How hard of tap water is too bad to use in a radiator.
I have used tap water for years and just wonder if it's too late to worry about it now.
The idea of buying a cart full of gallons of distilled water only to drain it out and throw away seems such a waste.
someone explain to me what to do right.
tap water
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I'm still not sure on this subject as to if it really makes any difference. I know of quite a few cars that have had nothing but tap water and they have gone over 200K with no associated radiator, heater or other problems. I've used distilled in the past but my most recent change in the Jeep I used tap water. I'm not expecting too many problems.....
wadedog wrote: ![[Confused]](images/icons/confused.gif)
quote:For what purpose are you buying that cart of distilled water? If it's solely for your radiator, then you're doing something wrong. As an example, cooling system in my car hold 3.5 gallons. 2 gallons of coolant plus 1.5 gallons of distilled water is what's required for this. Am I missing something here
How hard of tap water is too bad to use in a radiator. I have used tap water for years and just wonder if it's too late to worry about it now. The idea of buying a cart full of gallons of distilled water only to drain it out and throw away seems such a waste. someone explain to me what to do right.
The idea of the cartfull of bottled water is for flushing the system.
One could flush the "old junk" out with tap, then the tap with distilled.
With only 5 gallons of distilled, you ought to be able to dilute any tap minerals and impurities by 80% or so.
You can get your tap water analyzed... just like oil... open the yellow pages and get back to us with the results.
quote:Ya' know what? That's false economy - just cut to the chase and go directly with the distilled water flush. You'll use the same amount of distilled water regardless and you cut your time in half in the process. (Additionally you'll have the advantage of the old coolant's marker dye to guide you when you've achieved virtual ellimination of the old brew. What's left in the system at that point is essentially distilled water. Oh, wait! We use distilled water to dilute the new antifreeze concentrate, anyway - anyone s'pose there's a law against win-win?) I live in an area with very hard well water. I went through about four gallons of WalMart's "finest" (aka "cheap") distilled water for a complete flush of the crap Hyundai filled my Sonata's cooling system with. A "waste" of 60 cent-a-gallon distilled water? Absolutely! On the other hand I could've took a chance wasting a $7,500.00 motor with mineral buildup related cooling system damage from Hyundai's remaining murky green-snot-'o-death. Hmmmm... Gimme a minute here to do the math... [ May 11, 2006, 03:06 PM: Message edited by: Ray H ]
Originally posted by eljefino: The idea of the cartfull of bottled water is for flushing the system. One could flush the "old junk" out with tap, then the tap with distilled. With only 5 gallons of distilled, you ought to be able to dilute any tap minerals and impurities by 80% or so.
I guess it depends on the quality of water in your area. Around here the water isn't bad so I just use tap water. Never had any problems using it.
Tap water has been satisfactory for me all my adult life. Water to my homes in southern California has come from the Colorado River, Owens River, and Feather River. I have never had a hard water related cooling system problem. It's not likely that I'm going to change now.
quote:If your car is over heating because the radiator is limed up then the answer is yes. But if everything is OK, then I would say it still isn't time to start worrying. Did a little calculation. 425 ppm calcium carbonate is considered very hard. That amounts to barely over a tenth of an ounce in 32 gallons of water. How much damage can a tenth of an ounce of of lime cause? Will all of it come out of solution? I think where people get in trouble is when they are continually adding water to a leaky radiator. Thinking about buying a water softener. I picked up a hardness test strip at Lowes yesterday. Got my 425 ppm being very hard from its package. OT, what does everybody have as a water softener, and how much salt do you use? We are paying Culligan $34.19 a month for their exchange tanks, or $410 a year. Maybe I need to look at the economics of this when I can buy a softener for $377.
Originally posted by wadedog: How hard of tap water is too bad to use in a radiator. I have used tap water for years and just wonder if it's too late to worry about it now. The idea of buying a cart full of gallons of distilled water only to drain it out and throw away seems such a waste. someone explain to me what to do right.
Are you certain sodium ions floating around in an aluminum or iron cooling system are any more desirable than calcium ions?
Soft water is well proven in home plumbing systems where I plan on using mine.
quote:
Are you certain sodium ions floating around in an aluminum or iron cooling system are any more desirable than calcium ions?
![[Off Topic!]](/forums/graemlins/offtopic.gif)
Or even more important, an excess of sodium ions floating around in you're own personal plumbing system have the potential for long term health problems.quote:Hope you're right. The metals of choice in home plumbing systems are galvanized steel pipe and copper tubing - materials that are resistant to electrolytic corrosion. Bare aluminum and iron might not fare so well. This from ArroheadRadiator.com: "When you refill the system, use a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and distilled or deionized water. Hard water that contains dissolved minerals will shorten the life of the additive package in the antifreeze. Softened water should also be avoided because it contains salt (sodium chloride) that increases the risk of electrolytic corrosion."
Originally posted by labman: Soft water is well proven in home plumbing systems where I plan on using mine.
Use the water from yr dehumidifier
J.
like cousincletus said, its basically about the quality fo the water in your area. tap water is known to have high or more tha normal, amoutns of minerals. and coming form pipes, galvanized stel old lead pipes ect, other metals, and rust and dirt cna end up in that water. the trick is, drain your coolant, use prestone radiator flush, use a garden hose, and hose the radiator out. then when you refill with antifreeze, use distilled water. distilled water, is water with EVERYTHIG removed from it. its been fitlered and de-mineralized, thus making VERY clean water, in fact, water with NOTHING in it.
I think it is. I would fill the radiator with distilled water and run it with the garden hose city water you have in the engine block for 15 minutes once the engine reaches its operating temperature. Repeat at least 2 or 3 more times and the water in the engine clock will pretty much be distilled water.
Remember city water has crap in it cooling systems don't need such as chlorine, calcium, and fluoride.
NEVER EVER EVER USE WELL WATER!!!
I hear coolant can sometimes re-act to chlorine in the system. Cooling systems don't have teeth so there is no need for fluoride, lol.
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I don't know about deionized water (as in being a good idea). It's kinda its own free radical former. It disolves concrete where it drips (never saw plain tap water do that). Deionized water has had the positive ions removed by the first rosin exchange bed ..then the neg ions removed by the second exchange bed. There still can be plenty of non-polarized crap in the water itself.
They strictly forbid using deionized water in my hot tub. ![[I dont know]](/forums/graemlins/dunno.gif)
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