Is distilled/deionised water a scam?
Discussion
tap water has loads of ions in it - impurities if you like. These will react with the contents of your battery and kill it (stop it from working in the manner what which it should.)
Distilling the water (boiling it, condensing then collecting the steam) removes the ions as they remain in the boiling water rather than the collected distillate.
Deionising the water removes the ions in another manner, but the result is the same - you end up with ion free water.
Boiling the water won't work. There may be a reduction in ion concentration (say via formation of solid limescale in a hard water area) but there will still be stloads of ions in it, so it will poison your battery.
Car shop man telling porkies. Either well intentioned and doesn't know, or has good markup on his batteries!
Distilling the water (boiling it, condensing then collecting the steam) removes the ions as they remain in the boiling water rather than the collected distillate.
Deionising the water removes the ions in another manner, but the result is the same - you end up with ion free water.
Boiling the water won't work. There may be a reduction in ion concentration (say via formation of solid limescale in a hard water area) but there will still be stloads of ions in it, so it will poison your battery.
Car shop man telling porkies. Either well intentioned and doesn't know, or has good markup on his batteries!
The stuff is pretty cheap from halfords.
I bought a couple of 5 litre containers of it for both my steam cleaner and iron, both of which say the warranty is void if you don't use said water.
Makes sense, the filter in my iron has all sorts of green grunge through it from normal tap water.
Whether or not you need special water for car batteries depends on the PH of the water . Acid- it'll be ok( if it's lead acid battery). I'm quoting from a Gov't organisation that at that time used thousands of batteries on a float system, so Water was needed. In a car battery ,however (these days) if you're having to add water, there's something wrong with the battery or it's being overcharged .
However, in some places in the UK, it's advisable to use de ionised water in household irons ,as if not used then these items suffer from scale build up and all that comes out of the jets is dirty scum.
However, in some places in the UK, it's advisable to use de ionised water in household irons ,as if not used then these items suffer from scale build up and all that comes out of the jets is dirty scum.
Edited by Who me ? on Friday 18th April 20:03
I was in a Halfords recently and saw a guy come in and buy a trolley full of ionised water - dozens of 5 litre bottles, what could he have needed this much for? ( it takes years of topping up batteries to use a couple of litres so I was intrigued with what would anyone need 100+ litres for ?
rallycross said:
I was in a Halfords recently and saw a guy come in and buy a trolley full of ionised water - dozens of 5 litre bottles, what could he have needed this much for? ( it takes years of topping up batteries to use a couple of litres so I was intrigued with what would anyone need 100+ litres for ?
It is a rather reasonable price. Maybe just a car boot sale guy.Maybe his wife likes drinking it ?
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