Chemical Formulas: Distilled Or Deionised Water? Does It Matter?

[Mahombi]

Chemical formulas for photographic processing and printing, frequently recommend the use of distilled water, whilst deionised and purified water are considered acceptable substitutes. I have found that both distilled and purified water are nigh on impossible to obtain. Whereas deionised water is readily available as car battery top up water.

What I would like to know is, what advantages and/or disadvantages are there, if any, of using one of these types of water over another?

(I don't need to know the difference between each of the three types of water.)

 

[Photo Engineer]

There is a recent thread on this very subject with lots of replies and lots of detailed information. It might be helpful to look at that thread.

PE

 

[Trevor Crone]

This may help answer your question.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Fanshaw]

Chemical formulas for photographic processing and printing, frequently recommend the use of distilled water, whilst deionised and purified water are considered acceptable substitutes. I have found that both distilled and purified water are nigh on impossible to obtain. Whereas deionised water is readily available as car battery top up water.

What I would like to know is, what advantages and/or disadvantages are there, if any, of using one of these types of water over another?

(I don't need to know the difference between each of the three types of water.)

An alternative is bottled water intended for drinking, sold by supermarkets. The analysis of the water is given on the bottle and some have very low impurity levels.

 

[Snapshot]

I use distilled water after I got a significant amount of calcium carbonate when I mixed one of my developer formulas.