deionized vs distilled water?

[Mabyboi]

I went in to canadian tire in order to get some distilled water for my new water cooling loop.. (yes i have a killcoil), and was handed this jug, they said its the same thing....

what do you think?



thanks!

[faster3200]

It is not the same thing, but I really doubt it matters that much. There are quite a few debate threads on this. I say go for distilled unless it is hard to find, then just go for that stuff. I have run tap water in my loops before and it didn't cause any issues.

[MpG]

Meh, you can go tell Crappy Tire where they can put their "same thing". Deionized water is only free of ions - there are other impurities besides ions that can be in water, and distillation works to remove those. Besides, deionized water will re-ionize over time regardless, but distilled can help make sure certain crap doesn't wind up in the system in the first place. Hit up a Walmart or a drug store - distilled water can be had pretty cheaply by the gallon in N.America.

[Gamekiller]

I thought they always distilled water before they deionized it so it was pretty much the same. I could have sworn I read that in the many debates on this subject.

[MpG]

There are a lot of grades of "Distilled" and "Deionized", and the higher grades get pretty similar to each other in composition. But at the low, cheap end, they're approaching it from different directions, you could say.

[Jon K]

We have a joke here at my work -

How do you turn a radiator into a sprinkler?

Fill it with DI water...



Stay with distilled. DI will pull ions from the metal. Since a radiator core tubi stypically something like 0.010 - 0.013" thick it doesn't take long for it to break through. Use distilled. DW is ionically balanced (with some ions removed) while DI is completely deionized.

[eponymous]

We have a joke here at my work -

How do you turn a radiator into a sprinkler?

Fill it with DI water...



Stay with distilled. DI will pull ions from the metal. Since a radiator core tubi stypically something like 0.010 - 0.013" thick it doesn't take long for it to break through. Use distilled. DW is ionically balanced (with some ions removed) while DI is completely deionized.

The amount of "ions it will pull" from the metal is so negligible it's not even worth thinking about.

[shazza]

I seldom suggest using the search feature, but this topic has been debated / discussed / and beat up a lot

For my 2 cents ... go with deionized if that's what you can find. You will be fine.

[jdcook]

I seldom suggest using the search feature, but this topic has been debated / discussed / and beat up a lot

For my 2 cents ... go with deionized if that's what you can find. You will be fine.

This is what I will end up doing as well since I'm in the UK and distilled water is almot impossible to find. (Except as quack medicine at very high prices.) The cheapest I found so far was "Hornby Live Steam Distilled Water" which is for model steam train engines. I've seen it for about £5 a litre which works out to about $30 a gallon!

[Diverge]

This is what I will end up doing as well since I'm in the UK and distilled water is almot impossible to find. (Except as quack medicine at very high prices.) The cheapest I found so far was "Hornby Live Steam Distilled Water" which is for model steam train engines. I've seen it for about £5 a litre which works out to about $30 a gallon!

$30 a gallon... that is crazy. It cost like $1-2 a gallon in a supermarket (grocery store) here.

[jdcook]

$30 a gallon... that is crazy. It cost like $1-2 a gallon in a supermarket (grocery store) here.

I know! It's one of the weird things that I didn't expect when I moved here from the US. The saddest was discovering that "Italian Sausage" is really "Italian American Sausage" and nobody in Europe knows what I mean.

[Camaroz06]

Isn't distilled water just boiled and the vapors are collected and then condensed back to water? Might as well try and make your own for $30/gallon!

[jdcook]

Isn't distilled water just boiled and the vapors are collected and then condensed back to water? Might as well try and make your own for $30/gallon!

It's one thing to explain to my wife that my new computer has plumbing. If she finds me running the kettle nonstop to vent steam into some sort of make-shift condensor, I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do. Besides, I doubt I could keep the water clean enough to be an improvement over deionised.

[dejanh]

That water is just fine. I have been using it before in my loop and will again now after I finish redoing the loop. Just use some silver in it.

[TheHowster]

How about RO (reverse osmosis) water. Can get it from my local pet shop to be used in fish tanks where you don't want any hardness/softness in your water. Its pretty cheap aswell, £2.50 for 25 litres.

[eponymous]

It's one thing to explain to my wife that my new computer has plumbing. If she finds me running the kettle nonstop to vent steam into some sort of make-shift condensor, I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do. Besides, I doubt I could keep the water clean enough to be an improvement over deionised.

That made me laugh :P

[atomic ferret]

DI and distilled are close enough that it doesn't matter for a water cooling loop. In my chemistry lab we use deionized in reactions because it is pure enough that it won't interfere with anything. If it won't do anything significant in that sense, you have nothing to worry about in a loop.

[Mabyboi]

alrighty, thanks everyone. i will use the deionized water then!

[Stuey]

What worries me is that water is "not fit for human consumption." So what else could be in there besides water?!

[3Z3VH]

This makes me want to move to Europe and start my own Distilled Water empire.

[3Z3VH]

What worries me is that water is "not fit for human consumption." So what else could be in there besides water?!

The human body doesn't react well when you start stealing minerals from it. Drinking de-ionized water means the water will rob any surfaces it contacts of their free ions... meaning, your body.

It's not likely to kill you unless you are already anemic or something, but it certainly will do nothing to IMPROVE your health.

[atomic ferret]

Yeah, water has a bunch of added stuff that the body needs. We are all used to it. When you start pouring water that is deprived of it down your esophagus, your body reacts poorly.

[Stuey]

The human body doesn't react well when you start stealing minerals from it. Drinking de-ionized water means the water will rob any surfaces it contacts of their free ions... meaning, your body.

It's not likely to kill you unless you are already anemic or something, but it certainly will do nothing to IMPROVE your health.

Yeah, water has a bunch of added stuff that the body needs. We are all used to it. When you start pouring water that is deprived of it down your esophagus, your body reacts poorly.

Ah, thanks guys - makes sense. Didn't think of that since distilled is sold in the water aisle and contains no such warnings.

[3Z3VH]

Distilled simply has no micro-organisms in it, and is free of most impurities, but it still has free ions in it, so it is safe to drink (it just won't "quench your thirst" as quick as water that has electrolytes (salts) in it, because those salts help your body absorb it quicker). It is De-Ionized water that is not good to drink, because it actually robs your body of minerals.

[Mabyboi]

hmm i wonder if natural glaciar water would work.... i can get a gallon of that, my dad is going out to iceland this weekend... how would that go in a system? like straight from glaciar, pure water..