In article ,
"Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at attbi dot com wrote:

Bruce, you confuse me here....

Back in the "Dark Ages, I ran a company that produced various ion beam
equipment. It often required cooling. This was easy to do with a cooling
water loop in the test area, except that the ion sources were often quite
far from ground -- as much as 400kv in air. We also built higher voltage
stuff, but it was insulated with pressurized SF6.

In order that the cooling water not be a short path to ground, it had to be
non conductive, which we accomplished by deionizing it, effectively removing
all the dissolved particles. So, I know a little -- not a lot -- about
deionizing water.

Steam distilling leaves behind two kinds of things -- dissolved minerals,
such as calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, and the like, which, because
they are dissolved, are in ionic form -- and particle matter -- fine sand,
for example, that might be carried in the water.

Now, it's strictly true that if you deionize water, you remove only the
dissolved minerals, and could leave the non-ionic solids, but as a practical
matter, you're going to filter the water and remove the non-ionic solids
before you sell it. Both methods get the non H2O stuff out, although with
different methods. Both can deliver pretty good purity if you work hard
enough at it -- certainly good enough for battery water. So, I'd say they
are indeed functional equivalents.


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


There are MAJOR differences in what your were working with back in the
"Dark Ages" and what is being marketed as "Deionized Water". You were
in a LAB Grade enviorment, and these guy's are selling TAP WATER that
has been run through a Deionizing Columb once or twice. Deionizing
columbs are ION SPECIFIC, in nature aremust be tuned to the water
that they are working with to get anywhere near the Distilled Water
spec's. Most of these outfits just take out the Calcium and Iron and
let it go at that, and there are a lot of other things in there that can
deal the DEATH BLOW to a Battery. Ever seen what Magnesium does to a
Lead Acid Battery???? Also there has been studies undertaken by
Consumer Reports, and others concerning the quality of bottled water in
all it's varieties, that preety much says that Tap Water from a big city
is as good as most bottled water. Next, anyone who would put Single
Distilled Water in any battery needs to rethink his position, as I see
it. I use only Triple Distilled Water in my batteries, and I get it from
ALASCOM, my LongLines Telco Supplier, who maintains a pile of Battery
Banks in their Systems. They have their own Triple Distiller in House.
Now others may hold other opinions, and it has been a number (More than
25) years since I was a NitroOrganic Chemist, and did this kind of
testing for money, but the Principals are the same. Deionized Water
isn't the Functional Equivelent of Distilled Water in my estimation and
the MASS Spectrum Analyzers, and Gas Cromatagraphs, that I used years
ago convinced me. Your milage may vary.....

Bruce in alaska
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