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ethanol wrote:First time I diluted the finished product I used tap water which as a novice I learnt not to.

I'm now distilling water for diluting with but which is best and why. Distilled or deionised? Does it matter?

leiothrix wrote:deionized is passed through a pair of resin beads (ionic & anionic) to remove various minerals. nothing to do with electricity at all.

rob.

Deionization can be done continuously and inexpensively using electrodeionization.An electrode in an electrochemical cell is referred to as either an anode or a cathode, terms that were coined by Michael Faraday. The anode is defined as the electrode at which electrons leave the cell and oxidation occurs, and the cathode as the electrode at which electrons enter the cell and reduction occurs. Each electrode may become either the anode or the cathode depending on the voltage applied to the cell. A bipolar electrode is an electrode that functions as the anode of one cell and the cathode of another cell.

Each cell consists of an electrode and an electrolyte with ions that undergo either oxidation or reduction. An electrolyte is a substance containing free ions that behaves as an electrically conductive medium. Because they generally consist of ions in solution, electrolytes are also known as ionic solutions, but molten electrolytes and solid electrolytes are also possible. They are sometimes referred to in abbreviated jargon as lytes.

Water is passed between an anode (positive electrode) and a cathode (negative electrode). Ion-selective membranes allow the positive ions to separate from the water toward the negative electrode and the negative ions toward the positive electrode. High purity deionized water results.

Mud Mechanik wrote:

ethanol wrote:First time I diluted the finished product I used tap water which as a novice I learnt not to.

I'm now distilling water for diluting with but which is best and why. Distilled or deionised? Does it matter?

Use which ever one tastes better, I use Aquafina bottled water. MM

Deionized water, also known as demineralized water[2] (DI water, DIW or de-ionized water; can also be spelled deionised water), is water that has had its mineral ions removed, such as cations from sodium, calcium, iron, copper and anions such as chloride and bromide. Deionization is a physical process which uses specially-manufactured ion exchange resins which bind to and filter out the mineral salts from water. Because the majority of water impurities are dissolved salts, deionization produces a high purity water that is generally similar to distilled water, and this process is quick and without scale buildup. However, deionization does not significantly remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses or bacteria, except by incidental trapping in the resin. Specially made strong base anion resins can remove Gram-negative bacteria. Deionization can be done continuously and inexpensively using electrodeionization.

Deionization does not remove the hydroxide or hydronium ions from water. These are the products of the self-ionization of water to equilibrium and therefore are impossible to remove.