Does boiling water remove chloramine?

  • Thread starter Thread starter s3a
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Boiling Water
AI Thread Summary
Boiling tap water can remove chloramine, but it requires a significant amount of time, with two hours of boiling needed to reduce chloramine levels to less than 0.1 mg/liter. Leaving water in an open container for a week can also help dissipate chloramine, although this method is less effective than boiling. For immediate treatment, adding ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is a cost-effective solution, with a small amount able to treat a large volume of water. Purchasing distilled water is often cheaper and more efficient than attempting to distill water at home. Overall, while boiling and other methods can work, convenience and cost-effectiveness may favor buying distilled or treated water.
s3a
Messages
814
Reaction score
8
I ask because this website ( http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/q...water?newreg=3134d1ed281145938fa4eefe2235b231 ) says that it doesn't, but I checked the boiling point of chloramine (on wolframalpha.com), and it's lower than that of water, so why wouldn't boiling tap water remove chloramine (in addition to chlorine)?

Any input would be GREATLY appreciated!

P.S.
Sorry if this is not the right place to post this question; I figured that water treatment falls under some kind of chemical engineering.
 
Engineering news on Phys.org
Short answer? Yes.
 
  • Like
Likes s3a
I just found this link ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine#Other_methods ), which seems to suggest that I can indeed boil the chloramine out.

How long would it take to boil out the chloramine from 0.25 liters of tap water?
 
I found my answer on Wikipedia, but the confirmation is still useful, so thanks.

Do you know how long would it take to boil out the chloramine from 0.25 liters of tap water?
 
How well ventilated is your "boiler?"
 
I was thinking of using those cooking casseroles with a lid that has a little hole so as to increase the pressure, yet still let the gases I want removed have an escape route.

Is that what you're asking?
 
What I've done for tea/spiced cider is "a couple minutes" at a full (on the stove) boil, and it seems to get rid of the flavor. So, what you're describing should be good enough as long as it's a full boil.
 
Basically, I need distilled water for a medical appliance of mine (APAP / automatic CPAP), and I want to remove chlorine, etc before using a (used) water distiller that I have yet to buy (which apparently can't hold carbon filters due to some damage) for removing the minerals. Furthermore, I hate shopping, and I don't want to have to keep going to the market to buy bottles of water, and I read online that people using chlorinated water found it very noticeable and unpleasant (unlike when drinking the chlorinated water) (and I assumed that chloramine would cause the same problem).

Reading this ( http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/chlorine-chloramine / "Even exposed to sun and plentiful oxygen, Chloramine-T could still last for as long as a week."), it seems that I could remove chloramine from a container of tap water if I simply left the container open for a week. (I'm not sure what the "-T" part from what I quoted means, though, so I could be wrong.)

Is it true that just leaving the tap water out for a week in an open container would get rid of (at least most of) the chloramine in it?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The half life of chloramines (alternatively, how fast chloramines break down) in boiling water is not all that short a time:
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/removing_chloramines_from_water
indicates two hours of boiling to get to less than .1mg/liter of chloramine.

A cheap method is to add one-eigth teaspoon of ascorbic acid powder to a gallon water, let it stand for an hour or so. Ascorbic acid is the same thing as Vitamin C. Homebrewers use it.

Also, if you don't mind flavoring your water you can use the chewable 500mg vitamin C tablets, 2 crumbled into one gallon of water. Which is close to one-eighth teaspoon of straight ascorbic acid. 2 ounces (circa 50g) of ascorbic acid powder runs around (US) $4.00 and will treat ~50 of gallons of water. And is cheaper than chewable vitamin C pills. From your local homebrewing store. Or amazon.com
 
  • #10
Distilled water is available extremely cheaply at many stores. The total cost of you making the water will likely be higher than just buying it as the producer will have a large distillation apparatus that is way more efficient than yours and their energy will be much less costly.

Does any market near you have an RO drinking water system installed? You can get that in reusable bottles and save even more. RO may necessitate that you will have to soak in vinegar from time to time.

BoB
 
  • #11
@rbelli1 - good point. When folks have a steam iron (which uses steam to iron out wrinkles in clothing) the manufacturer often requires distilled water be used.
Most US grocery stores sell the stuff on the cheap, for example, largely for that use.
 
Back
Top