Originally Posted by cabinfever
My new Rowenta says not to use distilled water, nor tap water that's hard or rusty, nor softened water. I was thinking what water are they referring to then. I was told by rep to use a bottled spring water. We'll see...probably a wasted $100 (on sale from $160), but still shouldn't be so persnickety should it? I bought it for the steam capability, so hope I don't have the classic water leakage problem too soon.
Still can't figure out why the iron should be so touchy about using distilled water. I do understand if there is a core of copper why you wouldn't want to use softened water due to salt; when combined with heat will speed the effects of corrosion.
The corrosion from softened water wouldn't really be from the salt, there is very minute amounts of salt left after it cycles. The problem is water itself is very corrosive and wants to collect the minerals it comes in contact with, which is how water gets hard in the 1st place. And distilled water would have the same problem...
as for using bottled spring water, that just puzzles me. It's just water - no different than the water coming from your tap other than it's from somewhere else - with the exception of added chlorine, which you can off gas by just letting it sit in an open container for a day or two.