The obvious and easy answer to the OP is distilled water, sometimes labeled as "Pure", from the supermarket (Countdown), also available at the Warehouse and I think places like Mitre 10.
$6 or $7 for 10 L.
Rainwater is great - if you can be bothered and if you can keep it clean and uncontaminated.
Make sure whatever containers or funnels you use are clean beforehand!
In theory it's a good idea to use distilled water in your coolant mix (especially if the coolant is red or purple long life) and the windscreen washer reservoir (especially if you don't use the washer jets often), to avoid nasties both chemical/corrosive and biological, but that might just be the paranoid pedant in me coming out.
scuba,
Jun 29, 3:33am
10 litres is a bit overkillto top up a battery
taipan4,
Jun 29, 3:38am
datsun cogs
red97,
Jun 29, 4:48pm
i would have thought it was very close to being true! for the purposes of topping up a battery it is fine as it is effectively distilled (condensed from water vapour) therefore it is demineralised as there are not a lot of minerals floating around in water vapour that i know of, though please correct me if i am wrong, although as itcan sit around for a while at warm temps i wouldnt recomend drinking it.
elect70,
Jun 29, 7:20pm
^^ look at all the crap collected in the drain tray, I wouldnt put that in a battery
shuddupowh,
Jun 29, 7:46pm
Not gonna read all posts. But I just use normal tap water in my car batteries (every since I started driving) but 95% of the time I use our water filter. And so far, none of my batteries have buggered out. Especially my BMW, that battery is OLD but still goes hard - only top it up maybe once every few months & had it (battery & car) for nearly 4 years. Not once has it been drained flat.
ozz1,
Jun 29, 9:50pm
mmm free snapper.! gets wifes stockings.leaves out overnite. cantfind fish. butmust have been in there as can smell them.:)
tonyrockyhorror,
Jun 29, 10:02pm
Rainwater is not great. It is very poor for use as an electrolyte because it's not clean. It picks up dust from the atmosphere. Just like a scrubber.
tonyrockyhorror,
Jun 29, 10:05pm
Wow! 4 whole years! I'm impressed! I got 3 years out of a starting battery that I accidently severely deep discharged about 4 times in 2 months. The battery it replaced was installed almost 10 years prior.
4 years is not a long battery life.
noswalg,
Jun 29, 10:57pm
Wow, we make about 50m3 of distilled water at work a day and generally use about 3/4 of it maybe I should be taking some 200ltr drums home, just to clear some things up demin water is not distilled water but distilled water is generally demineralized water, in other words demin has the minerals removed but not necessarily impurities (bacteria, chemicals, nitrates etc) Distillation removes all impurities and all minerals
shuddupowh,
Jun 30, 5:00pm
You're a moron. Thats how long I have had it. Not how old it is. The BMW is 1988. only god knows how old the battery is - car never had a service (was rough as shit when I got it) still runs mint just after oil changes.
tonyrockyhorror,
Jun 30, 5:26pm
Let's get this straight: you're claiming long battery life using tap water in a battery you don't know the age of, but is at least 4 years old! Clown!
richynuts,
Jun 30, 5:37pm
^^^ Correct! ^^^
zirconium,
Jun 30, 8:07pm
You can use melted party ice as well, as long as you have allowed it to melt in a clean container.
If anyone ins interested in "why", party ice is made so that the ice is crystallised from a running water supply. Only water solidifies out, which gives a pure enough product to be used in applications where pure water is used. Good enough for astm standards use.
Apart from dirty coils, another reason water from a dehumidifier shouldn't be used in high spec applications is because CO2 from the air will dissolve into this water during the condensation process, changing the pH. (Makes it more acidic). This can also happen in a distiller, but as the process is quicker and hotter, not so much CO2 dissolves in.
red97,
Jun 30, 8:57pm
gotta keep an eye on it or the neighbours cat will steal the snapper which is obviously what happened here
ozz1,
Jun 30, 9:19pm
oh.now i realise.it was the neighbours pussy i could smell!
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