RO/DI water left exposed to air in my house accumulates ammonia. Why?

[callmesaul8889]

If the ammonia rises faster near a wall than in the center of the room, I would start suspecting that wall.

 

 

That's a good point. I'll start testing near walls vs middle of the room.

 

 

Also, one of the members of another forums claims to be having the same problem I'm seeing. They also live in a warm, humid area and they're suspecting mold as well. I bought a 5 minute mold detection kit along with lab sample, so we'll see where this leads.

[FlowLikeWater]

RO/DI water is already a magnet for impurities and i bet with the humid air it just makes it that much easier to bond to your pure water contaminating it.

I would not rule out mold yet, but did the previous owners have pets? a messy puppy, a house cat or an exotic bird would leave traces of ammonia around a house, especially in the carpet and potentially on the exterior of your walls.

You may benefit from an air purifier, but i personally would hunt for the source. I would imagine long term breathing / being exposed to this yourself is not the best thing for you, forget the bucket of RO water.

 

Have you tried this experiment with mixed saltwater? and it still reads ammonia? ( only asking because saltwater isn't as "pure" as RO/DI and may not pull contaminants. )

[callmesaul8889]

RO/DI water is already a magnet for impurities and i bet with the humid air it just makes it that much easier to bond to your pure water contaminating it.

I would not rule out mold yet, but did the previous owners have pets? a messy puppy, a house cat or an exotic bird would leave traces of ammonia around a house, especially in the carpet and potentially on the exterior of your walls.

You may benefit from an air purifier, but i personally would hunt for the source. I would imagine long term breathing / being exposed to this yourself is not the best thing for you, forget the bucket of RO water.

 

Have you tried this experiment with mixed saltwater? and it still reads ammonia? ( only asking because saltwater isn't as "pure" as RO/DI and may not pull contaminants. )

 

 

I completely agree about hunting for the source. To answer your questions, yes the last owners had pets and they definitely ruined the carpets in a few specific areas. Just to clarify, only our upstairs is carpeted (that's 3 bedrooms and a small hallway) and the stains are only in the small hallway area, so about 10-20 square feet.

 

When we moved in, we treated the stains with a heavy duty shampooer vacuum and pet stain and odor removal. Then we had all of the carpets professionally cleaned and sanitized. All of the stains ended up coming back up through the carpet, but there is no more odor.

 

I haven't ruled out the carpet just yet, but I don't see how there's any way to test it without just blindly replacing it. Ammonia test strips aren't reacting to the carpet, and the area of the house that seems to be seeing a larger concentration is downstairs where everything is hard wood.

 

 

One really interesting point: I put a water sample in my neighbor's house since our houses were built at the same time by the same builder and found traces of ammonia. The neighbor's house was taken care of much more meticulously than ours, and I don't think they have any indoor pet stains or accidents. I left the water there for a 48hr test to see if the ammonia accumulates in the same ways as in my house. I think that points to either building/construction materials, mold, or sewer gases. The investigation continues.

Also, I'll mix up some saltwater and leave it out and see if it collects ammonia. I might bring in some saltwater from a cycled bucket and see if it nitrifies the ammonia as another test.