No. They share the same base water and both are sterile in the sealed container, but bacteriostatic water contains 0.9% benzyl alcohol as a preservative and sterile water contains nothing but water. That one difference changes the packaging, the handling and the applications.
The differences
- Preservative: bacteriostatic water has 0.9% benzyl alcohol; sterile water has none.
- Container: bacteriostatic water comes in multi-use vials of 30 mL or less; sterile water comes in single-use vials and bottles of any size.
- After opening: bacteriostatic water is used for up to 28 days; sterile water is used once and the remainder discarded.
- Applications: bacteriostatic water is unsuitable for cell culture and UV-based analysis because of the preservative; sterile water is the choice there.
Can one replace the other?
Sterile water can replace bacteriostatic water if the vial is treated as single-use. Bacteriostatic water cannot replace sterile water where the preservative would interfere. When a protocol names one, use that one. The full comparison is in bacteriostatic water vs. sterile water; the container logic is in multi-use vs. single-use vials.
All BAC Water Supply products are supplied for laboratory research use only and are not for human or veterinary use.