Distilled water
My dad always ran distilled water in the radiators of the various cars he had until he got a used mid 1960's Simca 1000. It had a little four cylinder with an aluminum head. After he'd had it for about a year he began to find water in the oil, so he pulled the head off. A couple of the ports for water flow had opened up right at the surface that presses against the gasket, creating large irregular channels that wormed their way all the way to the combustion chamber. He took the head to an engine shop to have the channels welded up and machined smooth, and when he showed it to the guy at the front counter, he looked it over and said,"You've been using distilled water, haven't you?" He went on to explain that water is an excellent solvent that readily dissolves minerals, but that distilled water will do this rather aggressively until a certain equilibrium is reached, at which point it's no longer distilled. It turns out that distilled water is rather fond of aluminum, so pop switched to anti freeze.
Could this be why some steam iron manufactures are saying not to use distilled water? Perhaps they're using aluminum in a place where it would come in contact with the distilled water and be damaged or otherwise compromised. Then again, maybe the guy that spoke to my dad all those years ago was completely full of beans, who knows. I just thought I'd throw that out there and add to the confusion.
My dad always ran distilled water in the radiators of the various cars he had until he got a used mid 1960's Simca 1000. It had a little four cylinder with an aluminum head. After he'd had it for about a year he began to find water in the oil, so he pulled the head off. A couple of the ports for water flow had opened up right at the surface that presses against the gasket, creating large irregular channels that wormed their way all the way to the combustion chamber. He took the head to an engine shop to have the channels welded up and machined smooth, and when he showed it to the guy at the front counter, he looked it over and said,"You've been using distilled water, haven't you?" He went on to explain that water is an excellent solvent that readily dissolves minerals, but that distilled water will do this rather aggressively until a certain equilibrium is reached, at which point it's no longer distilled. It turns out that distilled water is rather fond of aluminum, so pop switched to anti freeze.
Could this be why some steam iron manufactures are saying not to use distilled water? Perhaps they're using aluminum in a place where it would come in contact with the distilled water and be damaged or otherwise compromised. Then again, maybe the guy that spoke to my dad all those years ago was completely full of beans, who knows. I just thought I'd throw that out there and add to the confusion.