Battery water chemical questions..2 of 'em

[Volt_Ampere]

Why risk ruining expensive batteries when distilled water is dirt cheap????

[Lochlin]

I have always used my home's air conditioning discharge for my batteries. I have one of those "newer" air conditioning systems where essentially a small water pump pumps the discharge from my condenser to the basement sink via some clear tubing. It's a closed system until the water gets to the sink. I simply put the tube in a gallon jug for a few hours and it's filled. Water simply can't get much more pure than that.

[DaveTM]

Originally Posted by Volt_Ampere

Water in a dehumidifier would be clean if it was not for all of the dust and other junk that gets into it. It is the same as distilled until junk gets in it.

Volt......Are you saying my wife keeps a dirty house?

I can show her this post......she will track you down like you were a wounded deer in a snow storm. Prepare yourself for a severe brow beating....the likes of which you have never experienced before by a 125-lb woman!!!

[Volt_Ampere]

That assumes that the air blowing over the condenser is clean and dust free. Again I ask why risk damage to your expensive batteries to save a few bucks a year on Distilled water??? I know that many folks will say I just add tap water, etc. but it's impossible to tell what is in your water without doing extensive lab analysis.

[Volt_Ampere]

Probably should be saying Evaporator not condenser. That is the cold part.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Lochlin

I have always used my home's air conditioning discharge for my batteries. I have one of those "newer" air conditioning systems where essentially a small water pump pumps the discharge from my condenser to the basement sink via some clear tubing. It's a closed system until the water gets to the sink. I simply put the tube in a gallon jug for a few hours and it's filled. Water simply can't get much more pure than that.

Actually, water can get a lot purer than what is collected off the metal cooling coils of a dehumidifier. In fact, some industrial and laboratory uses require water that is many times purer than what just distilling water can produce.

Chemically pure water (Di-hydrogen-Monoxide aka Hydrogen-Hydroxide) is ion hungry and will leech metal ions out of the dehumidifier coils, so it will be contaminated with copper, zinc and lead (Zinc and Lead from brass fittings and solder), or aluminum depending on what the coils are made of. Aluminum isn't on the no-no list from Trojan Battery, but Copper and Zinc are and since the impurities don't leave the battery during electrolysis (gassing), the concentration will increase over the battery packs lifespan.

Chemically pure water does not conduct electricity, so you can get a rough idea of how pure the water being collected from your dehumidifier is by measuring its resistivity. Make two 1cm by 1cm pieces of aluminum foil, clip your ohmmeter leads to them and hold them 1cm apart while submerged in the distillate from your humidifier. If the reading is less than 1MΩ, I wouldn't use it in my batteries.

[DaveTM]

All that.....and I bet he didn't have his tin foil hat on either!!