Distilled water or filtered water?

[Mad Wax]

Can I use either for an extractor or steamer? I've heard must use distilled water, but is filtered drinking water ok to use in there? It shouldn't have any contaminants in there.

[AeroCleanse]

My steamer says not to use distilled water. If you are concerned, look for DI or de-ionized water.

[Pureshine]

Ever steamer tells you to use distilled water from what I've seen. For extractors doesn't really matter to much. Steamers need distilled water so the lines won't build up with crap. Not sure what steamer Aero is talking about unless he is talking about a steam cleaner and not a vapor steamer.

[PiPUK]

I am also a bit confused by the recommendation to avoid distilled water. From my perspective, the two achieve the same thing - they remove dissolved minerals from the water. The reason that this is important is because, in a steam generating device, you are boiling the water away and this will leave behind the minerals which are dissolved in it. Over time, this will then give you scale and mineral deposits which can inhibit the operation or damage the machine. DI vs Distilled is effectively just two methods to come up with water that has low dissolved solids levels.

Filtered water will not really do the trick because it has only suspended material removed, not the dissolved solids.

[BobbyG]

Steamers generally call for distilled water. If you do use tap water and something goes south during the warranty, they'll quickly discover this during disassembly.

Hot water extractors on the other hand use large amounts of water and unless you have an RO or some other filtration system handy, obtaining anything other than clean tap water can be quite a challenge.

[expdetailing]

Manufacturers recommend running a vinegar solution through the machine once a month to reduce water deposit build-up.

[allenk4]

Tap and Distilled have different boiling points, but I don't think that is a factor in deciding which to use

[AeroCleanse]

Ever steamer tells you to use distilled water from what I've seen. For extractors doesn't really matter to much. Steamers need distilled water so the lines won't build up with crap. Not sure what steamer Aero is talking about unless he is talking about a steam cleaner and not a vapor steamer.

The manual for my Optima steamer specifically says not to use distilled water.

[Mad Wax]

Thanks for the info guys.

[99C5Coupe]

Water from CR Spotless system safe to use in Steamer?

[moab]

If someone was tired of buying distilled water in a high volume detail shop this information might help. Maybe it would not be recommended though?

I have a salt water reef fish tank. Water quality is a big deal in a reef tank. I am using a five stage reverse osmosis water filter. The last filter stage of this system has a deionization filter that can filter the water down to zero total dissolved solids in the water when the filter media is good. This system has a total dissolved solids meter so you can monitor it. One warning is you are not supposed to drink out of the deionized filter stage because drinking water with zero total dissolved solids is not supposed to be good for you, but it is great for reef tanks.

I used the water out of the first four stages for drinking water and the fifth DI stage is for the reef tank only. I used water out of the fifth DI stage to flush the cooling system in my car with because it is extremely clean water(the total dissolved solids meter was reading 0 when I did this).

This system was under $300.00 from Bulk Reef Supply. They get extremely high ratings from the reef tank crowd. This might not be recommended for carpet cleaners and it might not be cost effective for many people if it was.