I take it you work in a lab??? Thank you for your thoughful post.

Reverse osmosis - thats not used to make distilled water - but is used in
making filtered water - and the best filter is said to be Kodak's four stage
reverse osmosis filter - and by the way you can make your own distilled
water at home - there's at least one maker out there who you can buy from -
the thing will last about ten years... I guess then you could even live on
rainwater..... out in the boonies with just your Vanagon.

A salt as a buffer??? Is that right???

>From: Alistair Bell <albell@uvic.ca>
>
>I shouldn't be amazed, but everytime someone says not to use distilled (or
>de-ionized) water in a car's cooling system I have to wonder what the heck
>they are talking about.
>
>You should use pure water (distilled, double distilled, reverse osmosis,
>whatever) in the cooling system if you have any doubts about the purity of
>the water coming out of your domestic water supply. Some are blessed with
>sweet soft water, with just a hint o' chlorine, others (me included) have
>well water that is pratically saturated with calcium and magnessium
>carbonates.
>
>I would not use my water in anyone's cooling system. You should see the
>precipitates left in a kettle after just one use.
>
>So I use water from the lab, 18 MOhm water (purity described as a function
>of its conductivity). Yes the same water that is sometimes, and amusingly
>described as "hungry" or "extremely corrosive",
>
>
>As soon as you mix your pure water with the coolant, you don't have pure
>water anymore, but you know that you have not introduced any dissolved
>substances that may precipate out in the cooling system.
>
>
>Now you have a solution of ethlyene (or propylene) glycol, water, and a
>whole witch's brew of various salts etc as buffers and corrosion
>inhibitors.
>
>
>Alistair

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