Can any IBMr's out there bring us up to speed on the special water they use
to cool their water-cooled mainframe computers? Its got to be something
good for our cars!!
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Palmer <rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu>
To: <pamelam@connix.com>; tiger list <tigers@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 08, 1999 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: Gano Filter Unplugged
> Bob,
>
> You raise an interesting point, and one that I've heard from various
> sources myself over the years. We have a DI water tap in the lab and it
> gives us water that has extremely high electrical resistivity, which is
the
> usual way of determining the ion content of water. Ions are typically
> removed from water by means of a molecular sieve type of ion scavenging
> medium. In times past, the standard method was by distilling; hence the
> usual reference to "distilled" water, regardless of the method used to
> reduce the ion level. I use the DI water for making coffee in the lab
> because, as compared with the very hard tap water, it keeps the coffee
> maker clean. One of our students recently questioned the wisdom of using
> "de-ionized water" for drinking. When queried as to why he thought it was
> bad for drinking, he offered a similar explanation of this water leaching
> the chemicals out of our body. But, on reflection, he decided this really
> didn't make much sense.
>
> Now, I'm only a lowly physicist, but your electrochemist's concern doesn't
> make much sense to me in the radiator context either. Pure water is a good
> insulator. This is desirable when having dissimilar metals in contact so
as
> to discourage electrolysis. We all know that electrolytic corrosion is
> worse in salt water than in fresh water, right? So, too much salt (ions)
is
> bad. So, what about too little? I guess the belief here is that at
> extremely low ion content, water turns vicious (not viscous) and will
> dissolve anything it comes in contact with. Even if this were true, which
I
> doubt, then after dissolving a small amount material it would then become
> like any other "distilled" water with low, but finite conductivity.
>
> As to the difference between de-ionized and distilled water, we are really
> considering two different concepts. De-ionized refers to the end result;
> i.e., no (or extremely low) ion content. Distilled, on the other hand,
> refers to the method for obtaining the de-ionized water. Triple-distilled
> water is one of the most thorough means of purifying and de-ionizing
water.
> Almost the same result can be obtained by passing water through a modern
> de-ionizing medium. I believe that both methods lead both qualitatively
and
> quantitatively to the same result.
>
> I'd be interested to hear more details about this subject from your
> electrochemist. Maybe give him my e-mail address so we can discuss this
> directly In the meantime, I'm counting on the two bottles of rust
inhibitor
> to do their job. ;-)
>
> TTFN,
>
> Bob
>
> At 07:58 AM 8/8/99 -0400, pamelam@connix.com wrote:
> > Then, filled the
> > >system with two bottles of water pump lubricant/rust inhibitor and
> > >de-ionized water.
> >
> >Bob:
> >
> >I was going to take some DI water home from work to fill my system, but I
> >was strongly cautioned by our electrochemist that DI water can be
corrosive
> >in some circumstances. Since it has no cations or anions, it will readily
> >pick them up from the metals that the water contacts. Copper is a great
> >donor and could be leached from the radiator.
> >
> >I used distilled water.
> >
> >Bob Melusky
>
> Robert L. Palmer
> UCSD, Dept. of AMES
> 619-822-1037 (o)
> 760-599-9927 (h)
> rpalmer@ucsd.edu
> rpalmer@cts.com
>
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