Quote:
Originally Posted by ahmad
Distilled eventually becomes conductive and after 5 years Ive never had a leak :up:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahmad
Distilled eventually becomes conductive and after 5 years Ive never had a leak :up:
The distilled you put in your loop doesn't stay neutral for long. Just a few weeks running across copper and that's gone. Whether it's calcium ions or copper ions doesn't matter. Your equation needs a slight modification to reflect use:Quote:
Originally Posted by ahmad
Distilled + copper + time = conductive
The biggest handicap to using tap water is the impurities in it - and this is different depending on where you live. At the least, most of us have to contend with slightly hard water, which will eventually leave calcium deposits throughout the loop just as it does in water pipes. Distilled also tends to be filtered better. If your tap water is virtually pristine then count yourself lucky and use all you want ... :)
Even very good tap water is pretty undesirable if you care at all about aesthetics. Over here in Palo Alto, we have the cleanest water in the Bay Area, which has some of the cleanest water in this country. They take Hetch Hetchy (Yosemite) water distributed to the Bay, which is already very very clean, then they do some extra filtration and treating. When I lived in San Mateo (a bit north of here, where water is supposedly "crappier"), I drank water from the tap when I was thirsty at night and man that stuff tastes great, much better than bottled water IMO lol.
I have that in my loop (even though I don't use it), and all the calcium and other minerals have collected on the tubes. It's VERY ugly. It also likes to precipitate on sinks, and it's really really hard to get off. It doesn't affect performance in a loop since it can only form very thin layers, and the minerals are pretty soft, but if you value your nice looking clear tubes then don't ruin them.
The only reason Jimmer can get away with using tap water is the pacific northwest part of the US doesn't have the old mineral encrusted worn out infrastructure like the over populated cities most of us live in.
Over time yes, but its conductivity will still be much lower, meaning fewer ppm of any given ions.
For those living in the UK, if distilled is really that expensive there is an alternative. There is this unit you can purchase you can attach anywhere in your house, it contains micro-porous filters that will stop 99% of the garbage in tap water. We used to import the filters from the UK because they are the best in their class, and we were using them for a while to get our drinking water. But because of all the garbage in the water (vancouver island) and all the copper pipes everywhere (not all places have switched to pvc or other piping/tubing) we had to change/clean the filter every 3 days. It was ridiculous!
http://www.jamesfilter.com/doulton.aspx - similar to what I am referring to
Not sure how this would work http://www.jamesfilter.com/berkeylight.aspx
Or you could just install that filter from pts shop in your loop :rolleyes:
Sorry for the derailment :(
Wait, you're suggesting that instead of using 'expensive' distilled water for like 1 EUR/L which is replaced maybe every year, we use a 200$ filter?
Am I missing something?
Even with the biggest, baddest loop, you'd need 2-3L at most. It'd take you at least 50 year to benefit from your investment.
Well.. you can share the filter :D
You can also use the filtered water to rinse your components and even use it for drinking!
James said it costs 20 pounds for 5 litres in the UK..
Wow, that's expensive. Any local grocery store will sell it for like 2EUR/L here (Netherlands) o.o
Lol for distilled water jesus christ man. It costs $1.68 at my local supermarket in Australia for a 2L bottle been using it in my loop for months wiht some biocide no issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahmad
I use deionized water on my system. It is to complete level of car battery's. It costs about R$8,00 a liter (almost US$5,00!!).