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I had the same problem with walmart distilled water....it (and others) is not steam distilled. Check the labels. Some state "distilled by reverse osmosis, filtration, (sometimes)steam" ...consumer's guess which one. I use only steamed distilled water and have no problems since I became aware of distillation processes. A gallon lasts several weeks. You may have to track down the steam distilled water as only a few stores carry it such as Target and Ingles here in Ga. I buy several gallons at a time as I must drive 40 miles now to go a store that carries it.

My Walgreens carries Nice! Distilled Water. Steam distilled.

Doesn't make sense to me. If "floaties" came in the water you would see them in the top of the bottle when you pop the lid off.

Sal_In_Ga wrote:I had the same problem with walmart distilled water....it (and others) is not steam distilled. Check the labels. Some state "distilled by reverse osmosis, filtration, (sometimes)steam" ...consumer's guess which one. I use only steamed distilled water and have no problems since I became aware of distillation processes. A gallon lasts several weeks. You may have to track down the steam distilled water as only a few stores carry it such as Target and Ingles here in Ga. I buy several gallons at a time as I must drive 40 miles now to go a store that carries it.

You may be confusing purified water wih distilled water.

Purified water is made as you described and contains other things besides water.
Distilled water, on the other hand, contains water and that's it.

JDS74 wrote:

Sal_In_Ga wrote:I had the same problem with walmart distilled water....it (and others) is not steam distilled. Check the labels. Some state "distilled by reverse osmosis, filtration, (sometimes)steam" ...consumer's guess which one. I use only steamed distilled water and have no problems since I became aware of distillation processes. A gallon lasts several weeks. You may have to track down the steam distilled water as only a few stores carry it such as Target and Ingles here in Ga. I buy several gallons at a time as I must drive 40 miles now to go a store that carries it.

You may be confusing purified water wih distilled water.

Purified water is made as you described and contains other things besides water.
Distilled water, on the other hand, contains water and that's it.

Aha! That's it. I was wondering. I always choose distilled and sometimes I see purified on the next shelf.

I still bet, even with purified water, the "floaties" are being introduced after the water has been poured into the humidifier tank.

Anyway, I only use the humidifier for a few dry months in the winter.

Most of the "floaties" appear to be mold.
Mold spores are microscopic--we don't know where they come from.
I wash my chamber at least every other weekend to get rid of the invisible slime.

Sorry I haven't been able to reply to the thread today the site was giving me trouble. Anyway. The filter was changed like 2 weeks ago and the tank about the same amount because I just got it in the mail from the DME. My water is from IGA-local grocery store and I do seem to remember having some issues with red mold when I used some Walmart water in the old tank.

Went and checked the water; its steam distilled so that's good. Took a good look at my tank as well...it seems that I think the floaties might be little snipets of cotton string off my self made mask liner.

From my research I have found that there are several distillation methods, among them being reverse osmosis, micro filtration, and steam distillation. Purification is usually accomplished by the use of chemicals.

Sal_In_Ga wrote:From my research I have found that there are several distillation methods, among them being reverse osmosis, micro filtration, and steam distillation.

You need to do some more research.

Reverse osmosis and micro filtration are not distillation processes.

Sal_In_Ga wrote:From my research I have found that there are several distillation methods, among them being reverse osmosis, micro filtration, and steam distillation. Purification is usually accomplished by the use of chemicals.

Here is a link that discusses myriad methods of distillation all of which utilize the condensation of water vapor. Anything that uses a different method with filters, etc. is not distillation.


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2111003224

I do indeed stand corrected, and I thank you. I encourage one to carefully read the label as I have found some will say "Distilled Water" and then in mice type "Distilled by: reverse osmosis, micro filtration, steam". Very misleading.

There are a number of products with "government approved lies." For instance, labels like "zero fat" may mean "less than 2% fat."

Some people on this board say that you can legally label non-distilled water as "distilled" in the US as long as it meets certain purification standards.

I haven't been able to verify this. (yet.)

This page seems to indicate "distilled" means distilled, but maybe the 127 million other pages of government regulation have other definitions.

As best as I can tell, it can't say "Distilled" unless it's actually distilled. The Walmart water I get says "Produced by Steam Distillation, Carbon Filtration, Reverse Osmosis, Ultraviolet Treatment, Microfiltration, Ozonation." Note that it doesn't say "and" or "or," so it's not clear whether it means all of those, or some of those.

It would make a lot of sense to do filtering, reverse osmosis, and microfiltration before distilling. That way, you'd get less crud buildup in the boiler for the distilling process. When you distill water, any minerals in the water will build up in the boiler and you have to clean them out. They may very well do all those processes except distilling for their normal "purified" water, and then use that water to feed their distiller.

The package also says "Premium Waters, Ft. Worth, TX."

By the way, "distilled" doesn't mean "100% pure". Most minerals and salts will be left behind in the distillation process, but certain chemicals such as alcohol, gasoline, and many other solvents will pass through the distillation process to some degree.

The big "germ" advantage of distilled water is not that that it's germ free. The advantage is that even if germs fall into distilled water, there are very few nutrients for them to eat and build new germs. For instance, germs require nitrogen compounds to make protein in order to reproduce. In pure water, there is little to no nitrogen they can use, so they can't reproduce. Germs that fall into distilled water may live, but they usually can't reproduce.

(Yes, there's nitrogen in the air, but most germs can't use it. )

Germs can grow in your water tank or water jug if nutrients fall in from the air flowing through the machine, leach out of the bottle, or if you use some kind of cleaner that leaves behind a residue. For instance, can the germs use some sort of residue from the liquid dish soap you use to clean your tank?