In my neighborhood, distilled water is $0.99 / gallon.
Considering how much money we all pour into these vans, is there any
reason not to pour in a few dollars worth of pure water with our coolant???

John Rodgers wrote:
> In my area I am supplied by the city water supply. It is nasty! Smells
> bad, tastes bad. So much so that I won't drink it unfiltered. There is
> so much grunge in the water that my little filters I have to replace
> every month because they have cleaned out so much sludge in theater.
> They literally plug up with the garbage about every thirty days of use,
> and the water stops glowing. This is with a city water supply running
> through it. These filters have activated charcoal in them and I don't
> know what else. Would this filtered water work for the cooling system in
> lieu of distilled water?
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>
> Ben Cichowski wrote:
>> Hi Jake and All,
>>
>> Question: "Where would I find out
>> if the Vancouver BC water supply has these polyphosphates?  I think
>> they use chloramine as an anti-bacterial...."
>>
>> You should be able to just put in a call to your city works and ask
>> them if they are using any polyphosphates (zinc orthophosphate is one
>> of the more common ones and may be a more familiar term to whatever
>> city worker you happen to get on the phone). Also, Canada follows
>> suit with EPA on just about everything, so I would bet that each
>> year, every customer is shown a "consumer confidence report" either
>> as a mailing or on the web. This CCR will give you all the
>> information about the water coming in through the tap (test results,
>> what chemicals they use, etc.)
>>
>> Again, I'm not sure if Canada does these CCRs, but I would bet that
>> they do. If you're in the US, you get one for sure (but may not
>> notice it).
>>
>> As for chlorine, I don't think it should be a problem for anything.
>> By the time it reaches your tap, it is so unbelievably low in
>> concentration (and continues to be used up over time).
>> If you're worried about it, set it out in an open container for a day
>> and it'll probably be gone.
>>
>> -Ben
>>
>> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:14:18 -0800
>> From: crescentbeachguitar@gmail.com
>> To: aquasheck@hotmail.com
>> Subject: Re: Distilled Water
>> CC: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
>>
>> Thanks Ben, that's good to know.  Where would  I find out if the
>> Vancouver BC water supply has these polyphosphates?  I think they use
>> chloramine as an anti-bacterial....
>>
>>
>> On Jan 31, 2008 7:59 AM, Ben Cichowski <aquasheck@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'm only a shade-tree mechanic, but my full time profession is as a
>> water quality engineer. I personally used distilled. If your tap is
>> supplied by a municipal system in a town larger than 3,300 people,
>> chances are your tap water will be sufficiently free of minerals that
>> may precipitate out in your system (but also read my last line).
>>
>>
>> The big 4 to worry about are Calcium, Magnesium, Iron and Manganese.
>> When you used to see a lot of antifreezes containing phosphates,
>> these were put in for corrosion control, as well as to sequester
>> minerals like Iron (surround the molecule so it doesn't precipitate
>> out). But, then they started to find that phosphates destabilize
>> under high temps and actually precipitate out of solution
>> themselves...thus adding to the problem.
>>
>>
>> One thing to keep in mind is that, even if you are using tap water,
>> your municipal system may be using polyphosphates to sequester iron
>> (if your area has high iron concentrations), or for corrosion control
>> of distribution lines. If you use tap water in this situation, it is
>> essentially like using an antifreeze that contains phosphates - not
>> good.
>>
>>
>> In short, go with distilled and live on the safe side.
>>
>> -Ben
>>
>>
>>> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:31:53 -0500
>>> From: d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM
>>> Subject: Re: Distilled Water
>>>
>>
>>
>>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>>
>>> Yes, arouand that time as many new coolant formulations were being
>>> introduced,many cooling system issues were found to be related to
>>> minerals,
>>>
>>
>>
>>> ions and other stuff in tap water that reduced the effectiveness of
>>> coolant
>>> and cuase precipatation, (deposits that clogged) and abrasion of
>>> cooling
>>> system parts. Most large diesel engines reqiure distilled water fill
>>> and
>>>
>>
>>
>>> many antifreeze suppiers now sell pre mixed with distilled or deionized
>>> water. If you have hard water, you want to use distilled. If you
>>> think there
>>> is a lot of confusion with automotive antfreezes, try the truck and
>>>
>>
>>
>>> industrial engine world.
>>>
>>> Dennis
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: Vdub Guy <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
>>>> Reply-To: Vdub Guy <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
>>>>
>>
>>
>>>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>>>> Subject: Distilled Water
>>>> Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:26:04 +0000
>>>>
>>>> OK, I knew  I wasn't dreaming, a search of the archives brought up
>>>> many
>>>>
>>
>>
>>>> hits about how distilled water should be used with coolant. I only
>>>> went
>>>> back as far as 2003, and don't have time to sort through them all,
>>>> but has
>>>> opinion on this changed?     Jeff
>>>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Shed those extra pounds with MSN and The Biggest Loser!
>> http://biggestloser.msn.com/
>>
>>
>>
>