Distilled water
- Thread starter Coupe35
- Start date
Angledrive
Senior Member
No matter what I am working on I always use distilled water along with antifreeze. Some of the chemicals that come from tap water are very
corrosive to certain metals.
corrosive to certain metals.
fordy_nine
Senior Member
Distilled water is NOT acidic unless something else is dissolved in it. Pure water has a pH of 7.0 which is totally neutral, neither basic or acidic.....Bob L
Frank The Plumber
Well-known member
distilled water is reactive, the ph may come out at anywhere from 4 to 8, however because the content of dissolved solids is low the ph can be manipulated quite easily, if you where to drink distilled water you would eventually die, your body takes the calcium from your bones and uses it to make contact points for the neuro receptors in your brain, no calcium no sanity no recall, this is alzheimers, tainted calcium in your receptors, water is the universal solvent, pure straight h2o is not containable by any known means, it is also not able to be achieved in this earth environment, the closer you get to straight the more reactive, the more reactive the more the universal solvent reacts until it reaches a non reactive state, I love plumbing, ask me about microbial intestinal parasites and waterborne bacterial life, I have watched a 5 pound fish dissolve in a parasitic bacterial cloud in 15 minutes, drink from a creek, not me!
flatjack9
Well-known member
That is true initially. However the distilled water will dissolve carbon dioxide from the atmosphere forming a mild carbonic acid with a ph at 6 or below.
Bassman/NZ
Well-known member
CWPASADENA
Well-known member
Well that cheered me up no end!
I just realised why I never drink water!
GREAT REPLY
I know the drink Fosters in Austrila,
What do you fellows usually drink?
Just stay away from the water, the ph will get you.
hombres ruin
Well-known member
I have always used distilled water and water wetter in my 8BA flathead.I have never had any problems at all.I have never used anti freeze,as i live in san diego no need to.distilled water wont scale like hard water.I have used it in my aluminum radiator and it works great,water is a great for heat dissipation,it helps cool the engine.
Mike51Merc
Well-known member
If distilled water is highly reactive, then wouldn't mineral saturated tap water be better, provided that the ph was adjusted close to neutral?
Thats it! I'm filling my rad with pool water!
Thats it! I'm filling my rad with pool water!
fordy_nine
Senior Member
That is called "buffering" and it has its uses, but not in auto cooling systems. The problem is that all of the metals in the system are also reactive and will exchange ions with whatever is dissolved in the water and corrosion cells will be caused wherever there are dissimilar metals or air/water interfaces. You need to use anti-freeze for its increased boiling point and its corrosion inhibitors....Bob L
hbleadsled
Senior Member
I agree with most of you ,I have pretty much used distilled water and some anti-freeze in the last 30 years,some places you can't drink the tap water, would you put that in your flat head,I don't Harold, central coast Ca.
Mike51Merc
Well-known member
Yes, of course I wouldn't want flattie to get e-coli.
Frank The Plumber
Well-known member
On the bottle of anti freeze/ coolant it will tell you exactly how they want you to use their product, follow that exactly. If you use only water or only distilled water in your system and no anti freeze you leave your system open to corrosion and acidic decomposition, your system is designed to run within a specific ph range, the ph range is kept neutral by the additives and ionic properties of the anti freeze. The metal as it reacts will either boost or deplete the dissolved solids in your system.
If I pose this question to you, would you rather drink water from a clean shiny copper pipe or a pipe that has a green coating inside, a clean copper pipe or a lead pipe with a white coating inside, a clean galvanized pipe or a pipe with a mild coat of rust inside, a brand new clean pvc pipe or a copper pipe with a green coating inside most would go for clean shiny, all of the clean shiny people would be ingesting metals and toxics because it is the patina that renders the conduit safe, the patinas indicate a good ph neutral water, they cannot form in low ph and when they do not form the exposed metal continues to sacrifice itself, the inside or an aluminum radiator should have a mild white chaulky coating of oxidation inside.
On any heating cooling or chiller system I install, whether it is for a factory a large office building, a heat exchanger for a computer system etc no matter what type of metal or even plastic composite it may be made of all of these systems have an engineered specific formulation of additive to prevent damage caused by oxidation or oxygen transfer effect.
Because the oxygen within a system has less oxygen than the ambient air surrounding it, the oxygen from the ambient environment will penetrate the vessel walls and seek to create a balance, this is why the universal solvent is so reactive, due to its capacity to hold reactive oxygen, if you do not enhance the low oxygen content of contained reactive liquid the free oxygen will pass through the pipe wall and cause a reaction.
Simply: the water pipes in your house do not rust from the inside out, they rust from the outside in. Doubt me? Do a quick search on hydronic heating systems using plastic tube systems, they had to recreate the entire technology due to this odd phenomenon.
All science says, run additive.
If I pose this question to you, would you rather drink water from a clean shiny copper pipe or a pipe that has a green coating inside, a clean copper pipe or a lead pipe with a white coating inside, a clean galvanized pipe or a pipe with a mild coat of rust inside, a brand new clean pvc pipe or a copper pipe with a green coating inside most would go for clean shiny, all of the clean shiny people would be ingesting metals and toxics because it is the patina that renders the conduit safe, the patinas indicate a good ph neutral water, they cannot form in low ph and when they do not form the exposed metal continues to sacrifice itself, the inside or an aluminum radiator should have a mild white chaulky coating of oxidation inside.
On any heating cooling or chiller system I install, whether it is for a factory a large office building, a heat exchanger for a computer system etc no matter what type of metal or even plastic composite it may be made of all of these systems have an engineered specific formulation of additive to prevent damage caused by oxidation or oxygen transfer effect.
Because the oxygen within a system has less oxygen than the ambient air surrounding it, the oxygen from the ambient environment will penetrate the vessel walls and seek to create a balance, this is why the universal solvent is so reactive, due to its capacity to hold reactive oxygen, if you do not enhance the low oxygen content of contained reactive liquid the free oxygen will pass through the pipe wall and cause a reaction.
Simply: the water pipes in your house do not rust from the inside out, they rust from the outside in. Doubt me? Do a quick search on hydronic heating systems using plastic tube systems, they had to recreate the entire technology due to this odd phenomenon.
All science says, run additive.
hombres ruin
Well-known member
water wetter has an anti corrosive in it, so i am fine with running distilled water. my radiator is clean,my block is clean and my temps on a hot day are running perfect.
Frank The Plumber
Well-known member
Just with Purple ice, If youre running water wetter than youre fine if you read the directions and it says distilled, for each product read the directions, they have chemists formulate this stuff, They should know what they are doing, On big systems they use Chem engineers and spec just what they want for how its used. Read the bottle, serve chilled with an olive.