Distilled Ignorance

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Hamma

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I must have been away during this particular physics / chemistry lesson...

Am I right in thinking that my condensing tumble dryer makes a ready supply of distilled water?

If so I have just paid £3.50 for 5 litres of something that I tip down the sink each day... and that is the cost of my ignorance.
 
An oft asked question, also applied to dehumidifier output, in theory they should put out distilled water, but the consensus of the experts is that because of the risk of impurities it should not be used in batterys.

The same experts would point out that if you are spending large amounts of money on distilled water there is probably something wrong with battery or charging system.

Would be interesting to test the output water, but unfortunately my tame water chemist retired several years ago.

Deionised water is much cheaper in French supermarkets.
 
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Yes, but! is the answer. YES, the tumble dryer does evaporate and then condense the water from your clothes, so the water is free of dissolved impurities (calcium carbonate, calcium sulphate etc.). BUT it also has a large amount of particulate impurities (bits of material - the stuff too fine to be caught in the fluff filter, like you have to occasionally remove from the condenser/heat exchanger) and of course, it will have dissolved gases from the plentiful air that is passed through the clothes. I am told it is fine for things like steam irons, but batteries may well be less tolerant.
 
De-ionised water is very cheap in Wilkinsons.
But if I was stuck, I'd probably scrape the frost from the freezer, avoiding the bits with breadcrumbs and stray peas in.
It's got to be better than portsmouth tap water!
 
£3.50 is a lot .
Significantly lees than Halfords but I think you will find much more than your local hardware store. Our local hardware centre sell "Zamo" top up water very much more cheaply than Halfords

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Water from a tumble dryer, from a dehumidifier, collected when defrosting a fridge or freezer even clean rain water have all been discussed before.

Trouble is you dont know what level of contamination there is and what effect, if any, it will have on your batteries.

Some people will also boast that they always use tap water, but they never tell us the analysis of their local tap water.
 
Having not long ago scraped about a cupfull of "goop" out of the heat exchanger on our condensing tumble drier, (it was completel yblocked!) I'd say the answer was a resounding NO! We live in an area with some of the softest water in the country, but even when the tumble dryer is brand new, the water trickling down the condenser is a mixture of condensed humidity from the clothes and tapwater. There's a solenoid valve that lets mains cold water trickle through the inside of the condenser to keep it cold. The condensate from the washing mingles with this, so you'd never be able to collect just the condensed water. When the machine is older, it is also (as I found!) percolating through a mess of soggy fluff and soap scum.
 
Thanks for the replies - I would have searched but I presumed that everyone but me already knew the answer!

If it's a qualified yes then I won't use it - I'm not so hard up that £3.50 makes that much difference, it's just that I was tipping a couple of litres away this morning and I suddenly wondered...

It wasn't for the batteries AAMOF it was for the cooling system but I am sure the impurities won't be that great in there either.

Much appreciated.
 
I use D-water and antifreeze in the cooling circuit of my ducati, all other engines get tap water with their antifreeze.
 
I copied our local engineer - He doesn't even use the tap/hosepipe water for the engine flush..

So.. my Volvo gets a flush through with bottled water (of the 5litre variety) before being topped up with the same (+ antifreeze) which is I pre-mix before adding to the engine.
 
Martin_J said:
I copied our local engineer - He doesn't even use the tap/hosepipe water for the engine flush..

So.. my Volvo gets a flush through with bottled water (of the 5litre variety) before being topped up with the same (+ antifreeze) which is I pre-mix before adding to the engine.
Click to expand...

Whether or not bottled water is a good idea depends upon its source. Some is relatively soft a and low in TDS while some is quite hard and high in TDS
The analysis is always on the bottle

The Volvo manuals generally give a guide as to the maximum TDS and concentrations that are acceptable.

Buying ready diluted antifreeze may seem like a waste of money but it a way of ensuring that water with an unsuitable composition is not used.
 
Martin_J said:
I copied our local engineer - He doesn't even use the tap/hosepipe water for the engine flush..

So.. my Volvo gets a flush through with bottled water (of the 5litre variety) before being topped up with the same (+ antifreeze) which is I pre-mix before adding to the engine.
Click to expand...

Bottled water is usually hard than most tap water. Why would you want to use bottled water, full of minerals and salts for your engine? At the other extreme, deionised or distilled water is so pure it has very little dissolved in it but it would like to have. So distilled water can be a little aggressive to engines. Just use tap water and appreciate the plentiful supply of such good quality water that we take for granted and if you save a pound or to by doing so pop it in a water-aid charity box. Not everyone enjoys the availability of something as simple as clean water.
 
To appease the confusion.. it was not the 5 litre drinking water variety ... it was the 5 litre Halfords battery top up water variety that I used for flushing.. Is that better?
 
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Interestingly distilled water is probably more corrosive than hard tap water.
We used to use WFI (water for injection) it was distilled, deionised and purified (filtered and sanitised) and even used to rust 316 dairy grade stainless as it is so unstable to wants to return to its natural state and suck all the minerals out
 
Rocksteadee said:
Interestingly distilled water is probably more corrosive than hard tap water.
We used to use WFI (water for injection) it was distilled, deionised and purified (filtered and sanitised) and even used to rust 316 dairy grade stainless as it is so unstable to wants to return to its natural state and suck all the minerals out
Click to expand...

Hard tap water tends to be less corrosive because the bicarbonates make it very slightly alkaline.
Distilled or deionised water will dissolve CO2 from the air and tend to be slightly acidic. I'm very surprised that it will attack 316 stainless steel though.

I don't understand what you mean by "it is so unstable to wants to return to its natural state and suck all the minerals out"
 
It's like listening to a bunch of people talk about whether they should bath in ewe's milk or just plain old common or garden cows milk. :)

Some people seem to just need to spend money for no good reason!

25 years my old Perkins has been surviving on good old Greek shoreside hose water both for top ups and the annual flush out. Still going strong.

Bottled water is often more loaded with minerals than the local tap water, it is after all advertised as being 'mineral' or 'spring' water!:rolleyes:

batteries ok that's one thing but not flushing out with tap water .........
 
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Antifreeze is quite expensive now.
It seems to me that d-water is very cheap, our local water is very hard.
It makes sense to me when I put £6 worth of antifreeze into an engine, to pay the extra quid for d-water if it's convenient.
Maybe once in thirty years it will save the sediment taking out a water pump seal or something, then it will have been excellent value.
 
Well, I've only got a first degree in chemistry, so I'll happily bow to anyone more qualified to comment, but ....

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS DE-IONISED WATER. It just doesn't exist - it can't.

When people talk of 'de-ionised water', what they are referring to is water with a pH of exactly 7.00 (at 25 °C (77 °F)) a number, which as many people know, represents exact neutrality on the Acid-Base continuum (i.e. on the pH scale - which is a logarithmic scale of hydrogen ion concentration).

But - water described as having a pH of 7 has both a hydrogen ion (H+) concentration of 1 x 10-7, and a hydroxyl ion (OH-) concentration of 1 x 10-7, and thus may be considered as either a very, very weak acid, or a very, very weak base. But it will remain ionised to that small degree (i.e. 1 x 10-7) - it will NEVER become completely de-ionised, for that's impossible.

However, terming water with pH7 as 'de-ionised' (and not simply distilled) creates a certain mystique about it which impresses those without chemical knowledge, as well as enabling a higher price to be charged. Perhaps this matter should be referred to Trading Standards for misleading advertising ?
 
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