DIY: How to Make Your Own Water Distillers

If you are good at DIY, learning how to make your own water distillers should be easy for you. DIY might not be your thing, but the instructions below on how to make a homemade water distiller are easy to follow. First, a few words on what water distillation is, and why it is necessary.

What is Water Distillation

Before you make your first DIY water distiller, lets first discuss what water distillation is and why it may be necessary. Many people spend money on bottles of water because they don’t trust their tap water. However, this policy tends to become meaningless when they use tap water for cooking or making tea, coffee or other drinks. Perhaps even for their ice cubes! A homemade water distiller could be your answer.

Distillation of any kind, even of whiskey and other spirits, works by the same general mechanism. First, you boil the liquid (water in our case) and as the water vapor rises up the distillation system, it then enters a cooling chamber where the steam condenses back to water. Any solids in the original water source cannot evaporate and are left behind.

The pure distilled water is fed into an outlet where it can be collected. Fundamentally, distillation involves boiling water then cooling the steam back to liquid water, leaving impurities behind. So why spend money on bottles of water? Particularly when you can make your own pure water straight from your tap! Here are two ways of making a DIY water distiller.

How to Make a DIY Water Distiller: Method #1

It’s not difficult to make a home-made water distiller. There is a very simple way for beginners, though if you are good at DIY there are other ways to make your own water distillers. Here is a very simple method.

You will need a large pot – a large cooking pot that holds several pints of water. Fill it to about a third full of water then float a glass bowl in the water. It should be glass so it doesn’t contaminate the water and floats in it. It should not touch the bottom of the pan.

Now put the pot lid on upside down, so the top of the lid is pointing downward towards the glass bowl. Start heating the water on your gas or electric cooker. While it is heating up, pour some ice cubes into the inverted lid of the pot.

When the water starts boiling, it will condense on the bottom surface of the ice cold lid, and the condensate will slowly run down the inverted lid then drip into the glass bowl.

The impurities in your tap water will be left in the pot while you collect pure water in the glass bowl. That is a very simple way to create a home-made water distiller. You can fill the pot up again once the water level drops and continue distilling your water for as long as you have enough ice to condense it on the pan lid. That is a simple way of generating your own pure water by making your own homemade water distiller.

How to Make a Water Distiller – Method #2

Here is a second way of doing this which uses exactly the same scientific principle, but with a different arrangement. First, here is a list of equipment you will need:

• A metal pot with a lid – this could be the same or a similar pot to the above method.
• A fitting to feed the steam through the pot
• A plastic hose or tube to feed the steam to the condensing chamber
• A jug to collect the water
• You will also need a stove and the water to distill!

Once you have everything together, then:

1. Thoroughly clean everything with detergent (not bleach because that might taint the water.)
2. Drill a hole in the pot lid, about the same diameter as the plastic hose/tube.
3. Fit the feed-through fitting to the hole in the pot lid and feed the hose/tube through it.
4. Start up the stove and heat the water to boiling.
5. The steam should then pass freely through the stainless feed-through fitting. Once it starts boiling, let it run for about 4-5 minutes to get everything in equilibrium and allow any volatile contaminants to escape.
6. Now pass the hose/tubing through the fitting into the body of the pot.
7. Put the other end into your glass jug and collect the distilled water.

Note: If you have a way of cooling the tube coming out of the pan, such as running cold water over it or immersing it in ice, you will get a better yield of pure water. If you can use a grommet to create a better seal between the pot lid and the tube then you will lose less steam through the opening.

These are two simple ways of creating a homemade water distiller. They both work using the same scientific principle of evaporation and precipitation known as distillation. Not only will the boiling destroy any living organisms in your water, but the distillation principle will also extract pure water from contaminated water. This is easier and better for your health than trying to purify contaminated water with tablets or even trying to remove contaminants from your drinking water.

How to Make Your Own Water Distillers: Summary

Do you use distilled water, or purchase bottled water because of its purity rather than mineral content? Yes? Then why not learn DIY: how to make your own water distillers. It is so simple that you can run two – drink the water from one while your second distiller is on the way to another batch of pure water.

Although the two homemade water distiller techniques described above seem different, they are actually just the same if you think about it. Boil water (the boiling stage itself kills off most bugs and organisms) then condense the evaporated steam on a cold surface. Keep doing this, and collect the drips of condensate until you have enough for your needs. It is easy – practically anybody can make and operate a DIY water distiller!

Continue Reading: Is Distilled Water Safe to Drink – Distilled Water vs. Purified Water »