Water
Demineralizer
- The
mist will leave a white residue from any minerals dissolved in the
water.
- Any
organic matter along with microbes in the water gets atomized, which
you can inhale causing possible harm
- The
machine gets gummed up with deposits that require cleaning at least
weekly
The
EPA
recommends using distilled water or demineralizer cartridges for the
above reasons. Not
a fan of buying and carting large amounts of water around I thought I'd
just make a water 'still', or Demineralizer. It would be
easy, and possibly cheaper, to go buy one, but where's the fun in that?
Now, I know by looking at the above photo you may not believe this, but
this is a second generation device. My first still had a
smaller boiler, used a hot plate under the boiler for heating, and a
copper coil to cool the steam. This unit uses stainless
throughout and an in-tank heating element. It is capable of
producing about 3.5 gallons of water in 7 hours.
The
method is strait forward: Boil water in a tank and then condense the
steam in an air-cooled coil. The result is collected in a
bottle for later use.
The
Boiler - what I used, internal heater.
The Coil - details on the stainless cooler.
The water is collected in a 6-gallon carboy that I found at a
wine and beer making supply store for about $18. A short length
of food-grade plastic tubing is used between the end of the coil and
the bottle.
