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Distilled water


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Firstly, I know you can make your own but I don't have time for that.

 

Regarding suppliers, I've just ordered some from APC Pure on eBay. I can't remember where I got the last 5 litres from. I thought it was Amazon but I can't find any record, but the brand on the container says APC and I remember it came with a certificate of authenticity.

 

The reason I'm slightly nervous is because about 7 years ago I wrecked a set of Trojans by using a cheap brand of deionised water, which I now suspect was just tap water.

 

I'm assuming that APC on eBay is the real thing but just wondered what others thought before I use it as I've no idea if people would go to all the trouble of counterfeiting distilled water in another producer's name?

 

 

 

 

IMG_20221229_145523.jpg

Edited by blackrose
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I have bought various chemicals from Apc pure web site (I know they also have an eBay shop) and have never had any reason to doubt the purity and quality of their stuff.  I would expect it to be exactly what is says on the container.


I wouldn’t bother testing myself but as it is water you could put a drop on a hot clean stainless steel surface and check there are no white deposits left after the water has boiled away.  But it needs to be done quickly to avoid dust and stuff from the air mixing with the water leaving behind a residue.

 

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Ive used APC for other chemicals and been very happy with them. I must admit though I buy deionised water from Tesco...£1.50 for 2.5l and seems to be made by Carplan who are fairly respectable. My trojans dont use much so its not worth buying in massive amounts.

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23 minutes ago, frangar said:

deionised water from Tesco...£1.50 for 2.5l

 

That's a lot more reasonable than Blackrose's two squid a litre, for what is basically water and nothing else (at all). 

 

Buying distilled water is like buying perforated sheet metal: you buy the material, the stuff that has been taken away, and the cost of taking it away!

 

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1 minute ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

That's a lot more reasonable than Blackrose's two squid a litre, for what is basically water and nothing else (at all). 

 

Buying distilled water is like buying perforated sheet metal: you buy the material, the stuff that has been taken away, and the cost of taking it away!

 

If you are being picky though there is a difference between deionised and distilled....which whilst not an issue for batteries as long as it is deionised and not just tap water labeled as such..... does make a difference for some uses...hence why a specialist chemical supplier like APC does it...and it does cost more for distilled than deionised.

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2 minutes ago, frangar said:

If you are being picky though there is a difference between deionised and distilled....which whilst not an issue for batteries as long as it is deionised and not just tap water labeled as such..... does make a difference for some uses...hence why a specialist chemical supplier like APC does it...and it does cost more for distilled than deionised.

 

I'm not, and I know, 

 

Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice ... and as is often (but not always) the case, the more you pay, the better the product. 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

Fairy Nuff.

 

Of course, if you had sealed batteries you wouldn't need to top them up at all.

 

🍿

 

 

 

in the case of conventional Lead Acid leisure batteries in my experience sealed batteries may still require topping up, which can be done by removing the vinyl stickers and levering off the black plastic strip covering the holes above each cell.  Maybe I'm wrong but I believe there is no difference in the batteries except that the cells in sealed batteries are more difficult to access.  Of course if you leave the red plugs in place then they are sealed to the extent that they may explode (well ...   leak badly at the least).

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2 hours ago, Murflynn said:

Maybe I'm wrong but I believe there is no difference in the batteries except that the cells in sealed batteries are more difficult to access. 

The better(?) sealed lead acids have an electrolyte recovery system so they shouldn't need topping up. I doubt even the ones that do, and not all do, will be foolproof if you give the battery a good boiling. 

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15 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

Fairy Nuff.

 

Of course, if you had sealed batteries you wouldn't need to top them up at all.

 

🍿

 

 

Does that post win the 2022 1st prize for stating the bleedin' obvious?

 

If I had sealed lead/acid batteries they wouldn't be able to take a 14.8v charge and wouldn't perform as well. In my experience.

Edited by blackrose
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1 minute ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Mine do, and always have, without any problem.

 

I'm sure they perform fine, but all other things being equal you'll never get a sealed lead/acid battery to perform as well as an open lead/acid battery because you can't charge them at as high a voltage. Like many things in life, you can only get out what you put in.

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21 hours ago, blackrose said:

My understanding was that distilled was better for batteries that deionised. At a tenner for 5 litres I'm not worried about the money as it should last me a few years.

 

When BT used wet batteries they only used de-ionised water. At the time they were (and probably still are) the largest user of batteries in Europe.

 

They had de-ionising machines made by a company called Permit, which converted tap water into de-ionised water.

 

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co14267/portable-water-deioniser-by-permutit-water-deioniser

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3 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

When BT used wet batteries they only used de-ionised water. At the time they were (and probably still are) the largest user of batteries in Europe.

 

They had de-ionising machines made by a company called Permit, which converted tap water into de-ionised water.

 

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co14267/portable-water-deioniser-by-permutit-water-deioniser

We had exactly the same at Birds Eye foods for all the electric fork lift trucks 

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8 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

When BT used wet batteries they only used de-ionised water. At the time they were (and probably still are) the largest user of batteries in Europe.

 

They had de-ionising machines made by a company called Permit, which converted tap water into de-ionised water.

 

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co14267/portable-water-deioniser-by-permutit-water-deioniser

 

The water treatment company was Permutit;  they were a big supplier of water treatment plant to power stations.  Where I worked we had multiple batteries at voltage levels of 50, 110, 240 and 500 V all made of lead acid cells. The 500V batteries could supply several hundred kW for 30 minutes or so. The 2V cells for the 500V battery were about the size of a wheelie bin, only half the height. All these batteries were topped up with deionised water, which if made with care, is purer than distilled water  (so pure the main alternator windings were cooled with deionised water passing through the hollow conductors which operated at 23500V). We made our water on site and thus we were in control of the quality. The plant was large, for boiler feed water we treated circa 500kg/2 to a high level of purity. 

 

I would have no qualms using deionised or distilled water for lead acid batteries, however, you are subject to the quality of the supplied product, whether it's deionised or distilled.

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10 hours ago, jonesthenuke said:

 

The water treatment company was Permutit;  they were a big supplier of water treatment plant to power stations.  Where I worked we had multiple batteries at voltage levels of 50, 110, 240 and 500 V all made of lead acid cells. The 500V batteries could supply several hundred kW for 30 minutes or so. The 2V cells for the 500V battery were about the size of a wheelie bin, only half the height. All these batteries were topped up with deionised water, which if made with care, is purer than distilled water  (so pure the main alternator windings were cooled with deionised water passing through the hollow conductors which operated at 23500V). We made our water on site and thus we were in control of the quality. The plant was large, for boiler feed water we treated circa 500kg/2 to a high level of purity. 

 

I would have no qualms using deionised or distilled water for lead acid batteries, however, you are subject to the quality of the supplied product, whether it's deionised or distilled.

 

Yes Permutit, that's what I originally put but the auto-wrong changed it.

 

The largest capacity battery I worked on was 15,050Ah, comprising 25 x 2 volt cells, like these but much wider.

 

They were topped up with a 2 gallon plastic bucket.

Screenshot_20220615-154703.png

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21 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

When BT used wet batteries they only used de-ionised water. At the time they were (and probably still are) the largest user of batteries in Europe.

 

They had de-ionising machines made by a company called Permit, which converted tap water into de-ionised water.

 

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co14267/portable-water-deioniser-by-permutit-water-deioniser

 

Ditto on a very much smaller scale at the Daganite battery service agent I worked at. Seved having to lug glass demijohns in straw within metal cage

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4 hours ago, bizzard said:

Permutit also made small easy to carry water softeners mainly for the home photographic developing and printing, they used salt I think.

I had a domestic one and as an apprentice use to install them, I often wonder how the average householder managed to regenerate them, they were covered in hand wheel valves. Forward 30 years and mine had a clock with levers to operate the necessary valves and I just filled the hopper with salt once a month.

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48 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I had a domestic one and as an apprentice use to install them, I often wonder how the average householder managed to regenerate them, they were covered in hand wheel valves. Forward 30 years and mine had a clock with levers to operate the necessary valves and I just filled the hopper with salt once a month.

 

Regenerating the Permutit de-ionisers involved demijohns of concentrated hydrochloric acid and calcium carbonate IIRC. The acid smoked so much it was difficult to see where you where you were pouring it. All done without PPE in those pre H&S days!

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