If you use much colloidal silver, you know it’s quite expensive. Learn how to make it at home, so you can have lots of colloidal silver cheap!
I am not a doctor. This is in no way advice for you or a claim about any health products, I am simply sharing my experience with colloidal silver, and how I make it.
I started making colloidal silver a couple of years ago, after a friend recommended it when we were all sick with a bad cough. We have been really happy with how much it helps our coughs when we add a little to the humidifier, but it’s so expensive I felt like I needed to ration it.
Now that I make my own, I can use it liberally. In fact, I even use it for cleaning!
My sister was a little skeptical about colloidal silver until one day when she cut a bunch of jalapenos with her bare hands (I don’t recommend that). Her hands were burning, and no amount of washing was helping. She poured some in sandwich bags and stuck her hands in and found immediate relief.
These are just 2 of the ways we use colloidal silver. There are so many more, but since I’m not giving medical advice, I’ll just say to use a search engine that isn’t the main one, to find more information on the uses.
Once you decide you want to start using colloidal silver, you’ll find that you can make it for a very low cost, and then brewing it only costs pennies!
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How to store colloidal silver:
If I’m planning to use it quickly, I just leave it in a glass canning jar. However, if you’re concerned that it might go bad, you can definitely store it in an amber glass bottle like this one, to keep it from sunlight.
How to make Colloidal Silver
If you use much colloidal silver, you know it's quite expensive. Learn how to make colloidal silver at home, so you can have lots of colloidal silver cheap!
Materials
- Printer cord **(See Note #1)
- Alligator clips
- Wire stripper or box cutter
- Wire cutters
- Sterilized quart canning jar
- Distilled water
- [.999 Silver rod **(See Note #2) ]
Instructions
- Cut the end off the printer cable (the end that would connect to the printer), and strip the wire down a little ways. Put alligator clips on the exposed ends.
- Cut the silver rod to two pieces about 6 inches each. Bend the end of each piece similar to a candy cane and attach an alligator clip.
- Add distilled water to sterilized quart jar.
- Hang the silver pieces over the edge of the jar, keeping them on opposite sides of the jar.
- Plug in, and start a timer. It takes about 1 hour for me, but the first time you make it you'll want to stop at about 30 minutes and taste test it (make sure to unplug it!), and then stop every 10 minutes to check again. If it starts to taste metallic, you know it's slightly overdone. It's still usable, but next time do 5 minutes less so it's more palatable. Once you know how long it takes, you can just set the timer and let it do it's thing.
**If you accidentally forget about it and overbrew it (ahem... I've done that more than I like to admit) you can still use it for cleaning. It will still be usable, but it probably won't taste so great.
Notes
Note #1: To make colloidal silver, you need an old printer cord that has about 32V output. It will say this on it somewhere. I just asked around to see if anyone had a printer that had died, and got an HP one. It will be an AC power adapter.
Note #2: You also need silver rods. I got mine from Rio Grande (you can click the link in the list of materials to find what I bought. It is not an affiliate link, just a direct link to help you find it easier). You want pure silver, so a jewelry making company is the way to go since they offer .999 silver. I ordered 2 pieces of 12 gauge that were 1 foot long each, and that cost around $15 altogether, but one piece has lasted me a year, so one should do.
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Thanks so much for making this post. It’s straight forward and easy to follow.
I have ordered silver rod from the same place, I ordered 1 meter length since I live in Australia and want it to last a while!
I will update when I have made my first batch!
I hope it works out great for you, Ruth! It has been such a money saver for us. Instead of feeling like I needed to ration the colloidal silver, I now use it whenever I want!
I was wondering can I use 1mm silver wire as I’ve search the net for 12 gauge (2mm) the price jumps double fold. I’m in Australia. Even if I twist 2x 1mm together will either of these work?
You can use a smaller gauge wire, but it will be used up much more quickly. Heck, you could probably even use old coins if they were real silver. I’d say use what you can afford. If that’s 1 mm, go with that.
The colour of the water shows the potency of the colloidal silver it should have a slight yellow colour to it, not be clear like water and it will continue to darken for a bit once you have removed the rods this normal x
Can you use ionized water for this?
I’m not familiar with ionized water. I recommend using distilled water.
If you have an old silver coin pre 1960,put it in a glass of water overnight,done,drink it in the morning. Advise from my homeopathic dr
How many times can you use said coin?
I just set m8ne up about an hour ago, and the Rods have turned black. Is this normal?
Robert MacFarlane
That usually means that there are minerals in your water. Did you use distilled water?
I have used distilled water and my rods are turning black too. I’m about an hour in and at 8 ppm.
Is this normal?
Clean your rods once they turn black, its normal oxidation, as time goes on you will have to clean the rods more often. Mine turns out a nice amber colour.
This is awesome, thank you so much! I have been wanting to do this for years. I keep looking at the CS generators that cost anywhere from $100-$250 and I knew there was a way to just buy my own adapter, I just wasn’t sure what it was called.
How do you know the ppm of the final product?
Hi there,
How much of the precios batch do I use as a starter to make my next quart of colloidal silver and for how long approximately , one hour or less?
Thank you
PS. Mine is for a quart .
J
I use about an inch for the next batch, and for me it takes less than an hour, but I just timed it the first time, checking often, and then once I figured out how long mine needs, I set a timer. So many variables can affect how long it takes, so that’s probably your best bet.
Hello, thank you for this tutorial! How do you determine ppm?
My colloidal silver has some silver sediment in it after brewing is done. Is this normal?
It is normal, however it means you overbrewed it a bit. It’s still fine to use, but you can cut the time slightly the next time you make some.
Thanks for you time on this matter and aswell the great information this blog has. My question is that, my silver rods have alot of build up. I’m using a ppm reader. It is taking a long time to produce. Such as all day adventure. And I cannot get it to 20ppm. It plains at 15ppm and then drops when its stopped/ generator is not on. I have used 2 different generators and different rods aswell with the same result. The distilled water reads zero ppm initially.
Jesse, I’ve never used a ppm reader. The person I learned to make colloidal silver from doesn’t believe they’re all that accurate, so we’ve made it by taste instead. It really shouldn’t take as long as it has been taking for yours, so you may consider brewing by taste instead.
I have a 28V 500mA Switching Power Supply, would that work? Thanks,
How much water do you put in? To the top or half way?
Many thanks
I fill it to basically the top of the jar, Staycee.
Thank you so much for the tips! Amazon wants $70 for a couple 10ga 8in rods and $160 for a generator. Your tips only cost me $30 for 12in rods including shipping. I was buying pre-made colloidal silver in a small bottle for $30. This is a much better deal.
Yay! I’m so glad it was helpful for you! After the first jar or two, it’s practically free.
Thanks for all this information! I can’t believe I didn’t know about making my own colloidal silver for years. Oh the money I could of saved! Lol
My question, I’m purchasing all my pieces right now. And I saw the alligator clips you recommend on Amazon. But in your picture it shows a black protecrive cover on your wire to alligator clips. What did you use for that?
Thanks!
I bought my alligator clips locally, and they came with a red clip and a black clip. If you’d prefer the ones that are colored, you can buy them here, but it doesn’t affect their use at all. https://amzn.to/489IAbi
Could you use a Battery as the electric charge, it has 2 terminals, and what size would you need ? If I made a Gallon instead of a quart, what would the approximate brewing time be ?
I haven’t ever used a battery, so I’m not sure how that would work. I also don’t brew more than a quart at a time. After brewing the first quart, I use about a cup of that brewed colloidal silver in my next quart, and for me, that gets me a quart done in about 40 minutes.
Yeah batteries do work. I’m brewing up some colloidal silver right now. The set up I have is 4 9-volt batteries. I connect them together and stack them one over the other and use battery connectors with alligator clips to the positive and negative ‘snaps’ remaining. I then clip them one to each silver wire. I just usually find something at the same height as my jar that I’m using and to hold the batteries up without causing strain to the clips on the wire. Ideally you want to see silver ‘smoke’ coming off the silver. If it turns to black and starts crumbling off you want to unclip the batteries from the silver and clean the silver off. I use a green scrub square that you find in the detergent aisle in the grocery store. I also filter my water with 3 or for coffee filters stacked inside each other into another clean jar, sterile jar. I typically use a bit of distilled water to swirl around inside the jar to help remove any mineral deposits from the tap water used to wash the jar and then I dry with a paper towel. Then I restart the process again. You want your silver to at least have a yellowish tint. And use red laser pointer to check for particulates. When your colloidal silver is done you’ll see a solid red beam shining through your jar.
Thank You so much. My Pap made this for my Dad and I heard of many ways this helps and what it does. It’s even cured bronchitis over night. I’m excited to stay brewing and plan to use batteries the way you’ve explained. I read a post somebody else left stating they use a silver coin and let it soak in the water overnight, but my Dad described my Pap using a Mason jar, he filled a little over half full with water, a silver ingot, then hooking up and type of wires for electricity to”Shock” it. It also helped heal a person’s ankles that were shattered from a 3 story drop landing on their feet. They hadn’t been able to walk for a year until they soaked clothes in Pap’s silver water. Within two days they were limping around.
Thank you, again.
Wow, what interesting experiences! It’s definitely good stuff!
I save a qt of solution to use as a starter for my next gallon. Is this recommended or will it brew the same starting with just distilled water? The solution is getting a yellow tint from over brewing the last time and want to start fresh . The directions that my machine came with said to use a qt of cs as a starter and fill the rest of gallon up with distilled water then save a qt when done for next batch.
It’s useful to use a starter for your next batch, but I’m not sure an entire quart is necessary. Just FYI, it will brew even faster when mixing in some of an old batch, so be careful not to overbrew.
As colloidal silver sits in the pantry in an amber jar does it turn a light yellow?
That can happen, but it usually means it was slightly overbrewed. It’s definitely still usable, but will have a more bitter flavor.
I have an Enagic water machine. Can I use the Clean water from that? Distilled water is dead water and I’m not putting that in my body.
I’m not sure how it would work with your water. The reason for distilled water is that if there are any minerals in the water, the silver plus the minerals ends up making a darker, strong tasting colloidal silver, instead.
Thank you for the guide.
Can you provide more information on the power cord? I read your note saying it had to be a 32 Volt output. I don’t know a lot about printer cords. Would it be just a standard printer cord? I am looking at my printer cord and it doesn’t state any output. It does say 300V on the cord, and 13 A 125 volt on both plug-ins (for the wall and printer itself).
Most of the time, the AC power adapter of the printer cord will have the specifics on it. It looks like a small box, and the thinner cord that goes to the printer comes out of one end of it, and the thicker cord that goes into the outlet comes out of the other side. On mine, the writing is black on black, so kind of hard to see, and it has Input and then Output listed. So it isn’t on the actual cord itself, but on the back of the AC power adapter. I hope that helps, Craig.
hello and thank you for this tutorial. I don’t have an old printer cord so I used a cord from an old single serve coffer maker. It say 120v on the machine. will this cord be too strong? I am using 3 9v batteries as power source. Also, How do I know when it is done? I have never used colloidal silver to know what it should taste like. Thank you in advance for your help.
How do you attach the alligator clips to the wire? Just wrap it?
It will depend on the alligator clips that you bought. For most of them, you’ll insert the stripped wire, and then crimp the clip, which holds the wire in place. If you google “how to attach alligator clips to wire,” you’ll be able to find videos that can walk you through the process. I hope that helps, Jessica!
Does the signs of the moon have anything to do with when you should make this?
It’s possible, but I’ve never really delved into how the moon affects things like this.
Thank You so much for this information.
You’re welcome, Tammy!
What does the water look like while it is brewing? Is it supposed to bubble or anything? Mine looks like its not doing anything lol!!
Amanda, it won’t look like anything is happening, most of the time, so that’s completely normal! In fact, if you start seeing the water change color or anything like that, it likely means you’ve brewed it too long. At that point, it’s still usable, but it won’t taste good so I use my accidental overbrews for cleaning.
Is there a way to measure how potent your colloidal silver is?
I use a PPM meter. First to test my distilled water then after a hour a turn power off and check the colloidal silver solution till it’s close to 10PPM ( read 20PPM is about max that is safe for consumption)
How many times can you repeat the procedure with the same silver rod? How do you determine that it cannot be longer used?
You can continue using the same rod until it is gone. One silver rod has lasted me more than a year.
From what I’ve read, you can measure the parts per million of silver in your colloidal silver by using an electrical conductivity meter and multiply the reading by 1.1 to get a fairly accurate measurement. However, I don’t measure mine.
Hi,if the generator runs for too long is it ok to simply strain it? If particles form would it be wrong to strain and use the liquid as normal?
No, you wouldn’t be able to strain it. However, the liquid is still usable. It would taste quite bad, so I would use it for cleaning.
Could you dilute it?
Yes, you could dilute it, but it just depends on what you’re wanting to do with it. I typically use it undiluted.
Hi. Thank you for your blog and info ! I’m in Oklahoma and was looking for this info;)
I’m so glad it’s helpful! It’s made such a difference for me to make it myself, so I’m no longer having to ration how much we use!
I got a build up of something on my silver rod, do you know what it could be?
Sandra,
It could be 2 things. Most likely it’s a build up of silver. In that case, it just indicates that you brewed it slightly too long.
The second thing it could be is minerals, and that would indicate that your distilled water wasn’t actually distilled.
Neither would be too big of a deal, and wouldn’t hurt the colloidal silver. I hope that’s helpful!
Hi,
Thanks for the great guide. Should the buildup be cleaned (how) from the rod once or is it ok to continue using it without cleaning?
Thnx
It is fine to keep using it even if there’s buildup. If the buildup bothers you, you can use a scrub brush or scouring pad to remove it.