Distilled Water Shortage

[VikingGnome]

Went to get a few gallons of distilled water (I use a gallon a week) at WalMart and they didn't have any, nada, zippo, not even a place on the selves for it. So I went to Kroger's and again, no distilled water. What is going on? Is this shortage limited to just my neck of the woods? I finally went to Walgreens and bought the last 3 gallons they had ($1.39 versus 88 cents at WalMart and 89 cents at Kroger's). Hope WalMart or Kroger's gets in a new shipment soon. I talked with the Kroger stockboy and he said they hadn't had a shipment of distilled water for quite some time and didn't know when they would be getting any.

[chunkyfrog]

Hoarding. This could be funny when people try to drink it.

[VikingGnome]

I was trying to think of other uses of distilled water to explain the sudden shortage. Room and home humidifiers use distilled water unless you want white dust everywhere or buy expensive mineral filters frequently. Can't imagine a sudden increased in use of room humidifiers right now. Those are usually blowing mist 24/7 during dry winter with central heating. Also popular for people, kids and babies with colds, flu, coughing, etc. But no big epidemic that I know of.

Is everyone suddenly pressing their slacks and shirts at home with "steam irons" that use distilled water.

Maybe some fanatic freakazoid proclaimed city water to not be suitable for bathing and washing clothes. Now that could get expensive FAST.

[msla]

Got 2 gallons for nasal rinse yesterday at Wallyworld. It is steam distilled. For my CPAP I use RO from Wally world.

[kaiasgram]

Most co-ops and some grocery stores have purified water stations (you bring your own containers). Where I shop the co-op water station has reverse osmosis as well as deionized water spouts. I get my deionized water for my humidifier there.

[ughwhatname]

I bought a Countertop water distiller from craigslist for about $30. I use that to make my distilled water for my humidifier. Works really well for me because I hate schlepping water.

[archangle]

It's all Obama's fault.

Maybe more people are using distilled water for certain things like neti after hearing about the brain eating Naegleria fowleri amoeba in some tap water. Maybe some of the big water processors are sending bottled water to the flooded areas out west.

However, I suspect it's just one of those unexplainable supply variations. My local stores seem to vary widely between none to full stock with no obvious rhyme or reason.

Don't worry too much about using tap water in CPAP if needed for a few nights. Just dump the water in the morning, and wash the tank. Be sure to not overfill the tank.

[StuUnderPressure]

They must have shipped them all to my Wal*Mart.

I bought 2 just yesterday from there.

The shelf was FULL with distilled water.

[JDS74]

Don't worry too much about using tap water in CPAP if needed for a few nights. Just dump the water in the morning, and wash the tank. Be sure to not overfill the tank.

I use Aqua-Pod bottles for my distilled water. They are just the right size for the Respironics water tank without the chance of over-flow. I drank the water, refilled with distilled and was ready to go.

For ResMed water tanks, the smallest Fiji bottles are just right. You fill them up to the ridge-line at the bottom of the threads. Then they fill the tank perfectly.

[vwayland]

Well, here it is two years later and the same situation here. It's been this way for 6 months at least. My Safeway always has empty shelf-space and the local Kroger brand is sparse. I also try the Target grocery center.

[HoseCrusher]

Sounds like it may be time to buy your own distiller and make your own...

[Goofproof]

I suspect the U.S. bottlers, lost the recipe, and the Chinese are trying to reverse engineer the formulation. If it was rocket science, anyone could make it. Jim

I tried to make it at home once, but it didn't come our right. It tasted like Jack Daniels, so I flushed it down the toilet.

[Wulfman...]

Well, here it is two years later and the same situation here. It's been this way for 6 months at least. My Safeway always has empty shelf-space and the local Kroger brand is sparse. I also try the Target grocery center.

You don't have a Walmart in your area?
I've usually kept several gallons in reserve, but it takes me almost three months to go through a gallon of distilled.
The last time I walked through that area of our local Walmart (a week or two ago), they had a number of gallons on the shelves, but not an overabundance.
I wouldn't hesitate to use filtered water (like Brita)......and have on a number of occasions. Nothing is going to get out of the HH tank anyway, but it may require a little extra cleaning now and then.


Den

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[RogerSC]

Yes, no problem here in California, in the land of extended drought. Both our local supermarket and pharmacy/variety store have lots distilled water. Probably just a temporary regional thing when shortages crop up. They'll very likely catch up their inventory in a while. There have been times when various places are out of stock on it, but they catch up again fairly soon after. We have RO water that we buy and use for drinking water that could also be used in a cpap humidifier, so I could always use that if I needed to. We keep a couple of extra jugs of that around for water in case of an earthquake.

[LSAT]

Walmart...Target...Walgreens...CVS...Most Grocery Chains