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AFV Painting & Weathering
Answers to questions about the right paint scheme or tips for the right effect.
De-ionized or distilled water
Bigskip
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 03:53 PM UTC
Can i use De-ionized water to thin water based acrylics or should i stick to distilled?
urumomo
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 08:04 PM UTC
Personally ,
I avoid straight water for 99 % of the time ,, I'd recommend using the appropriate thinner ,
but ,
Why are you asking - where are you getting DI water ?
... are you a nuke-plant operator ?

DI water will be " distilled " so it will not make any difference with the acrylics -- they're essentially identical for this purpose.
Bigskip
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 10:36 PM UTC
DI water is half the price of distilled. My tap water is very hard and dries brown, so don't want to use that, Being cheap and trying to make my own thinners and cleaner.

I know i'm a cheapskate.
urumomo
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 10:52 PM UTC
pumping water thru DI resin media is cheaper than flash-distilling ,
but , the water they push thru will be potable and pretty dang clean.

You can always do some testing .
I use tap water - -from a well -- when I do use just water .
Obviously from your description avoiding your tap water is a pretty good idea

This issue with using tap with acrylics is a bit overblown for the most part .
Most potable water will contain such a relatively small concentration of dissolved minerals and metals and it's used in such small amounts that an artist will never see a difference between using distilled and tap water for thinning & mixing .

Obviously if you can see particulate or have empirical knowledge of an issue you can use a bottled water
but I wouldn't worry about it otherwise .

If you're mixing up a big batch of thinner with other bulk solvents then you should definitely spend the extra buck for the distilled water .

Littorio
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 11:56 PM UTC
Andy sorry to jump in on this but would RO (Reverse Osmosis) water be of any use?

Never tried it myself even though I have an almost unlimited supply of the stuff at work.
Bigskip
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 12:05 AM UTC
Ro and DI are almost the same thing..
urumomo
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 01:16 AM UTC
Yeah ,
as far as acrylics are concerned all of those surpass the quality requirements.





Littorio
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 01:16 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Ro and DI are almost the same thing..



Our stuff at work gets softened then goes through the RO membranes then gets rehardened again before going out to production. Conductivity and Gh (German Hardness) being the main criteria.
barkingdigger
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ARMORAMA
#013
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 02:27 AM UTC
FWIW I use de-ionised water for all my acrylic needs, with no problems. (It's available in every supermarket, Halfords, etc) I haven't seen anything labelled "distilled" in ages round here, but haven't needed to look.

My problem isn't water - it's finding the time to paint!
Bigskip
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 02:59 AM UTC

Quoted Text

FWIW I use de-ionised water for all my acrylic needs, with no problems. (It's available in every supermarket, Halfords, etc) I haven't seen anything labelled "distilled" in ages round here, but haven't needed to look.

My problem isn't water - it's finding the time to paint!



I have the same issue to be honest. I was looking on Ebay for the water.
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 04:18 AM UTC
Go to a fish house as they sell RO water for water changes in Marine tanks, it is pence for litres of the stuff.
erichvon
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 04:53 AM UTC
I've always used tap water and never had any problems with it.
Bigskip
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 12:59 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Go to a fish house as they sell RO water for water changes in Marine tanks, it is pence for litres of the stuff.




Good call, but the quantities they sell it in would last be for the rest of my life and beyond :-)
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 02:36 PM UTC
just pick up 5 litres and that way it is not that hard to keep. Pick up one of the large water bottles in supermarkets and use that. or you could take a litre bottle in as I have seen it priced by the litre as low as 35p.
Bigskip
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 04:31 PM UTC

Quoted Text

just pick up 5 litres and that way it is not that hard to keep. Pick up one of the large water bottles in supermarkets and use that. or you could take a litre bottle in as I have seen it priced by the litre as low as 35p.



The place i looked at was doing 25L for 1.35, but a £10 minimum charge, something like 400l for that :-)
CMOT
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ARMORAMA
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Posted: Friday, December 23, 2016 - 01:25 AM UTC
Try Maidenhead Aquatics bud, that is the chain not the location.
Vicious
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Posted: Friday, December 23, 2016 - 02:03 AM UTC
I dont uderstand....all thease problem for de-ionized water when you can go at any supermarket and buy distilled water for the Steam Iron or for your car battery

Which is the problem or big difference?... ....price?...if you think about the effort and time you spend to find DI water i think you already paid the distilled one,and you use so many liters of that stuff to really save so much $$$$?...
Bigskip
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Posted: Friday, December 23, 2016 - 02:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text

I dont uderstand....all thease problem for de-ionized water when you can go at any supermarket and buy distilled water for the Steam Iron or for your car battery

Which is the problem or big difference?... ....price?...if you think about the effort and time you spend to find DI water i think you already paid the distilled one,and you use so many liters of that stuff to really save so much $$$$?...



DI water is about a third the price of Distilled on Ebay, but I like the idea of getting in bulk form a fish shop. Mixing my own Airbrush cleaner and thinners, so need a bit
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