. And halve that ... is ... not very much! A little over 20ppm on the kit's reference table ... if I use my imagination, I could say 24ppm. Which is what I'd "guessed" using my "Defuddler" spreadsheet! Yeah!!! That'll do, I'll put the test kit back in the cupboard again. And consider what I'd told everyone else ... that "Salifert" test kits are completely hopeless for "soft" low mineralised waters. Well, it's not what they're designed for! And I should be doing a bit of practicing what I preach. Not wasting a couple of hours not doing the things I started out on. (I really need a good kick up the ... ).

[PeeBee]

While working to get a brew on I uncovered my Salifert "Calcium" kit. Well, got to give that a go! Proper work gets put aside (yet again ... will I ever brew another beer?) ...

Aarrgg! Disaster! They (Salifert) have changed the Calcium kit! (As of 2023).

There is no longer a third bottle. The "reagent" is combined with the bottle of "2% NaOH" so you must use at least 0.6ml or the results will be unreliable.

That's 300ppm Calcium! That makes the New kit entirely useless for most brewing water analysis. Well, they are kits for aquariums, not making beer!

Someone tell me I've got it all wrong ...

88133-1695064905448.jpeg (138.83 KiB) Viewed 2018 times

(Perhaps you can find your own 2% NaOH solution and add 10 drops at the start and ignore the minimum 0.6ml requirement?).

[EDIT: Oops, I said "20 drops", should be "10"! Corrected! And it may have changed back in 2020-2021?]

[PeeBee]

... Place your bets please. All currency as pints of beer when we next meet (eh ... ).

After ages and ages ...

Didn't get an update of the "basic values" of water analysis from Dwr Cymru, but Neil at Pheonix Analytical recently did an analysis of my water.

Calcium levels did increase beyond previous reports, as I had predicted, but I seriously under-estimated the change: 28ppm whereas I had 24ppm and it was originally (2021 report) 19.7ppm. So, this increased "Hardness" (for what it's worth, which is about ... nothing!) from 54.54ppm as CaCO3 to 74.45 (I'd estimated 66.66 with my "Defuddler" used in outrageously "Fuddling" mode). The extra increase in Calcium was compensated for by the "Alkalinity" remaining low at 9.76 ppm as HCO3 ... I'd been using slightly higher levels).

So, I'd better payout on all my losses ... here; but no-ones placed a bet, and my time limit has expired. Cor! I was lucky there!



But the exercise does give some credibility to my "Defuddler". I only started building it last May, just after starting this thread by proving I had no idea what "Total Hardness" was. I had to learn what "Total Hardness" was, and then work out how useless that knowledge is (Neil's water analysis doesn't even give a figure for "Hardness" - because the value is so worthless!). But the "Defuddler" still calculates "Hardness" stuff ... it lurks around in the bowels of the "Foetid Mire", the spreadsheet's repository for useless information (it's kept on because for the time being clues to derive useful information can be extracted from it ... if desperate!). Fortunately, for the user, the spreadsheet mines that information in the "Foetid Mire" and the user doesn't have to clutter their heads with it.