Can I just boil water and use it in my radiator, or is that not good enough?

 

I used to use tap water, but now I have a dehumidifier which provides a limitless supply of distilled water.

 

I just buy premixed 50/50 antifreeze/water blend and top it off with a bottle of Redline Water Wetter.

Why worry, when you can buy the stuff premixed?

 

No.

Distilled water is the steam collected and condensed back to liquid. This leaves all the impurities behind. Boiling the water simply sterilizes it. Good if you're helping a woman give birth, but useless around your 928.

Distilled water is also about 99 cents per gallon at the local grocery store ...

N!

 

Yeah, grocery store is your best bet. I picked it up in 2.5 gallon containers. The 50/50 Snipe mentions may be convenient but may be a bit overkill... you really don't need more than a gallon of the antifreeze anyway, unless your car sees sub-freezing temps regularly. The boiling point of the coolant is raised primarily by system pressure, not so much a matter of coolant ratio. Besides, more water relative to the amount of coolant gives you better heat transfer because water is more effective at heat transfer than coolant.

 

Dave, you're correct about the heat transfer, but the anti corrosion package is also important. I seem to remember that you should use at least 40% antifreeze.
Justin, need a loan for the distilled water?

 

Ernest, sure I will come up on Sat. and collect. LOL

 

dave is correct, and with the distilled water the corrosion factor is reduced ,and almost illiminated. 1 gallon of long life anti freeze should do it.
any more , the cooling abilities of the fluid are not as bad.

However, tap water can start the corrosion process starts almost imeadiately.

MK

 

"Dave, you're correct about the heat transfer, but the anti corrosion package is also important. I seem to remember that you should use at least 40% antifreeze."

40% is ideal, but 50% is almost as good. I wouldn't use less than 30%, but that number is fine too.

Depends how cold/hot it gets where you live.

 

40% is the generally accepted minimum if you're worried about freeze point. If you're not, 15% is considered the minimum to provide adequate lubrication and corrosion resistance. I run 25% because it's real easy to dump in a whole gallon and top it up with distilled water. IMHO 50/50 being recommended in a climate where it never freezes is just a way to get you to buy another gallon of coolant, like changing your oil every 3,000 miles. YMMV...

 

Defrost your fridge/freezer, the water that collects is pure with no impurities! (i'm not making this one up!)

 

.... well, there is always another side to the story ..

If the antifreeze (AF) used is of the organic acid inhibiter type, tap water is the manufacturers recommended addition - not distilled H2O. Read the label of all the Dexcool 5-year types to confirm.
The very basic premise is that this family of antifreeze types protect by a buffered solution chemical control - not by layering the metal surfaces with a protective 'film' of silicate/phosphate goodies as the classic 'green' AF types do.
Distilled water is inherently more aggressive/corrosive on any (hot) metal surface than tap water, and will remain so until it dissolves or complexes with enough stuff ( increasing ionic strength) to become 'tap water'.That would be one reason that distilled water is not sold in metal containers .
Distilled water is the one of choice with the standard 'green' antifreeze, for it interferes less with the plating style corrosion inhibiter package - by not attempting to complex/precipitate the good stuff out of the AF and thusly decreasing its effectiveness and life span: the reverse is the case for the organic acid dexcool types, as tap water already has a load of dissolved goodies so will not as aggressively seek to find a happy equilibrium by attacking the metal - for there is no protective film laid down. There is another generation of AF in use (blue? yellow?) - so check the manufacturers recommendation for water 'type'.
It's all a question of equilibrium - and water is a most powerful solvent: it will win every time ...all we do is delay its ability to dissolve.

 

I thought distilled was used because it was free of minerals that are often found in tap water... and those minerals can build up and block water passageways which could pose a problem for a cooling system.

What? Am I wrong?

 

Are you sure you aren't referring to 'deionized' water here, Garth? Distilled water maintains the anion and cation bonds with Mg, Ca, etc. while removing the excess 'unbonded' molecules. It's no more corrosive than tap water, just less 'junk' in it.

 

If you were in a real bind, you could boil water, and collect the steam (with a pot top or something), and wait untill it cools. The steam would condense into a liquid. That would be true distilled water