Distilled Water and Corrosion

[John H.]

Re: Again Roy, Where do you find this stuff...?

All of the OEM's make it quite clear in their owner's manuals these days - "Use only distilled or de-ionized water or cooling system corrosion damage may result which may not be covered by your warranty."

[Joe L.]

Re: Again Roy, Where do you find this stuff...?

John, Steve and Charles------

Yes, I believe that the reason that the OEM requirement for distilled or de-ionized water is made is that there's such a wide variety of water quality present in municipal supply systems. With the better water quality systems, such as those we have in northern California and those in the New York City area, for example, there's really not much benefit to using distilled or de-ionized water. For the purposes of standardization and making CERTAIN that the water used is acceptable, the distilled or de-ionized requirement is made.

It's NEVER a problem to use distilled or de-ionized water as long as it's used in mixture with ethylene glycol. For any modern cooling system it's always used with ethylene glycol. In most cases, unless you know that your municipal supply water is pristine, the best bet is to use distilled or de-ionized water.

By the way, distilled or de-ionized water is, essentially, the same thing. Distilled water is produced using a steam distillation procedure. De-ionized water is produced using a mixed bed or sequential bed (anionic and cationic) resin. The result of either process is water which is extremely free of any dissolved materials.

[Clem Z.]

what about the clorine in treated city water ?? *NM*

[Roy B.]

Re: To help keep your radiator cavitie free *NM*

[Mike M.]

Re: To help keep your radiator cavitie free

flouride, not chlorine, prevents cavities. mike

[Rick S.]

Re: To help keep your radiator cavitie free

So the burning question in the Detroit area, with one of the best fresh water systems in the nation, should we use tap water?

Merry Christmas,
Rick

[Joe L.]

Re: what about the clorine in treated city water ?

clem-----

There should not be more than a few ppm of chlorine residual in municipal water supply. That shouldn't have any significant effect on anything.

[Roy B.]

Re: Right Flouride teeth-Clorine hot tub *NM*

[Wayne K.]

How about water captured by a dehumidifier ? *NM*

[Joe L.]

Re: How about water captured by a dehumidifier ?

Wayne------

THEORETICALLY, that water should be pure (it's atmospheric moisture which has been "distilled" out of the atmosphere). In PRACTICE, a lot of this water that I've seen seems to be a bit contaminated. Likely, this occurs because of contamination that occurs in the collection process. Also, there are other things in the atmosphere which "condense out", too. Still, the water will be very low in total dissolved solids (TDS) and that's, primarily, what you're after for coolant water. However, commercial steam distilled or de-ionized water is very available and quite inexpensive.

[Wayne K.]

Re: How about water captured by a dehumidifier ?

Joe,

Thanks for your response. I use captured water for house plant watering and had used it years ago in cooling systems never having any issues but I've been using distilled water for many years now. My wife's iron calls for spring water but I would think that distilled would be better. Any thoughts on that one?

Wayne

[Joe L.]

Re: How about water captured by a dehumidifier ?

Wayne-----

Distilled water would be better for a steam iron than "spring water". "Spring water" could have a very highly variable TDS content, depending upon the characteristics of the particular spring. Some springs might be very close to distilled water; others might have very high TDS.