Distilled Water Vs. Pre Boiled Water For Cleaning?

[82Greg]

Boiling tap water would only take care of killing most biological material. If you have a problem with mold in your pens, you may want to follow this step, although some inks are more likely the source of the mold -- particularly if you like vintage ink. Boiling tap water will not remove minerals.

 

Distilled water on the other hand has removed dissolved materials from the tap water, by boiling the water and condensing the steam. Hence distilled water should only contain water and dissolved air (which will include trace pollutants and airborne biological material). Simply by handling your pens, you will likely introduce more foreign material than the trace material dissolved in distilled water.

 

The hardness of water is a measure of how much minerals are dissolved in the water. Much as hard water will make it difficult to wash your clothes, it may make it difficult to wash your pens. Hard water can be softened chemically. If you live in an area with extremely hard water, your water company should tell if so, you may want to use distilled water for your pens or invest in a water softener. In most places tap water is fine. If you live with normally hard water, you may want to rinse the pen the last time with distilled water if you are trying to maintain the pen in pristine condition or it is exceptionally valuable in some way to you.

[SirVival]

Just for the record, by boiling water and thus increasing temperature of the system, you actually influence solubilities. That is why fish die in warm waters due to decreased oxygen concentrations. But depending on the molecule in question, solubility can either increase or decrease with increased solubility. So there is some scientific merit to boil water to precipitate some impurities. But if you are able to quantitatively precipitate something from your tap water via boiling, you have other worries than your pens lol.

[Sammyo]

I think at the end of the day it comes down to an old fashioned way of thinking and doing things. You know, like only using pre-boiled water during the war? as I said it came from my grandad originally

 

I honestly feel that the regularity of cleaning is more important than the type of water used. If you are cleaning once a month rather than when you remember to, it's not so much of an issue?

 

Edited for grammar error... typical, type too fast and review too late...

Edited September 10, 2014 by Sammyo

[Icywolfe]

I now a days just use filtered sink water. None of my pens broke nor grew a third leg yet.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Icywolfe

[Sammyo]

That made me laugh out loud...

[Icywolfe]

That made me laugh out loud...

What did?

[Sammyo]

This...

... nor grew a third leg yet.

... and I laughed when I read it again

[Icywolfe]

After reading that now I'm wondering what did I mean by a 3rd leg. What happened to the 2nd leg?

[Moshe ben David]

The explanations for distilled vs boiled water above are spot on. In terms of cost and convenience, I must be missing something. Gallon jugs of distilled water are easy to find in most supermarkets, are not at all expensive. Locally here l see it in the range of $1 to $1.50 a gallon. Unless you're cleaning a heck of a lot of pens all the time shouldn't be an issue at least in my mind.

[Mafia Geek]

Personally, I use tap water for the initial clean of the pen until all ink is gone, then use a pen flush a couple of times, then tap water again, and finally one flush of deionised water (the stuff you put in car batteries). I do the deionized as a last flush to prevent build up of stuff in the pen and don't use very much if it so a bottle lasts me a long time.

[LamyOne]

Hello Everyone,

 

When the time comes to flush out a pen; I usually flush out the bulk of the ink under a running cold water tap. Then I'll use a bulb syringe filled with distilled water to do the final flush. After that, I'll use the converter to draw distilled water INTO the nib two or three times - just so the flushing is done in both directions.

 

After that, I'll use a Kleenex, (paper towels are too stiff), wrapped around the nib to siphon out as much of the residual water in the feed as I can. I get a gallon jug of distilled water for around $1.25 and based on my current usage, I would estimate the jug is going to last me 12 to 18 months, (maybe more). Not a bad investment for $1.25 - plus absolutely no worries about mineral deposits or bacterial issues.

 

I also concur with those above who say boiling water only concentrates the lime and minerals in tap water and makes it worse. (However, boiling would eradicate any bacteria).

 

Best regards,

 

Chris

[pen2paper]

The quality of SE MI tap water is typically excellent.

That said, what has not been mentioned is that some areas condition (soften) their hard (well) water by filtering with salt.

How and where this filtering is directed could potentially affect your pen. Often specifically directed to clothes washing machines, and avoiding drinking water taps.

So if you have All city water your tap water should be fine. The Roch and Hills area do have a mix of city, well, and tower, so this is a valid inquiry.

[georges zaslavsky]

Tap water is enough, you can also use herbin cleaning solution

[tinta]

Our two communal wells pipe very hard water into our houses.

l'd have to clean the tea kettle, the drip coffee maker & my expensive espresso machine at least once a week if our well water was used.

We use bottle Reverse Osmosis water for all the above tasks.

My pens have also been cleaned with RO water ever since joining FPN, There, I discovered that you actually have to flush your pens once in a while.

My espresso machine is 11 years old without a single problem. Still pulls a great shot.

My pens have not shown any build-up of minerals that I can see on devices that use only our well water.

[Keyless Works]

I use tap water for just about everything. I do keep bottles of distilled water for cleaning certain pens but tap water hasn't caused me any problem.

[Runnin_Ute]

Tap water is what I use. Our water isn't what I would call soft, but not sure how hard it really is. I mostly use warm tap watrr though. I keep some distilled in the house though for other things including diluting ink.

 

Have been doing this way for years with no issues to date but see the potential value in a "final flush" approach anyway.

[Kataphract]

I send my water through a ZeroWater filter. The filter on the refrigerator isn't even remotely close as good. Normal tap water for my area is 265 ppm, the refrigerator filter reduces it to 211 ppm, and the ZeroWater lives up to its name, 0.

[william2001]

I use tap water from my bathroom.

-William S. Park

[Sasha Royale]

Distilled water is pure water. It is heated to a vapor that is moved to a clean container and condensed.

All non-water is left behind. Distilled water leaves no "non-water" residue.

 

Boiled water is heated to 212 degrees, then cooled. Germs are dead, but everything that was present remains.

[rogerb]

What about the water vapour which turns to ice on your freezer walls?

I imagine that is quite pure (as long as it hasn't any frozen peas in it).

I must have about a gallon in my freezer right now