I can get distilled water 24 hrs a day for < $1/gal at the grocery store. We only need ~2 gal of distilled water per year. (For the most anal among us.)
I would say that the peace of mind alone is worth the money.
I can get distilled water 24 hrs a day for < $1/gal at the grocery store. We only need ~2 gal of distilled water per year. (For the most anal among us.)
I would say that the peace of mind alone is worth the money.
Well Steve, I don't have scientific evidence of a lot of things. The "experts" recommendation for using distilled water vs tap water in cooling systems has already been documented and I'm not going to scour the internet for more proof. A radiator specialty shop and the FSM should be evidence enough, combined with the general knowledge that tap water is highly conductive (electrically) and distilled water is significantly less conductive. (Stray electrical currents being a major cause of cooling system failure.)
A person can gamble on the amount of minerals in their tap water or he can spend $2 for distilled water that should have virtually *no* minerals. To each his own.
If you are going to debunk the wive's tale then it seems more appropriate for you to post scientific evidence that we are all wasting money by using distilled water and then you can prove that Toyota is wrong in recommending the use of distilled water.
I'm also a believer in using distilled water though there have been times I have not used it. I suspect that another reason for using distilled water is that it is the purest form of water available to the general public. From a mfr's perspective, the more pure the water used, the less likely there is to be untoward side effects from the various chemical changes that can happen when you combine antifreeze, dramatic heating and cooling cycles, and such.
I recall from my younger days that many of you never had the benefit of (snicker) that when a battery got low you were supposed to only use distilled water and I suspect it was similar reasoning. People's homes have a huge variance in the qualities of water, from heavily salted/softened water, hard water, and even well water with its enormous amount of smelly dissolved minerals. My in laws, for instance, have well water in a 1 year old half million dollar house. Last summer my Father in law asked me if I'd help him reload their water softener. I was appalled! He had a freakin' pallet of 30lb cubes of salt/softener and we hefted some 7 of them (210lbs!) into his system reservoir that automatically feeds them into the plumbing. Would I want THAT in my rad??
So, there is certainly room to debate to what degree it matters in a radiator but common sense would dictate the purest possible water be added. And before anybody else who doesn't use distilled gets their nose out of joint, I agree there's a debate to be had here on a scientific level requiring hard research as well.
If the goal is to use the purest form of water why not reverse osmosis. How much purer can you get than a water molecule? Seem logical that you would want to remove the minerals from the water. RO water has very low resistance as compared to tap water. Water quality varies a lot depending on where you leave so I find it hard to believe that any tap water is ok. According to the WaterMart guy around the corner it takes about 14 gals to get 1gal of RO water and in Hawaii it only takes 3 gals to get 1.
Just another thought.
Those ratios are amazing. What's being filtered out? I mean for water to lose THAT much of its volume, what was in there? Or is the process itself using water? By that I mean perhaps the filter gets constantly backflushed by "clean" RO water and then makes another pint, etc. I simply cannot fathom literally filtering out some 60% of stuff to achieve pure water in Hawaii, ya know?
Doug you are right with the process using a lot of water (back flushing etc). The point I was trying to make is that all tap water is not equal. The water here in AZ has lots of crap in it (minerals and chemicals) making our tap water more corrosive than water from other places.
I would like to see hard, scientific evidence that these Land Cruisers are even very good vehicles. I mean, unless you can show me a government-funded, scientific study that Cruisers are actually good 4x4s, then maybe I'll just sell mine and get a Lumina!!
<The beaver dams were big (means lots of snow) around Silverton>
Steve,
I think the reason the beaver dams are so big in Colorado is that they don't have trapping any more.
The older the beaver the bigger the.....
{if you let me know where those beaver are, I will split the $$$ with you, less a small fee. my boy and I just went through trapping school and need some beaver to trap}
I know where there's a beaver the size of a freakin' Golden Retriever. We anchored in a quiet bay only to find the beaver version of Paul Bunyon felling trees into the water all night. Nonplussed by my million CP spotlight, too. Nearly limbered up with the 9 on him, but I love wildlife (and there's probably a $1000 fine for even chucking a rock at them).
