Quote:
Originally Posted by rowingone
Why not deionized water . .it is just water with the impurities removed . .wont hurt anything!
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Not so...
Distilled water & De-ionized water are two different animals
Distilled Water
Typically what is easily found in 1gal jugs in grocery stores. You want to run Distilled water in your radiator (and batteries if you have the lead/acid liquid type that can be filled) because it is essentially tap water with all the solid impurities/minerals removed. While some ions related to the solid impurities will be removed in the distillation process; it is still ionized (charged).
If not removed, the minerals can:
- Build up in your cooling system & impair flow over time
- Can be corrosive to internal engine components
- Can cause a more rapid depletion of the anti-corrosion additives found in antifreeze
Typical Distillation process involves boiling tap water & then condensing the steam into another container - leaving all the solid minerals/residue behind.
De-ionized Water
Or 'non-conductive' water, is also a purification process, but not typically found on the shelf at your local grocery store. It involves a different process wherein typically the water is passed thru 1 or 2 columns that are filled with resin beads that remove ions (cations/anions) from the water.
While Distilled/De-ionized water is purer than just Distilled water, DI water is not optimum to run in cooling systems. Because the DI water lacks ions, it wants to 'get the ions back' essentially pulling/disolving/leaching the ions from any adjacent surfaces (such as the metals in your cooling sysyem) - this removal of ions from metal causes corrosion - actually 'eating' the metal.
Metals typically affected include aluminum, copper, & even some grades of stainless steel.
Best way of selecting water to use in your cooling system would be by testing/knowing it's PH value (which is actually related to the ions present in the water). Optimum water to use would have a PH of 7 - which is considered 'neutral'. But selecting water in this way is normally not what the everyday person would do...
In the industry I am in - we employ many different types of cooling systems to remove heat from ultra hi temp reactors/furnaces (400 to 2100 Deg C). At one point, employees were mistakenly filling the cooling reservoirs with DI water from the hi grade system in the Lab - thinking that was best because it was the 'purest'. It only took months to go by before we started noticing numerous leaks at O-ringed interfaces between metal components of the cooling system. When torn down & inspected - the aluminum & stainless surfaces were heavily corroded & eaten away.
Chemists advised not to use DI water for the reasons I stated above - after switching to ONLY Distilled water (and all new metal components) - there has never been another problem...