…is not something I really thought I was going to have to do. But for some reason, though bottled tapwater is easily available under a large variety of labels…
…there is a widespread shortage of distilled water. I genuinely did not see that coming.
Happily, over the years the volume of distilled water I go through each month has dropped substantially, it used to be a much bigger deal, but I still use at least a gallon a month and yesterday I opened my last sealed gallon jug – and it hadn’t even originally been bought for batteries. That was meant for an ultrasonic brass cleaner somebody gave me. But the local market stopped carrying distilled water … and the stores in the Big City where Landlady lives stopped carrying distilled water … and not to my surprise, today I learned that the Palace of Food in the biggish town about 35 miles away doesn’t have any either.
But the batteries still need distilled water, whether I buy it or distill it myself. Happily, I have free (well, cheap) access to water that’s a lot closer to pure than our well water, and distilling already clean water is simple if a bit fuel-intensive. I’ve never actually done it, but the practice as demonstrated on the half-dozen YouTube videos I watched is very simple. My only question is: How quickly can I distill a gallon of pure water? Because I’ve a feeling it’s going to be time consuming.
And we’re about to find out.
Oh my. You live in the desert, you can distill water for free on any sunny day. The cheapest way would be to build a box with about 8 iinch walls and a metal or black painted bottom say the box is about 4 x 4 ft or 6×6 ft.. Put trays of water inside then rig a clear plastic sheet such that it drops about 2 inches in the center, can weight it with a small stone or such. has to be tightly held against the edges of the box, more scrap boards and some weight to press them down or nail a strip on 2 edges and weight the other 2. Have to be able to open it and add water and remove condensate.
Put trays of water everywhere except the center where the rock sits on the plastic and put a clean tray under that point. Sun will evaporate the water, it will condense on the sheet and drip into the center tray.
I have to dig up some of the old survival manuals, this was also used to de-salinate sea water if you were in trouble at sea.
Its just not at your location. Here on the Colorado southern front range, finding distilled water for my CPAP is a major deal
I’m glad you have a work around. I only hope is that it’s not too fuel intensive and time consuming.
Aqua Fina bottled water is purified with reverse osmosis and it is about as close to distilled water as you can get, and not be distilled. It still has a very minimal amount of dissolved solids in it. Here locally dissolved solids in the bottle is about 10 ppm but the water starts out at 250ppm or so. but it is perfectly acceptable to use in batteries. I use it in mine.
Solar still. You could use that mineral-laden water that you pull outta the cattle waterer and get all the pure water you want. Just need some time, alot of sunshine, and the gear.
Joel periodically gets similar suggestions, but he’s said that solar distillation is not really practical for him. This particular design sounds simple enough though.
I’d probably put a funnel under the low part of the cover and run a tube from said funnel to a bucket. I imagine that that would be easier to harvest than a tray of water directly under the cover.
Ran into the same thing here in the northeast the other day. Odd because we really don’t have shortages of anything else. Luckily I have access to a deionized tap, but it’s kind of a pain and until now I’ve never had to resort to it.
Good luck with the distilling process! Interested to hear how it goes.
If there is still an empty shelf where the distilled water used to be, then there is still serious hope that this is just a temporary shortage. CPAPS are very common these days, so there is a regular and substantial demand for distilled water.
Also, don’t forget to check drug stores, including the baby aisle.
And yes, I ordinary bottled water is pretty good and I wonder if it is good enough. Do you have a tds tester?
Also don’t forget that free distilled water periodically falls out of the sky. You just need to invent a clean rig to catch it.
We’re seeing similar shortages in rural Oregon. Between Covidiocy and the usual supply chain issues, it’s gone from spotty shortages to slowly getting worse. So far, I’ve found 4 places that have stock (at times) and have been able to keep my stock complete. I need a gallon a month between a CPAP machine and the various solar systems, and have about a year’s worth on hand.
I used a Waterwise countertop still for 10 years until it died with a warped heating plate. They’re in business with several electric stills, and a single (out of stock) stove top unit. Power usage makes the countertop units a non-starter for offgrid living. (I think it took a few hours to do 6 quarts of water. I don’t recall the power consumption, but it’s pretty bad.)
However, they sell (when in stock) a burner-top unit for the breathtaking price of $449.00. The blurb claims 3.2 quarts in 1.2 hours on a gas burner. I’m not sure it would work well as built on a wood stove, but suspect it could be tweaked a bit to do so.
https://www.waterwise.com/product/waterwise-1600-non-electric-distiller/
That price, though.
Know any moonshiners?
I’m hearing from all over the place about no distilled water. Today I was in Kroger and Safeway and neither one had any. I’m glad I don’t use it.
FWIW, Amazon shows a stovetop unit for a lot less money. It would likely work on a wood stove, though something to protect the output hose would be needed. About $130, and it’s currently in stock.
https://www.amazon.com/Roots-Branches-VKP1208-Little-Distiller/dp/B07WSJ2H8C/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2FB8LMOYFYGCF&keywords=water+distillers&qid=1646331952&sprefix=water+dist%2Caps%2C1595&sr=8-4
Probably too late to do this year, but snow is distilled water in a solid state. When next winter comes around, collect and melt as much as you’ll need for the next year. It’s already been purified by the natural solar still.
Any old metal container that can be sealed , and a length of tubing can make a still. Just set it on that wood stove and collect the distilled water coming out of the tube. Many people keep a tea kettle on their wood stove to combat the dry air . Just put a tube on your tea pot and there ya go free distilled water and you lose none of the heat either.
We used to collect the drippings from the air conditioners, running on cool in a warm, humid environment they make a lot of clean water for batteries. I know this doesn’t work for you, location and power considered, but it saved our hauling expensive distilled by car and boat.
One “window shaker” could make 5 gallon per day!
Late to the party, but I’m seeing several mentions that precipitation in the form of rain or snow is ‘distilled’.
Yes, in process, but then it condenses to liquid around something, like an airborne bacterium or speck of wind-carried dirt. Then it plunges through air picking up whatever impurities are present along the way.
And since I meant to comment this days ago I’ll also add. There’s a lot of waste-heat in distillation, but if the process takes place at a time & place where space-heating is required, it is not waste-heat.