Heating Distilled Water

I'd like to mix my D-76 with with distilled water but am wondering what is the best way to raise it to the recommended 125ºF for mixing.

I am considering using the microwave but I remember that years ago when I tried to heat water for instant coffee in it, it was awful. It seemed to introduce a sort of weird micro-carbonation into the water. I'm afraid that this would have a bad effect on the solution.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I may be doing something wrong, but I always just stick a beaker of distilled water in the microwave and heat it.

I simply use an electric hot plate and glass coffee pot. When making 1000 mL I heat 750 mL to mix in and then add 250 mL of room temp. distilled water. At 125-F you are not going to break anything. It's not THAT hot, just very warm.

I haven't and wouldn't use the micro heated water for mixing developers particularly as I agree that I have noticed that it becomes full of air of some sort, which seems bad. But if you could overheat slightly and then let it cool a bit, the bubbly issue should resolve in about 5 minutes.

I put my distilled container in a pan of hot water for about 10 minutes, seems to work.

The microwave is fine for heating the water. The bubbles are just little pockets of steam, so they have no more effect on the solution than the water itself.

Ideally one should boil the water for some 3 min and let it cool down slowly, so it will become oxygen free.

Who says so? A certain Mr. Geoff Crawley, that seems to know a bit about developers...

I really do not know if this applies to distilled.

Jorge O

Actually, the bubbles you observe in water near the boiling point is air. There is a significant amount of dissolved air in both tap and bottled water, distilled or not. One can practically assume that water at room temperature is saturated with air. A phenomenon exists in that, contrary to solids dissolved in water, gas is more soluble at low temperatures and tends to precipitate as bubbles when heated.

Microwaved water is in no way different from the same water heated conventionally. One caution though: distilled water may tend to superheat in a microwave oven more easily than on a cook top or hot plate. Care must be taken not to heat the water too much and/or use care in handling the beaker. Superheated water will essentially explode into steam which can be painful or worse. Best practice is to heat the water slowly.

It is a good idea to heat any water used in making up developer as that gets rid of the dissolved air and that will precipitate some dissolved solids as well. My practice is to boil the water on a surface unit, quietly cool it to about 150 degrees F. and filter it. The higher temperature also helps the dissolution of the components of the developer.

Sorry - the internet is upset!!!!!