Trailhead Supply EDTA Recall Alert Stan Krute In HP#21, I wrote about my experiences using EDTA from the Sigma Chemical Company to help revive tired lead-acid batteries. After the article, on page 39, Richard Perez gave some EDTA access data: three suppliers we had spoken to who said they were selling the same 99.5% pure tetrasodium salt: hydrate EDTA that we had used. A few weeks ago, I received phone calls from two HP readers who had ordered their EDTA from one of those suppliers, Trailhead Supply. They both said that their EDTA had not dissolved in water. It should have, as my article pointed out. One reader sent me the EDTA he had purchased from Trailhead. His EDTA smelled roughly like mine (pee-yoo !!!), but looked different: mine was like dry white sugar, his like rougher wet white sugar. I heated up two quarts of distilled water to 125ø Fahrenheit, put it into two clean mason jars, added 12 Tablespoons of my Sigma EDTA to one, and 12 Tablespoons of the Trailhead EDTA to the other. My EDTA dissolved in 38 seconds. The Trailhead EDTA settled to the bottom of its container, and sat there for a day, until I disposed of it. Karen Perez and I both spoke with Kent Scott of Trailhead Supply. He receives his EDTA from a local chemical distributor in bulk, then repackages it. That's how he can offer a price that's half the price of the other two suppliers we listed in HP#21. His first bulk batch had been fine, he said. It was from the CIBA Company, and was 99% pure. For the second batch, he said, he asked the chemical distributor to get him something that was 99.5% pure. He received it in an unmarked, unlabeled bag. He shipped out about 25 pounds of it, he said. After receiving complaints, he had found out what I had: it was not the right stuff, and wouldn't dissolve. He said he'd added some to a battery, and had noticed no ill effects. He said his distributor was trying to figure out what it was Trailhead had been given. He is now using the CIBA EDTA again. Kent said he will send the CIBA EDTA to anyone who received the funky mystery material. He does not have records of everyone who bought the bad batch, so said he was happy to have HP print a recall notice, which we are doing. So: if you ordered EDTA from Trailhead Supply, and it doesn't dissolve in water, get in touch with them. DON'T ADD IT TO YOUR BATTERIES !!! My own thoughts here: Kent seemed like a nice enough fellow. He wants to make good on the bad EDTA. And his EDTA price is less than anyone else's by half. I assume he will no longer ship out chemicals that come to him unlabeled. For myself, though, I'll continue to pay the extra bucks and get my EDTA from a supplier who will ship it in the original labeled chemical company container. This may be superstitious of me, but, hey, we're dealing with batteries here, the sine qua non of pseudo-science. Access: Stan Krute, C/O Home Power, POB 130, Hornbrook, CA 96044.