I went to Amazon and bought a 12-pack of glass vials, in the "2 dram" size. These hold about 1.5 teaspoons. I also bought a "Hard Shell Essential Oils Carrying Case" which can hold the 12 vials. So, instead of measuring 0.6 grams of salt and 4 grams of vinegar, I make a twelve-times recipe: 7.2 grams of salt and 48 grams of vinegar. Then I add some water to make 3 ounces (6 tablespoons, 18 teaspoons) of total fluid and then fill the 12 vials. Then when it's time to make more Force of Nature, it's just as easy as using the pre-made capsules. My wife is happy that it's so easy now. I have a shoe box with everything in it: the Force of Nature equipment, the test strips, and the case with the vials. But the vials work well enough that usually I don't bother with the test strips. Note: I also bought an inexpensive plastic "graduated cylinder" from Amazon. This is just a very accurate measuring cup, with a tall skinny shape to make it easier to measure small amounts. It's labeled in metric, and 3 ounces is about 88 ml. But I found that it was hard to get exactly 1.5 teaspoons per vial, I seem to pour a little extra in each vial; so I like to mix in a little extra water. I just fill almost to the 100 ml line.
@@ThymefortheTable I feel like it's the perfect setup, but I shared it here so anyone else who wants to get it can get it. I just checked Amazon and the 12-pack of vials is $5. The "Hard Shell Essential Oils Carrying Case' is $10. The measuring cylinder is $9. So for $24 anyone could get all the same things I got and have the perfect setup.
Oh, one last tip. The elastic bands in the hard case cover up the vials so it's hard to see which ones are full and which ones are used. But when we use a vial, we put it back in the case upside-down. Then it's super easy to see which vials are full: they are the ones with the cap showing.
👷Great ! Simpler solution.... : 1/4 tea spoon NON IODANIZED salt and 1/4 tea spoon white household vinegar into a "Force of nature " cooker device filled to the water level mark. done when light turns green.
In your video, you used 3.39 grams vinegar with 0.61 grams salt, the ratio of your solution is 84.75% vinegar and 15.25% salt. On the capsules label, it prints out the Sodium Chloride (Salt) contain of 20.9%. I wanna know why you don't measure 79.1 grams of vinegar and 20.9 grams of salt. You can also use an empty capsule to measure 0.11 ounces, or use a syringe to measure the volume of 3.25 ml of the mixed solution. This may be a better way to make an activator.
Saiho, the idea here is not to replicate the FoN capsule exactly, but instead you can make the perfect mix for the water you are using and the concentration (power) you desire. You can fine tune the amount of vinegar required to get your PH to 5 exactly (that is the target). Then you can play with different salt amounts to get different strengths (maybe you want 200 ppm instead of 60 ppm for your application).
Interesting… If making multiple batches should be able to use the ratios and have ready to go solutions… Even make your own refills… I can also see needing to tweak this a bit to make sure it’s within ranges based on water PH and other variables.
Digital pH meters are great, if you take the time and effort to calibrate them regularly. For this application, pH strips are cheap, instant-read, and take up precious little space. They also require no batteries, which is an added expense many of us avoid.
I suppose I could occasionally cross check this inexpensive pH meter to my drinking water test strips. If it gets out of wack I'll just replace it. I can't imagine it would require calibration for this little meter. It seemed like a good solution to me.
I have a different / similar device that makes electrolyzed water and sprays it in the toilet automatically to clean it. The want to charge a bunch of $ for the vinegar/salt pods they provide. I'm thinking this would work for me. I'm wondering why you/I just can measure i.e. 1 T vinegar and 1/4 t salt, or whatever? especially since mine is just going into the toilet. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying and appreciate any info, cautions, etc
Very helpful! I wanted to see if you've tried this using distilled water? I think that would help eliminate fluctuations caused by mineral content in water, and help you create a recipe that is more standard between batches.
@@ThymefortheTable I definitely agree! Plus I wanna try using it with the potassium hydroxide(?) to make the degreaser solution. I don’t use social media so I haven’t managed to come across a couple yet :/
Is there a shelf life if you mix a ‘batch’ of salt n vinegar solution and store it in a sealed container? Not that this takes too much time, but would be much more convenient.
@@ThymefortheTable well, made it today from this video and everything went as you described. Thanks! I’ll likely 10x it and see how it goes, noting from a 1x match how many mL makes quantity of one. Great stuff and fun with science.
Hi Jen, This is SO wonderful and helpful. I have made my own by following this to the letter! I, too, had to add a little less salt to reach the 250PPM of free chlorine. I do have a question: Why is the ph level so important? I’m not understanding that. Thanks again! Stefan
The issue with using a TDS meter is that it measures the entirety of the total dissolved solids, including any mineral content. It would work if distilled water was tested, but most of us are not using distilled water, since the minerals in our tap water are conducive to the electrolysis process. Conversely, it's also why pure salt is recommended as the mineral content in Himalayan or other mineral-rich salt would build up on the electrode over time.
Just curious I checked the ph with the little yellowish orange strips in the force of nature solution that is from their activators and it tested it was a 7 why would it show 7 and not the 4-5 you are trying to achieve?
FON markets their product as a pH neutral cleanser, so their goal is not to achieve the highest percentage of HOCl, but a neutral disinfectant. If you plan to use the finished cleanser as directed, landing in the pH 7 zone is going to replicate the FON capsule most closely. If, however, you decide to venture into the wound-care applications of HOCl, you may prefer a higher percentage of HOCl, as it minimizes the chlorine and bleach content in the finished product.
I think it would work, but it does have minerals it. In a pinch I would use it, but I would definitely look in your grocery store for salt with nothing added. Canning salt and some kosher salt usually works well (keep an eye on the ingredients).
@@Team_Wade You're not "diluting" it. The water (H2O) is a key component in creating the ions that will eventually recombine into hypochlorous acid (HOCl) . The "HO" part comes from the water when it's split by electrolysis and the "Cl-" come from the table salt (NaCl) when it dissociates as it's hydrolyzed. The remaining sodium (Na+) recombines with some of the hydroxide ions (OH-) to form lye (NaOH) and the acetate to form sodium acetate (CH3COONa). The process will also evolve some hydrogen and chlorine gas. It's a messy, busy electrochemistry, but it should net you the purest HOCl at pH 5, assuming you got your stoichiometric ratios of salt, vinegar and water all correct.
@@ThymefortheTable Eh, I'm actually learning "on-the-fly" just like you! 😁 Google Scholar and Sci-Hub are your friends when it comes to academic research.
@@ThymefortheTable Oh, sorry, didn't mean to 👻 you there. No, I've completely removed Facebook from my life. I get all my information directly from primary scientific sources, but quick guides like your's are definitely appreciated. I need to get a new gram scale as mine started being very erratic lately. My recommendation would to also use a pipette or medicine dropper in the future for adding liquids. I'm also getting an electronic pH/ORP/TDS meter because I like the certainty of numbers rather than guesstimating based on colored paper (plus, I think I'm a little color-blind).
@@ThymefortheTable Yeah, there's an $80 one currently on Amazon that comes with a couple vials of calibration buffer solution in the kit. Mine's coming in a couple days. Apparently, Apera Instruments is selling it for $105 on their own store at the moment. I like it because it has a removable tip that can be exchanged for a different one, depending on the application. I did misspeak in my last post, however. The PH60 doesn't actually read TDS, just pH and ORP, which is perfect for this particular application. The much more expensive PC60 model does it all.
I was an early adopter of FON. I am not understanding the chlorine test strips. If you want 200-225 ppm, I, personally don't want a scale that goes to 1000 ppm. I want one that goes only to 500 to make the scale easier to read. And I'm really lost with the "Quaternary" factor. Can you shed any light?
Thanks for this tutorial. I tried this exactly as you described and my machine started to turn green and then suddenly sent half red. I did it 4 times and same result each time. Any idea why it didn’t work?
