Battery Water

OLD MEC

HELP I was questioned by cart owner today and very frankly I couldn't answer him with any accepted knowledge?
He wonders if he can use ( Reverse Osmosis Water ) and having never used any type of water treatment where I came from originally in Oregon where water was almost pure I couldnt answer him. I have lived in south Texas for the last 12 years and like almost all people here have never use anything but treated water here as its about 50% brackish salt water and 10% oil, and high portions of alkalie.
I looked on Trojan sight and several others and they all say "Distilled Water" which is what I have always used since the 1940s.
I called local Culligan people and on their reverse osmosis would do the job, and also said it was so pure that it could be used but also said that regular tap water could work also?
COMMENTS ANYONE????

BGW

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Timdelta

Distilled is 100% safe and cheap. Anything else is more of a risk, but reverse osmosis is good, if it is working. It is the ole' risk vs reward thing, in this case reward is so small it is not worth the risk. Distilled only for my cart.

scottyb

My battery distributor told me that our So Cal well water was good enough for batteries ..... I wouldn't do it. The outside faucets rotted off the house in 20 yrs. I'm not putting that stuff in a battery... High mineral content cannot be good for the Batteries...... We have high salt and high iron. I'm sticking with a safe bet = distilled water.

I'm with you guys ~ for as little as it costs to use distilled water for 1 cart in a year why risk using something untested?

iaefebs

I had a RO system for years. I used it for all my cooking and drinking water. I would save the extra it produced in gallon jugs and when I washed my car I would pour the RO water over the car instead of drying it with a chamois. I had no water spots.The deepness of the shine was outstanding. I had the RO water tested by several companies and it was so pure they had no sales pitch to give me. I would not hesitate using RO in a battery....

OLD MEC

Thanks fellows for your input, I just couldn't in good faith recommend RO water as I have since 1940's used nothing but distilled? OLD AGE YOU KNOW? The question was from a lower than low income local person that because of some health reason has to spend the money for the RO unit and hope that he could cut distilled water cost out??? We are having to pay $1.45 per gallon plus tax on average here. Rotton water is common so companies are really soaking us?

scubabud

In a nutshell distilled water will have the least amount of dissolved solids with R/O water coming in at #2. I have R/O in my homes but only use distilled in my cart.

iaefebs

Upon further review.... I checked back on RO systems and found that if the supplier water is good to begin with then RO is NEARLY as good as distilled. I had a very clean supply from my well but installed the RO to be on the safe side. I was nervous that a contaminant could leach in at any time and I had young children. old mec is saying that the local supply is not to high standards so a removal rate of 95-98% of TDS might not be good enough for long term usage. Being that a battery should last 5-7 years and the total water added is usually not much. It seems that distilled water would be the safer option.