Loosing a little bit of coolant

[txfromwi]

When I was young you could buy coolant density gauges with little floaty balls that told you when you got the mix correct.
I recall they had a brand name on them, was it Prestone?

Anyway, one of those might be useful if using the water flush technique.
And that water is DISTILLED water.....

But when I was young we used water from the hose from the well. Ah youth...

 

[djkaosone]

It's the age-old debate over distilled water is pure water, and tap water has too much minerals, fluoride, etc... and if you're in Flint you're sol for the past 10 years.

I didn't want to go into it and that's why I just said, "water".

I have a water softener and just did that. Otherwise, roughly 1.5 gallons per flush times 7 flushes comes out to 10.5 or 11 gallons of distilled water.

 

[f1racer328]

It's the age-old debate over distilled water is pure water, and tap water has too much minerals, fluoride, etc... and if you're in Flint you're sol for the past 10 years.

I didn't want to go into it and that's why I just said, "water".

I have a water softener and just did that. Otherwise, roughly 1.5 gallons per flush times 7 flushes comes out to 10.5 or 11 gallons of distilled water.

I hate this debate too, and was in a predicament when I replaced my radiator.

I ended up using reverse osmosis water mixed with the coolant concentrate. Reverse osmosis water alone will rust/corrode metals, but the coolant has anti corrosive additives in it so I figured that was fine.

Didn't want to use the crappy AZ tap water and didn't bother running to the store to buy distilled water. Haven't had any issues. It probably doesn't matter much as long as the water is clean.

 

[txfromwi]

Speaking as a Ph.D. level chemist with my emphasis in water chemistry...

ALL ultra pure water, whether De-Ionized, Reverse Osmosis or Ultra-Distilled is incredibly aggressive and corrosive.
Because, well, water is the closest thing to a universal solvent and it much prefers NOT to be ultra-pure, and it will find a way to get there...
The older it gets the less ultra-pure it becomes, no matter the storage mechanism or the source.
Even after decades of experience, I find it amazing that even 18 Mega-ohm water (theoretically perfectly pure) grows biologicals in perfectly clean systems - hence the need to disinfect them on a routine basis.

There are no issues using RO vs Distilled vs DI water in our systems, whatever is available is just fine.
For most of us, that's distilled in a jug from the grocery store, but use whatever you have - no problems...

 

[f1racer328]

Reverse Osmosis or Ultra-Distilled is incredibly aggressive and corrosive.

I put reverse osmosis water in an iron once, and promptly rusted it... that's how I learned.

Good to have some good insight though.