5 gallon water bottles + bleach = Smoke???

[MotorSeven]

Uh-oh.....I have never seen this before. I have a spring on my place that we get our drinking water from only accessible by jeep or 'wheeler. I have 7 or 8 of those tinted clear blue 5 gallon water bottles that go on our drinking water dispenser. I usually splash a little bleach in the empty's then rinse it right out, but this time I put the bleach in, re-capped them and drove to the spring...a 5 min ride. Once there, I opened them up and rinsed with spring water. Instantly the empty rinsed bottles clouded up and began smoking...kinda like a light Halloween fog machine smoke:confused3:.

It's not cold today...high 60's but it was raining on & off so the humidity level is close to 100%. I re-rinsed again, then filed the bottles with water, and they continued to smoke until full. So what kinda carcinogenic chemical reaction have I caused????

Btw, I have been doing this for 5-6 years and never seen this reaction. Most of the water bottles are also that old, so it's not the bottle. Bleach was the garden variety from the Dollar Store.

 

[MotorSeven]

66 hits and no comment......I fear the worst... probably have knocked the Earth off it's axis

 

[teg]

Have you thought about getting the water tested?

I'm trying to remember back to chemistry... If you mix bleach with an acid, chlorine gas will be produced. How is the water? Do you know the pH?

 

[blueriver]

I'm not a chemist ... does sound as if a contaminate in the water caused a reaction. May be best to have the water tested.

 

[MotorSeven]

Hmmm, I have not tested it recently. Stand-by....breaking out the test kit.

 

[MotorSeven]

Alkalinity is 180( a little high), PH is also high at 8.4. I wonder if the rain is flushing more lime than normal into the water. Our area is one big limestone karst formation.

 

[clemsonfor]

Alkalinity is 180( a little high), PH is also high at 8.4. I wonder if the rain is flushing more lime than normal into the water. Our area is one big limestone karst formation.

If our high school chemistry wiz is correct in that if you mix bleach and an acid you get smoke, i think thats not your deal. 8.4 is more base than anything right. Acids are like 1-6 right?

 

[dmccarty]

Bleach mixed with ammonia can kill you.

Is it possible ammonia was in the bottles?

Later,
Dan

 

[MotorSeven]

All I know is as soon as I empty one of these bottles I am going to repeat the whole thing and take some pictures.
Temperature and humidity could have also played a role in this....I think

But alas...after drinking 5 gallons of the smoking solution, I might be scratching my head in this state:

 

[MotorSeven]

Bleach mixed with ammonia can kill you.

Is it possible ammonia was in the bottles?

Later,
Dan

Negative....they are used exclusively for spring water.