Normally when making a batch of 320 ppm colloidal silver I add the gelatin to the water and turn the hot plate on right after I add the gelatin. I wait till the gelatin blooms and turn on the stirrer and as soon as the water looks clear I add the electrolyte and Karo/alcohol blend and then put the electrodes with holder on the beaker, set the SilverTron for the 320 ppm / 250 ml run and adjust the cathode to the correct voltage.
On my latest batch, I got involved doing something else while the gelatin was stirring and forgot about it for about 45 minutes. All of that time the hot plate was running and got the water up to the full temperature that I had preset the heater dial at. When I remembered that I had started a batch, I continued as usual and started the run. I normally clean the cathode at the 50% mark on the green progress bar. When I pulled the electrode holder off of the beaker and cleaned the cathode, I noticed there was much less black buildup on the cathode than what I have become accustom to seeing. What I cleaned off of the cathode looked gray instead of the usual black and there was notably much less of this deposit. I checked the anode and it looked cleaner than what I am used to seeing at the halfway point so I rotated the bar 180 degrees without cleaning and continued the run. At the end of the run both electrodes were noticeably cleaner than what I have come to expect at the end of the run. Another thing I noticed was that the voltage seemed more stable with only an adjustment or two to the cathode depth during the entire run. Normally I have to adjust the cathode 3 or 4 times during a run.
I am assuming that the reason for this difference over previous batches is that the entire batch ran at the full temperature for the full run from beginning to end instead of gradually heating up as the batch progressed.
My question then is whether it is better to get the water up to full temperature before starting the run or does it really matter in terms of colloidal silver quality?
Art