MSR pump users, please read this.

[Gooboy]

Well, I used my MSR filter pump to clear up a very cloudy blue Grande.

It worked great, and the water is now very clear, and about half of the blue dye

was removed, making the lamp much lighter.

When cleaning out the pump with distilled water alone, the wash water comes out slightly

blue for the first 200ml, then it runs clear.

However, you know all that dye has to be trapped in that filter, and the Grande's are very

saturated with dye.

Running distilled water with ethanol (which the dye is soluble in) you will see the wash water

coming out blue.

You need to continue pumping the water/alcohol solution through the pump until it runs perfectly

clear. Even when you see it's clear, if you add more alcohol to your wash water, you will see that

the dye is still there.

The dye will not desolve in plain water, but if you pump the lava lite water through it, it will be

slightly blue (or whatever color) because the surfactant is disolving the dye off the filter.

 

You need to keep this in mind if you have used the pump for something with alot of dye, then you

want to filter a cloudy globe with clear water because if you do not pump several liters of alcohol

and water through it from previous use, your clear water will come out slightly colored from undesolved dye from the last use.

 

If you filter a Grande, I would suggest putting that filter in a marked zip-lock bag, with the color labeled on it, and use a fresh new filter cartridge for filtering a clear globe.

 

I had washed my filter with several liters of 50/50 ethanol and water, and thought it was clean, but

when I used it on a clear/pink globe, the water was still very lighly colored from residual dye.

 

You can think its all cleared out, but when you run that water with surfactant in it, the residual will

disolve.

I would recommend a seperate filter cartridge for each color and label them.

Keep aside the filter for clear water globes, label it, and use it only for clear, uncolored water.

 

Now my Astro clear/pink globe is light blue/pink!! which is not a really big deal to me, but I can see

other folks being very upset!! :(

 

I know there are better solvents than alcohol to remove all the dye from the filter, but you need to

be careful with the plastic parts. Alcohol will not harm the plastic.

 

After cleaning your filter, if you have some surfactant concentrate from you GooKit left over,you

should make a small batch of solution and run it through to check for any undissolved dye trapped

in your filter before attempting to filter a LL globe.

[Modulo '70]

Hey Great tips for the filter pump users. I never thought of this myself but can see how this can be an issue.

[Gooboy]

Just filtered another very dark purple Grande the other day.

LOTS of that dye gets stuck on these filters.

I had to use almost 2 liters of 50/50 alcohol and distilled water before it finally came out clear!!

 

This is real important if you are going from a dark color to a clear or light color globe.

 

You can use plain old isopropyl alcohol, but after filtering a Grande, you will need to buy alot if you

want to get all the dye off that filter.

 

Say, I see my very helpful and educational thread is really the talk o' the town here, I have one whole comment!! ;)