Re: IML: distilled or soft water for the cooling system?

[sosmi@xxxxxxxxxxx]

James, I think your dissertation, on the subject was very good, and I have reached the point of saturation, and will continue to use the procedures, I have noted in past posts. Ya'll have a nice day, Dave.

 

> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> From: James <nyb@xxxxxxx> 
>
> > I'm curious about the basis for 'Skinned Knuckles' advice. There may be 
> > some reason for using soft as opposed to distilled water hidden in 
> > there, but from a chemist's perspective, the explanation is poor. 
> > Properly distilled water should not have an 'abundance' of ions (for the 
> > record, ions can be positively charged, too!). The only reason I can 
> > see distilled water having an abundance of ions would be if the 
> > distillation system used was dirty, or a poor choice of a condenser 
> > material was used. Yes, distilled water is weakly acidic due to the 
> > uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere and the formation of carbonic acid, 
> > but this is again a weakly acidic system and in your cooling system will 
> > be offset by the ability of anti
> freeze to act as a corrosion inhibitor. 
> > 
> > For your radiator, I think the author's of 'Skinned Knuckles' forget 
> > that although softened water contains fewer Ca++ and Mg+ ions, it can 
> > still be full of all sorts of dissolved solids. Soft water only refers 
> > to the type of dissolved solids, not the amount. Granted, the biggest 
> > enemy in terms of adding tap water to your radiator is calcium carbonate 
> > deposits, which obviously can't form as well with little Ca++ around. 
> > From a corrosion perspective, adding softened water is really adding an 
> > unknown quantity as its composition depends completely on the tap water 
> > you started with, and that varies a lot from area to area. And, as I 
> > said in an earlier post, the chloride stuffed into softened water by ion 
> > exchange water softeners using sodium chloride is one of the worst 
> > things you could consider adding. 
> > 
> > So, althoug
> h I'd love to hear if there's some good science behind 
> > 'Skinned Knuckles' recommendation, I'm going to stick to using a mixture 
> > of antifreeze and distilled water, with the usual residence time of two 
> > years in my cars. 
> > 
> > James 
> > 
> > Frederick Joslin wrote: 
> > > 
> > > Pure water is naturally ionized to exteny of 10-7 moles/L. 
> > > In absolutely pure water at a pH of 7 there are 1x10-7 moles of H+ and 
> > > 1x10-7 moles of OH- ions per L. 
> > > 
> > > One mole of water H+ is 1g; one mole of OH- is 17g. 
> > > 
> > > Thus there are a total of 1x10-7 x 18g / L of ions in pure water = 
> > > 1.8x10-6g/L = 7.6x10-6g / gallon 
> > > =.00000024 oz / gal ions. 
> > > 
> > > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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