Hard Water at 600 mg/L: Why the Skin Forms Before the Core Swells
Calcium above a few hundred mg/L crosslinks the surface of a granule and seals it. The mechanism, the cut-and-look test, and four ways to work around hard water.
Why the Same Gel Holds 300 Times Its Weight in Rainwater and 95 in Your Tap
Calcium, magnesium and sodium cut gel absorbency long before a batch goes bad. A one-gram test in your own water, and why softened water is the worst choice.
Powder Floating on Top: A Fault-Finding Order for No-Gel Batches
You add the powder, stir for a minute, and it is still there – a raft of dry granules riding on the surface, some of them clumped into balls with dry cores. Ten minutes later the water is cloudy and slightly thicker, but nothing has gelled. The instinct is to blame the powder, and sometimes th…
When pH and Salt Decide How Much Water One Kilo Takes
Two drums of the same grade, from the same lot, dosed at the same rate, produced gels that looked nothing alike. One set into a firm mass that passed the tilt test. The other stayed soupy for twenty minutes and had to be re-dosed twice. The powder had not changed. The water had: one drum was filled …
