tap water for a water loop?

[joe_p231]

everyone says to use distilled water when water cooling but i was wondering why you shouldnt use tap water like whats the reason behind it?

[Kryptyx]

2 minutes ago, joe_p231 said:

everyone says to use distilled water when water cooling but i was wondering why you shouldnt use tap water like whats the reason behind it?

Because stuff will grow in your loop.

[Dr_Pleeper]

Don't do it. 

[xgn]

How bad it is depends where you live. In my country its enough to boil the water but i still dont want to risk it.

With tap water you can get microbes and chemicals building up. Which can make it look dirty. It can corrode and eventually break. Never use tap water.

[Bigheart]

you can, but you wouldnt need to distill it first in order to remove impurities and microbes. some sediment in tap water can also wreak havoc on your pump

[TidaLWaveZ]

NO WAY JOSE.

 

Tap water has all kinds of garbage minerals and chemicals in it like chlorine, fluorine, calcium, toxic metal salts, hormones, and pesticides, and whatever it carries from the pipes it comes from.

[Moonzy]

7 minutes ago, joe_p231 said:

everyone says to use distilled water when water cooling but i was wondering why you shouldnt use tap water like whats the reason behind it?

1) depending on where you're from, your tap water have bacteria that can grow in your loop, causing clogs and what not

2) the minerals in your tap water (either from piping or nature) will corrode whatever metal you have in your loop

[The Cool n00B]

7 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

NO WAY JOSE.

 

Tap water has all kinds of garbage minerals and chemicals in it like chlorine, fluorine, calcium, toxic metal salts, hormones, and pesticides, and whatever it carries from the pipes it comes from.

Gonna go out on a limb and say you prefer bottled water.

[TidaLWaveZ]

5 minutes ago, The Cool n00B said:

Gonna go out on a limb and say you prefer bottled water.

 

ehhh...

 

I feel like companies just fill up bottles with tapwater and mark it up.

 

[infinitymdm]

Tap water is bad for several reasons.

 

1) tap water is not filtered as well as it could be. As previously mentioned, microbes will be able to grow in your loop.

 

2) tap water is (almost) always ionized. This means that it will slowly degrade the metals in your water blocks. 

 

If you are truly on a budget, distilled water is OK, but professional solutions are always better. Also, don't forget to add a coolant.

 

Good luck!

[infinitymdm]

5 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

 

ehhh...

 

I feel like companies just fill up bottles with tapwater and mark it up.

 

True! Well, most companies. Don't buy great value.

[Midnitewarrior4]

5 minutes ago, TidaLWaveZ said:

 

ehhh...

 

I feel like companies just fill up bottles with tapwater and mark it up.

 

just learned that in science class nestle actually justgoes to different cities, pumps water out of lakes then filters it and bottles it.....

[Midnitewarrior4]

tap water

-microbes and stuff cant always be filtered out 

-it also will pick up metals that it passes through, uour pipes, filtering equipment, taps, fittings and such

so distilled water gets rid of basically all of that and getting pretty much pure water by evaporating it and then condesing the vapor back to liquid form getting only the pure water

 

oh and most cities use chlorine in the water to kill bacteria which can corrode metals in the loop after a while

[xgn]

10 minutes ago, Midnitewarrior4 said:

just learned that in science class nestle actually justgoes to different cities, pumps water out of lakes then filters it and bottles it.....

Well i know one company which use glacier as source of water that should be pretty safe.

[Midnitewarrior4]

Just now, xgn said:

Well i know one company which use glacier as source of water that should be pretty safe.

ya some companies are legit and do it right while some cheap out, there isnt many regulations for bottled water like there is for tap water, well atleast here in canada

[shibbs]

RO/DI water works well, too, as long as you use an antimicrobial, and an anti-corrosion additive is always a good idea, too.

 

I used RO/DI water as my base with my pastel concentrate.

[joe_p231]

On 01/03/2016 at 9:19 PM, The Cool n00B said:

Gonna go out on a limb and say you prefer bottled water.

i feel like this maybe a bad time to say i have had tap water running in my loop for a week to try to clean it out. by loop i mean i have had a closed loop of just my reservoir and pump running. so my next question is can you use tap water the clean a loop out?

 

[girion]

3 hours ago, joe_p231 said:

i feel like this maybe a bad time to say i have had tap water running in my loop for a week to try to clean it out. by loop i mean i have had a closed loop of just my reservoir and pump running. so my next question is can you use tap water the clean a loop out?

 

That means that you currently have microbes in your systems. You need to make the amounts of ions decrease in the loop: Flush it a few times with distilled. Personally I'd change the hosing as well. Make sure to run some anti-microbial and anti-corrosive additives when you re-fill the loop.

 

[W-L]

5 hours ago, joe_p231 said:

i feel like this maybe a bad time to say i have had tap water running in my loop for a week to try to clean it out. by loop i mean i have had a closed loop of just my reservoir and pump running. so my next question is can you use tap water the clean a loop out?

 

Using tap water to flush the loop is good but I wouldn't recommend to run it for per longed periods of time. Ideally it would be best to break it down and flush it out with fresh tap water and a final rinse with distilled before reassembly and filling it with proper fluid or a biocide and distilled water.