Distilled Water

TerryB · Distilled Water

Hi ........it was mentioned on another forum,but I thought I'd mention here.
I've just bought a 5litre bottle of "Purified Water" for £4.50 from my local chemists shop ........its far cheaper than Hornbys bottles.....I'll be running my A4 & A3 on it for the forseeable future.

poliss

Was it deionised water or the proper distilled kind? Deionised water is not good for live steam.

Even older tom

I guess it must be good stuff if you are advocating it Terry. What's it say on the bottle? Is it as pure as distilled?

TerryB

Hi Polliss ...........yeah,its proper distilled ......although its labeled "Purified Water" [its used for cleaning contact lenses,so I reckon if it's OK to put in your eyes I cant see it doing much damage to a copper/soldered boiler]
This topic was dicussed on NewRailModellers [thats where I heard about it] .......it seems "De-Ionised Water" can contain acids as its primary use is in car batteries and also,there is a warning in Hornby's Live Steam handbook about the dangers of using de-ionsed water....it seems it can weaken the soldered joints.

poliss

I used to make 'purified water'. It's full name was 'Purified Water BP. (BP stands for British Pharmacopeia) and it was Deionised water. It's made by a process of reverse osmosis by running it through resins and finally through an ultra-violet light to kill the bugs. All the medicines and shampoo you use contains D.I. as we called it. Fine for batteries, but not so good for boilers.
I would suggest that before you use it that you check with the chemist excactly what it is.

TerryB

poliss

Deionised water is fine for contact lenses. I suggest emailing Martindale just to make sure it is distilled water. Email: info@martindalepharma.co.uk

Even older tom

Hmmmm.... Methinks I'll stick to Hornby's 10p per run distilled UFN. (Far too many TLAs!

).

poliss

Remind me what TLAs are? I think I'm having a blonde moment (or life). lol

TerryB

Hmmm ..............methinks I might investigate further .............I've still got about 1/4 bottle of Hornby water left anyway,so it aint like I'm desprate for it .........although I gotta admit that on a couple of occassions when I have run out of Hornby water,I've used de-ionised [I always keep some handy in my garage for topping up my motorcycle batteries]

Even older tom

TLAs - Three Letter Acronyms

poliss

Told you I was blonde. lol

filonian

I too have been using purified water,I was assured by the chemist where I got it from that it was distilled.But thanks to Poliss I have e-mailed Martindale for conformation as yet no reply will put a post on when I get a reply from them.Ian

poliss

I reckon that if it was distilled water it would be written on the label as such.

poliss

I was also wondering if it would be possible to make your own distilled water using the steam from a kettle. Thoughts?

Even older tom

Not a good idea 'carbon footprint' wise or cost. To boil a kettle to get 1ltr of distilled water would take about 2.4 hours. That's a lot of eleccy!

poliss

The makers must use a kettle too, even if it's a very big one.
No point distilling my own vodka then.

Even older tom

There is really fine reason for distilling your own vodka - you can get it to 85% ABV if you try hard. .... hic....

poliss

85%, about half the strength of Moldovan vodka.

Rog (RJ)

There are some "tabletop" water distillation devices available if you search the net. A bit pricey though! I've read that dentists use distilled water (don't know why) and usually make their own, so try tapping up your dentist when you go!

poliss

Or keep typing distilled and see what adds come up at the bottom of the messages.

distilled water distilled distilled distilled

Rog (RJ)

Looks like it worked!

Even older tom

The aqw site has distilled at £16.50 for 5 ltr plus p&p. Added to my favourites list for when I get low on my Hornby water.