Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Rob1962]

Hi , I want to go to the lake tomorrow cant locate and distilled water  would it hurt 1 my boiler for say 4 hour steamup?




                                             Rob from NYC USA

[derekwarner]

rob1962........

• I have no idea of the quality of your domestic water in NYC.......
• most petrol/service stations/department stores sell bottled water for human consumption ......in OZ it is marketed as spring water
• more importantly ...never use demineralized water....... ...it will eventually leach copper & brass from around silver soldered joints

Derek

[David Shaw]

Try going to your local aquatic shop and getting R.O. water.

[pettyofficernick]

I have used plain old tap water for years and never have a problem, just avoid very hard water as it will cause limescale to build up. I clean inside the boiler occasionally with a little citric acid solution, just fill the boiler with it and bring to the boil (if you'll pardon the expression) discard and rinse with fresh and you are good to go.

[ooyah/2]

Totally agree, good old tap water, if it's good enough for your stomach ,it's good enough for your boiler.
Avoid very hard water which I doubt that NYC has.

George.

[Jerry C]

I agree with Nick. Good tip, look inside your lecky kettle. If it's making bricks then don't use your water. I lived near Helsby, Cheshire. The tap water there would make an immersion heater into a brick in less than 12 months. In Liverpool you can put water into a battery with little ill effect. It must be OK on the Wirral cos they're posh.
Jerry.

[pettyofficernick]

We import our water from Wales, Lake  Vyrnwy  I think, this is mainly surface water and is very soft.......

[grendel]

in kent our tap water is so bad a brand new kettle has scale after 1 boil.
Grendel

[Jerry C]

"Import" is Liverpool expression meaning "to rob".
Jerry.

[pettyofficernick]

"Import" is Liverpool expression meaning "to rob".
Jerry.

Ah, but we on the Wirral are not from Liverpool. we are from Wirral, there is a barrier separating us from Liverpool, with only a few access points, which are carefully controlled......

[Netleyned]

Wirral must be the equivalent of Stonecutters Island 

Ned

[pettyofficernick]

Wirral must be the equivalent of Stonecutters Island 

Ned

Not any more, the snake farm's gone and we no longer have a Sheikh police force....

[derekwarner]

Today I am typing from Adelaide  ...where the domestic drinking water is drawn from the murky Murray river  .......& here over the years when visiting needed to use salt water soap to shower with  ....
Want to ruin a good white shirt in Adelaide?............fill the [cloths] iron with tap water......... ....so without knowing the quality of the Hudson river suggested bottled spring water.....Derek
 
 

[vnkiwi]

Morning Derek,
can verify that, lived there for more than 20 years.
Only port in Australia, where ships would not take on fresh water.
Often was the same murky colour as the Murray, straight out of the tap, always slightly cloudy, despite using the catchment dams in the hills as settling ponds.
Enjoy your day
cheers
HarryD

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Walmart,... The Tesco of America.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Distilled-Water-1-gal/10315382

 

Walmart Supercenter
400 Park Plaza Dr
Secaucus, NJ
(201) 325-9280

Walmart
150 Harrison Ave
Kearny, NJ
(201) 955-0280

Walmart
500 Bayonne Crossing Way
Bayonne, NJ
(201) 620-6137

[Liverbudgie2]

Walmart,... The Tesco of America.

Should read ASDA surly.
LB

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Much like Tesco invaded Denmarck, Walmart would like to invade the UK.
ASDA appears to be the "SAS" branch of Walmart to that end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PSyiRXIEyc


There has been a bitter fight amongst locals just to keep Walmart out of the West side here.
 

But they should have Distilled water available, not sure what that
means though as it was probably made in China... 

[grayone]

rob1962........

• I have no idea of the quality of your domestic water in NYC.......
• most petrol/service stations/department stores sell bottled water for human consumption ......in OZ it is marketed as spring water
• more importantly ...never use demineralized water....... ...it will eventually leach copper & brass from around silver soldered joints

Derek

 
Humm, we used bottled water in Saudi and several other places I have worked for our tea as the local stuff was rather nasty.   Most bottled natural spring water is high in dissolved solids (calcium and the like) so tended to fur up the kettles pdq and I suspect the same would be true of any bottled spring water.  Normally the label will tell you, the ones in my cupboard right now say the TDS is 20mg/ml and most this Total Dissolved Solids is what creates the problem.
On to demineralised water, yes this is quite nasty stuff and can be produced via resin bed filters or RO process.  However, it is generally not as pure as distilled water, but much the same thing, which is what is normally used in model boilers.  Will either damage the brass fittings or the silver solder, I know that brass for boiler shells under anything but modest pressure is to be avoided as the effect is to leach the zinc from the alloy and thus weaken it.  In terms of the fittings, I guess they generally have quite a significant mass relative to their surface area so the effect would be modest over a reasonably long period of time.