Where to buy KNO3 - Archive File

[megalomania]

myoungbhs03
New Member
Posts: 4
From: West Virginia, US
Registered: MAY 2001
posted 05-28-2001 12:23 AM
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I was wanting to know where i can buy some potassium nitrate at. I have called Wal-mart and some pharmacies but they do not have it. i live in WV so don't know if anyone would know. someone may have asked this before.
Thanks



PYRO500
Moderator
Posts: 1465
From: somewhere in florida
Registered: SEP 2000
posted 05-28-2001 01:15 AM
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I think you can get KNO3 at agricultural stores but I have not seen it at wallmart or anywhere for me, some insight into where people get their KNO3 from that live in the usa could be useful to some of us including me.
(next time post in the right section myoungbhs03 this is a warning)



c0deblue
Frequent Poster
Posts: 229
From:
Registered: JAN 2001
posted 05-28-2001 03:33 AM
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Last I checked, the local Ag Co-op didn't stock it but could get it in a day from the supplier - $23 for a 25 lb. bag (U.S. Mid-Atlantic region )


ALENGOSVIG1
Moderator
Posts: 766
From: Vancouver, Canada
Registered: NOV 2000
posted 05-28-2001 03:58 AM
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I have purchashed kno3, calcium nitrate, sulphur, 35% h202 and many more useful supplies from the local hydroponics supply store. all at good priced i'd say. 1 kilo of very pure kno3 cost me about $8.00. not bad for canadian dollars and very pure product.

[Evan007]

Im in Australia and I cant get any KN03 at all. Iv heard of people getting the stuff and many other usefull chemicals from Hydroponic stores, chemists and hardware stores but there are no hydroponic shops anywhere near me and when i ask at chemists they laugh and say "theres no way i dont think you can get that any more!" Along with that all the garden sections of Hardware shops, department stores,and warehouses dont have any helpfull chemicals of any kind (Pottassium nitrate, Ammonia Nitrate etc) all they have is pottash and things like that.
Does anyone have any tips, information etc on where i might be able to buy this stuff or any other things or even make a decent amount of it at a reasonable price.

I would appreciate any help

[blindreeper]

Why do people complain they can't get chemicals. Did you see my bunnings OTC survey. They didn't have KNO3 but the have lots of stuff!
It just so happend I got pics of my 50kg sack of KNO3 (http://www.geocities.com/blindreeper_chemistry/chemicalsynth3.html) the other night and put it up on my site!

Be sure to check the pages before it for other chems. There will be more!

EDIT: If you can't find a chemical you aren't looking hard enough so don't say "I can get KN03 at all" It's an O not a zero, the O is the chemical symbol for oxygen and the 3 after it means there are 3 oxygen atoms per molecule of KNO3

[T_Pyro]

Once all other sources fail, head for the laboratory supply stores in your city. If you're living in a city, there are bound to be schools. Schools have chem labs. Chem labs require supplies, including KNO3 (inorganic qualitative analysis), KMNO4 (Titrations), and various conc. acids. All of these can be found in chem supply stores. Just say you're doing "research", it works wonders for me! Just don't make your intentions obvious by the combination of chemicals you ask for. eg. KNO3 & S is a strict no-no

[Stone]

Evan007... Try bulk fertilizer suppliers. Goto the yellow pages site and look up fertilizer and see if any come up in your area :)

[Sonny Jim]

Have you thought of making KNO3?

I can think of two ways. You could add KOH to NH4NO3 and the following reaction will take place.

NH4NO3 + KOH ---> KNO3 + NH3 + H2O

This is a great procedure because the ammonia gas escapes and the liquid water can be easily driven away leaving pure KNO3, provided the correct molar amounts are used. The ratio of reactants is 1:1 so it's dead easy to calculate them.

If you can't get KOH, you can make that by adding KCl to NaOH. The products of the reaction

KCl + NaOH ---> KOH + NaCl

are quite hard to separate here, but a mixture of KOH and NaCl can be added to NH4NO3 and, provided you've calculated your amounts properly, yeild KNO3 and NaCl. The NaCl doesn't do anythng in the reaction, and now it is mixed with KNO3, can be gotten rid of since it is more water soluble at 0*C than KNO3.

The other way would be to add KCl straight to NH4NO3. I would do this by making two hot saturated solutions of each reactant and adding them together, then forcing cooling. You would induce the following:

NH4NO3 + KCl ---> KNO3 + NH4Cl

Ammonium chloride is still quite water soluble at 0*C (30g per 100ml), while KNO3 is not.

I have tried the first method but the second is just me theorising. Tell me if I'm wrong. :)

[Mendeleev]

I heard that stump remover made by a company called Green Light is potassium nitrate, but I don't know how pure it is. Green Thumb also sell 90% garden sulfur. Furthermore 13-0-46 ratio fertilizers are potassium nitrate, but I also don't know how pure these are. 13-0-46 fertilizer is marketed under a brand called Multi-K made by a company called Haifa Chemicals Ltd. I checked Home Depot and Lowes, and called several garden shops, but they didn't have it :eek:. However it is a big company, so I bet Home Depot or some other garden shop could order it for you. Also, Evan007 was saying how you can't get ammonium nitrate, but even Home Depot sells 34-0-0 fertilizer which is ammonium nitrate. The only question I have is how pure is all this stuff, the stump remover, the 13-0-46 fertilizer, and the 34-0-0 fertilizer :confused:? If you really want potassium nitrate, I suppose the easiest way would be to order it from a pyrotechnics company. Two good ones are www.skylighter.com and http://firefox-fx@firefox-fx.com/, but I prefer skylighter. Skylighter will sell pure potassium nitrate, potassium chlorate, sodium nitrate, and etc. to individuals. Their potassium nitrate is about $4-5 a pound, with a minimum order of five pounds. If all else fails, the anarchist cookbook says (sorry, I know I'm not supposed to talk about it) that one way to make KNO3 is to get a 5 gallon bucket and poke holes in the bottom. Then put a piece of fine cloth on the bottom, and spread a cup of wood ashes over it, put another piece of fine cloth on top of that, and three gallons of nitrogen rich soil on top of that (I bought topsoil at Lowes). Pour 2 gallons of boiling water and let it drain from the bottom of the bucket into a container. There will be a bunch of sludge at the bottom, simply pour the water out into a really large pan and get rid of the sludge. Boil the water for about 2 hours, until about half of it is gone. In the process salt should form. Scoop it out, this is not potassium nitrate. After half of it is gone let it sit for half an hour and then add a gallon of any type of alcohal and pour this through a filter (e.g. paper towels) the liquid will be gone, and there should be some small white crystals left of the paper towels. I do not how reliable this method it because I have never tried it. My AP chemistry teacher says the yield will be really low.

[Hang-Man]

I looked forever at every place you could think of. I found lots of stuff from 15% nitric acid to Bismuth but no KNO3. So I jumped on my computer and pulled some off E-Bay. Good stuff, and cheap(I orderd directly from the seller so e-bay dosn't have me registerd as ordering any). :)

[Sir Dudalot]

My local Rite-Aid orders my KNO3 in for me for free. It's expensive though ($4 for 6oz.). I'd like to buy some in fertilizer form but I'd probably get funny looks because it's fall and will be winter soon. I bought some stump remover once that I think was about 50% KNO3. I've been meaning to crush it then dissolve the KNO3, filter, then boil off the extra water so I can extract the KNO3 but I don't have a burner right now and I can't use the stove. The stump remover brand was "Dragon Stump Remover."

[Mendeleev]

There is a garden shop called Possum's about a 15 minute bike ride from my house, from which I ordered a couple of bags of 13-0-46 fertilizer. There are many products they don't have, but they can order all of them. I told the guy I was going to be starting a tomato and pepper garden in the spring and that I was doing research ahead of time. I made sure to sound like a complete idiot when asking about the fertilizer, so he would think I was some garden newb. If you ask for 13-0-46 make sure you say you are planting tomatoes and/or peppers, because that is what it is used for. He told me they didn't have 13-0-46 but they could order it, and in the meantime suggested alternate methods such as cotton compost and fish guts. I bought them so my story would be plausible. I really am starting a tomato patch in my backyard though... :cool:

[chochu3]

Did you ask for stump remover when calling Wal-Mart this has KNO3. It's of a good purity. Maybe a couple washes would do to get some of the yellow color out.

[tmp]

Need a 50 LB sack of KNO3 ? Checkout this link:

http://www.atlantishydroponics.com

$19.95 + shipping charges which includes a HAZMAT fee
of about $20 USD. Don't bitch - you've been warned !
Cost me close to $50 USD - well worth it !

Take it with a grain of salt, or a dose of your drug of choice !
Either way, you can't go wrong if you want quantity !
End of story !

Edit: Sir Dudalot, you're getting hosed by Rite-Aid !

[FUTI]

[/QUOTE]
The other way would be to add KCl straight to NH4NO3. I would do this by making two hot saturated solutions of each reactant and adding them together, then forcing cooling. You would induce the following:

NH4NO3 + KCl ---> KNO3 + NH4Cl

Ammonium chloride is still quite water soluble at 0*C (30g per 100ml), while KNO3 is not.

I have tried the first method but the second is just me theorising. Tell me if I'm wrong. :)[/QUOTE]

As far as I remember second method is fine and it will work. I think that Germans used that (or similar) method for KNO3 production during WWI. There was some problem with suplies and since KNO3 is better than NaNO3...they convert NaNO3 to KNO3 with KCl and....blah, blah. Keep the good work :)

[FrankRizzo]

Tmp,

You know, if online retailers would just send KNO3 and NH4NO3 via the USPS instead of UPS, they wouldn't have to pay an extra haz fee. Stupid.

Although, you really can't argue with $1/lb...

[tmp]

FrankRizzo, I re-checked 1 of my earlier posts. That 50 LB bag of KNO3
cost me $42.94 - just under 86 cents a LB. You're right - you can't
argue with that if you're willing to buy quantity. Besides, it saves money
for my fellow pyros also because we're willing to split the costs. Quantity
is always better ! I just wish ammonium perchlorate was as reasonable !
Anybody know where I can get that in bulk at a reasonable price ?

[randall]

if you only need small quantities and live where you can buy black powder, ive heard of extracting the KNO3 from bp. simply stirring it into water, filtering out the charcoal and sulfur, then adding an equal volume of denatured alchohol to the filtrate and filtering again should leave you with KNO3.

[shock_flame]

I have an update on the Atlantis Hydroponic bargain. Since the information given by tmp was nearly two years ago, I wanted to see if the 50 pound
KNO3 deal was still present. It turns out that it's no longer part of their regular stock. Almost every fertilizer there is now in gallon-sized liquid "blends", with the exception being a 5 lb. bag of Calcium Nitrate that cost $2.99.

The good news is this statement that they've posted this statement: If you don't see something you want, let us know and we'll get it for you.

Therefore, hopefully you can still obtain it by direct inquiry. I myself haven't tried this out, since I don't need 50 pounds of KNO3, but I wanted to let everyone know of this possibility.