Multiple users report that several Amazon-sold bacteriostatic waters failed independent tests for correct benzyl alcohol percentage, pH, and microbial growth. One product showed only 0.1 percent alcohol instead of the required 0.9 percent, while others grew mold or algae in petri dishes. People who bought these products are discarding them and switching to established hospital-grade options despite higher cost or sourcing difficulty.
What this discussion establisheswhether any non-hospital bac water sold online can be trusted long-term
Nothing here is advice.
I came across this on another site and wanted to share because I had already ordered some myself. I searched online stores looking for a version made in the country by an actual facility, yet it still came back with the wrong alcohol strength at only one tenth of a percent. There is a batch code so others can check what they received.
The certificate appears tied to a page that checked several different waters and found most of them missed the required standards for alcohol amount or acidity.
It really does seem like adding the right amount of alcohol to sterile water ought to be straightforward, yet it turns out to be tougher than producing a clean peptide.
One buyer last year looked at a sample under magnification and spotted algae spores, which alone is enough reason to avoid the product.
How does anyone get this basic task wrong, especially just to cut a tiny fraction of a cent per vial on the alcohol ingredient?
By simply leaving the alcohol out entirely.
A summary appeared on another forum that seemed worth passing along.
I keep some of that other product in storage and cannot believe a domestic version cannot be trusted for something this basic. Thanks for the notice, I stopped an order and switched back to the glass version I have used without problems for months.
I was just saying the same thing to my partner. You would expect people trying to work as chemists to have figured out bacteriostatic water by middle school.
Ordinary tap water might actually be safer given how many sellers seem focused only on profit and shipping low-quality items.
After seeing the original report I tested some of my own past purchases with strips. Two brands read around eight or nine on the scale while another acetic product measured correctly near four. The working product has performed fine with one peptide without gelling or loss of effect, but I now wonder about the month I spent using the other two on a different peptide that felt weaker than expected.
Recent testing on the product by the same group showed clear growth in the dishes, and similar results appeared across many other online waters.
That image looks like mold growth unless something else is going on.
Is there a reason to choose the acetic version over regular bac water for certain peptides? I have only started looking into one of them and searches mention the acetic type may not be suitable for injection, so it is hard to know what information is reliable.
The dishes show heavy growth that should never happen in a finished product. One looks especially contaminated while the other has what appears to be mold colonies.
The lower acidity helps keep certain growth-related peptides stable and prevents gelling. Sodium-chloride bac water sits around five while acetic versions reach four, and both appear acceptable for that use according to the references I checked.
Perhaps the algae will turn out to be the next breakthrough compound.
Those are petri dishes meant to culture organisms, and the product should never allow growth. Searching the test names will explain what the results mean.
Totally agree, I miss that era too, especially the hair.
I purchased a larger quantity and intend to keep using it well after the printed date. I would rather use the established brand years past its date than any of these questionable versions.
Appreciate the update.
I received a bottle with white specks floating inside and sent it back immediately.
Hard to believe a domestic lab cannot produce clean water with the correct alcohol added without issues.
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