Water Distiller - does anyone have one

Check what Wikipedia has to say about distilled water and the health benefits or otherwise. Distilling not only takes out things you might not want to ingest, but removes all minerals, some of which are good for you. I know Wikipedia isn't always reliable, but it's useful for a quick fact check.

Personally I think it's another fad. We've all been fine with ordinary tap water for decades.

Septimia

Check what Wikipedia has to say about distilled water and the health benefits or otherwise. Distilling not only takes out things you might not want to ingest, but removes all minerals, some of which are good for you. I know Wikipedia isn't always reliable, but it's useful for a quick fact check.

Personally I think it's another fad. We've all been fine with ordinary tap water for decades.

I cover these points in my post -

No, I don’t have one. I boil and filter drinking water as advised by the kidney clinic. I agree with Septimia.

There are also water filters and I use a Klar. Maybe try that if you are worried about the water quality.

Yes, you did OxfordGran. However I meant that you might want to follow up the scientific pros and cons in more detail to help you decide. Perhaps you have already gone into it in more detail than I've anticipated. In that case you could list the arguments for and against to see which wins or simply accept the gift and try it out.

In the days when one topped up car batteries with distilled water, I was taught that you should never drink it as it was bad for you...

Distilled water is water without minerals. calcium in water is needed. Distiller is not good, a good filter is better. Better still to invest in a device to reduce hardness and also a filter

I use a water filter. Modern water treatments use many more chemicals that were used decades ago. Smell the water, you can smell the chlorine, ammonia is also used to boost the chlorine. I get rid of chemicals such as ammonia, chlorine, nitrates. Thankfully my water is soft enough

thanks for replies ! I have water filters as I said - if I wake in the night and run the tap, or indeed flush the toilet, I can smell chlorine, once so powerful it made my eyes water.
Having an acute sense of smell is a mixed blessing.
Apparently water for irons and car battery is known as dionised, says, do not imbibe, I use this in my reservoir iron, buy it from the garage.
My instincts tell me a machine which strips essentialsis is not right, that it is heavy, bulky, needs a receptacle in which to decant it and heavy electricity use, I’m wondering if indeed it is a fad.

I had cheap (er) filters for 3 months, now back to Brita Maxtri, on offer in Asda, £10 for 3.

Also, now that I have a steamer on the go, it is noticeable just how little water I am using, a huge difference.

When I am in my house in France, the water is so soft I can hardly feel it, my hair curls my skin glows, we do. not need moisturiser or filters, the closest I have experienced this here is in the Lake District, both areas of low useage filtered through rock.

Modern water filtration systems use UV-treatment (alongside other methods of purification) but I think the use of chlorine in modern plants is obsolete or at least minimal.

The Netherlands has some of the purest water in the world. They filter through sand and carbon, have some sort of ozone treatment and also treat with UV light. It is chlorine free. I did read about it only about a year ago but the details have escaped me. I think the UK treatment plants are old and need investment.

I don't think distilled water is as rare as this chat suggests. We had friends with a distilling machine in 1980 in East Anglia. The water it produced was not very "tasty"!

The lake district used to supply Manchester I understand, OxfordGran it certainly used to be very soft there.

NotSpaghetti, yes I remember, we had close family in south Manchester : if I had a precious (expensive) sweater, silk or fine baby wear I would take it for Mum to launder.
Her house plants were healthy, windows, dishes/dishwasher, car, streak free, small amounts of shampoo/detergent required, the same in Yorkshire where the water is soft and delicious.

The worst was Anglian, when we lived near Stamford for two years, was often. brackish, sludgy, stained the bath, gave us itchy skin, terrible stomach aches and regular painful UTI’s.

I bought 2 filter jugs and bottled water, which looking back was really cheap then, so I would heat a large pan of filtered or bottled water and strip wash at the kitchen sink, memories of childhood holidays at our Granny’s house.
I lived in fear of the kitchen window blind suddenly shooting up which it was prone to do if we breathed near it.

Welsh water too is soft, filtered as it is through ancient rock.

Thank you for the scientifically based viewpoints, this is a great site is it not !?
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I remember seeing the sacks of chemicals used in water treatment on site visits to those plants. Still happens in uk

Copied from the United tilities website

In the UK, all public water supplies must be disinfected by law to destroy any bacteria which may be harmful to your health. Predominantly, chlorine is used to ensure your water is safe to drink and meets our quality standards. We add chlorine at the final stage of water treatment in order to kill any harmful germs that may be present, and concentrations are monitored closely, 24 hours a day.

Although the level of chlorine left in our water is not harmful to health, some people are more sensitive to the taste and smell of chlorine than others. We try and keep chlorine levels as low as possible whilst maintaining a safe level for consumption. Chlorine concentrations at your tap can vary throughout the day and through the seasons, and may be higher if you live close to one of our treatment works.

Even though you will lose the minerals from the water while distilling it, you can buy mineral powder to the water after distilling it, meaning that you are drinking pure water with minerals in.

I don't have one myself (it would be hard to change my ways and it seems like a lot of bother) but I have looked into it. Some members of my family only drink distilled water and are very healthy.