Hey All.....Have you ever distilled your own water for CPAP?

gorkon · Post by **gorkon** » Mon May 28, 2007 12:45 pm

I am new to the board and have been on CPAP for about 2 weeks now and still getting acclimated to the whole thing. Anyway, I have a upcoming business trip coming up and the first thing on my mind is obtaining the distlled water for the humidifier. I was trying to check if Trader Joe's has it, but came across something else:

http://www.nutriteam.com/servlet/the-24 ... ler/Detail

This is a home Water Distiller. It only costs $129 and the also have the filters at a decent price (12.95 for a 12 pack....cheaper then brita). Anyway, I know lots of people who use tap water in their machine and I was told not to. Anyway, I thought I would share this with all of you and see if I can get one soon. If I do, I'll let you know.

ddpelp · Post by **ddpelp** » Mon May 28, 2007 1:04 pm

gorkon

I do not see where it would be even worth the initial costs. At 129 + 12.95 for a pack of filters I can go buy 221 gallons of distilled water at the local store @ 64 cents / gallon..

And all I have to do is toss the empty jugs no mess nothing to do but unscrew the cap..

Just my opinion.. and in travel I have been reading here many get the distilled water at the traveling site or just without humidity for the few nights. I would NOT use tap water although I know some here have said they do.. that to me is just asking for problems with the equipment and I doubt the mfg will want to help with warranty etc..

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Mon May 28, 2007 1:32 pm

No, I never have, maybe when the price of $1 distilled water goes a little higher than $10, I'll look into a still. At least for secondary product refining.

I busy now, trying to reinvent the wheel, those round ones are so boring. Jim

ddpelp · Post by **ddpelp** » Mon May 28, 2007 1:39 pm

Goofproof

Are you going to try the square tires?? They get great gas mileage I understand..

But gorkon, I guess if you want to do it just for the sake of it thatis one thing but I just did a quick calculation if I used 8 oz water a night (I think that is high) the startup price that would supply me with over 3,000 nights of distilled water

jules · Post by **jules** » Mon May 28, 2007 1:52 pm

I own a still. I got my still long before I started CPAP. I got it at Sears. I don't use the charcoal filters.

I don't put water in my humidifier that often (like once every 2 weeks) hence if I wanted distilled water just for CPAP use, I would have a major losing proposition. Distilling a gallon uses about 3 KW of electricity so in getting and using a distiller one needs to consider that cost too.

I drink about 4 or 5 gallons of distlled water a week . Distilled water makes good coffee but lousy tea.

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Mon May 28, 2007 1:56 pm

I'm working on Hex, Square rode too rough, although gas mileage was good.

I'll also bet that distiller will use some form of energy, the cost of electricty alone will cover the cost of distilled, unless it's solar powered. The do make a produce called SitStill, you can use it to convert sea water to fresh, but you have to sit a very long time. Jim

ablong · Post by **ablong** » Mon May 28, 2007 3:27 pm

Just to add to the information

I have used filtered water from Ice box door and it gives
a tea kettle effect because of the minerals in water.

I have used the coke brand of bottle water same effect.

I use Ozarka spring water and get very little effect. what i do not
use I drink. I think it is a brand of Nestles water.

just for the record distilled water is probaly the best .

Allen

RosemaryB · Post by **RosemaryB** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:14 pm

ablong wrote:Just to add to the information

I have used filtered water from Ice box door and it gives
a tea kettle effect because of the minerals in water.

I have used the coke brand of bottle water same effect.

I use Ozarka spring water and get very little effect. what i do not
use I drink. I think it is a brand of Nestles water.

just for the record distilled water is probaly the best .

Allen

Correct! I was told that filtered water (from my PUR water filter on my faucet) would not work, nor would spring water, only distilled water should be used. However, the RT at the DME said that a reverse osmosis filter would do the trick. I've thought about getting one of these before I got the CPAP, but have to do a lot more research first. It wouldn't save money, but if I were going to get one anyway, it would be more convenient.

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snoregirl · Post by **snoregirl** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:36 pm

I doubt that there could be any equipment damage from using tap water other than the water tank itself.

The only place the water vapor goes is up the tube. Could cause scale on the water tank due to residue from the tap water, but my tank replacement costs $25 and I am not worried about that if, I need to use tap water and ruin the tank so be it.

Kattitude · Post by **Kattitude** » Mon May 28, 2007 5:00 pm

I drink 4-5 gallons of distilled water a week. Tastes better to me than tap or bottled water. Got tired of carrying all those gallon jugs home from the store and thought it was a lot of plastic jugs going to waste so I found a distiller on Ebay for $75.00 and it works great. However - it takes about 4 hours to distill just 1 gallon of water. Not sure if I'm saving any $$ but do like the convenience of the distiller. I just fill it up and start it before I go to bed at night.

sleepyWI · Post by **sleepyWI** » Mon May 28, 2007 5:51 pm

I have this great bridge in Brooklyn that is for sale...cheap .........

Bonnie · Post by **Bonnie** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:09 pm

Gorkon,
Welcome to the board! As you can see we have a few humorous people here. Normally people here welcome a new person and encourage questions and comments. I hope you didn't feel offended and will join us often. We have a great group of experienced and knowledgeable people sharing all kinds of information. Once you get to know us you won't be disappointed. I promise!

akcpapguy · Post by **akcpapguy** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:26 pm

I agree with most that it would take a very long time to make a distiller cost effective. Though I would mostly use it for my CPAP, so I would only need 1 gallon every couple of weeks. I don't recommend the use of distilled water as drinking water, that's a topic for another time.

In AK I tell people to definatley NOT use tap water in their water tank. We have a higher level of Arsenic in our water due to all the Gold in the ground. Not that it would kill you in a night or so, but I just can't imagine doing it for 1 night knowing that I am breathing vaporized Arsenic into my lungs. You may want to see what's in your tap water before you heat it up and start breathing it.

jules · Post by **jules** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:43 pm

akcpapguy wrote:I don't recommend the use of distilled water as drinking water, that's a topic for another time.

I can not drink charcoal filtered or chlorinated water in any quantity, (reverse osmosis is out too for me because of the charcoal filtering) because either of these will cause major GI distress, hence, distilled is the way to go.

If I could buy decent spring or artesian water at a reasonable cost and be assured of the processing, my situation would change. I think for me it is the least of a bunch of evils but I also understand I probably don't fit the norm.

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:46 pm

I've always used distilled in my humidifier. I have a Sears Kenmore, only paid $99 for it on sale. It is not a matter of cost justification, it is a matter of convenience. It is also what I found in our city tap water supposedly EPA approved, below is what I get out of a single gallon of distilled water, if I hadn't distilled it, that dark stuff would have ended up on my humidifier.

The steam iron lasts longer using distilled, I use more than a gallon a month, when I need it I fill the container in the laundry room and push the button, a few hours later I have a gallon of pure distilled water.

You don't want to drink distilled water as it doesn't taste very good, if you want to drink it you can run it though a Brita pitcher than it tastes pretty good. I also use the distiller to test how well my Reverse Osmosis system is working, if I distill a gallon of RO water and it is working properly I get NO residual water after distilling.

You can call that residual stuff anything you want, but it smells like petroleum to me and I ain't drinking it. I drink only RO water that has been run through a Brita pitcher in the fridge.

Contaminants removed from a single gallon of city tap water:

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