RO Water

TroyClark · Nov 8, 2019

Weird question of the day. I have a 65 gallon barrel I collect RO water in. While full, a box of Mr. Clean magic erasers fell in it and I din't know for a week. Found and got it out intact but soaked through. Will the water still be OK to use or should I discard it and start over. Have not added salt yet.

Tanks

Troy

Bryknicks · Nov 8, 2019

I would dump it, clean the barrel and start making new water. The magic erasers don't have any added chemicals to my knowledge, but who knows what residual oil/chemicals are on them from the manufacturing. Do you see any tinge to the water? Any oil slick?

Cory · Nov 8, 2019

Many people use magic erasers in their tanks to clean the glass/acrylic. I recently just used one. No problems.

lapin · Nov 8, 2019

Here are some facts about the ingredients used in Magic Eraser:

The ingredients in Magic Eraser have been safely and commonly used for many years in a wide range of household products.
Formaldehyde is not and has never been an ingredient in Magic Eraser. One ingredient in Magic Eraser (formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer) contains the word “formaldehyde” in its chemical name. However, this ingredient is not formaldehyde and poses no health or safety risks. (Think of this name like “sodium chloride”, which is table salt. Sodium by itself can be dangerous, but sodium chloride – salt – is safe.)
Magic Eraser is considered non-toxic. As with any sponge-like product, when swallowed this product may block the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, we do advise to keep this product out of the reach of children and pets to avoid accidental ingestion — it is not a toy.
It is possible that formaldehyde may be present in minute, trace amounts as a result of the manufacturing process. Even then, the amount present is significantly lower than standards established by governmental agencies and trade associations, and is actually less than what is found in indoor air.
In fact, no ingredients in Magic Eraser are subject to any health-related labeling laws in North America or in the European Union.

Now if these are some knock off from China not gone thru US testing requirements then I would not chance it

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 8, 2019

Sorry, I don't know.

Malifry97 · Nov 8, 2019

I’d say don’t chance it. Just due to the fact of the minute trace of formaldehyde.

JoshH · Nov 8, 2019

It's not the magic erasers themselves that I would be concerned with. But rather the packaging. RODI water has a tendency to want to draw molecules into it. I don't know what chemicals are in the packaging itself but I do know I probably wouldn't want them in my system...

Dkeller_nc · Nov 9, 2019

TroyClark said:
Will the water still be OK to use or should I discard it and start over. Have not added salt yet.

While it's unlikely that a bit of extra plastic exposure (the magic erasers) will cause any issues, RODI is pretty cheap. And one doesn't really know what the content of plasticizers in Magic Erasers is. Some plasticizers act as surfactants in aqueous solution, so there's at least a small potential that saltwater made from the RODI may cause your skimmer to foam excessively.

As far as cost of RODI, in my case and with my municipal water rates and average TDS, I calculate my RODI cost at about $0.05/gallon. So while dumping a barrel is inconvenient, it's no big deal in terms of cost.

TroyClark · Nov 9, 2019

Dumped it and cleaned the barrel. Thanks for the help.

homer1475 · Nov 9, 2019

You people kill me with all the double talk on here.......

Someone wants to clean an acrylic tank, all the suggestions are to use a Mr. Clean magic eraser.
Someone drops said eraser in a barrel of RO/DI and every suggestion is to dump the water.

If its ok to use in the tank for cleaning, then why on gods green earth is everyone suggesting to dump the water the eraser was exposed too?

It's either OK to use, or it's not. You can't have it both ways. OOh and the one person who said they might be suspect of the packaging, is cardboard not OK anymore either? I coul;d understand maybe the ink thats on the cardboard, but the cardboard itself........

TroyClark · Nov 9, 2019

Yup, in the end it was the ink in the packaging that made the decision for me.

Dkeller_nc · Nov 10, 2019

homer1475 said:
You people kill me with all the double talk on here.......

Someone wants to clean an acrylic tank, all the suggestions are to use a Mr. Clean magic eraser.
Someone drops said eraser in a barrel of RO/DI and every suggestion is to dump the water.

If its ok to use in the tank for cleaning, then why on gods green earth is everyone suggesting to dump the water the eraser was exposed too?

It's either OK to use, or it's not. You can't have it both ways. OOh and the one person who said they might be suspect of the packaging, is cardboard not OK anymore either? I coul;d understand maybe the ink thats on the cardboard, but the cardboard itself........

There's a difference in this particular situation. Specifically, time is required to leach materials from a solid substance, so there's a distinction between using something briefly in a tank, and soaking said item in RODI or saltwater for a number of days. That said, there probably wasn't an issue here, it's just that RODI is so cheap that it really didn't make much sense to take any chances whatsoever.

siggy · Nov 10, 2019

TroyClark said:
Yup, in the end it was the ink in the packaging that made the decision for me.

Yup that is why magazines cannot be recycled. Ever notice the funny colors when throwing packaging in a fire.
I believe mercury is one?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 10, 2019

homer1475 said:
You people kill me with all the double talk on here.......

Someone wants to clean an acrylic tank, all the suggestions are to use a Mr. Clean magic eraser.
Someone drops said eraser in a barrel of RO/DI and every suggestion is to dump the water.

If its ok to use in the tank for cleaning, then why on gods green earth is everyone suggesting to dump the water the eraser was exposed too?

It's either OK to use, or it's not. You can't have it both ways. OOh and the one person who said they might be suspect of the packaging, is cardboard not OK anymore either? I coul;d understand maybe the ink thats on the cardboard, but the cardboard itself........

Thank you for adding your opinion,but do you even know if anyone here that recommended tossing it ever recommended that product for cleaning glass?

Details matter. The situation matters.

IMO, a ton of bad advice is given and taken by people that assume that since one person did something ok, that someone else doing a similar thing must be ok even though the situations may vary in important ways that folks might not understand.