Water distiller

For seven years, I've been buying bottled distilled water to fill my solar batteries and would like to change to distilling well water at home. Is anyone else doing this? Are the inexpensive countertop home water distillers adequate for doing this? Is there another, better method? Thanks for any recommendations.

What volume of water are you looking for? ....As in how many gallons a month?

A reverse osmosis filter gives pure water. without salts, creatures, or minerals.

Drinking water that comes from a reverse osmosis filter is unhealthy because the water will leach minerals and salts from your body.

If used as an electrolyte I assume its only useful as a refill, as pure water won't conduct.

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Often these systems have methods of re-mineralizing the water after purification to provide flavor and health benefits

I would think if you have an available source of energy for heat like plenty of wood  and materials and to make a still, then why not. I'm guessing that a gallon of distilled water is about a dollar plus the time and end energy to get to a store to get it. and there are many different things that distilled water is good for besides keeping batteries filled. I try to only use distilled water in the radiators of my tractors.
but then. again, once you build a still it can be used for making lots of good stuff, like custom hand sanitizer, and yummy spirits for medicinal purposes and those same spirits can be double distilled and used to make tinctures and all kinds of herbal extracts.
for someone who is creative and has lots of herbs growing the possibilities abound.

Look up the words  "solar still" and there all all kinds of designs.  Depending on how much sun you get, they will crank out quite a lot at some times of the year.


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You can buy a retort for 50 to 150 dollars.

Hi John,
I only use about 2 gallons every 6-8 weeks.

John F Dean wrote:What volume of water are you looking for? ....As in how many gallons a month?

Hi Bill,
I'm only using the distilled water to refill my lead-acid batteries. I have great drinking water from the well.
Thanks,
Arlene

Bill Haynes wrote:A reverse osmosis filter gives pure water. without salts, creatures, or minerals.

Drinking water that comes from a reverse osmosis filter is unhealthy because the water will leach minerals and salts from your body.

If used as an electrolyte I assume its only useful as a refill, as pure water won't conduct.

https://smile.amazon.com/NU-Aqua-Platinum-Capacity-Ultimate/dp/B078XMMDGG/ref=sxin_11?ascsubtag=amzn1.osa.76684946-d778-42fc-bb51-52bd78bf9289.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&creativeASIN=B078XMMDGG&crid=3TMQ4DIOKFBUM&cv_ct_cx=reverse+osmosis+filter&cv_ct_id=amzn1.osa.76684946-d778-42fc-bb51-52bd78bf9289.ATVPDKIKX0DER.en_US&cv_ct_pg=search&cv_ct_we=asin&cv_ct_wn=osp-single-source-gl-ranking&dchild=1&keywords=reverse+osmosis+filter&linkCode=oas&pd_rd_i=B078XMMDGG&pd_rd_r=e60136c3-d4d8-49c3-a639-ed05ae8b9780&pd_rd_w=WVADZ&pd_rd_wg=c8YA4&pf_rd_p=5ca5891e-f8d5-441d-985e-3d725696ef70&pf_rd_r=N5PQAZ855GENE5BGYNAC&qid=1607275553&sprefix=Reverse+osmosi%2Caps%2C247&sr=1-2-d9dc7690-f7e1-44eb-ad06-aebbef559a37&tag=bestcont06-20

Often these systems have methods of re-mineralizing the water after purification to provide flavor and health benefits

Thank you, Pearl!
Arlene

Pearl Sutton wrote:Look up the words  "solar still" and there all all kinds of designs.  Depending on how much sun you get, they will crank out quite a lot at some times of the year.


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Hi John,

I only use about 2 gallons of water for the batteries every 6-8 weeks. What is a retort and how do you use it?

Thanks,
Arlene

John F Dean wrote:You can buy a retort for 50 to 150 dollars.

Is there a reason you don't want to do this on the stove?  That seems the simplest method.  Have you considered a steam juicer might do this also?

Consider a de humidifier.     It does not take long to get gallons of water.      

Hi Anne,

How do you distill water on the stove?

Anne Miller wrote:Is there a reason you don't want to do this on the stove?  That seems the simplest method.  Have you considered a steam juicer might do this also?

Hi Mart,

Thanks for your suggestion. I was thinking that if I buy a device, it would be a designated water distiller.

Mart Hale wrote:Consider a de humidifier.     It does not take long to get gallons of water.      

Arlene said "How do you distill water on the stove?

You need an oven safe bowl which will fit into a pan with a lid that can be put on upside down to hold ice. The bowl will need to be slightly smaller than the pan and will need to float.

Read more about how to do this:

https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Distill-Water/

Thank you, Anne!

Anne Miller wrote:

Arlene said "How do you distill water on the stove?

You need an oven safe bowl which will fit into a pan with a lid that can be put on upside down to hold ice. The bowl will need to be slightly smaller than the pan and will need to float.

Read more about how to do this:

https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Distill-Water/

+1 on the dehumidifier.
I have a couple and the water they make is as pure as you keep the catch basin.
If you leave it  with residue it will eventually attract dust and start to mold , but promptly emptied on a biweekly schedule and given a once a month rinse with a drop of Clorox the water will be as pure as possible.
The quantity of water in an occupied house is considerable, but I'd either use it in a basement or a little used room, truly dry air carries heat poorly, and makes your skin a miserable woolen suit!
But in a modern well sealed house an overabundance of moisture is always a threat.

Another +1 on the dehumidifier for anywhere but the desert.

If your charge controller can do it, set it up with a dedicated small inverter and use it as a dump load, so it only runs when the batteries are topped off.

Thanks, Scott.

I have to confess that I'm not very tech-savvy and didn't know what a dump load was. My photovoltaic system was designed and installed by a solar company, and my knowledge of the system is limited. Even after reading about dump loads on several websites, I'm not sure if I understand if I need one and if so, how to use any electricity that is off-loaded. It is true that in the summer, the batteries quickly gain a full charge on most days, and the charge controller often goes into float mode. Is that a problem? I would love to capture any excess electricity generated but don't understand how. My water heater is an on-demand propane model, and I primarily heat with wood.

Thanks for any additional information.

R Scott wrote:Another +1 on the dehumidifier for anywhere but the desert.

If your charge controller can do it, set it up with a dedicated small inverter and use it as a dump load, so it only runs when the batteries are topped off.

Instead of going into float, some controllers will divert the extra power to some load.  There are add on controllers that do this, too.  They turn on the load when the batteries are almost to float voltage and turn off when the batteries drop to 95% charge. I plan to use one of those switches to run a coolbot in my root cellar in the summer.

Thanks for explaining

R Scott wrote:Instead of going into float, some controllers will divert the extra power to some load.  There are add on controllers that do this, too.  They turn on the load when the batteries are almost to float voltage and turn off when the batteries drop to 95% charge. I plan to use one of those switches to run a coolbot in my root cellar in the summer.