Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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122 of 124 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Water tastes great...with a little work, July 16, 2005
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.
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71 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good distiller at a good price, still great seven years later, June 26, 2004
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.
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70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure water at last, August 27, 2004
This is a must buy for anyone who is seeking pure drinking water and a healthy lifestyle. I purchased one of these distillers 2 years ago and it has been superb. I also purchased a second water collection bottle direct from the supplier to give me a greater reserve of pure water and to maintain a water supply when the distiller is running.
Following it's operation you will be shocked at the foul smelling residue left in the bottom of the distiller. You will wonder how you ever drank tap water or high mineral content bottled water.
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