So, I have used both before, no noticeable ill effects from either. I see Prestone mixes distilled water in their 50/50 coolant. Canadian Tire says Deionized water because they sell it. It is going in the big Autocity 2core aluminum rad which cools the 403 easily. Thoughts?

 

In your cooling system, you'll never see a difference between DI water and distilled water. Use whichever is less expensive. Frankly, I use tap water in mine.

 

I'm answering from my background as a Chemical Engineer.

Only specialized test equipment could detect any difference between distilled water and deionized water. They both exceed 4 nines purity.

As Joe said, for the purpose of mixing with coolant, they are identical.

The internet chatter has it that deionized and distilled water are bad for use in your engine because they will pull metal into solution. The reality is that the coolant manufacturers' additives prevent any problem of that type.

Those who choose to believe this should use soft water instead.

Gary

 

Our tap water is reverse osmosis, supposedly another can of worms.

 

Reverse osmosis water has a tiny amount of minerals. For use in diluting coolant, it will act the same as distilled or deioinized water.

 

as others said the water, whether it is distilled, hard, soft or DI will all have the same specific heat or heat capacity in cooling the engine.
Then you are down having a concern on any calcium, possibly other mineral build up. Since it is pretty much a closed system, (unlike a home water heater), what small amount of calcium from, (for example from hard water), you put in there will not continue to grow. We have pretty hard water here, and I can hardly ever see any build up my radiators.

 

I went with this combo.

 

Before I retired, when I could get a gallon of deionized water from the plant demineralizers every so often, DI is what I used. Now that I no longer have access I use grocery store distilled water- for coolant mix, wet batteries and even for the household steam iron. Looking at a HF steam cleaner and if I get it, it will use distilled.

May not make any discernible difference but if I can reduce mineral deposits in my stuff I'm all for it.

Softened water is ok but by its nature contains mineral salts. We called it "brine" in the high-pressure boiler world, and until we got the demineralizers used what was called an evaporator to turn the brine into boiler-quality water. Softened water went in, a steam heating coil heated it to boiling, then the vapor from boiling went into the boiler water supply while the concentrated salts were blown off to waste. Basically distillation.

 

X2 and a bottle of Water Wetter.

 

I agree w/ Gary as it pertains to water (plus coolant) used in an ICE.

The absolute benefit of employing de-ionized water is to remove free ions (negative [-] anions & positive [+] cations). Several methods can be employed to remove free ions - distillation & ion exchange resin columns are the most common in scientific laboratory settings. Distillation is rather straight forward (laborious/tedious) & takes forever to arrive at a de-ionized state while ion exchange resin columns require less labor & are far more accurate. There may be several scientific laboratory pieces of equipment I haven't used, but I've used most laboratory pieces of equipment from HPLC, TEM, SEM, Flow Cytometry...ad infinitum/ad nauseam. De-ionized H2O is really only required for absolute scientific analysis of samples and in the preparation of scientific samples - i.e. free ions are bad, bad things in sample preparations & data analysis.

Just for clarification (ONLY):

A mineral is a solid inorganic substance (ionic compound) whose atoms (molecular structure) are held together via ionic bonds. Laborious/Tedious distillation removes primarily solid inorganic substances. This is basically distilled water. Ions remain in distilled water.
De-ionized water, on the other hand, removes the constituent ions (anions [-] & cations [+]) from water - rendering the water incapable of conducting electricity. However, even store bought DI water would not be considered laboratory grade DI H2O.

It brings a tear to my eye watching students learn the difference between covalent bonds and ionic bonds in a chemistry laboratory. The lights go on (literally) when they find out covalent (bonded) compounds/substances (e.g. dissolved sugar) do not conduct electricity. Perform the exact same experiment but add NaCl (instead of sugar) to the de-ionized water and their eyeballs pop out of their heads when they can visually see dissolved ionic substances conduct electricity. A site to behold I can attest. Holy Snot Rockets Bat Man.

 

In the real world, as long as the cooling system is serviced on a somewhat regular basis does the kind of water really important?

 

No

 

You say your water is reverse osmosis and may be a can of worms . It would be if you are making fresh water from ocean salt water. You hear about that in some areas that have no fresh water to drink or on ships . I had to drink it on ships , its not good . But in Melville the water must start as fresh water so may be a process to remove some solids . The tap water in your area may still have to much solids to use in a Rad .

 

I have worked in Ford Dealers as drivability technician for over 26 years. We never used anything but tap water with full strength coolant on a 50/50 ratio and never had any problems. Using anything else is a waste of money.

 

I use a 50/50 mix with distilled water in the cooler on my TIG welding machine. Also use only distilled water in my BIPAP machine to keep me from sawing logs while sleeping.

 

Roy, our water was quite hard before RO. I believe it is coming from a different well now near the top of the Qu'appelle Valley. We pay a ridiculous amount for water, with sewage and other BS services, $200 to $300 a month. Just another reason moving to Fishing Lake is so attractive and happening in 3 years. I already had about 13 liters of Coop's, where I work, 50/50 mix. I am not sure what Coop uses or whether it is made at the Refinery Complex or outsourced. I added the Hypercool, nearly $20 and about another 4 liters, added about 1 liter of the straight Prestone HD coolant. I decided to splurge on the 10 year Prestone HD universal yellow coolant. It is $25 a jug on sale! The 4L jug of distilled was $2 vs $5 for Deionized water. I took it around the block, got it to the 160 thermostat. I am impressed with how well this rad cools this 9 to 1 403, definitely worth the money.

 

The shops I apprenticed at were the same, including two Ford dealerships. It is probably overkill but I want this radiator to last without corrosion or scale build up.

 

In some parts of the country the water is considerably harder than others. Some can get away with tap water where others cannot. RO, water softeners, etc help.

 

It should also be noted that there is a big difference in mineral content between tap/city/treated water and well water. I'm on a well and have a particulate filter, but that does nothing for the ph level. I use distilled. It seems like it is getting harder to find with fancy, organic, eco-weenie terms like "purified" and "deionized".

 

The problem with distilled and deionized water is when you open and pour it from the container, the once 7 ph, turns into a 5.5 which is on the acid side.

 

Distilled water is more of an "application" product than a beverage, so it is sometimes in a different area of the store. I'm *** deep in a cooling system project on my Chevy, just bought concentrate from the auto parts store and distilled from the grocery store.

I've used dehumidifier water before, which is condensed, rather than distilled.

 

What is the water collected in a dehumidifier? Essentially distilled? Someone once told me it would have spores pulled from the air--any truth or negative aspects to that?

 

For the most part, GM recommends clean, drinkable water in a 50/50 mix with Dexcool according to their owner's manuals. Prestone says use distilled water, Shell equivalent to Dexcool mixes DI water in their extended life 50/50 mix.

Once you mix it, it's no longer anything but water. There's enough stuff in it by then you should be good with a pH a little over 7. Do what you wish. Just don't run straight water in your daily driver unless you're a dumbass. Change it at the recommended intervals, flush if ever needed, and you should be good to go.

 

It's distilled water with dust and whatever else can be washed out of your air. If you have mold in your house, then the water would have spores. But mold in the house is usually obvious and is a bigger problem than contaminated dehumidifier water. However, spores wouldn't affect the cooling system.

Good observation, Eric. This happens because carbon dioxide from the air dissolves in the water, making carbonic acid. OK if it's in beer but you don't want that in your cooling system.

The coolant has additives that neutralize carbonic acid. The older the coolant, the more carbon dioxide has been absorbed. You can follow your coolant's life by checking its pH. When it gets down near 7, it's time to renew.

 

Spot-on agreement w/ Gary. Adding to the spore question. A dehumidifier would actually concentrate (fungal) spores. Fungal spores range between 2 - 100 microns (µm) in diameter. You most often breathe in ~ 1-10 fungal spores with every breath you take. However, gastrointestinal fungal spores (in high concentrations) can cause a wide variety of issues: diarrhea, hemorrhage, abdominal pain, and fever to name a few (depending on species ingested). Commercial distillation eliminates ~99.9% of fungal spores employing micron filters. Unless you have a dehumidifier capable of filtering @ the 2 - 100 micron level, I would not suggest you drink H2O from a dehumidifier.

 

Agreed, I have never found that beer in the cooling system worked well.

 

Given the crap that grows in my dehumidifier tank, absolutely, shjt grows in the air