Who DOESN'T use distilled water?
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Dex-Cool neutralizes the gaskets in your engine as well.
take a look in the drained radiator of any rig in E. Ore. that has been run on well water. I've rodded and or replaced several. Plugged like a hog that ate it's fill of milk strainers.
try the water on the N. Washington coast in your radiator. make coffee with it and have blue chucks of manganese cough phelm floating around in the cup.
try the water on the N. Washington coast in your radiator. make coffee with it and have blue chucks of manganese cough phelm floating around in the cup.
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Kestas
Staff member
Good post by Fordiesel69. That's exactly what I do.
IMO it depends on how hard is your water. For a very soft water source it should be ok, for a hard water you probably should either filter out the stuff first or use bottle water (don't need distill).
There is enough metal in the cooling system that can probably make the difference between very soft bottled/reverse osmosis tap water and distill water less than background noise.
There is enough metal in the cooling system that can probably make the difference between very soft bottled/reverse osmosis tap water and distill water less than background noise.
What it boils down to if you are going to use tap water you should know something about the source of the water. Around the country there are tremendous differences in what comes out of the tap. Minerals might be good for taste and or healthy to drink. If you have problems with your water heater you probably have water that is prone to scale.
Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
Dex-Cool neutralizes the gaskets in your engine as well.
Dex-Cool neutralizes the gaskets in your engine as well.
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
IMO it depends on how hard is your water. For a very soft water source it should be ok, for a hard water you probably should either filter out the stuff first or use bottle water (don't need distill).
Yes you do want distilled. Bottled drinking water is usually distilled but has minerals(including salt) added back in for taste. Distilled water is cheaper anyway.
IMO it depends on how hard is your water. For a very soft water source it should be ok, for a hard water you probably should either filter out the stuff first or use bottle water (don't need distill).
Yes you do want distilled. Bottled drinking water is usually distilled but has minerals(including salt) added back in for taste. Distilled water is cheaper anyway.
Who uses distilled water? None of the mechanics at my dealership. Honda coolant has been pre-mixed for years now, so no issues there. Other brand coolant still gets mixed in the shop, with water from the tap.
Sure, I would use distilled water in my car. I've never been to a shop that provides distilled water to mix with coolant, though.
Before you flame me and "stealerships", it's not my choice. I'm not gonna buy cases of distilled water to use in customer cars. I only work on cars that use pre-mixed coolant, anyway.
Most mechanics could give a [censored] about your car, as long as it makes it out of the parking lot without exploding. Very few take any pride in their work anymore. With the pressure by service managers for techs to "make hours' it's no surprise. Basically you hack stuff up/make money/get in good with the boss, or do it by the book and get fired for lack of productivity. Just another reason I'm ready to exit the business, and a good reason to work on your own car whenever possible.
Sure, I would use distilled water in my car. I've never been to a shop that provides distilled water to mix with coolant, though.
Before you flame me and "stealerships", it's not my choice. I'm not gonna buy cases of distilled water to use in customer cars. I only work on cars that use pre-mixed coolant, anyway.
Most mechanics could give a [censored] about your car, as long as it makes it out of the parking lot without exploding. Very few take any pride in their work anymore. With the pressure by service managers for techs to "make hours' it's no surprise. Basically you hack stuff up/make money/get in good with the boss, or do it by the book and get fired for lack of productivity. Just another reason I'm ready to exit the business, and a good reason to work on your own car whenever possible.
Originally Posted By: AcuraTech
Who uses distilled water? None of the mechanics at my dealership. Honda coolant has been pre-mixed for years now, so no issues there. Other brand coolant still gets mixed in the shop, with water from the tap.
Sure, I would use distilled water in my car. I've never been to a shop that provides distilled water to mix with coolant, though.
Before you flame me and "stealerships", it's not my choice. I'm not gonna buy cases of distilled water to use in customer cars. I only work on cars that use pre-mixed coolant, anyway.
Most mechanics could give a [censored] about your car, as long as it makes it out of the parking lot without exploding. Very few take any pride in their work anymore. With the pressure by service managers for techs to "make hours' it's no surprise. Basically you hack stuff up/make money/get in good with the boss, or do it by the book and get fired for lack of productivity. Just another reason I'm ready to exit the business, and a good reason to work on your own car whenever possible.
After 3 1/2 years in the sales end of the dealerships I learned the hard way, what kind of [censored] heads owners and managers are. In defense of management, they were afraid of losing their big paying jobs so they were always under the gun too! No way are they using distilled anything!!!!!!!!!!!!
You nailed it, most of the guys I met from the shop were good guys forced by management to work fast, and as a result turned out some real [censored] work. I left the business because of how they were ripping me off as a salesman along with the customers.
Rant off,
Frank D
Who uses distilled water? None of the mechanics at my dealership. Honda coolant has been pre-mixed for years now, so no issues there. Other brand coolant still gets mixed in the shop, with water from the tap.
Sure, I would use distilled water in my car. I've never been to a shop that provides distilled water to mix with coolant, though.
Before you flame me and "stealerships", it's not my choice. I'm not gonna buy cases of distilled water to use in customer cars. I only work on cars that use pre-mixed coolant, anyway.
Most mechanics could give a [censored] about your car, as long as it makes it out of the parking lot without exploding. Very few take any pride in their work anymore. With the pressure by service managers for techs to "make hours' it's no surprise. Basically you hack stuff up/make money/get in good with the boss, or do it by the book and get fired for lack of productivity. Just another reason I'm ready to exit the business, and a good reason to work on your own car whenever possible.
After 3 1/2 years in the sales end of the dealerships I learned the hard way, what kind of [censored] heads owners and managers are. In defense of management, they were afraid of losing their big paying jobs so they were always under the gun too! No way are they using distilled anything!!!!!!!!!!!!
You nailed it, most of the guys I met from the shop were good guys forced by management to work fast, and as a result turned out some real [censored] work. I left the business because of how they were ripping me off as a salesman along with the customers.
Rant off,
Frank D
Kestas
Staff member
This is understandable. If I was operating a shop I wouldn't be using distilled water. The average owner wouldn't appreciate it. Any bad side effects wouldn't show up until years later. Thumbs up for DIY!
Anyone use water from a WaterWise system for the battery or radiator? I assume its a distiller as it heats up the kitchen pretty well and drips out very slowly.
But what about the flush kits where you attach a garden hose to the tee and backflush. This leaves the system filled with whatever came out out of your garden hose. One could drain the radiator, but that only does the radiator, not the block.
I've used tap water for the past 25 years and NEVER had a problem.
The battery in our last Honda lasted 9 years with me adding tap water once a year.
The battery in our last Honda lasted 9 years with me adding tap water once a year.
If every mechanic out there is using tap water, and you haven't heard massive problems like DexCool or Toyota V6 sludge, that means one thing:
It isn't necessary.
Sure it is better to use distill, but when you are mixing distill with something that has much higher ion contents (metal radiator, metal engine, coolants that have additives), soft tap water with low contamination is not going to be a problem.
Now battery water is another issue. You definitely want distill in there.
It isn't necessary.
Sure it is better to use distill, but when you are mixing distill with something that has much higher ion contents (metal radiator, metal engine, coolants that have additives), soft tap water with low contamination is not going to be a problem.
Now battery water is another issue. You definitely want distill in there.
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
If every mechanic out there is using tap water, and you haven't heard massive problems like DexCool or Toyota V6 sludge, that means one thing:
It isn't necessary.
Sure it is better to use distill, but when you are mixing distill with something that has much higher ion contents (metal radiator, metal engine, coolants that have additives), soft tap water with low contamination is not going to be a problem.
Now battery water is another issue. You definitely want distill in there.
It's very much dependent on the mineral content of the water used. Where I live we get this really soft water that comes from Sierra snowmelt. I used to keep aquarium fish and had testers for calcium/magnesium water hardness. Our water was at the extremely low end of the hardness chart (about 3 drops). I once tested City of Santa Clara municipal water (primarily from several city wells) and stopped measuring when I figured it was not going to stop anytime soon; one measures hardness by placing more indicator drops until a color change is detected. I stopped when I reached 30 drops. We dried our cars quickly and lived with the crusty stuff that was left on the showerheads and dishes. Our toilet bowls had this ring that Lime-A-Way, CLR, or other acid based cleaners wouldn't even dissolve.
I've seen radiators plugged up with mineral deposits. I just looked into the rad cap opening and saw all this hard, gunky buildup. The smaller radiators with smaller passages in Japanese makes are supposed to be especially vulnerable, as well as the Japanese OEM coolant formulas that contain phosphates (which are excellent at preventing aluminum corrosion). Phosphates don't play nice with hard water, and it'll precipitate out as a solid. So there's stuff floating around and part of the corrosion inhibitor package is immediately depleted when mixed with hard water. Honda only sells its Type 2 extended life coolant premixed with deionized water. Europeans are used to using very hard water, and most European OEM coolants are phosphate free to prevent this interaction.
At the very least don't flush out a cooling system with distilled water only. Distilled water lacks buffering minerals and dissolved CO2 in the water forms carbonic acid (H2CO3). I've heard of carbonic acid forming a little bit of precipitated aluminum oxide. I'd think the buffers in a low concentration mixture of coolant should be enough to neutralize the acid in distilled water.
If every mechanic out there is using tap water, and you haven't heard massive problems like DexCool or Toyota V6 sludge, that means one thing:
It isn't necessary.
Sure it is better to use distill, but when you are mixing distill with something that has much higher ion contents (metal radiator, metal engine, coolants that have additives), soft tap water with low contamination is not going to be a problem.
Now battery water is another issue. You definitely want distill in there.
It's very much dependent on the mineral content of the water used. Where I live we get this really soft water that comes from Sierra snowmelt. I used to keep aquarium fish and had testers for calcium/magnesium water hardness. Our water was at the extremely low end of the hardness chart (about 3 drops). I once tested City of Santa Clara municipal water (primarily from several city wells) and stopped measuring when I figured it was not going to stop anytime soon; one measures hardness by placing more indicator drops until a color change is detected. I stopped when I reached 30 drops. We dried our cars quickly and lived with the crusty stuff that was left on the showerheads and dishes. Our toilet bowls had this ring that Lime-A-Way, CLR, or other acid based cleaners wouldn't even dissolve.
I've seen radiators plugged up with mineral deposits. I just looked into the rad cap opening and saw all this hard, gunky buildup. The smaller radiators with smaller passages in Japanese makes are supposed to be especially vulnerable, as well as the Japanese OEM coolant formulas that contain phosphates (which are excellent at preventing aluminum corrosion). Phosphates don't play nice with hard water, and it'll precipitate out as a solid. So there's stuff floating around and part of the corrosion inhibitor package is immediately depleted when mixed with hard water. Honda only sells its Type 2 extended life coolant premixed with deionized water. Europeans are used to using very hard water, and most European OEM coolants are phosphate free to prevent this interaction.
At the very least don't flush out a cooling system with distilled water only. Distilled water lacks buffering minerals and dissolved CO2 in the water forms carbonic acid (H2CO3). I've heard of carbonic acid forming a little bit of precipitated aluminum oxide. I'd think the buffers in a low concentration mixture of coolant should be enough to neutralize the acid in distilled water.
I use distilled in everything if nothing else just for the peace of mind.After living in Germany and seeing what the tap water destroy washing machines,kettles,dishwashers etc with deposits in a short time its not worth saving the $1 a gallon.Here in MA the water is so soft there are no deposits at all when you look in the tea kettle so i guess it would be fine to use.Now i think about it a tea kettle could be a good indicator of local water mineral conditions as it looks like they are left behind to build up after boiling.
Everyone should have distilled water in the home for drain and flush and nuclear war.
Originally Posted By: XCELERATIONRULES
Everyone should have distilled water in the home for drain and flush and nuclear war.
Distilled water tastes great. As long as you get all the vitamins you need from other sources, it's fine for you to drink regularly as well.
Everyone should have distilled water in the home for drain and flush and nuclear war.
Distilled water tastes great. As long as you get all the vitamins you need from other sources, it's fine for you to drink regularly as well.
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