Distilled water, how many of you distill your own?

[barryjyoung]

Thank you Alan:

I remember hearing about reverse osmosis filters used on submarines in the 1960's. I always thought they were expensive so never thought of them when it came time to ensure a good water supply for the darkroom. The still was like $159 plus 40 bucks for cvopper tubing to make a more efficient condenser. We installed a water softener and whole house filter last year and that helped, I just wanted a distiller to distill the filtered and softened water to get the most consistent results possible. Thanks for the tip on not boiling all the water away, I will make sure it doesn't.

Barry, I know you already have the distiller, so that has to work okay, be careful to not boil away all the water to make it easier to keep clean.
I installed a new water softener and then an RO filter in our home we bought two years ago using city well water, fairly high calcium content. As other have said, the reverse osmosis filter will give water quality almost as good as distilled but at much lower cost. For most, a water softener is also needed to condition the water for the RO filter as well as to soften water for laundry and bathing. The RO filter membrane will have a much shorter lifetime with calcium in the water. The water softener exchanges calcium ions for sodium chloride, which is easily handled by the RO filter.

I purchased the RO filter specifically for my photography hobby and also for drinking water. If in doubt on water quality, have it tested. Certain photographic processes will require fewer of certain contaminants, like calcium. This is particularly true for blue prints, vandykes, kalitypes, and other iron based printing processes.

Alan Townsend

[esearing]

My city house water is very good, but I use a britta filter to further reduce any contaminants and even boil water for mixing film developer. Adding a whole house filter to my mountain house because the rust and sediments in the main waterline seem to pool at my house but are gone after I blow out the lines a couple of minutes. So I keep a gallon of distilled water in case I need to mix something. I have no issues with rinsing and tend to soak more than wash.

[Kevin Crisp]

I've been using the water from a dehumidifier. It is a large one, with a compressor, and it can crank out a lot of water.

Testing a drop of tap water, humidifier and grocery store distilled water for solids (one drop of each on a clean sheet of glass, let it dry) it is as good as the store-bought kind, and leaves an extremely faint outline of the drop. Tap water is terrible, and that residue from one drop is hard to clean off.

Humidifier manufacturers do tell you not to drink it. But any biology student will tell you why drinking any distilled water isn't a good idea. There will be contaminants from the air in the humidifier water, but I filter it before I store it.

[Jim Andrada]

+1 for RO.

[barryjyoung]

Thank you

My city house water is very good, but I use a britta filter to further reduce any contaminants and even boil water for mixing film developer. Adding a whole house filter to my mountain house because the rust and sediments in the main waterline seem to pool at my house but are gone after I blow out the lines a couple of minutes. So I keep a gallon of distilled water in case I need to mix something. I have no issues with rinsing and tend to soak more than wash.

[barryjyoung]

Thank you Kevin

I've been using the water from a dehumidifier. It is a large one, with a compressor, and it can crank out a lot of water.

Testing a drop of tap water, humidifier and grocery store distilled water for solids (one drop of each on a clean sheet of glass, let it dry) it is as good as the store-bought kind, and leaves an extremely faint outline of the drop. Tap water is terrible, and that residue from one drop is hard to clean off.

Humidifier manufacturers do tell you not to drink it. But any biology student will tell you why drinking any distilled water isn't a good idea. There will be contaminants from the air in the humidifier water, but I filter it before I store it.

[barryjyoung]

Thank you Jim:

I wish I had known about RO before buying a still. I should have done this research first.

+1 for RO.

[barryjyoung]

A bit of an update. My apprentice Chris saw the new still and immediately pointed out hoe inefficient the condesnser section is. So at Home Depot yesterday I picked up 40 feet of 3/8 inch diameter copper tubing. Now we will bend this tubing into a snugly wound inner and outer coil which will fit into a 5 gallon metal pail which we will plumb with a cold water bath. Sounds like a bigger project than it is. I hope.

[Mal Paso]

The problem with dehumidifier condensate is any crud in the air winds up in the water. None of the dehumidifier manufacturers recommend using the condensate.

I have been using RO for close to 20 years. My water is 150-200 PPM and a consumer grade RO gets that to 12 PPM after 7 years of use. APEC ROES-50 from Amazon for $200.

[Jim Noel]

I use Reverse Osmosis water from a system which supplies he darkroom and the kitchen.