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Basic advice for making colloidal silver with a simple home made generator ...

If you are making colloidal silver for regular HUMAN CONSUMPTION ALWAYS use high quality distilled, demineralised, deionised, or R.O. purified water. No exceptions ever! You'll probably have to buy it, but its not expensive. Water from simple 'under-sink' or bench top cartridge filters is not good enough. And never add anything to the water. Do not add salt or baking soda or any other impurity to the water to speed up the process. Increasing the conductivity of the water may dramatically increase the amount of silver dissolved into the water to undesirable levels. Any water that produces white mist soon after the power is applied is definitely no good! Read more about this on our 'Controversies' page.

The following method will at least produce colloidal silver with a useful silver content .

Start with a small clear glass jar - I suggest about 500mls until you become more experienced. (You can increase jar size considerably once you know what you are doing). The electrodes should be kept parallel, about 3 to 4 cm apart, and off the bottom of the jar. For your first few batches apply the power until the water develops a tiny bit of color. This may look silver, grey, pink, or yellow, but whatever color it is it should be almost imperceptible. (Stand a glass of clean water next to the brewing jar so its easier for you to detect the color change). Stir the water occasionally.

The time it takes will vary from about 30 minutes to hours depending on volume, voltage, water quality, temperature, electrode spacing and stirring. Switch off the power as soon as the water begins to change color. If this batch stays nearly colorless or turns very pale yellow overnight its OK to drink - but its not perfect. Ideally you should be trying to produce a batch that has an effective silver content but is clear and colorless. So if all else remains the same (volume, voltage etc) your next brews can be shortened by 5 or 10 minutes each time until you arrive at a brewing time that produces a nearly colorless batch. (But don't shorten it too much or you might have almost no silver in the jar). It takes a bit of practice but water is cheap. And if you make a really bad batch you can still use it as a topical spray. While the batch is brewing take notice of various indicators such as bubbles on the electrode, smoky tendrils falling from the bottom of an electrode or golden trails drifting from the electrodes. Observing and noting the time these appear will help you arrive at an optimum brewing time.

Any voltage from 6v to 36v DC will work fiine but the voltage you finally settle on will probably depend on the jar size and how impatient you are. Just experiment with different voltage until you find one that suits you. (A 12v AC/DC wall power adaptor or a couple of 9v batteries clipped together to make 18v will work fine for most jars).

Higher voltages give a fast result but generally speaking its best to slow the process by using low voltages and keeping the electrodes well spaced. Higher voltages make colloidal silver faster, but lower, slower, voltages make colloidal silver better - this is one reason why the Silver Well automatically, progressively, reduces the voltage from about 30 to 3 volts. Slower speeds also make the process a bit more predictable. The higher the voltage, the further apart the electrodes should be.

A bit of fuzz on the electrodes is normal. It's only the color of the water that's important.

(For more information about ions and particles theres a lengthy discussion at the bottom of the 'Making CS. FAQ's' page.)

IF YOU JUST WANT TO MAKE CS FOR ANIMALS, or external use, you can scale it up. These pics show CS being made in drinking glasses and small jars but you could just as easily use large jars or even a bucket... it will just take a bit longer. And for non human consumption you dont even need to use pure water, but bear in mind that impure water is far more electrically conductive than pure water so you will dissolve a lot of silver into the water very quickly. Be careful you don't over do it.

Power Supplies

To build a very basic generator you really only need a low voltage DC power supply and two silver wires to use as electrodes. Low voltage DC Power supplies are everywhere. The picture shows a few common types. All batteries are DC power supplies so they will do for a start. And most small transformers (also known as 'plug packs' and 'adaptors') are DC power supplies too. You probably have a half a dozen in your home right now. For example, the transformers you use to charge phones and cordless tools. Any battery or DC power supply from about 6 to 40v will work. Note: When using a small transformer make sure its 'DC output'. A few (not many) are AC output. AC output does not work.

ALL these transformers and batteries are CONSTANT VOLTAGE power supplies, so don't be impressed if someone offers a generator with 'constant voltage technology'. Don't confuse 'constant voltage' with constant current or CONTROLLED CURRENT as is used in a Silver Well Generator.

Single 9V Battery

This is about as small, simple, and cheap as a colloidal silver generator can get - but it will make colloidal silver as well (or as badly) as any other D.I.Y. generator on this page. With a battery and a few dollars in parts from a store like Altronics or Jaycar you will be ready to go. The only 'expensive' part is the silver wire. Don't let the silver wires touch or you will flatten the battery fast. You could also add a little light to one of the wires to prevent short circuits. One opportunist on the internet is selling the 'Plans' to build this generator for $5.

The common '3 nines' generator

In this set-up '3 nines' doesn't refer to the quality of the silver wire. It refers to the three nine volt batteries. Clipped together like this they make 27 volts. (Higher voltages make colloidal silver faster). You can also clip on a fourth battery if you wish and make a 36v system, or remove a battery to make 18v. (You probably never realised this but 9v batteries clip together like LEGO).

Note. The rapidly developing white cloudy look indicates the glass at left contains ordinary tap water instead of pure water. Thats definitely no good . You must use distilled or demineralised water. (Distilled water might go greyish after a while but it doesn't go white.)

BELIEVE IT OR NOT one rip-off merchant in the US was actually selling the 'plans' to make this generator for $45 (Thats just for the plans). Or complete 'ready made' generators for $180 US. That's about $240 Australian! And he was including 'electrolyte tablets' (probably just salt tablets) to boost the conductivity so it would work faster. Thats just plain reckless - it produces a mass of silver chloride.

DC Wall Adaptor or Transformer

Here's a basic setup using an old cordless drill charger with a couple of alligator clips attached to the end. The block holding the silver wires is simply a strip of electrical connectors from an electronics or hardware store.

Using a wall transformer like this saves batteries but in terms of performance theres no difference between this and an ordinary battery of similar voltage.

9999+ Silver 18cm Straight Electrodes........$50 a pair

If you still want to make your own simple generator, you've probably already got everything you need except silver wire. We have straight 7" (18cm) 12 gauge* (2.05mm) 99.99% silver electrodes. This is top quality wire... the same stuff we use in our own generators.

DELIVERY WITHIN AUSTRALIA IS FREE.

(*Precious metals use AWG gauge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge)

Bigger isn't always better...

Here's a basic set-up using a $40 Chinese-made transformer together with $3 worth of electrical wire and alligator clips. The big box looks impressive but it's just another transformer. The amperage (1.5 amps) is about 1000 times too high to make good colloidal silver. Ideally the current must be maintained at about 1 milliamp to produce the smallest particles but theres no automatic current control here. A cheap little wall plug transformer, or a 9v battery performs just as well as a whopper like this.

Someone locally is calling this a 'generator', adding some silver wire, and charging $139. They even say they are '100% Australian' and this thing is 'Australian assembled'. Well I guess attaching the alligator clips could be called 'assembly'. Until recently they also tried to claim it was 'current protected so the current won't increase and produce big particles'. But that was just blatant rubbish. The only current protection in this is meant to stop the transformer from going over its rated limit of a whopping 1.5 amps and burning out. There's absolutely nothing but water resistance stopping it from cranking out its full 1500 milliamps (and big particles begin to be made at just a few milliamps)

The truth is this is just an ordinary DC transformer, that would normally be used to power a kids train set or some electronic project. It has absolutely no features that are specifically designed for colloidal silver production.

Fork Connector

This is just another way of connecting the silver wires to a $10 transformer.

Adding a light bulb to prevent short circuits

Adding a light to one of the leads from the battery or transformer will indicate if the silver wires have accidently touched causing a short circuit. It will save the battery from going flat too quickly, or the transformer from burning out if the wires touch.

Adding a multimeter to show the current

This set-up uses a 9v 350 milliamp power supply. A multi-meter added to one of the leads will show the current flowing between the silver electrodes. Here at the start of batch, in very pure water, its just one tenth of a milliamp. It will increase as silver ions are released into the water. Ideally it should be limited and maintained at one milliamp, but without any form of current control it can rapidly accelerate (beyond a milliamp) and produce more oxide fuzz than ions.

Current limiting circuit

Heres a simple circuit posted in the files of the old Yahoo colloidalsilver2 discussion group by a good man known as 'Herx13'. (Click the picture to enlarge it). This circuit will limit the current to a few milliamps depending on the resistor you chose. Most 'bought' systems don't even have a basic current limiter like this. Limiting the current means the batch takes much longer but the particle size is smaller and the batch is more stable. (Of course it still won't switch off automatically like a Silver Well does.)

An aquarium bubbler or small pump to stir

A stirring system is an excellent addition to a home made kit. An aquarium bubbler or pump is popular for this purpose. There is some debate about whether introducing air and air-borne dust into the system is a good idea, but at least a bubbler is easily installed, reliable and reasonably cheap. This set-up also uses a simple 'wall plug' power supply, and the silver wires have been mounted tidily into the lid of a jar.

BUYER ALERT #1

Battery powered generators are commonly advertised on the internet. You'll see these basic set-ups everywhere, advertised for anything from about $35 to $200 including overpriced silver wire. The batteries are always hidden in a plastic box. Sometimes a little wall transformer will also be offered as an option to bypass the batteries. Either way, they never show you what's actually IN the box. People trust the sales pitch about how easy it is to make colloidal silver and buy one of these simple set-ups. Then they spend the next 2 months on a colloidal silver discussion group asking questions about why their CS doesn't look like they thought it would, or is it safe to drink. And pretty soon they also start wondering if they are making anything useful at all. Obviously that's not a happy situation to be in. The fact is that making colloidal silver IS easy, but making GOOD colloidal silver isn't. Before you choose a generator have a good think about what you want to achieve and whether a basic generator like this can deliver the goods. The Silver Well Generator is not the cheapest system but it makes high quality colloidal silver easily and automatically. It's a true 'set and forget' system that will allow you to make and drink colloidal silver every day with minimum fuss and maximum confidence.

BUYER ALERT #2

Re-labelling inexpensive AC/DC adaptors (commonly called transformers) and selling them as generators is another popular 'scheme'. The setup at left is actually being sold in New Zealand for about $150.