This guide is for educational purposes only. We will not be held liable for any negative outcome resulting from use of this guide. If in doubt, we recommend purchasing the product.
Curious about how to make your own Bacteriostatic (BA) water? It's not too hard! While we sell it cheap here on the store for convenience, if you're curious and handy, it's not too hard to make yourself.
Materials Needed #
Obtain a decent source of clean water. While lab-grade DI water isn't necessary, we don't recommend river water either. Most will opt for sealed bottled water, or distilled water from the store. Your main concern here is heavy metals (often found in tap water), as benzyl alcohol cannot neutralize these.
Math #
To complete our product, we will be adding a small amount of Benzyl Alcohol to sterile water, forming a solution of 0.9% Benzyl Alcohol (i.e. 99.1% water).
e.g:
- To make 10 mL of bacteriostatic water, you need 9 units of benzyl alcohol (0.09 mL).
- To make 30 mL of bacteriostatic water, you need 27 units of benzyl alcohol (0.27 mL).
- To make 100 mL of bacteriostatic water, you need 90 units of benzyl alcohol (0.9 mL).
100 units = 1 mL
1 unit = 0.01 mL
1 mL = 1 cc
Directions #
- Use an alcohol swab to wipe the tops of all vials you are working with.
- Using a clean insulin syringe, measure out an appropriate amount of benzyl alcohol per the math above, adjusting the numbers if necessary based on your desired volume.
- After drawing out the benzyl alcohol, re-cap the needle and set aside.
- Use a new needle to inject the correct amount of water into each vial (e.g. a 10ml vial will have 9.91ml of water).
- Inject the benzyl alcohol to each vial you're making.
- #done
