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Distilled Water in Cooling System - Maybe not. 900

posted by  someone claiming to be Steve on  Wed Feb 12 08:29 CST 2003 [RELATED]

His reasoning is completely misplaced and the conclusion drawn is absolutely wrong. "Softened" water has its "hard" calcium, sulfur and iron ions replaced with, generally, sodium; sodium is just about the worst thing you can put into your cooling system. Guaranteed, instantaneous corrosion. Some softening systems use a deionizing membrane to remove ions; only in this case can the resulting "soft" water be used in antifreeze and only if enough ions are removed to constitute deionized water.

Distilled or deionized water by definition has no ions. The coolant contains adequate buffers to alter the pH of the mixture to levels sufficient to prevent corrosion. If CO2 is entering the mixture, then it is due to a leaking head gasket; the least of your problems is then the pH of the coolant mixture.

Your friend is referring to other processes entirely and obviously does not understand coolant chemistry. ALL major coolant manufacturers either use distilled/deionized water in their pre-mixed products or recommend it for use with their antifreeze products.





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