Sealing with Distilled Water
Can distilled water be substituted for deionized water?
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Q. Can distilled water be substituted for deionized water? Our plating facility can fairly easily create a distilled water heated bath, but a deionized bath would be much more expensive. —C.A.
A. Yes, distilled water can certainly be used. In fact, distilled water is probably more reliable from a quality standpoint than deionized (DI) water. DI water can allow for wide quality variability during a given run. Distilled water should be good all the time. There is no such thing as “partially distilled” unless distilled is mixed with water of lower quality. It’s all about the amount of dissolved solids in the water. Distilled water should have none. Whether DI or distilled, the lower limit of “high quality” water is 200,000 Ohms resistance, which is the same as 5 microseimens specific conductance. When the water quality in a run reaches these numbers the quality of the water is no longer acceptable.
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