Countertop Water Distiller, White, Glass Collection

At my last job, I always had a thermal mug of ice water with me. That was, in part, due to the excellent reverse osmosis filtration system they had installed to improve the taste of the coffee (I don't drink coffee). I got to really like the taste of the RO water, even better than bottled water. It was slightly sweeter. I figured the difference was due to the minerals the bottled water people added "for taste".[Actually, I believe the added minerals are to differentiate the various brands. If Dasani, or Arrow Head or whatever all tasted the same, bottled water would be a commodity and not worth paying more for than what gasoline costs. This way, people can say, "Dasani tastes best."]Since I started spending most my time at home, I really was bugged by how terrible the water tastes. I was holding my breath when drinking tap water, and it still didn't taste good. I looked into installing an RO system of my own. That's pricey, and the plumber I had look at it couldn't figure out how to install one in my condo to serve both the kitchen sink and the ice maker. Anyway...I'm pretty comfortable that the city tap water is safe to drink (in spite of what some web sites say). Harmful heavy metals are removed, it's microbiologically safe, etc. But there's got to be something still in there that tastes and smells bad. To test that theory, I put some of the distilled water I use for my steam iron in the fridge. Much better (and cheaper than the commercial bottled drinking water). Not perfect, but that slightly sweet taste was back.I bought a Brita filter system. It's a plastic pitcher that runs tap water through activated charcoal (and maybe something else; they're not clear). You keep it filled, and probably in the fridge. It didn't do the job. Things were marginally better, taste wise. And perhaps better for crap like chloramines, which PHX adds to the water. But not there yet.I saw an ad for Zero Water, a filtration pitcher (like the Brita) that claimed to remove =all= total dissolved solids. That sounded promising, and they had a deal where you could get an electronic TDS meter for free. So I got one (the meter, that is).When I tested the city tap water with the meter, it registered 531 parts per million of total dissolved solids. The FDA recommended level is zero, the EPA recommended maximum is 500. Wow! I might have found the culprit."A high concentration of total solids will make drinking water unpalatable and might have an adverse effect on people who are not used to drinking such water." --EPABeing the skeptic I am, I suspected the Zero Water people might have gimmicked the meter, or it wasn't measuring what I cared about. So I tested some of the distilled water. It measured 004. The water from the Brita filter measured 425. That sold me.I bought the Zero pitcher from Amazon. I've seen it here in Phoenix (WalMart). As advertised, the water from the pitcher tastes fine. But it uses expensive cartridges, which also must be disposed of likely into the land fill.My process: Tap water into a two quart bottle (ex orange juice) left open for a day or two. This allows the chlorine and chloramines to dissipate, a trick I learned running aquaria. Then through the Brita filter. That probably doesn't do enough good to be worth the effort, but the meter says it is doing something. And I already own the Brita, so why not? When I feel the need to justify, I tell myself it extends the life of the Zero filters, which are pricey. The Zero manual says change the filter when the meter reads 006 or greater. I've noticed there is a sharp edged cliff that when 006 is reached, the number starts to increase rapidly. And past 8-10 I can taste the difference. I store the pitcher in the fridge.Reading that just now, it seems a bit fussy. The Brita probably would take care of the chlorine compounds, so the free standing might be a waste, as long as I'm committed to use the Brita anyway. I do think that the trace of OCD in me probably is satisfied by the ritual.[An aside: As a long time aquarium owner, we are actually encouraged to maintain a fair level of dissolved solids, in the form of salt. Slightly saline water is good for fresh water fishies. The reason is that pure water will force its way into the fishes cells due to osmotic pressure, and put a high load on their kidneys. Fishes (and most animals) are internally somewhat saline, which generates that pressure.]I decided a home distiller (the commercial ones were interesting, but cost thousands of dollars--mostly just a fun read about if you're not a restaurant) might be the ticket. After a full day of research, I found the one that struck me as the best unit/price ratio was available at Amazon. Some other distillers got better reviews on the web, but were much more expensive (like, twice as much in some cases). There were a couple cheaper, but poorly reviewed. And, since I'm a Prime member, shipping was no additional cost. So I went for it.Pretty good set of pictures here:Water Distiller Countertop Enamel CollectionIf you're completely nuts about water purity, and some of the commenters obviously are, you'd still want to charcoal filter the water as there are some components of tap water (at least in some locations) that boil off at lower temperatures than water and will thus make it through the distillation process. Florine (I believe) is one. Since my interest is mostly in taste rather than purity (as mentioned before) I'm not really worried about that. I think the tap water is "safe" to drink. It just tastes like crap. [Note: One commenter mentioned you can get superior filtration charcoal for a lot less money at an aquarium store. That makes sense, since some people have thousands of bucks invested in fish.]My unit will distill a gallon (actually, four liters) of water in about five hours and twenty minutes. It is a bit noisy, the fan running about 70dBA (74dBC) on my meter, which is a bit louder than the the ceiling vent fan in my laundry room. Not obnoxious, but noticeable.The sticker on the side of the unit says it draws 580 Watts. On an instrumented run, mine used 3.29 KwH over 5 hours and 22 minutes. That works out to 613 Watts over the run. I should mention the voltage at my house is at the upper limit of the ANSI standard for home usage (123 vs allowed 125 volts), so the power used by a resistive heating element will also be at the upper limit. And the time to distill four liters might be longer for you than for me. At my current (hehe) electric rates, it costs about 40 cents to distill a gallon. That's at the higher summer rates. In late fall that should drop by a third.Cleaning: I got this from other comments at Amazon. Like many Japanese rice cookers, the unit shuts off when the tank zooms above ~212 meaning the water has all boiled off. But by that time the residual in the tank gets baked on. (You'd be disgusted at what is left behind and you would have imbibed, had you not been running a distillery.) So, they recommend you clean the tank with a citric acid powder they sell, though white vinegar should be as good. But life is much easier if you just shut the unit off before it boils dry. In my case, five or five and a quarter hours is perfect. You can buy timers that will do that for you, so you can leave and forget (like, bedtime). Or you can just set a kitchen dinger if you expect to be up and hear it. If you miss, no biggie. Just some extra scrubbing to clean.Compared to the Zero filter I'd been using:Cons:Much higher acquisition cost.More maintenance effort.Slower to produce pure water (5.5 hours vs 20 minutes per gallon)Pros:Essentially unlimited pure waterDistilled water is even more pure than from the Zero filterNo plastic land-fill (filter cartridges) trashProbably lower cost per gallonUpdate: A comment and two tipsComment: Coming up on two years now, I'm still =very= satisfied with the purchase. I love this thing. I use it two or three times per week (there's only me in the family) and it's as solid as the day I took it out of the box. I have blown the dust out of the condenser once. Other reviewers say they use theirs daily (or more, which would be almost continuously) and it's still solid.First tip: if you use hot water from the tap, you'll knock a half hour or more off the run time.Second tip: Store your distilled water in glass or stainless steel. Distilled water is ion depleted, and will pull flavors (and maybe other things) from most plastic bottles. I now believe the reason the people who produce drinking water in plastic bottles add minerals to the water to avoid that effect. So, when they say they add the minerals "for taste" they may be right but not for the reason you are led to believe.Another update: In my review, I mentioned that I felt the tap water in Phoenix was "safe", in that heavy metals and biological materials had been removed, and that it just tasted bad. After the Flint, Michigan fiasco, a lot of "Live at 10" TV news stations, probably looking for a sensational story, had their local water tested. A surprising number failed. Depending on your source (EPA being one--does not do much positive for their own self image) as many as 20% of the cities have water quality that is unacceptable in some way or another. Makes me even more comfortable avoiding the sludge at the bottom of the tank after a run. And makes me start searching for home water quality test kits and/or labs. I'd want two tests, one straight from the tap, and one after running through the distiller. What can I say? I am by nature skeptical, and a scientist.

[+] THE REVIEW:I like this distiller and would recommend buying it. The only flaw is the plastic cap on the pitcher. They were smart enough to make a glass insert in the spout so the hot water would not pick up chemicals from the plastic and then they went ahead and made a plastic cap for the pitcher. All during the distillation process, the water collecting in the pitcher is hot enough that steam rises up and collects on the plastic cap and then falls back down into the pitcher. The fix was simple. I went to a glass company and for about $5 I had them cut a 6"x6"x1/8" plate. I use that to cover the top of the pitcher while I am using the distiller. I still like this pitcher better (even with the flaw) because it has a wide mouth for easy cleaning if needed. Buying the glass didn't break the bank and it was an easy fix.It makes a gallon in about 5 1/2 hours. I use a timer to shut the distiller off at 5 hours 20 minutes which leaves about 8 oz of water in the chamber. This 8 oz contains condensed impurities. Better to throw it out than to boil it further. It also makes cleaning easier. I had a distiller a while back, and the noise from the fan is a little quieter than the other one (but not by much).I am able to distill water down to less than 0.2 ppm. I use a PWT (pure water tester) instead of a traditional TDS meter. The difference is that it is more precise in the lower ranges (0.0 - 99.9). Traditional TDS meters do not read in the tenths. Just a note that the end result does fluctuate up to 0.4 ppm, which I am assuming has to do with other variables (i.e., water, how clean the chamber is before use, etc.) Also, I filter my water with a zerowater pitcher before distilling (I do not use tap water in the distiller).I am going to try a few experiments to see if I can distill down to 0.0 ppm. I'll let you know if I succeed. [update] I did get it down to 0.0 ppm once, but for the most part I could only get down to 0.2 on a consistent bases. It was all just to see if I could do it because the difference of 0.2 ppm is so negligible that it is irrelevant. I'm guessing that the distillation of 0.0 ppm happened because all the variables happened to be perfectly aligned.[+] A NOTE ABOUT DISTILLED WATER & MINERALS:There is no down-side to adding liquid minerals to the distilled water. I add vitamin-c, magnesium and calcium to mine. I am not a doctor; however, this notion that drinking distilled water leaches minerals from the body has just got to stop. You do not (repeat - do not) get enough minerals from regular water to supply nutrition to the body. If you were fasting and you drank distilled water, then your body would start to deplete itself of minerals since nothing is being consumed. Guess what, the same thing would happen if you fasted and drank regular water. Water just does not hold enough minerals to make a difference on a grand scale. As far as trace minerals, you could add liquid minerals or better yet you should get them from consuming sea salt in your diet. Trace minerals are minerals the body utilizes in very, very small amounts. As a side note, most bottled water and tap water do not contain trace minerals. I hope that clears things up. I'm not a doctor - only someone with common sense.[+] DRINKING DISTILLED WATER FOR HYDRATION:Drinking sea water actually dehydrates a person, which is the opposite of what one might think. How can drinking any water make a person become more dehydrated? The answer lies in how water acts across a porous membrane when each side of the membrane has a different saturation of salt. When the levels are different, that forms what's called a gradient. Water always flows toward the "higher" saturated end of the gradient. So, in the example of being out to sea and drinking sea water that has a high content of salt, the water actually flows out of the body into the GI tract because the GI tract is filled with a high saturation of salt in the sea water. This is why drinking salty sea water dehydrates a person. Now let's reverse that. If you drink distilled water, there is no saturation of salt. Therefore, the water (in this case the distilled water) flows from the GI tract into your body, which has a higher saturation of salt, that being saline solution in the blood stream. In reality, you can hydrate yourself faster with distilled water because of this gradient effect. The water molecules enter into your body faster and supply the much needed water for your body to function. Again, minerals in water are insignificant as a dietary source. I hope this helps![+] USING DISTILLED WATER TO ADD YOUR OWN MINERALS: (added June 2018)Distilled water is the best water to use if you want to add your own minerals, and here's why. Water cannot hold an unlimited about of minerals. At some point the water becomes saturated and the minerals just fall and collect on the bottom. You can try this by adding a small amount of minerals to water to see it absorb until the water is clear. Then, as you add more and more minerals the water stays cloudy, and if you let the water sit for a moment the minerals drop and collect on the bottom. So, knowing this, it is clear to see (no pun intended) that to absorb the most minerals of your choosing it is better to start out with water that lacks all minerals, hence, distilled water. I add powdered calcium, magnesium and Vitamin C to my distilled water. If I were to add these to regular tap water (i.e., tap water that already contains "other" possibly not-so-good stuff), then the water has less ability to absorb minerals because the water is already partially saturated with this other stuff. If your a person that does add certain vitamins and minerals to your water like I do, then distilled water is really the far superior water for this purpose. If interested, I add 1/4 teaspoon (1058mg) of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), 1/4 teaspoon (831mg) of Magnesium Citrate, and 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon (394-789mg) of Calcium Citrate depending on how much other calcium sources I have during the day. Here are the products I use to supplement with powder:BulkSupplements Pure Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) Powder (250 grams)BulkSupplements Pure Magnesium Citrate Powder (250 grams)BulkSupplements Pure Calcium Citrate Powder (250 grams)[+] ANSWER TO Just a Guy's Question: 2017Just a Guy wanted to know a little bit more about the timer I used. Here is my response:=> "Just a guy - You asked, "can you point us to the timer you use?" The timer I used is currently unavailable. It is:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018G86I08/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1I found a similar timer that looks identical to mine. It is:https://www.amazon.com/Programmable-Digital-Switch-3-prong-Appliances/dp/B0191ZGELS/ref=pd_sim_60_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0191ZGELS&pd_rd_r=Y9TJG6A11AZ4TJ76Q5E7&pd_rd_w=QUjP4&pd_rd_wg=EtPOH&psc=1&refRID=Y9TJG6A11AZ4TJ76Q5E7"Here's a link for your reference: 7-day Programmable Plug-in Digital Light Timer Switch with 3-prong Outlet, 15A/1800W (1 Pack)[+] ANSWER TO Janica's Question: 2018Janica wanted to know a little more details about the glass top I used. Here is my response to her:=> "Hi Janica, in reference to the glass top I bought. I measured the diameter of the container opening using a foot ruler, and I left enough room for a little overhang because I didn't want to have to futz with positioning it. Then I went down to my local glass company and asked them if they could cut the glass in the thinnest glass possible. He recommended 1/8". He also rounded the edges at no extra charge so the edges were smooth to the touch. It took all of 10 minutes and about $5. The glass balanced perfectly blocking out anything that otherwise would fall into the freshly distilled water. I did not bring the distiller with me. I only brought the measurements and explained my situation. Then I crossed my fingers. But I thought, what the heck, if it doesn't work it's only five bucks. In this case, it worked as expected."[+] COMMENT ADDED BY healthierme: (updated 7/12/2018)healthierme posted a comment about distillers boiling dry. Here is my response to her comment:=> "Hi healthierme, I never knew there was a distiller that had an auto shut off feature to prevent boiling dry - and here I thought I created something new, haha. You will find that once you use the timer a few times to get the precise length of time down, it works like a charm. It is little more crude than having it built in, but nonetheless, works flawlessly every time. One advantage that even the Waterwise doesn't have over using an external timer is that you can set both the start time and end time. For example, you can set up your distiller the night before and then let it start and finish distilling while you are at work. Set it and forget it! Thanks for the post!"