de-ionized water?

slaya · Aug 10, 2004

Hey I heard that de-ionized is better than distilled water in a water cooling system, mainly becuase of the less conductivity it has?

I am going to be building a watercooling system very soon (planning on ordering later on today) so I want to know should I go with this idea?

I was also told that by mixing anti-freeze into it will ionize it, but the conductivity would still be less than distilled water+anti-freeze?

any comments? ideas? suggestion?

Graystar · Aug 10, 2004

Unless I got my info wrong, de-ionized water becomes ionized when you start doing things to it...like putting it in a water-cooling system.

Why are you adding anti-freeze to the water?

Me, I just use tap water and a few drops of algaecide.

Kaso · Aug 10, 2004

De-ionized water will quickly re-ionize, and become just plain Distilled water.

As for the anti-freeze i'm still not conviced wether it helps, Some day i'm going to try a test on mine to see the difference

Senater_Cache · Aug 10, 2004

Hey I heard that de-ionized is better than distilled water in a water cooling system

Dont ever return to where you heard that.
It is definitely not BETTER...
DI water will try to re-ionize itself by pulling ions from metallic components in your loop.
Use Distilled water only !!

Why are you adding anti-freeze to the water?

A Joke right?
maybe....prevention of galvanic reaction/corrosion?, slight bacterial inhibitation?

Me, I just use tap water and a few drops of algaecide.

How long has that system been running now? Over a week or two?
Open your blocks and see what your beloved Tap-water did to your block.
I really hope you meant to say Distilled instead of tap -for your loop's sake.

SenC.

Graystar · Aug 10, 2004

Senater_Cache said:
How long has that system been running now? Over a week or two?
Open your blocks and see what your beloved Tap-water did to your block.
I really hope you meant to say Distilled instead of tap -for your loop's sake.

Been watercooling for couple years now. My blocks seem fine.

=ACID RAIN= · Aug 10, 2004

Your tap must be pristine, Graystar, but here in central TX, the water comes from the Edwards aquifer, which means it's full of calcium and other minerals after flowing through miles and miles of limestone. The pH is higher than ocean water. One week and you'd have to scrub your components with a wire brush.

Therefore, I do NOT recommend tap water. Even my old home, the eastern coast of TX, has it's problems, although it's on the opposite end of the pH and hardness scale.

SomaGaze · Aug 10, 2004

Senater_Cache said:
Dont ever return to where you heard that.
It is definitely not BETTER...
DI water will try to re-ionize itself by pulling ions from metallic components in your loop.
Use Distilled water only !!

Re-ionize is a bad word to use. i'm pretty sure water has no properties that would cause it to "reionize." the more ions you have exchanged out of the water for OH- and H3O+ the better

yes, DI water will be better than distilled water. ions introduced into the system (distlled or DI) is dependant on erosion and corrosion of components in the system. Conductivity and chloride concentration will affect this the most.

The higher the conductivity in the water the greater the rate of galvanic corrosion (the transfering of ions from one metal to a dissimilar metal) The higher the concentration of oxidizers (oxygen and chlorides) the greater general corrosion there will be.

not sure of the industry standard, but the DI water i use at work has cond <2.5 umho/cm and Cl- <0.1 ppm. I maintain chemistry on a nuclear reactor and its associated systems, the purer water we use, the better. I'm sure distilled water is at least 10x those amounts

For more extreme coolers, they can also maintain a more basic pH. This will lower the corrosion rate. a good pH is around 9.00-10.50, using a weak base.

seaborn · Aug 10, 2004

wrong

distilled water is de-ionized as well. at least that is what my jug says

I.M.O.G. · Aug 10, 2004

Wrong, all distilled water is not also deionized, there is a difference.

Distillation is evaporation and recondensation, where all deposits are left behind with the evaporation and the water condenses into a clean resevoir.

I thought deionized water is not good for your system - water does not solely have any properties which would cause it to reionize, but remember homeostatis - all things want to approach equilibrium.

If you take all of the ions out of water, and put it in a mixed watercooling loop - the water will be "hungry" to regain its balance and will pull ions from anywhere it can, increasing the rate of corrosion.

I thought this had been accurately established previously, but perhaps this is incorrect?

Basically anyways, deionized water is pointless in our applications because it reionizes quickly. The question is if it pulls enough ions to do damage, and I'm not sure of the answer to that.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, running DI water is no problem as you won't use enough of it to make any perceiveable difference. It reionizes quickly, and will not add to corrosion.

Bottom line - it is no different than distilled for our application, and it is more expensive. Stick with the cheaper alternative.

seaborn · Aug 10, 2004

IMOG said:
Wrong, all distilled water is not also deionized, there is a difference.

Distillation is evaporation and recondensation, where all deposits are left behind with the evaporation and the water condenses into a clean resevoir.

I thought deionized water is not good for your system - water does not solely have any properties which would cause it to reionize, but remember homeostatis - all things want to approach equilibrium.

If you take all of the ions out of water, and put it in a mixed watercooling loop - the water will be "hungry" to regain its balance and will pull ions from anywhere it can, increasing the rate of corrosion.

I thought this had been accurately established previously, but perhaps this is incorrect?

Basically anyways, deionized water is pointless in our applications because it reionizes quickly. The question is if it pulls enough ions to do damage, and I'm not sure of the answer to that.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, running DI water is no problem as you won't use enough of it to make any perceiveable difference. It reionizes quickly, and will not add to corrosion.

Bottom line - it is no different than distilled for our application, and it is more expensive. Stick with the cheaper alternative.

From what I was told. The water that I got was distilled then de-ionized. De-ionized water does not conduct electricity from what I understand. the water that I bought was supposed to have both pocesses done at least that what i was told. If I wrong i have someone to have a chat with

. Dont you just love salesmen.

I.M.O.G. · Aug 10, 2004

It was just the way you said it - "distilled water is deionized". Should be "distilled water can be deionized also". I am sure you are right about your jug of water though.

Deionized water does not conduct electricity, however, simply exposing it to the air will allow it to reionize. Deionized water does not stay deionized long.

SomaGaze · Aug 11, 2004

IMOG said:
Bottom line - it is no different than distilled for our application, and it is more expensive. Stick with the cheaper alternative.

DI water is free, just head down to your local salt-water aquarium shop. most have reverse osmosis (RO) units that make really good di. not sure if they run it through an ion exchanger, though...but its free!

de-ionized water?

slaya

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=ACID RAIN=

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