Using air con water for the nutrient tank

Ok I have a portable air-conditioner I have to use (being in Australia). Since the water catchment tank in the air con is so small I elevated it and left the plug out so it just freely drains through a tube to a big container. One day when I went to tip it out i thought, hey I wonder what the EC is, so I tested it and come up with a reading of 0.02 which is much better than the 0.180 or so that comes out of my tap.

I gave a quick call to the hydro shop and the dude said it should be clean 'distilled' water so i've been using it.

Anyone else 'recycle' the same way or similar?

I dunno man, over here people feed AC water to their plants whenever it's available and swear it makes plants thrive because of "What's in it!".... Technically its steam turned into liquid.

AC water is simply condensate, it may contain contaminants and sometimes algae that forms in the tubes and pipes of the unit so filtration /boiling would be advised

Bit difficult at times to explain the concept of distilled water to some people, I guess the distilled water makes a great solvent to dissolve the nutes/food in the soil and make it easier for plants to absorb them.

I know for sure I'm gona be distilling my own water and maybe supplementing with filtered AC water for my next grow, since the water is about 400ppm where I am and RO is out of my budget.

That .02 of dissolved solids in the water is likely coming from the metals the water came in contact with on its trip out of the air conditioner.

While the EC may be lower than that of your tap water, the water from your air conditioner could contain lead, copper, aluminum or zinc.

Its definitely safe to water house plants with, but I would never use air conditioner or dehumidifier condensate on my vegetables or MJ.

Mold spores are an issue that is easily solved, but secondary to the heavy metals problem.

Would the heavy metals go in to the cells of the plant though? And if they did, would burning it and inhailing the smoke carry the heavy metals?
Having said that, copper and zinc are actually elements the plant would use- though I obviously wouldn't want to breath in lead or aluminum

Pure water will react very little if at all with these metals. I have had no problems feeding dehumidifier water as well as AC condensate to my plants. Most household water systems consist of copper tubing with solder joints.

This water is pure nectar it is hood for water to contact copper very good thongs happen plus it is very pure I foiler feed with ir

LOL how typical, a doomsday comment then a real positive comment. Im going to keep using it and say its good clean water- cleaner than from my tap

pandan said:

LOL how typical, a doomsday comment then a real positive comment. Im going to keep using it and say its good clean water- cleaner than from my tap

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No doubt. there's alot of confusion on this subject. Copper is very toxic to plant and marine life, particularly in salt water aquariums or in a nutrient res. This is due to the chemical reactions of the salts in the water with the copper. With condensate, there are no salts in the water. It is pure distilled water.

Well you know i hate to make things a bit less concise but I actually didn't get a test solution for my EC meter so um maybe the reading i get is the amount the instrument is out by... heh I dunno. I guess I hope i'll get the thing calibrated and hope it says 0 next time so i don't have to worry about who is getting killed by what element

have you ever looked at an A/C coil? i've never looked inside a portable unit, but i have seen the inside of a central A/C and that shit can get moldy/mildewy in a hurry. there's no way i'd ever use it unless i was in BFE and had no other water. that said, when my condensation drain backed up a few years ago, i was collecting it 5gal buckets and watering my trees outside with it and it was fine. not sure what the point is. i don't think you need RO or distilled water to begin with. sure there's arsenic, lead, all kinds of stuff in it, but in minute quantities. i drink it out of the tap everyday. i'm sure it'll be just fine for my plants.

I went from tap to RO back to tap. I had to use so much ph up with tap that I felt like I was puting back whatever the filter was removing. Yes a dehuey can get very funky if it isn't kept clean. I collect about 4 gallons a day if my AC isn't running.

Point is, it is safe to feed to your plants.