Are these plastic gallon jugs safe?

[Miami Reef]

I noticed calcium chloride has an exothermic reaction when mixed with water. Will it melt this plastic container?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I noticed calcium chloride has an exothermic reaction when mixed with water. Will it melt this plastic container?

iT MAY. I had flimsy milk bottles that did not leak but did deform from the excessive heat.

 

[Living Reef Orlando Verified Sponsor]

I noticed calcium chloride has an exothermic reaction when mixed with water. Will it melt this plastic container?

I would err on the side of caution. It should be fine, but personally, I would invest in a harder plastic to be on the safer side.

 

[Dan_P]

I noticed calcium chloride has an exothermic reaction when mixed with water. Will it melt this plastic container?

Chill the water before adding CaCl2? You will not melt the plastic but it can soften.

 

[Dan_P]

Chill the water before adding CaCl2? You will not melt the plastic but it can soften.

Take the jug outside and fill it with very hot water. This is your worse case scenario. You will answer all your questions about this plastic jug. Don’t burn yourself!

 

[Miami Reef]

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Take the jug outside and fill it with very hot water. This is your worse case scenario. You will answer all your questions about this plastic jug. Don’t burn yourself!

what are you implying?

 

[Dan_P]

.

what are you implying?

The caution is for handling and pouring hot water. The overall advice is to get the data first hand.

 

[Miami Reef]

I ordered high quality jugs and I have a cleaned glass pickle jar. I’m going to mix it in the jar and transport into the gallon.

 

[blasterman]

It takes a lot of calcium chloride to heat up water to any significant degree. I dont even notice it if I dump a tablespoon of CaCl in a pint of water.

I just made a quart jug of liquid sodium hydroxide with about half a cup of dry solution. Yeah....its gets warm, which is why I just keep the jug in a bath of cold water when I make it. Not difficult.

 

[Gtinnel]

I currently am using 1/2 gallon milk jugs as dosing containers and it hasn't caused any problems. I do however mix it up in gallon jugs that happen to be much thicker plastic.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Not sure what form of calcium chloride you are using, but if you use calcium chloride dihydrate instead of anhydrous calcium chloride, the heating effect is about half as much.