Condenser drier water to top up coolant

tom_tarbucket

We have a condenser dryer at home. Would it be ok to use the water from this to top up coolant in the car ?

Bpmull

Ah no I don't know why you would be putting condenser dryer water in your car as it is neither distiller or deionised if anything you would be better or putting tap water in the car as at least you wouldn't have traces or chemicals and detergents used to clean the laundry in that. Water from your dryer is a long way of being pure water.

tom_tarbucket

Bpmull wrote: »

Ah no I don't know why you would be putting condenser dryer water in your car as it is neither distiller or deionised if anything you would be better or putting tap water in the car as at least you wouldn't have traces or chemicals and detergents used to clean the laundry in that. Water from your dryer is a long way of being pure water.

Oh ok. So simple boiled water would be better than water from condenser dryer ?

Bpmull

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Oh ok. So simple boiled water would be better than water from condenser dryer ?

Ah not unless you are able to collect the steam from the boiling water and condense it down to get distilled water. In other words the water in your kettle after boiling is not distilled water as it never went to gas phase it was just heated to 100 degree c and cooled back down. Tbh I'm not up on whether the cooling system requires distilled water or de-ionised water. De-ionised would be purer either way both can be bought in halfords or a motor factor fairly cheap. Tap water might even do but probably wouldn't be recommended especially is you have lime issues with your water but Id stay away from the condenser dryer water people think it's pure water but it's just water condensate and loads of chemicals left on the cloths believe if you were to drink it tap water would taste far superior you would even taste the chemicals in the condenser dryer water. im not saying to do that or anything :pac:

Kenny Logins

Distilled water is for batteries. Tap water should be fine for coolant, no?

Kenny Logins

*de-ionised

biko

Condeser water usually isn't all that clean.
Go with halfords distilled water.

Tap water is fine imo but if you have a very nice car you should spend a bit more.

Henry Ford III

Do you have a tap at home too OP?

CiniO

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Distilled water is for batteries. Tap water should be fine for coolant, no?

I wouldn't put tap water in my coolant system - even the best quality soft water will have some limescale in it, so definitely a bad idea.
deionised or distilled water is what I use

listermint

Is it mad just to go into Halfords and grab the bottle marked Coolant off the shelf. ?

Kenny Logins

listermint wrote: »

Is it mad just to go into Halfords and grab the bottle marked Coolant off the shelf. ?

More expensive, maybe, but certainly handier than faffing about with the dryer.. :P

BTW, the data sheet for the coolant I use states that (most) tap water is fine. That's good enough for me. Never had any scaling in the kettle here, so I'm sure the water is soft enough for the job.

punisher5112

You should be getting the correct spec coolant for your motor.

This will be much better for the system then water as any metal will corrode with water....

coylemj

punisher5112 wrote: »

You should be getting the correct spec coolant for your motor.

This will be much better for the system then water as any metal will corrode with water....

Isn't all coolant a combination of a chemical with a low freezing point (i.e. antifreeze) and water?

Water by itself will not corrode metal, it needs to contain some serious impurities to do so.

punisher5112

coylemj wrote: »

Isn't all coolant a combination of a chemical with a low freezing point and water?

Water by itself will not corrode metal, it needs to contain some serious impurities to do so.

It is much better then just water.

pred racer

Rain water;)

Kenny Logins

punisher5112 wrote: »

You should be getting the correct spec coolant for your motor.

This will be much better for the system then water as any metal will corrode with water....

...unless you mix it with coolant of course. Right?

punisher5112

Kenny Logins wrote: »

...unless you mix it with coolant of course. Right?

They recommend the correct mix set by manufacturer.

Kenny Logins

punisher5112 wrote: »

They recommend the correct mix set by manufacturer.

Get a grip. Nobody was talking about using water alone until you came along.

punisher5112

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Get a grip. Nobody was talking about using water alone until you came along.

The op was....;)

Kenny Logins

punisher5112 wrote: »

The op was....;)

Top up he said, not draining and refilling.

edburg

Original post looks like he meant just water to top up the coolant. Was going to say same myself about coolant.

Most if not all garages seem to stock a cheap coolant on shelves be better than just water on topping up imo.

It cost me 3 euro for a litre of the pink stuff to top mine up recently At local petrol garage.

Interslice

I wouldnt use the tap water at home in a car. We get limescale on the outside of the kettle though! I think there is treatment in the coolant concentrate but still. Always think it will cause a layer of insulation to build up in the coolant galleries in the engine.

tphase

Kenny Logins wrote: »

BTW, the data sheet for the coolant I use states that (most) tap water is fine. That's good enough for me. Never had any scaling in the kettle here, so I'm sure the water is soft enough for the job.

Kenny is right - most tap water is good enough. If you get scaling in your kettle, then you'll probably get it in the engine which is not a good thing. In that case, collect some rain water and filter it through a clean cloth. The thing to consider is when you add water, you're diluting whatever antifreeze is in your cooling system - keep that in mind when winter comes around again:cool:

As for corrosion, not just any metal will corrode in contact with water eg gold, stainless steel, galvanised steel, anodised aluminium do pretty well in wet conditions. Certainly the metal(s) in you cooling system will do better with pure coolant/antifreeze (ie ethylene or propylene glycol) but the liquid in the cooling system gets hot enough to boil off dissolved oxygen which I think is what does most of the damage. I reckon external corrosion will get you first.....

Bottom line
A little bit of tap water (hard or soft) won't make a whole heap of difference for a one off top-up but soft water is better.
If you have to do it somewhat regularly, use soft water for the summer and a proper anti-freeze mix in the winter.
If you have to do it very frequently, either fix the leak or use any liquid you like:rolleyes:

coylemj

I recall there was an issue with certain antifreeze and the colour - wasn't it recommended not to mix colours i.e. if you had pink coolant and need a topup then you needed to either topup with plain water or pink antifreeze??

delly

Tesco have a 2 or 3 litre of deionised water for about €4. I've topped up with it over a year and when partially empty I mixed in some coolent.

coylemj

delly wrote: »

Tesco have a 2 or 3 litre of deionised water for about €4. I've topped up with it over a year and when partially empty I mixed in some coolent.

Can we just get one thing straight here - 'coolant' is not a substance, it describes the function of the fluid in your cooling system which could be 100% water but is typically a mix of water and antifreeze.

You can buy a container of coloured fluid in Halfords but it isn't 'coolant' until you put it into your cooling system.

tom_tarbucket

Whats the difference between distilled and de ionised water ?

delly

coylemj wrote: »

Can we just get one thing straight here - 'coolant' is not a substance, it describes the function of the fluid in your cooling system which could be 100% water but is typically a mix of water and antifreeze.

You can buy a container of coloured fluid in Halfords but it isn't 'coolant' until you put it into your cooling system.

By that logic then, is it not anti freeze until it is anti freezing? What happens to it during the summer as it never gets a chance to perform? Are containers that say antifreeze/coolant on the outside misrepresenting what is inside?

Bpmull

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Whats the difference between distilled and de ionised water ?

Distilled water is generally produced through distilled so water boiled of steam cooled and condenses back to form distilled water.

Deionised water is generally purer version it is demineralised ultrapure. To make it you would start with cleaning treatments then pass the water through a reverse osmosis membrane then a deionization medium to remove all the ions from the water.

tphase

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Whats the difference between distilled and de ionised water ?

Distilled: water is boiled and vapour condensed
Deionised: water is pushed through a mixture of resins
http://www.distilleddeionizedwater.com/deionized-water-vs-distilled-water/
In this particular scenario, no difference

Tigger

coylemj wrote: »

Can we just get one thing straight here - 'coolant' is not a substance, it describes the function of the fluid in your cooling system which could be 100% water but is typically a mix of water and antifreeze.

You can buy a container of coloured fluid in Halfords but it isn't 'coolant' until you put it into your cooling system.

Why does this bottle say coolant and the other one say antifreeze if neither exist in a bottled state ?

deandean

condenser dryer water, no, it has remnants of belly button fluff and stuff.

But water from a dehumidifier: it is condensate and is very pure. I use it in batteries, cooling systems etc no problem at all.

Interslice

Tigger wrote: »

Why does this bottle say coolant and the other one say antifreeze if neither exist in a bottled state ?

water + anti-freeze = coolant

ready-mix coolant= coolant

B00056718

Just to make things even more confusing - some coolants don't contain any water. None at all.

Off topic, but I have seen diesel fuel used as a coolant. It was on some old Soviet engines however, so no issues.

AhHaor

Just go in to your local cleanroom and get some MilliQ 18.2 MOhm water!