Is there any merit to using distilled water in the cooling system?

 

Any water that contains no dissolved solids is fine for the cooling system (and battery). That can be distilled, deionized, or chemically treated water. Tap water with a high mineral content can cause or accelerate scaling in the cooling system.

 

Thanks Vader.

 

Tap water with all its crud is also supposed to be hard on a system when your running various metals in contact with coolant as it can act as an electrolite between the different metals.

 

I heard that using distilled water promotes ionization of the water, causing the water to become acidic sooner. I myself use distilled water though...

 

And distilled also rasies the boiling point of the pure water without any need for antifreeze. Tap water boils because of trying to cook out the impurities at 212*, whereas distilled water can go as high as 220* and higher before any boiling is realized-simply because it is free from the hard minerals and impurities.

and all the other reasons listed above. Not like it's pricey either, I get mine at Wal-Mart for a whooping $0.50/gallon, it's just the inconveinence of running across town to stock up that bites.

 

Lots of people here should have paid more attention in high school chemistry...

Pure water boils at 212 degrees F, at standard atmospheric pressure.

Distilled = pure

Therefore distilled water boils at 212 degrees F at standard atmospheric pressure. (that being the very definition of 212 degrees Fahrenheit.... 212 is pegged to the boiling point of pure water; 0 degrees is pegged to the lowest possible freezing point that can be obtained by adding salt; 32 degrees above zero is the freezing point of pure water; there are defined to be 180 degrees between freezing and boiling of pure water) Not 220 degrees. Tap water usually boils at some higher temp than that, because of the inpurities in it, which have a somewhat similar effect to that of anti-freeze on its boiling point.

Distilled = pure

Therefore it doesn't "promote ionization", or anything else. Pure water doesn't "become acidic", sooner or later; impurities (such as might be found in non-distilled water) might cause impure water to be, or become, acidic or basic, but pure water does nothing of the kind as long as it remains pure.

Distilled or otherwise purified water is best to use in a cooling system, because it's {drum roll please} PURE. {cymbal crash now please} Tap water in some places is ALOT less impure than others, but regardless of where you are, it always contains chlorine, usually fluorides, and of course whatever minerals might happen to come up out of the ground in it.

 

Hey sofa, calm yourself. I am not crazy....and you are not a chemist.



#2
I've typically used distilled water in the past. While working in the garage, I also typically
listen to 'Car Talk' from NPR on Saturday mornings. So, I was surprised when this subject was
addressed two Saturdays ago. The guys went through the process discussing what a typical
'system flush' should entail.

Apparently, they contacted an engineer with Zerex, I believe, to get technical information about
the process. More specifically, the engineer recommended AGAINST distilled water. Their
research showed that such mineral-less water actually had the effect of leeching (for lack of a
better term) minerals from the cooling system, which is detrimental. The water itself performs
the same, but there is a negative effect on the system using 'pure' water.

I guess I'll go back to good ol' tap water.

JP Rodkey
79 Euro


#3

Quite correct. Pure water is natures perfect solvent. The most aggresive of waters is RO (reverse
osmosis)whereby nearly all minerals have been extracted from the water(remember those old
biology classes about osmosis). Anyway, RO water tends to have a very low TDS rating (total
dissolved solids). If you know of anyone with an RO system for drinking water, notice that the
faucet is non-metallic. RO water loves to eat metal. FWIW

Regards,
Joe Rausa '89S4


#4
I'll bet they were refering to deionized (DI) water, not distilled water. DI water is created by
running tap water through a cation and anion collection bed. This produces purified water that
has a much greater negative charge due to the minerals (Ca, Mg, etc) with positive charge no
longering binding with and neutralizing the negative H2O charge. The only materials impervious
to DI water in plumbing applications are stainless steel and variants of PVC - it is highly
corrosive. Distilled water on the other hand still retains the electro-chemical bond with these
minerals, though suspended and disolved solids are removed - these being the stuff that causes
build-up in a cooling system.

Randy Venier
San Diego, CA


92



Found at http://www.928oc.org/tip/tip154.htm

 

Realpower, your sources certainly aren't chemists either.

 

Hey, like I said earlier, I use distilled water. I, however have heard from other people that it is bad. Just bringing up a point. No need for severe sarcasm.

 

Distilled water, 10-20% anti freeze and a bottle of Red Line Water Wetter in al my cars, no problems....!!

 

Like.... Car talk? Now there's some serious academic intellect for ya.

"I heard... " does not equal "it is a fact that... ". I have heard from other people that the Earth is flat, and the Sun and stars revolve around it. I think I'll go inform the Earth, as it doesn't seem to have "heard" that yet, and see if I can get it to alter its behavior.

 

No, I was thinking more along the lines of "{drum roll please}" and "{cymbal crash now please}".

Just because you say "It is a fact that..." doesn't mean that it is true. In fact, if someone proves it wrong, it makes you look even more stupid.

Could it be that eventually distilled water pulls minerals from the materials radiators, blocks, and water pumps are made out of? Yes, it is possible. Can I prove it right here right now? No. It was a thought.

I suggest you stop looking up the properties of water on encarta, and take your wannabe intellectual psycho-babble somewhere else.

 

Well I guess you get to have the last word. And that means you win, right?

Prove it. Until then, cut the drivel and superstition, and promoting it as reality. I'm quite certain that I can easily prove that pure water is better than tap water, with all its random impurities, for cooling system use. Starting with sources (maybe not as reliable as Click and Clack though) like factory service manuals, maybe even going back a hundred years. How about every other kind of cooling system with circulating water that's ever been invented, too? We can check those out as well.

Please prove that tap water, with whatever random impurities that any given sample from any given tap might contain, is better than PURE water, with CONTROLLEd and KNOWN additives as might be desired, for a cooling system. And I will then stop claiming that PURE water is better.

Meanwhile, if you can't prove it, stop claiming it.

I can't believe anybody would actually argue this.

 

I've never heard of any problems using tap water other than the occasional flushing.

 

Guess a simple way to think about this, especially for homeowners and really easy for those of us in the construction feild dealing with all aspects....water heaters.

Most homes get water straight from the ground via a well or through city water lines that treat the water and send it into our homes. Typically homes are not set up with a filtration system on city water so when water comes into the home it goes straight into the water heater. What happens, they have an anode rod internally that attracts the corrosive properties from the city water so it will eat away at the anode rod instead of the tank. Some of us drain our water heaters anually/bi-annually to flush out the sediment which comes from the nasty stuff in tap water. How many of you have a home or been in a home where you get a glass of water and see floaties swirling around in the glass? crap in the TAP water.

Now, some other of us have taken and installed water softeners into our main water line to filter water the before it hits any faucets, water heaters, water lines, etc...Consists of many filters (in good systems) and reverse osmosis, it's taking and purifing all the crap out of the typical tap water before it has a chance to booger up anything it comes in contact with....think about faucets you've seen with the green/yellow creep'n crud, installing a water softner literally eliminates those problems.

Now take your typical tap water, with what I've explained above and what do you think is going to happen inside your cooling system/battery??? Goggle any antifreeze site and I'm sure there are plenty of pictures of corrosin and it's no different than what takes place with your water heater in your home. Now that same water heater on purified/filtered water to get rid of the hard nasty stuff, will last MUCH longer with less sediment-simply because.....the junk is'nt present in the first place!!

If you want to get real ****, they do make anode metal you can install in your cooling systems so the nasties will attack it instead of the radiator.