[Histonet] Water...I need more input

[Rene J Buesa]

Let me try to help you Kristen:
1-Distilled water is obtained by condensing water vapors when any type of water is boiled and by doing so the salts and solids components of the original water remain in the boiling pot, and the vapors are condensed as pure water that has been "distilled".
2- Deionized water eliminates all the ions from any type of water by filtering it through active membranes that catch the ions leaving the exiting water as free from ions or "deionized".
With BOTH methods you will end with the same product, i.e. "pure" water = water without ions, salts or solids.
Now IF you are goint to prepare your water yourself, deionizing is cheaper at the long run because it is less expensive and complicated to maintain, but if you are going to buy, buy the one that is cheapest for you, and either one will be good for any procedure in histology, including IHC, or your water bath.
 
3- As for which pure ethanol to buy, IF it is pure (or "200 proof" ethanol) you are talking about a pure chemical organic substance that it does not matter who manufactures or sells it has to have the same properties so, again, buy the cheapest one.
For an article I just finished I needed prices and the cheapest "denatured ethanol", perfectly suitable for histology work (including reagents for HC), was sold by International Medical Equipments, Inc. or IMEB at a cost of $26.00 per gallon (check the web).
I hope I have been able to have put to rest your queries.
René J.

--- On Sun, 3/22/09, kristen arvidson <arvidsonkristen <@t> yahoo.com> wrote:

From: kristen arvidson <arvidsonkristen <@t> yahoo.com>
Subject: [Histonet] Water...I need more input
To: "histonet" <histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu>
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2009, 8:16 AM
I still haven't gotten enough input on Distilled vs. DI water.  One person
said there is a big difference and a few said there is not much difference at
all.  We will primarily be using it for our water baths and making up
reagents.  However, we may be getting IHC in the future.  It seems that for
cost effectiveness distilled is the way to go, so currently I'm heading down
that road.  Help!  Need to make a decision soon.
 
On another note,  what brands of ETOH is everyone using?  We use Surgipath. 
Trying to find the cheapest.  Thanks!!



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