Nowadays people have severe problems with getting fresh and clean water. Buying cheap beverages in a supermarket cannot guarantee its quality, and vice versa drinking over expensive drinks can cost an average customer too much.
That’s why people think more and more about getting fresh water right at their home. And here come water distillers. This is a device that distills water, evaporates it, and cools to form a condensate. Such liquid has no smell and it is completely clean. Here we have some myths and facts about water distillers and do they need filters?
Check out my water distiller reviews.
Myths about distilled water
Market has a variety of different water distillers but people still create myths about this device:
- Distillation removes healthy minerals;
- Distilled water has no taste;
- Distilled water can hurt your teeth;
- Distillation does not remove organic substances.
All of this is not true:
- Distillation removes harmful substances as heavy metals, radionuclides and other inorganic pollutants. Shortly speaking this water meets all the requirements better than any other. You can be sure about your health drinking distillited water.
- What about teeth destruction? Some companies can say this nonsense due to fluorine removal. Well, I have drunk distilled water for 20 years and my teeth are absolutely healthy.
- Distilled water taste is a subject of many discussions and disputes. People that are used to drink water with high iron content can say that distilled water is tasteless or even disgusting. Also since distilled water is 99% clean it can absorb smells of plastic bottle pack. But eventually, water produced by water distillers has no bad smell or taste.
- Sometimes water has Volatile Organic Compounds that can evaporate with water itself and get to final water product.
And here we came to the question of necessity of water distillers filters.
Necessity of filters for water distillers
Filters are often produced from charcoal or carbon. They will fully absorb all the harmful substances and will not bring any other gases or smells. At this point people might have a question: do I have to also buy a filter if I have already bought a water distiller?
Filters can remove all VOC from the initial water and prevent from getting them into clean water. The most highly spread is chlorine which has a great concentration of itself almost in every big city.
That is why water distilled without filters sometimes has an odd smell and taste. It is not crucial for your health but if you want to drink clean and fresh water, it is better to use filters. If you are sure, that you water is VOC free you can remove filter.
How long can I use one filter?
It depends on water content. If you notice that water distillation goes slower, visually inspect your filter if it can not
be used anymore.
To sum up, it is good to use filters for your water distillers. Distillation without filtration through activated charcoal is not as effective in terms of removing volatile organic compounds.
Filters can protect you from letting VOC and other organic and mineral substances getting to drinking water. Also, they do not give any bad taste or smells. But if you do not want to have another expenses related with water distiller, you have to be sure about water source purity.
Otherwise, your distilled water might not so clean and healthy. The combination of filtration through activated charcoal with distillation raises the level of removal of contaminants to values exceeding, under normal conditions – 99 – 99,99%.
I really like the Megahome water distiller. It is very easy and convenient to use. And it can offer about 1 gallon of distilled water per cycle. And it has a filter to remove VOCs, which is very imporant.
Do water distillers need filters if I feel the taste of water differs after distillation?
The taste of water really changes, it disappears in fact. But if you feel the water became unpleasant, I think there’s something wrong with your distiller and you need a new one, but it doesn’t demand a filter anyway.
I’ve tried 3 cycles with carbon filter and it is not pleasant at all. 1 cycle with no filter is normal taste, think I will continue with no filter at least the water is better than tap or bottled.
Hi, Davey! Thanks for the feedback! You may try to use purifiers with remineralization option, This makes water taste better.
Just bought two of them , the size are 57cm each , Seller described as commercial, I tried and it was on over 3 & half hours ! Not tested the water yet as there was no filter. Just wondering about the cost, The kitchen was very warm with hot air while it was running.
I bought a water distiller but it is not for drinking. The water is terrible here, calcium and white stuff all over my faucets.
I bought a humidifier and that is the only reason why I have a distiller. Before, it would leave white fog all over my place and I realized it was the minerals and stuff from the water.
I bought a cheap generic distiller and it didn’t come with a filter, but do I need one for the humidifier? I won’t be drinking out of it.
So if I filter through a carbon filter BEFORE distilling, do I still need the filter after? It just seems that the post-filter could be a source of contamination since it gets moist and might collect things from the air (although it is protected inside the distiller, it might pick up mold spores etc. when you install it).
Also, do I have to clean inside the distiller pipe occasionally, eg with a pipe cleaner? Or does the heat of the steam sterilize it?