Distilled Water and Travel

The water on board a cruise ship is usually produced by reverse osmosis from seawater. Reverse osmosis water is very low in dissolved salts, so it is usually closer to deionized or distilled water than the tap water you drink at home. However, as noted by others, the ship's water may be more heavily chlorinated than you are used to. After all, the ship's medical staff is more concerned about transmission of shipborne illness than almost anything else. We have been using the ship's tap water for years and then rinse the water reservoir with a little vinegar when we get home to remove anything that did accumulate.

The comments about extension cords are very important. I do not think that I have been on a ship yet where there is a plug available on the wall next to the bed. We usually end up having to string a cord across the room from the desk area and then I have to be sure not to trip across it when I get up at night or first thing in the AM.

Read the labels when you buy bottled water on the road. Choose purified water over spring or mineral water. A lot of times the label will say purified or filtered by reverse osmosis. Normally the water is softened first and then run through the RO,removing most of minerals to a point where you could use the water for months without visible build up.
Aquafina is RO filtered, as is Dasani. The difference between the two is Dasani adds salts back into the water to flavor it. There are other regional and store brands that are purified, the trick is find RO, and not flavor added.

zoocrewphoto wrote:I travel a lot by car and spend 1-4 nights in a hotel room. I have two plastic water bottles that I keep reserved for distilled water. That will usually last me 4 nights and takes up very little space in my travel supplies. If I run out, then I just use bottled water. If I am going to stay in a location for awhile, such as a week or more, I will go ahead and get a gallon of distilled water. I travel at least one weekend a month, sometimes two. I am still using the same humidifier tank that I got almost 2 years ago. It looks great.

i bring a couple of soda bottles with distilled when i leave home
that gives me time to find some locally
but i only put in the machine enough for the nite so it does last me
2-3 weeks bc i dont dump every morning

I travel a lot overseas and use battery water from petrol stations. Also, distilled water in some countries is referred to as "demineralised" water that you can get from pharmacies.

While in England a few years ago, we searched the whole island for distilled water. We just couldn't find it. Finally, someone asked me what I wanted it for, and after describing what a cpap humidifier was, he suggested a car parts house and to ask for "battery water". It made sense, since we use to use distilled water in our batteries before they started sealing them up. Found some and it worked great!