Distilled water source?

[russiankid]

I have never used anything but tap water for my cars. I don't eve drink spring water myself, let alone distilled. They are not getting it. Are cars more important than me? The mineral content in tap water is miniscule. The potential of gumming up the car cooling system is almost nil.

I've drained coolant from cars that had tap water in there. There were tons of particles floating around that were caused by the water. I use distilled water in all my cars and everytime I drain the coolant it comes out the same color as the day I mixed it.

[caf2461]

Agreed. Distilled water is $1 per gallon at my grocery store. Why pay $22 per gallon for BMW antifreeze and then use tap water?

[russiankid]

Agreed. Distilled water is $1 per gallon at my grocery store. Why pay $22 per gallon for BMW antifreeze and then use tap water?

And the fact that BMW's don't like heat. If tap water clogs a waterway, hello overheating.

[h2oyo]

Distilled water source? I buy the recommendation but where to get it? Does anyone believe that the grocery store distilled water at the same price as the "spring" water is really distilled?

I work for a bottled water company. If the label says it is steam distilled it is distilled water. Spring water will be about the same cost as the cost of spring water is the trucking etc to get it to the bottling plant. Distilled water is by far more expensive to produce over purified water because of the power used to make it. Purified water is very close to the purity of steam distilled water with purified being in the 1-2 mhos and steamed distilled being .5 to 1.5 mhos. But by law they cant sell or package the water as distilled if it is purified.

[h2oyo]

I have never used anything but tap water for my cars. I don't eve drink spring water myself, let alone distilled. They are not getting it. Are cars more important than me? The mineral content in tap water is miniscule. The potential of gumming up the car cooling system is almost nil.

The mineral content of tap water and spring water is by far much higher than you think. The mineral content depends on the area of the country your in, the same goes for spring water. I wouldnt drink either of them. I would only drink drinking water. But that is my job I do know what is in my water and I do know what i take out of it before minerals are added for taste.

[yaofeng]

Agreed. Distilled water is $1 per gallon at my grocery store. Why pay $22 per gallon for BMW antifreeze and then use tap water?

Why pay $22 for BMW coolant? The green coolant works just fine.

[yaofeng]

And the fact that BMW's don't like heat. If tap water clogs a waterway, hello overheating.

Why would tap water clog the waterway?

[repenttokyo]

Why would tap water clog the waterway?

if you had read any of the above comments, you would know that it is because of mineral buildup, deposits and increased corrosion.

[repenttokyo]

Why pay $22 for BMW coolant? The green coolant works just fine.

whatever you say.

[yaofeng]

if you had read any of the above comments, you would know that it is because of mineral buildup, deposits and increased corrosion.

Look, I have used tap water to mix with the green coolant on all of my cars over the years. I never let coolant in any of my cars stay more than four years, usually less. I have never, ever had a cooling system failure because of mineral build-up causing clogged waterway on any of may cars. Failed water pump, failed thermostat, failed hoses, failed plastic cooling component, yes. But never anything related to clogged anything due to the use of tap water and $5 a gallon antifreeze (now close to $10 a gallon).

I just do not see the benefit of using expensive coolant with distilled water.

There may be minerals in the tap water. If the amount of the minerals in the tap water added to the mix will clog the cooling system passage it will do much more harm to your body. In addition, you are not running the tap adding water and minerals to the cooling system continuously. You are adding an equal amount to the antifreeze in the mix. To say it will clog the coolant system passage is laughable.