How many times can you boil water in a kettle?

From school we know that water has the formula H₂O, that is, it contains two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Water can have three states of aggregation: liquid, steam and ice. This is well-known school knowledge. No carcinogens are observed in the chemical formula.

Let’s move on to drinking water. It doesn’t matter if you use the central water supply in the city or your own well in the village. Various salts are dissolved in such water (mainly calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates, sulfates, chlorides). Other metal salts may also be present, such as iron salts, manganese salts and other chemical elements.

One of the main indicators of water quality control is hardness. It consists of the concepts of “temporary” and “permanent” water hardness. What is it? Temporary hardness is the content of calcium and magnesium carbonates and bicarbonates, which can be removed by boiling. That is the same way that we use every day. As a result of this procedure, scale is formed, which we see on the walls of the kettle. But what is the “constant hardness” of water? This is the hardness that is not removed by boiling. It can also be eliminated, but the human body does not need this, since we need dissolved salts of various metals.

Eventually. You can drink boiled water several times. From the point of view of chemistry, nothing happens or changes in it. You simply eliminate the temporary hardness (that is, the main content of the amount of salts), and you have a constant hardness, which is due to those salts that our body needs. No organic compounds arise, no deuterium is formed there (deuterium is one of the isotopes of hydrogen, which is already present in our water, only it is incredibly small). It’s just water with dissolved salts. Drink tea and coffee without hesitation, heat borsch and soups without fear. Boil compotes, prepare canning, sterilizing water several times. This will not affect the quality of the liquid in any way, it will just make your tasty products more sterile.  

The only thing to consider: the scale that remains on the bottom of the kettle should not be poured into drinks, because it contains a suspension of calcium and magnesium carbonate with a possible admixture of some other salts. It will be unpleasant when there is a crunch of “sand” on the teeth.

Let’s talk about distilled water. This is water, which is completely devoid of all ions. Rather, they are present there, but in very small quantities. The scope of application of such a liquid is in the production of industrial electronics, laboratory analyzes and others. You cannot drink such water, because when you use it, the salts present in our body will begin to wash out. Thus, the potassium-sodium pump will be disrupted, and we are unlikely to feel well. If you try distilled water once, nothing critical will happen, but you can’t drink it all the time.

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