[keyser soze]

i wondered what to do with old resin. can it be reused , would you be able to recharge it like you can lwith the resin in a water softener.

[GDwindowcleaning]

I think richywilts has looked into it, I think it can be done....

[Ian101]

need acid and a lot of other bad chemicals and prob lots of heat ?

[stuart mc]

yes you can, you need acid and costic soda

[jouk45]

try this out, looks easy enough to do
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-09/nftt/index.php

[Pete10]

I am gonna give this a go, just need a chemistry set, caustic soda and some hydrochloric acid. From a cost perspective the key ingredient is the hydrochloric acid......if anyones done this or knows where you can get hydrochloric acid on the cheap would be good to know....

[rosskesava]

Some patio/stone/masonry cleaners are hydrochloric acid.

Which ones are and which ones aren't... dunno?

[keyser soze]

masonry acid is hydrochloric acid but not full strengh stuff , i dont know if that mattters

[andyM]

I think my resin costs work out at only £1 - £1.50 per week, and its tax deductable.
Can't really see the point of trying to re-generate it. 

[Pete10]

....yes i think thats true, cementone is only 10% so you're paying for 90% water. Probably not high strength enough to re-charge the anions. You can buy Hydrochloric on ebay thats 36% proof....that will do it.

Agree it does seem a faff especially if you're only paying £1.50/week, my resin costs are a bit more than that, besides I think if you can crack a recharge why not scale it up so you're recharging other peoples aswelll....then it's a business that generates it's own revenue stream....

[www.com]

Also you will probably get arrested trying to get hold of all those chemical, suspect Al qaeda member!

[carl stanton]

Try a place that sells swimming pool supplies

[davids3511]

The problem is disposing of these chemicals. It isn't nice stuff to put down the drain. I have tried regenerating and you need alot of caustic soda to seperate the resin in the first place. I mean you need a tub of the stuff for the equivelent of a bag of resin. 500grams from bnq won't do it.

It is nasty stuff to work with, I lost a layer of skin off my hands the last time I tried it. I was using gloves but it is very hard to stop the stuff coming in contact with your skin.

Ideally you should split the resins once and put each type into a seperate DI vessel. That way the next time you need to recharge you only need to fill the di vessel with either sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid depending on whether it is cation or anion.

Don't get it in your eyes - http://img.medscape.com/pi/features/slideshow-slide/acute-ocular-emergencies/fig21.jpg

[stuart mc]

yes that is how it was explained to me david, peter fogwell used to do it, but surely you wouldn't need to dispose as you would use it over and over again

[Pete10]

definitely would be fully suited up....no point if you're gonna get burned...way i see it if your average housewife in the states can make crystal meth we must be able to re-charge d/i resin. Thanks for the feedback on the caustic soda.....maybe there's another way to seperate the charges initially...not sure but interested in investigating....

[jouk45]

in the link, the guy says when you are finished, place both liquids in to one container, they naturaly neutralize  themselfs, am sure thats what he said

[davids3511]

yes that is how it was explained to me david, peter fogwell used to do it, but surely you wouldn't need to dispose as you would use it over and over again

The caustic soda is only good for a few recharges then it needs to be binned.

[davids3511]

in the link, the guy says when you are finished, place both liquids in to one container, they naturaly neutralize  themselfs, am sure thats what he said

Yeah but you need to make sure of that. Would 5 ltrs of caustic neutralise 5 ltrs of HCL? We are not working with known quantities. The HCL could be 10%, 36% or more. How much caustic soda will neutralise this?

[richywilts]

wonder if you could make it work if you collected other window cleaners old resin etc and you did it on a large scale and then resold it as reconditioined resin

[Dan3]

really not worth the hassle mate, and its not cost effective £40 to do 25litres took me about 4 hours to do!


if you still want to give it a try check out apcpure based in manchester thats where i got the chems from, and get your self some nitrile gloves (screw fix sell them) safety glasses and a BA set, i didnt use a BA set and throat swelled up from the hydrochloric acid.

all the best

P.S dont forget your mobile so you can dial 999