Distilled or RO water

Mike Burke

Mike Burke

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Is RO (reverse osmosis) water ok to use for diluting APC cleaners & clay lubes ?

I can buy Distilled water but have a friend that has alot of RO water.

Any difference between the two that I'm going to notice ?

Thanks
 
I use distilled water, some use RO. I myself have been interested if there is any real world difference. Distilled water has never done me wrong. I can buy it in 5 gallon jugs from our local hardware store for like $3
 
Distilled is much cheaper to get therefore its my go to for diluting products.
 
I always thought water is distilled from the process of Reverse Osmosis.
 
I always thought they were 2 different processes used to arrived at the same product: particle/solute free water.
 
Mike Burke said:
Is RO (reverse osmosis) water ok to use for diluting APC cleaners & clay lubes ?

I can buy Distilled water but have a friend that has alot of RO water.

Any difference between the two that I'm going to notice ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

For the purposes you'll be using the water for, there's really no difference. If you have a choice between the two, go with the cheapest. If your friend has RO that has well maintained membranes and he's giving it to you free, then that's definitely the way to go.

Both effectively reduce the dissolved solids content of water, but the processes are quite different. RO filters water through a very tight semi-permeable membrane. A distiller boils water, catches the steam, condenses it, and captures the resulting water.

So, like I said - go with the cheaper choice. Either one will have no ill effect on the cleaner you're diluting nor on the material you'll be applying it to.
 
Thanks everyone for the information and suggestions.

:xyxthumbs:
 
Distilled water is something of a purification process where as reverse osmosis is more of a demineralisation process. The difference is small for this application because the main problem one has with automotive is water hardness or dissolved mineral, which deposit on the surface after the water evaporates. In actual practice, RO water will not have removed dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen whilst Distilled water will be much better. It is quite plausible that RO water could be slightly acidic as a result of things like carbonic acid which would not be removed by the RO process.
 
cleanmycorolla said:
I use distilled water, some use RO. I myself have been interested if there is any real world difference. Distilled water has never done me wrong. I can buy it in 5 gallon jugs from our local hardware store for like $3
Click to expand...

Really what store? Feed back please
 
spiralout462 said:
I always thought water is distilled from the process of Reverse Osmosis.
Click to expand...

RO water is just very very filtered water. It runs through about 6 different filters. Distiller is basically boiled water. They cook it to remove the contaminates.
 
ihaveacamaro said:
Really what store? Feed back please
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, they're a California only store! I see you're from Florida, they're called Orchard Supple Hardware. Maybe by chance there's something similar? I actually found the water in their garden section, so maybe by chance a store near you has some in their garden area?
 
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