Sodium Acetate (heat Pack Crystals) Easy Instuctions No Special Equipment Needed.

Instructions for perfect purified crystals every time, no fancy filters needed, no brown goey stuff to process, straight to crystals from boiling.

Step 1: Ingredients

Perform at own risk, boiling fluids, dont boil down vinegar first.(acid)

Pictures are a triple recipe..not much acetic acid in vinegar
2 tablespoons baking soda
900 ml distilled white vinegar 5% acetic acid
coffee filters
stainless steel or glass boiling vessel
funnel for filtering

I used 3 times the amount and boiled on the stove in large pan until small enough left to fit into my beaker (about 500 ml) boil to 250 ml if tripling recipe

put baking soda in pan first! this does not froth over as much
add vinegar to it slowly until all is added, slowly to avoid frothing over.

you will boil most of the vinegar away

Step 2: Making It (picture Is of Next Step)

You are going to boil it down to 75 to 100 ml(endpoint will be 250 ml if triple recipe). it will take a while
as its boiling if solution goes cloudy add vinegar to clear it
If, or when, you see flakes coming out of solution this is unreacted reactant, add more vinegar (it wants more acetate ion)

put coffee filter into a funnel.

solution should eventually turn a darker brown from tan when its close to enough vinegar added,

Start testing a little before end volume is reached

I use a small glass bottle to test for end point.
Crystals will be small clear slivers not tan flakes,

remove small amount of solution (1tsp), put into small bottle with a toothpick, let it cool if it makes small amount of little crystals you are close. I use a flashlight to look through test material.
If not keep boiling down.

Step 3: Endpoint and Filtering

repeat test with little bottle, pour out previous test material first:)

when you see many crystals forming, its at the end, save test crystals on small plate

pour solution through coffee filter into clean glass container.
cover to keep out dust.
place container in bowl of cool water to come down to room temp.
it should stay clear, if it goes goey brown not enough vinegar boil again. Also keep out dirt and contaminants.

when its room temp, drop in crytal from test material and watch it make beautiful crystals.
Most of solution should turn to crystals
Pour off excess liquid onto a coffee filter on a plate much of it will turn to crystals as it dries.

Step 4: Refining

I put crystals in a small plastic vacuum seal bag
Hold bag of crystals in boiling water, dont let water in
when re-liquified allow to cool to room temp, drop in test crystal
let harden and cool, pour of excess save excess as before,
you can repeat this step 4-5 times or as needed until its one solid crystal when it crystalizes. The liquid will be mostly clear at this point ( no fancy filtering ever needed )

I did this experiment three times this weekend, triple recipe each time, it worked great every time. all other attempts previously I had not added enough vinegar.

boil down, add vineggar to clear,boil add, boil add you get the picture:) test test test theres the crystals done. If you get small yield of crystals it needed boiled down a little further.

Hope this helps Enjoy

Step 5: Alittle Extra Step to Dry Crystals

you might not have one of these pumps, but the important part is to dry off excess moisture for a perfect crystal. Just added this for extra knowledge, vacuum will boil off extra H2O water. :)