Shortage of distilled water

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For 31 years I "distilled" alcohol from all sorts and types of alcohol filled products.

My distilling method was simple: Consume some sort of alcohol laced beverage. Allow body internals to distill the "alcohol" out of the beverage and send that distilled super drug directly to my brain. My distilling method... Worked Every, Every Time! :eek: :facepalm: :popcorn: :ermm:

November 25 1995 I shut down [completely stopped] and carefully dismantled my internal alcohol distillery. Soon is my 26th B-Day! :thumb: :whistling:
 
Some just filter small enough quantities that the result is likely good for us.

Total distilling wasn't really ever the plan or needed.
 
You might want to test the “distilled” water from an AC unit. Water drainage from copper coils into a dirty condensate tray and hose will put lots of impurities right back into the water.
 
Coincidently I just topped off my batteries, dutifully using distilled from Walmart. And I googled and yes, multiple sources say you have to use distilled water or your batteries will crud up. But does anybody know from real life, does it really make that much difference? If my batteries only last say four years anyway, I wonder if fretting about distilled water is really necessary. I always have been careful about it but wonder if anybody has personal experience with cruddied-up batteries using regular water.
 
Pete Meisinger said:
I don't know about the purity or taste of drinking water in your area but here in Northern Wisconsin the water contains chemicals which cause cancer. Plus the taste is not good.

I purchased a water distiller from Amazon. it is surprising the amount of calcium and crud which remain in the distiller after distilling out a gallon. The distilled water tastes great and has no chemicals in it.

Consider getting one for all your distilled water needs. We use about two to three gallons a day between coffee, drinking water and lemonade.

pete
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You might check with your dentist. We don’t have fluoride in our water here and he says he can tell the difference between a home grown person and someone who moves here from a location that does have fluoride in the water. So he recommends brushing before bed and using a cavity reduction mouth wash after. I would assume that distilled water also has no fluoride in it.
 
kthoennes said:
Coincidently I just topped off my batteries, dutifully using distilled from Walmart. And I googled and yes, multiple sources say you have to use distilled water or your batteries will crud up. But does anybody know from real life, does it really make that much difference? If my batteries only last say four years anyway, I wonder if fretting about distilled water is really necessary. I always have been careful about it but wonder if anybody has personal experience with cruddied-up batteries using regular water.
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Four years isn’t very good life from batteries. We usually get about 7 if we keep the boat that long…. But do you want to risk getting 3 years instead of 4???
 
Well, that's average. Some do six. Remember our batteries suffer through huge temp swings - over 100 in the summer, 20 below zero in the winter or colder, with probably a couple steady months around zero (all F obviously). We don't bother to remove or trickle charge them, just disconnect them.
 
kthoennes said:
Well, that's average. Some do six. Remember our batteries suffer through huge temp swings - over 100 in the summer, 20 below zero in the winter or colder, with probably a couple steady months around zero (all F obviously). We don't bother to remove or trickle charge them, just disconnect them.
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My batteries now get distilled water. They didn't used to. They usually got clean tap water from my boat's tanks, and in more recent times, sometimes bottled drinking water. Average battery life was around 10 years, over a 27 yr ownership of the same boat.
Though battery water seems to make no discernable difference, as I now have a handy, reliable source of distilled water, that is what I now use.
 
Too be kind to my batts... and easy on my wallet, re increased time between batt replacements... I use distilled water - it's cheap insurance. Keep a gallon on boat and one in my shed at home.

Different areas' regional water supplies have different contents in their waters. Some may not be too bad on LA batt... some not too good. Distilled water out of plastic container is always good.
 
We had similar temperature swings here but we do charge the batteries over the winter, no continuously but most of the time. Maybe that helps???
 
kthoennes said:
Coincidently I just topped off my batteries, dutifully using distilled from Walmart. And I googled and yes, multiple sources say you have to use distilled water or your batteries will crud up. But does anybody know from real life, does it really make that much difference? If my batteries only last say four years anyway, I wonder if fretting about distilled water is really necessary. I always have been careful about it but wonder if anybody has personal experience with cruddied-up batteries using regular water.
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You cannot use tap water due to the chemicals. However, an alternative that can be used in urgent situations is purified bottled water with no chemicals added. So all the grocery store versions mostly made by Niagara, but not Nestle.

Expect with all the supply chain issues to see many more unexplained shortages. My understanding on distilled water is a packaging shortage.
 
Battery life expectancy has many variables. Quality and treatment, would be the general categories.
Per wet cell treatment ..... I can only relate what happened at a local land based gas station better than 50 years ago. I owner had a special battery filler. When he ran out of water, he would refill it from the domestic water supply. Batteries seem to last forever.

So if I where away from a source and could not find distilled water I would have no trouble using what's in the water tanks.
 
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Topping off with tap once or twice ( depending on amount) won't kill your batteries as millions probably have. But you aren't doing them any favors for the real long haul.
 
Why keep buying wet cell batteries?
 
Andy G said:
Why keep buying wet cell batteries?
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Economics...and long term costs are not the only economic factors....most people discuss one or two maybe 3 angles...but people have all different situations to do some thing a certain way.

The most forgotten thing here on TF is there are a bunch of smart people who think things through....thoroughly....and it still doesn't agree with others.
 
Australian supermarkets sell something labelled "Demineralised Water" in 2L plastic bottles. Presumably not "distilled" or it would say it was, so some other type of treated water. Suitable for batteries? Suitable for diluting coolant concentrate?
 
Porgy said:
Make your own.
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RT Firefly said:
... Give your local university chemistry department a call. Perhaps they can supply a couple of gallons. Science facilities probably have an on site distillery (water).
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We all have one...it's called a stove and a large pot with a lid:

Heat tap water to the point that it turns to vapor. When the vapor condenses back to water, it leaves behind any mineral residue. The resulting condensed liquid is distilled water.

Iow, boil the bejabbers out of a big pot of water (Cover the pot to keep the vapor in it). Let it cool with the lid on....voila: distilled water.

It's sadly obvious that mariners aren't nearly as resourceful as they used to be or there'd already be at least 10 posts with these no-brainer instructions.

--Peggie
 
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I have AGM batteries so I dont have to worry about watering them
IF I get 4 or 5 years out of them, I am happy.
 
No, actually unless you capture and condense the steam or vaporized water that boils out of that pot, all you've done is concentrate the minerals. Like a balsamic reduction, or raising the sugar content of maple sap to syrup.
 
Greetings,
"It's sadly obvious that mariners aren't nearly as resourceful as they used to be..." It's sadly obvious that someone never took Chemistry 101. What you got is "voila" BOILED water. Probably even higher in mineral and contamination content because that vapor/steam that you've just boiled off IS the distilled water.
 
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HeadMistress said:
We all have one...it's called a stove and a large pot with a lid:

Heat tap water to the point that it turns to vapor. When the vapor condenses back to water, it leaves behind any mineral residue. The resulting condensed liquid is distilled water.

Iow, boil the bejabbers out of a big pot of water (Cover the pot to keep the vapor in it). Let it cool with the lid on....voila: distilled water.

It's sadly obvious that mariners aren't nearly as resourceful as they used to be or there'd already be at least 10 posts with these no-brainer instructions.

--Peggie
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Peggie,

Your answers are usually the gold standard around here, but I think you might be off this time.
Boiling the water produces vapor which doesn’t have minerals in it, but once that vapor condenses and runs back into the pot, it mixes back in with the minerals still in the pot.

A still pipes off the vapor and condenses it into a separate container and it leaves the minerals behind. Boiling it in one pot doesn’t change the overall mineral content in the pot and your distilled water is now just water. You probably killed any germy critters in it, but its not distilled water.
 
BruceK said:
Australian supermarkets sell something labelled "Demineralised Water" in 2L plastic bottles. Presumably not "distilled" or it would say it was, so some other type of treated water. Suitable for batteries? Suitable for diluting coolant concentrate?
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Yes, demineralized water has the correct properties for battery and coolant use.
It just gets there by a somewhat different means than distillation.

The problem with using water collected from a dehumidifier is that there is no
way to avoid it picking up salt, dirt and other contaminants from the air and coils.
 
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OldDan1943 said:
I have AGM batteries so I dont have to worry about watering them
IF I get 4 or 5 years out of them, I am happy.
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The cost of comparable AGM's and wet cell batteries seems to be pretty similar here in Oz. Though I think we pay more pro rata on most things anyway.

I consistently get 8-9 years out of my AGM's. However, we do leave the boat on shore power 24/7 which probably helps keeps them fully charged.
 
Pete Meisinger said:
I purchased a water distiller from Amazon. it is surprising the amount of calcium and crud which remain in the distiller after distilling out a gallon. The distilled water tastes great and has no chemicals in it.

Consider getting one for all your distilled water needs. We use about two to three gallons a day between coffee, drinking water and lemonade.

pete
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Pete, you might want to read up on the pros and cons of drinking distilled water. Humans need some of the minerals in water. You want drinking water to be clean and pure, but drinking primarily distilled water can be unhealthy also. Some is fine, but be careful about making it the majority of your drinking water. Check it out and decide for yourself, but know that it isn’t necessarily ideal.
 
I just went back to check my source...and discovered that I'd managed to copy/paste the only directions that failed to include a floating collection bowl for the vapor. My apologies!

However, it's still a simple enough job that it really is a shame that not a single one of you even considered doing it.

--Peggie
 
HeadMistress said:
I just went back to check my source...and discovered that I'd managed to copy/paste the only directions that failed to include a floating collection bowl for the vapor. My apologies!

However, it's still a simple enough job that it really is a shame that not a single one of you even considered doing it.

--Peggie
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Please, a lot of us are pretty smart.

Survival schools teach solar stills, high school chemistry teaches distilling, etc...etc....

Go ahead, tell us how much distilled water you get and how long you boiled a pot of water to get more than a quart of condensate.

Sometimes being resourceful is knowing the "old way" is the old way because how inefficient it is.
 
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