Sodium alginate bath sets on its own.

Hello.
I am having problems with creating an alginate bath. Basically the whole thing sets after a few hours.
I use distilled water, .5% solution, blend it with an immersion blender.
After failing multiple times with my first batch of alginate I've ordered a different batch from a different supplier; same thing happens.
I've tried using sodium citrate to no avail (though I was adding random amounts of it).
Do you guys know of any way to test the alginate? My first guess was that it's contaminated with calcium, hence the sodium citrate.

I would appreciate any pointers.
Cheers.

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Comments

Matt_67991

Are you using distilled water?

Edit: Lol, sorry.

Brendan_Lee_56950

What kind of container are you using? Maybe the containers you have are "contaminated" like if you had really hard water and there is a residue left behind.

Marek_30573

I am using PE containers. After I wash them I rinse them with distilled water as one would do with lab equipment.

Marek_30573

I have decided to buy 500 grams of Texturas' algin. Since I see no possible fault in my process it must be the quality of this product.
I've tried 2 different suppliers of generic alginate; I should have bought the real deal right away.
We have this saying "He who wants to save money pays twice", once again it turned out to be true for me

.

Thanks for the help.
Cheers.

Marek_30573

I've tried the texturas' algin. There is a colossal difference in the resulting bath.
Previously I was getting a block of gel; now I got a syrup like liquid. Can't wait to try it out.

Chris_Young_80640

@Marek — Glad you worked this out. Yes, my guess was the generic alginate had excess calcium blended in to promote gelling, since that's what most people want from it. This is a great lesson on the importance of noting which brand of a hydrocolloid you're working with.