H20 Distillery

[Nemo48]

Prices of distilled water have gone up again and I'm thinking of getting some kind of system to make my own distilled water. Anyone had good luck with a system you are using or know about?

[zonker]

Prices of distilled water have gone up again and I'm thinking of getting some kind of system to make my own distilled water. Anyone had good luck with a system you are using or know about?

yeah, that price increase made it clear to me to get a distillery. i looked at a few on amazon and settled for this-
https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Water-Dist ... F0aWM&th=1

note: i didn't do any sort of research, just looked at the comments. the main driver was the price.i bought it in the last part of november. have run it about four times, i think.

does what it says it will do.

[robbob2112]

Personally I use a RO/DI (reverse osmosis deionized) filter because my water from the tap is liquid rock. I've used a home distiller like the one in the link. They consume a good bit of power and put out a whole lot of heat.

A RO filter will cost more up front but consume a lot less power and over time it will cost less per gallon.

[chunkyfrog]

Our local water is 13 grains hard; and reverse osmosis water leaves a white powder.
RO does not correct hard water.
Our distiller is similar to the one posted by Zonker, but candy apple red.
The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.
It still beats the heck out of buying jugs, and dealing with the wasted plastic.
The electricity used is insignificant--pennies per gallon.

[zonker]

The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.

how does one do this? reckon i should be giving that a go with mine.

[ChicagoGranny]

Prices of distilled water have gone up again and I'm thinking of getting some kind of system to make my own distilled water. Anyone had good luck with a system you are using or know about?

Just use any potable water. If minerals accumulate in the tank, cleaning is easy.

[robbob2112]

Our local water is 13 grains hard; and reverse osmosis water leaves a white powder.
RO does not correct hard water.
Our distiller is similar to the one posted by Zonker, but candy apple red.
The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.
It still beats the heck out of buying jugs, and dealing with the wasted plastic.
The electricity used is insignificant--pennies per gallon.

I start at a bit over 500ppm disolved minerals. The RO by itself doesn't correct hard water. I use a 7 stage RO filter followed by 2 stages of Deionizer resin beads. The RO by itself turns the water to 30ppm which in my case is calcium and magnisium cations. The resin removes those and drops the PPM to zero. Looked it up and the conversion is 17.1ppm per grain, so you are about 222ppm.

The filter listed is 750w, way back when I ran a similar one it took 10~12 hours to make a gallon of distilled. For the sake of this assume .75Kw * 12hr = 9kWhr. I pay 11.5 cents a Kwhr so $1.04 a gallon to use that. The time will vary depending on the original hardness of the water and the price will vary depending on the cost of electricity. But, far more than pennies per gallon.

After the inital investment I spend about $60 a year on filters and beads. If you just figure a gallon a week that is $1.15 .... but we use it for way more than just the cpap gallons. Figure 1200g a year easy between the humidifiers and my wife's plants, so $0.05 a gallon. If it was just for my cpap I would change the filters once a year maybe every other year.

So, if you have another reason to have a RO filter the water is cheaper than distilling it by quite a bit. Probably not worth it if that is your only use. For distilling that doesn't take into account the gallons of vinager to delime the bottom of the distiller, that was alway fun. Back (lived in Guam) when I had one I had to clean every couple of cycles. The more buildup the longer it will take to distill a gallon.

I have to change the filters and the resin about once a year. I have meters inline at various stages that tell me when to change things verse working off a time based schedule.

NOTE - I have the upstairs RO filter because I drink ice tea and I don't like it cloudy. The tanic acid reacts with the calcium carbonate and clouds it up along with affecting the taste. The downstairs RO filter was built to supply a fish aquarium with Discus in it. So I take the water to zero and add back salts to give it some buffering and the right PH in a trash can for that purpose. Then I do the water changes and pump from the trash can back to the aquarium.

[sublime368]

I just bought one of these. As long as you don't abuse them (make too many gallons in a row without cooling) they more than pay for themselves.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07315B1RG?ps ... ct_details

It also comes in handy to have distilled water for sinus rinses too!

[Dog Slobber]

The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.

how does one do this? reckon i should be giving that a go with mine.

amazonk.jpg (710.63 KiB) Viewed 3772 times

[robbob2112]

Hahahahah

[zonker]

why, you sarcastic young punk!


but at least i can get a scrub brush easily into the distiller?

[robbob2112]

why, you sarcastic young punk!


but at least i can get a scrub brush easily into the distiller?

Here is a hint, use a different one than you use on your toilet

[SleepGeek]

The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.

how does one do this? reckon i should be giving that a go with mine.

You can't make this stuff up.

[zonker]

The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.

how does one do this? reckon i should be giving that a go with mine.

You can't make this stuff up.

good thing you're here to help.
smh

[Dog Slobber]

The bullfrog has to delime it very frequently to maintain efficiency.

how does one do this? reckon i should be giving that a go with mine.

You can't make this stuff up.

good thing you're here to help.
smh

Deliming is the same as descaling. Removing all the minerals that build up.

Easy to do:

• Create a mixture of water with any one, of the following:
  • vinegar 50%
  • lemon juice 50%
  • CLR 12.5%
  • Coffee Maker descaler
• Pour into distiller boiling tank (above the scale buildup)
• Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour
• Optional - turn on distiller with cooling lid off and bring to a boil for 30 minutes
  Pour out liquid and wipe put remaining deposits