Customer Reviews

Water Distiller, Countertop, White Enamel, Glass Collection

5 star:		(112)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've been using this distiller for almost a year, and it makes the best water I've ever tasted. The only reason I don't give it five stars is that I think there might be a way to make it more convenient; I think an older or frail person would have a tough time removing the upper cover (fan unit) after distilling (it's fairly heavy, and it makes a tight seal with the body of the distiller).

When I first started using this distiller, I thought there was a slightly acrid taste to the water, even with the carbon filter. Eventually I figured out what was wrong. I live in an area where the tap water has a very high mineral content. The body of the distiller is essentially an electric kettle that holds a gallon of water. It shuts off automatically when the water boils off. But the mineral gunk left over gets burned onto the bottom and the sides of the "kettle", and that's what was causing the slightly off taste. By setting a timer so that I remember to shut off the distiller before the last few ounces of water boil away, I've been able to improve the taste of the water, as well as make de-scaling the kettle a less frequent task. (Starting from cold tap water, it takes about 6 hours to distill a gallon of water, so I shut it off at about 5 1/2 hours.) Curiously, the little button on the front of the distiller body is only an "ON" button; to manually turn the distiller off, you have to pull the power plug.

Another slight drawback to this product is that the cooling fan is pretty loud. I run the distiller in a downstairs utility room, so it doesn't bother me at all, but you wouldn't want to be in the same room with it when it's running.

It's now seven years after I bought this distiller and left the first review. It's still in use and works great. It has turned out to be one of the better purchases I've made. I don't have much to add to the earlier reviews, but it is still problem-free, and useful as ever.

The three-years-later review:

This is an update and some notes after three years of using this distiller:
1. It works as well as the first time I used it. This is a solid piece of work.
2. It's easier to keep clean if you rinse it well every two or three gallons, and give it a few seconds worth of a scrub. The deposits that build up on it come right off if you just pour a water/vinegar mix into it and let it sit a while. Scrubbing a little helps. This thing is not hard to keep clean, but it helps to be regular with the maintenance. Besides, the deposits don't seem to affect the water anyway. I've never let them build up really thick though. Also, if you catch it before it's boiled all the way down, there are no deposits at all.
3. You can make your own LCD-screen and CD/DVD cleaner with this: Mix rubbing alcohol (I use the 91%) with triple-distilled water, half and half. Pour it on to an LCD and/or CD-safe cleaning cloth, like one of those little microfiber lens cloths, and it works very well. It works as well as the commercial stuff, and is infinitely cheaper. Using the distilled water rather than tap water means it won't leave the white streaks on the screen as it dries.
4. I haven't used the little charcoal filter packs in years now. Not sure what that info is good for, but everything works just fine without it.
5. The collection bottle is a bit challenging to keep clean because of its shape, and we use a bottle brush to clean it. I can't think of any alternative design that would be easier to clean, so no points off for it. It's still neat to me that it fits perfectly inside the distiller when it's not in use. That kind of attention to detail still pleases me.
6. Coffee made with distilled water is more delicious and consistent.
7. The sharp taste I complained about in the original review has gone away. I'm assuming it was either caused by 'manufacturing residue' or something in the water bottle or the coils, even though I washed it well before using it.

The original review:

The distiller works as advertised, and it's cheaper to buy it here than direct from NutriTeam when you consider the shipping cost, and it arrived very quickly. If you're paying about a dollar per gallon of bottled distilled water, this appliance pays for itself pretty quickly. I give it five stars but with a couple reservations and a few specific kudos.

The negatives: The cooling fan on top is pretty loud. It's not loud like, say, an air-conditioner, but it's still pretty loud and can be heard a room and a hallway away. It's not loud enough to disrupt conversation, though. In addition, the distiller is larger than it looks in the photo. This isn't an item you can easily shove to the side of the counter when it's not in use, but if you're like me and make a couple gallons a day for drinking, cooking, and ice cubes, it will be in frequent-enough use to justify the space. A dedicated area for it, like a TV-Tray somewhere in the corner, is perfect.

The positives: The collection jug fits inside the main distiller chamber when not in use, and that helps a lot with counter space. The amount of water that fits in the collection jug is also the exact amount to hit the fill-line inside the main chamber. That's a bonus, because you don't have left-over water to pour out, nor do you have to make multiple trips. I'd expect it to be that way, but real convenience like that isn't often considered by manufacturers. In addition, the charcoal filter chamber is very easy to manage and fit the filter. The design is also quite simple and easy to clean, not complicated with weird flaps and parts like some other distillers. You cannot beat the price for a kitchen-ready distiller. I've seen several distillers with less capacity that cost four times as much.

The 4-gallons a day description seems accurate though I've never tried to make that much in a single day. It takes right at 6 hours to make a gallon. I start it with hot water from the tap rather than cold; I'm not sure how much a difference it would take if I started it with cold water. I've found that filling the collection bottle to the first ridge from the top, rather than all the way to the top, makes it easier to manage when later collecting the distilled water as a full jug is hard to handle without spilling any. There's surprisingly little waste -- pretty much all the water seems to make it through distillation and in to the collector, so the amount you put in is the amount you get out.

The distilled water it makes has that sharp taste to it that bottled distilled water had several years ago rather than the smoother taste of more recent bottled distilled water. I suspect that's because of the charcoal filtering, so I'm going to try it without the charcoal filter to see how that affects the taste. I've also found that like with the older bottled water, giving it a good hard shake improves the taste -- something or other about introducing air in to the water, or so I hear. Whatever the reason, it helps. It's still better than the stuff coming out of the tap.

I have only had this unit for about a week (edit : now three weeks). After fifteen gallons of water, I thought I would share what I have learned so far.

My water is very hard (mostly calcium) and has chloramines added. I keep several aquariums (55, 30, & 20 gallons), so I am sensitive to the water quality of any device.

I purchased this device because my years old (recently serviced) reverse osmosis rental unit was putting out about 5 ppm of nitrates. My tap water has about 15 ppm of nitrates. The water that this distiller produces measures 0 ppm nitrates (with my test strips) so I am very happy, my problem is solved.

I did notice a slight metallic taste to the first two gallons that I made with tap water. I then tried an experiment, and used water from my 'PUR 3 stage faucet filter' to fill this thing and the 'funny' taste was gone. I researched this a little and mostly discovered that the distiller is not able to remove all of the VOCs (gases in this case). Pre and post filtering with activated carbon was recommended. I would have to agree. This morning I tasted some water from the distiller along side some of the reverse osmosis unit water, and, guess what? The RO water tastes a little 'funny', the distilled water tasted great.

For the aquarium water, I add back in some essential minerals, the fish require these to live. I experimented with the distilled water and added back in a few commonly available minerals (baking soda, potassium chloride, magnesium sulfate, and citric acid) in small amounts (varying, about < 200 mg /liter of each) and was able to get the best tasting water that I have ever encountered.

If you are the adventurous type, like me, I buy high quality activated carbon by the pound (aquarium supply) and put two teaspoons of that into some coffee filter material, and use that as a replacement for the 'filter packets' that sale for about $1 a piece. My price, this way, is about $.10 per filter. That, and I trust aquarium suppliers, some people have many thousands of dollars invested into their fish, so the QC on the aquarium supplies needs to be high (or everyone will hear about it). There just is not much of the same QC on drinking water filter material.

I do recommend using a timer to shut the distiller off after about 5 1/2 hours. In my case, I have about four ounces of something in the tank that looks like a mild children's paste mix. The unit switches off (as I understand it) with a thermal switch. Running it out to a full cycle will not hurt anything, but all of the minerals will end up as baked on 'crispy critters' on the inside of the tank.

Hey, enjoy this distiller. I love the thing.

Ken Miller

Update May 27, 2008:
I have been using this device a lot (twice+ daily) in the past few weeks, producing over 75 gallons of distilled water. I have 105 gallons worth of aquariums, which explains my need for the amount of water, and I just love the taste (with my little bit of added minerals).
I do a 'rinse and wipe' after each use with a little dish soap and baking soda. The citric acid cleaning solution works well for removing any build up of minerals when used about once a week. Keep in mind, that the cleaning solution takes a little time to dissolve the minerals, so, you may need to swish it around in the tank every few minutes for as much as ten minutes until any built up minerals are dissolved.

As far as worrying about a #7 plastic collection container:
Originally, that #7 made me a little nervous, but after reading everything I could find on the subject, I had to conclude that time, heat, and harsh chemicals are what cause the unwanted chemicals to leach out into the water.
The water that comes out of this device is (average) warm, I would guess 90F degrees. I can only guess that that is a low enough temperature not to cause any immediate reactions, however slight. No worries for me there in storing water in the container for a day or so in the refrigerator. I do now use a stainless steel 'water bottle' at work as a replacement for my old 'non-reusable' plastic water bottle that I reused every day. I do not use detergents to wash out the collector bottle, as that was one of the things that caused a release of unwanted chemicals in a study that I had read. A good rinse with tap water (with maybe a little baking soda) will do a good job of cleaning the collector bottle.

enjoy,

:)

Ken

After having 2 Sears units die on me, I found this one. I like the fact that there are no complicated electronics in it - I don't need my water distiller to tell me the time. It does take 4-5 hours for a gallon of water. This is a very reliable unit. You fill it to the line, plug it in, and press a button. Very easy to use.

The carbon filters are reasonably priced and several come with the unit. It also came with powder to clean it with that works well.

The water tastes great. I'm glad I'm not drinking the yellow goo left behind. This rugged unit is a very good buy.

We've had this product for several months. We use it for 2-3 gallons everyday. It's easy to use. The water is great. The reverse osmosis filter wasn't taking out enough. My daughter and I had cardiac arrhytmias (probably some heavy metals) until we started drinking distilled water. Anyone with chronic health problems from unknown sources should try distilled water for a few weeks. Could make a difference.

I've had this distiller since early January. Bought it on the recommendation of other Amazon buyers because it had a five-star rating, and how right they were. This is an effective, well-made, and easy-to-use product; what's more, it's reasonably priced. I've so impressed with it, I bought two more of them for friends in Florida, and they have had equally positive results.
I live in Arizona, and our supply is from well water, which is very hard. Now, I don't know if ingesting large quantities of minerals, principally calcium carbonate, is good for you, but I can't imagine it is beneficial. The amount of "stuff" that's left at the bottom of the distiller after processing a gallon of water is quite repulsive, to say the least.
I process, on average, about a gallon a day, which is sufficient for drinking, preparing coffee and juices, and cooking. I also use the water in my humidifier and because the membranes do not cake up with the mineral deposits, they last three times as long.
As for cost, I calculated that I'd be able to amortize this purchase, including shipping cost, in about three months. After that, a gallon will run me about 33 cents in electricity. Try buying a gallon of distilled water for that price.
The fan could be quieter, but the noise is really not objectionable; it would be even less so after you get used to it. I highly recommend this product.

I was at first skeptical to buy this distiller, because I have seen so many others for a much higher price. However, I have been very pleased with it.

The distiller simply boils the water and has the steam drip out through a spout into the jug, which all the other more expensive distillers do. The water comes out much clearer and better tasting then tap and even some bottled waters. This distiller has a very small carbon filter, which may be smaller than other more expensive distillers. I can't say whether this filter is less effective than others without doing some scientific testing, but based on the clarity and taste of the water, it still seems to make fresh water. If there is a difference, I imagine it's very small.

Opposed to some of the other reviewers, I don't find the fan too noisy. It's pretty much a "white noise", so I'm ok with it.

The tip from another reviewer to shut off the distiller with a bit of water left in it, so you don't get some sediment stuck at the bottom is a great idea and works well. I also sometimes let the distiller run to the end using automatic shutoff, which works in stopping the distiller once all the water is boiled.

To cut down on distilling time, put cold water in a pot, then boil the water. Pour it into the distiller and it cuts down a lot on distilling time. Also, if you have kids, make sure it's out of their reach. The distiller top fits snugly to the bottom, but there is no safety latch. It would be quite a bad accident if it was knocked over, so it would be worth taking the extra precaution to make sure it's out of the reach of children and placed securely.

But all in all, this saves a lot of money over other distillers and works just fine.

****UPDATE 8/2009*****I wrote this review when the distiller cost $99. It still works fine, but i'm not sure what the pricing is like in the current market, so I don't know if it's still a good deal. If you know you want a distiller, based on the job it does, I would still recommend it. However, I sometimes switch to use a Britannia Pitcher because it's just a lot easier.

There are a lot of reasons why I was led to finally start distilling my own water, but the most important reason was for my health. I simply cannot stand the taste of tap water whether it is filtered or not, and bottled water is too expensive. I always had a jug of distilled water to use in my humidifier, so I tried drinking it once. I was sold. I've also found that, including electricity, it only costs about $0.20 a gallon for me to distill my own water. The only thing stopping me was the price of the initial unit, but I have already saved, in a month's time, half the cost of the unit by not buying bottled water. Furthermore, I no longer get evaporation rings on my drinking glasses, I no longer have to worry about boiling rings on my pots and pans, and I never have to clean the scale deposits out of my coffee maker. This is a win-win situation, and this product makes distilling water as easy as filling a container, dumping it out, and pushing a button. The clean stainless steel finish on the inside makes cleaning a breeze. I give five stars to what has quickly become the most important appliance in my home.

I'm writing this paragraph several months after purchasing this unit. I have to give a plug to MegaHome, the company that is currently selling this product on Amazon. I had done a ton of research on this product before buying one, and I paid special attention to how reliable it was or seemed. I encountered very few people who ever had a problem with the product, but of course, I was the one who had trouble with mine. I was afraid of trying to deal with an internet company over something that, although warranted, had already been quite expensive. How quicly postage costs to get an item fixed will add to the overall cost of the product I was trying to save money to produce myself. I found to not be an issue. MegaHome made servicing this product over the phone almost effortless. I've dealt with a lot of internet companies over the years, and most are lacking. MegaHome ranks in the top 1%, and I don't give those accolades lightly.

As abundantly indicated in all the other 5 star reviews, this is a great product! I won't repeat the praises listed in other reviews, but I do want to add a few comments. First, I use and recommend a timer to automatically shut the power off before the unit boils dry. I usually run the unit for 5 hours, and there will be approximately an inch of water remaining in the tank. Then I pour out that old water before refilling and starting another batch. Second, I bought the glass collection container with this because of concern that the hot distilled water might leach out a problem while it was being collected in the plastic container. After several months of use, I see that the distilled water is always well cooled to almost room temperature when it exits this unit. If I was buying again, I would buy the less expensive plastic container.

The filters are intended to remove VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from the distilled water, but using the filters seems like a nuisance to me. Instead, I try to eliminate the VOC problem by pre-boiling the tap water before I put it into the tank. The VOCs should evaporate while boiling on the stove top and thereby prevent a VOC problem that requires using a filter. Another advantage of pre-boiling the tap water is that it will already be hot when I pour it into the tank. Then the distiller will begin to produce distilled water within 10 to 15 minutes after I apply power to it. If you try this, be sure to handle the hot water carefully!!

When I distill water, I run the unit repeatedly for approximately three days, and store enough distilled water for a week in several containers. Then I dry all the components and let them stay dry for the next four days before I repeat the cycle. I have seen a problem (bacterial, I think) buildup in a different type of distiller that was always wet, and I want to have an air dry cycle to prevent that potential problem with this unit.

Update 18 months later:
This distiller continues to work very well. I wish all consumer products were made like this! I have made a discovery that is worth sharing. Previously when I used the unit several times in quick succession, a heavy layer of minerals (from very hard water here!) would build up inside the heating chamber, and it was difficult to remove that thick residue. Recently, I found that by simply wiping the stainless jug after each use, most of the residue would easily rinse away before the next use. I now use a wet paper towel to wipe down the insides of the unit after each use, and even after a dozen uses, there is little more than a light film remaining that is easily removed by soaking with a little vinegar diluted in water.

The water where I live (Baltimore, MD, USA) seems terrible. Straight from the tap, it smells and tastes bad, and without going into details, there is evidence of "nutrients" (i.e., human waste) in it.

This is my first experience using a distiller. Thanks to everyone for your helpful comments. Here is some of what I've experienced in the two weeks that I've been using it. There are a lot of awful-smelling deposits and sediment even if I stop the distiller before it's empty. As a result, I decided not to get a timer, which others have recommended to avoid deposits.

After I have distilled two gallons of water, the water starts to taste like the deposits. So after each gallon I wipe the inside of the distiller with a mix of white vinegar (a long splash) and water (about 1/2 inch) using a soft sponge. Then I rinse it to get rid of the vinegar smell. It's a bit tedious, but it still beats lugging home bottled water, and this way the water always tastes good.

The collection bottle is so flat on top that it's hard to pour out of when full. Not a big problem, but it is messy. An air hole would fix it. I would like a glass collection bottle, so there's no question of safe plastics.

The fan does make noise, so you'll probably want to put it in an out-of-the way place. Also, the unit generates a lot of heat, so it should have room for ventilation.

I recommend this distiller. Adapting the process to my own conditions has made for good-tasting, convenient, and most importantly, healthful water for my family.