Water here in Tel Aviv is hard. Really hard. When I boil just one batch in a clean kettle, there is visible mineral residue: small white grains in the bottom of the kettle. Cleaning the scaling off of glass shower doors is also practically a daily chore.

I was flushing a (pretty new) Safari yesterday and sort of flinched when I put it under the tap, wondering how many times I would flush it before the feed clogged.

I drink from a Brita, and obviously I could flush a pen with that water. But it's tedious, since the water pressure is greater from the tap and I can't get the stream as fine (we have a water shortage here as well, yippee, so trying not to be wasteful). Plus I've already flushed my pens a number of times with hard water and want to know whether there will be consequences.



So two questions:

1. How likely is it that there will be consequences on the performance and lifespan of my pens? How dangerous is it to flush pens with water this hard? UK members -- as I recall, water is pretty hard up in your neck of the woods too. Any mineral-clogged pen issues up there?


2. If a pen does clog from mineral deposits, what's the best way to de-scale it? A solution we use for cleaning mineral deposits from kettles and surfaces is citric acid diluted in water -- it's biological and cuts right through the minerals. Is that mild enough, or would it muck up the system with its own problems?

Eek!

Regarding your pressure issue - get a bulb syringe (for cleaning out ears and toddler noses) and use that to spray water through your feeds. Even better than the water from the tap.

We have very hard well water where we live. I have had no problem with mineral deposits. A flush and re-ink should be no problem at all. I would advise not letting a pen dry repeatedly with hard water in it. Use distilled water for the last rinse if you are going to let the pen dry. Only a ml or two should be enough. No distilled water? Use rain water unless you have acid rain. You could probably use the dew from a clean car window.

If the pen is plugged up with scale, acid would be the best thing to use. CocaCola in an ear bulb would probably dissolve the crud right away. Rinse well afterward with distilled water. Or rain. Or dew.


Paddler

The under-sink filter I use for my drinking water is RO but not DO. It does not come out like distilled water, but actually more flavorful spring water. I tested it and found it still had some hardness. But, it was mostly GH, not KH. I tested this issue (kettle, iron, etc.) by putting several ml on a watch glass and letting it evaporate. I added more water over several days before letting it go dry. The original tap water left hard scale. The filtered water left a small amount of white residue, but more importantly it simply rinsed clean. The remaining minerals were not so tough as the calcium carbonate, though similar in many other important properties.

With this in mind, I always flush with filtered water before letting a pen part dry out. If I rinse under the tap, I'll still flush with filtered water using the converter or a syringe before shaking dry and letting it evaporate.

Getting tired of using the converter, I took a disposable plastic syringe and cut the tip back to leave an opening that fits over the tube that normally fits inside the cartridge or converter. It doesn't have to be a good fit at all, as I just squeeze the bulb. This is useful not just for using rinse water, but if using surfactant or ammonia cleaner.

As for removing mineral deposits from things, the tradition here is to use vinegar. Lately I've used oxylic acid, since I have some handy from wood finishing. Any weak acid will do. I don't know if any thing is better on pen parts than anything else.

--John

John:

Oxalic acid is very poisonous, do not get on bare skin or injest.

Hard water should not be allowed to dry out in a pen, it will leave carbonate scale which can be hard to remove. Fill immediately with fresh ink or rinse with distilled water.

Peter

Giving it one last rinse with "good" water makes a lot of sense. The syringe ideas sound good too. Thanks for all the advice!


But Paddler: Diet Coke? Really? Wouldn't putting Coke through the feed just replace scaly minerals with other sticky stuff?

Sorry, merzig,

I have been trying to answer your post, but the server is having problems . . . It wants to ignore me.

The Coke idea was in response to your second question about what to do if your pen becomes clogged with mineral deposits. The Coke, Classic Coke, anyway, contains phosphoric acid (ever order a "cherry phosphate" at a soda fountain? That is a cherry flavored Coke). The acid would dissolve the mineral deposits. You would then rinse the Coke out of the pen with distilled water.

Paddler

Woah. That's crazy.

I knew what you meant when you originally mentioned Coke, but I just didn't believe it at first! Gotta file that one with the seltzer-gets-out-wine-stains trick.