There are many reasons you might need some distilled water around the house — medical uses or cosmetic purposes, for instance. Distilled water is the purest form of water you can find: simple hydrogen and oxygen, with 99.9% of minerals, chemicals and pollutants removed.
You could always buy distilled water at your local grocery store or on Amazon, but considering how easy it is to make, you should try doing it yourself at home. Not only will you save money by replacing the store-bought stuff with your own homemade distilled water, but it can also help when your store is out of stock. All you’ll need are things you probably already have: two pots, water, a stove and a few minutes of your time. Trust me, it’ll change the way you hydrate.
For people suffering from sleep apnea who use CPAP machines or any other sort of humidifier, distilled water is essential. It’s also useful if you don’t want additional minerals in your water. (For example, distilled water won’t corrode automobile engine parts or create lime-scale buildup in aquariums.) If you live in a place with “hard” water, or water with lots of chemicals, you can even use distilled water to protect your hair when washing it. However, since distilled water doesn’t have minerals like calcium and magnesium, it tastes bland and isn’t the best for drinking.
Below, I’ll walk you through the five steps to make your own distilled water. I’ll also go over the different types of water you may not know about and the differences between all the types of water you come across in the store. For more tips, here’s how much you can save by switching from bottled water to a Brita filter, whether it’s cheaper to buy groceries online compared with the grocery store and how to save money by making the food in your fridge last longer.
What are the different types of water?
If you don’t know the difference between tap, filtered, purified and distilled water, don’t feel bad. It can be confusing.
Tap water is the easy one. Turn on your kitchen faucet. Water comes out the tap. Voila! Tap water. The quality of tap water varies by location, and might contain traces of minerals specific to the geology of your region, as well as traces of chemicals used in municipal water treatment. Hopefully your tap water is safe to drink, but that’s not true for as many as 45 million Americans. Filtered water is one solution.
Filtered water starts out as plain tap water. You may already have filtered water in your home by way of a whole-house filtration system, a faucet filter or a water filtration pitcher (you can even get a filtered water bottle). Most filtered water passes through some combination of carbon and micron filters, which help to remove chemicals such as chlorine (commonly added to municipal tap water as a disinfectant) and pesticides, and metals like copper or lead. Filters can also eliminate foul odors and tastes.
Purified water usually begins as tap water as well. It will go through many purification processes, including those used for water filtration. Purified water goes a step further than filtering, with a process that removes chemical pollutants, bacteria, fungi and algae. You’ll often find purified water in bottles at your local grocery.
Distilled water is a more specialized type of purified water, but much easier and cheaper to produce at home. As with purified water, it meets the classification requirement of 10ppm (parts per million of total dissolved solids, aka contaminants) or less. The process of distilling is simple: Heat tap water to the point that it turns to vapor. When the vapor condenses back to water, it leaves behind any mineral residue. The resulting condensed liquid is distilled water.
Is distilled water safe to drink?
Distilled water is completely safe for use, but the downside of distilling is that it removes all of the helpful minerals like calcium and magnesium that occur naturally in tap water. For that reason, it isn’t generally recommended to use distilled water as your daily drinking water, and you may find that it lacks flavor.
You also need to choose any storage container you use for distilled water carefully. Distilled water’s lack of nutrients can cause it to leach chemicals from the container it’s stored in. If you plan to use the water immediately, most containers will do fine, but for long-term storage it’s best to use glass or high-quality stainless steel.