Save Money By Distilling Your Own Water

Many people have never even heard of steam distilled water. Until I got sick last summer, though, I hadn’t either. But, distilling your own water is a great way to save money if you have concerns about the quality of your water supply.

Read on to learn why I started distilling my own water, how I’m doing it, and how much money I’m saving each month…

The Backstory

Last summer, I had to go to the local emergency room for kidney stones. I hadn’t had one in over ten years, so at first I wasn’t sure what this sudden, horrendous pain was. So, to the emergency room we went.

The doctors there quickly identified the cause and, once I was pumped full of pain medication, they told me that kidney stones cases in this area were off the charts compared to most hospitals. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but a few days later (once I was feeling like myself again), it hit me: why did so many people in this part of Michigan get kidney stones?

And, we had only been living in this area for four months when this happened. Whatever was causing people’s kidney stones was affecting me already.

Some further investigation revealed the likely source: the water. I’m on city water, and it has extraordinarily high amounts of calcium. And, too much calcium in your system can form kidney stones, which is what happened to me.

Now, my little trip to the emergency room that day ended up costing a mind-boggling $5,000. And no, that’s not a typo. Fortunately, my health insurance covered most of it, but I still had to pay around $1,500. I was not happy.

Purifying Doesn’t Work

I drink a lot of water (usually a gallon a day), so I quickly realized that I had to stop drinking the local water. The problem was that I had already been using a Brita filter. It didn’t have the ability to take calcium, and other minerals, out of the water. I wasn’t sure what to do.

I began buying steam distilled bottled water from Wal-Mart in order to avoid any more costly trips to the emergency room. Why steam distilled? Because it’s the cleanest, purist water there is. Steam distilled water is the kind that all other water is measured against.

Don’t worry: I’m getting to the part about saving money.

How Much We Were Spending

Between my husband and I, we ended up going through 36 gallons per month, on average. Wal-Mart’s price on one gallon of steam-distilled water is around .80 cents, so we were spending $28.80 per month just on water. Plus, we were wasting tons of plastic. All of those one-gallon jugs had to be recycled, and I hated consuming that much plastic each month.

And then there was the time and gas to get over there, as well as the occasional (well, frequent) impulse buys that usually found their way into the cart. And, we can’t discount the general stress and frustration from dealing with Wal-Mart on a bi-weekly basis. I hated going there.

This was a costly solution to our water dilemma.

Why At Home Steam Distilling Saves Money

This went on for over a year. And then suddenly, serendipity struck: this fall, I discovered that you could steam distill water at home.

It was a EUREKA! moment for sure!

I immediately went to Amazon.com to find one .

The distiller shown is the one I bought. I’ve been using it about six weeks now, and I’m in love.

So, here’s the price breakdown to show you how much money we’re saving:

The distiller I bought was $155, plus I bought one extra water bottle for storage for an additional $16.95, which bring my investment to $171.95. (The distiller comes with one plastic jug, as shown in the picture).

Now, it takes 5 hours to steam distill 1 gallon of water, which (according to our calculations) uses 2.9 kw of electricity. We pay 9 cents per kw, so this means that we’re using 26 cents of electricity to make one gallon of water.

This means that, based on our consumption of 36 gallons per month, we’ll make our money back in 8 months. After that, each gallon of water will only cost us 26 cents.

And, we no longer have to drive to Wal-Mart, and load up box after box of heavy water in the car. It’s like a miracle.

Other Benefits of At Home Steam Distilling

Another great benefit of having a steam distiller is that they’re great for emergencies. Steam distillers can distill any type of water.

This means if that a natural disaster occurs and city services are interrupted you can pour muddy water, or water tainted with sewage or other chemicals, into the flask and in five hours have perfectly pure water to drink.

Now, they must have electricity to work, of course, but if you have a generator then a steam distiller will give you all the water you need to survive until things get back to normal.

The only maintenance on a steam distiller is that you have to clean the flask. I do it after each gallon, but you don’t have to. What’s cool is that once the water is all steamed into the holding jug, the stuff that’s left in the flask is the “leftover muck”. You know, the stuff you used to be drinking.

For me, my “muck” is white (because of all the calcium). It’s not hard to clean; I just use a rag and scrub it out. Every month or so you have to do a deeper cleaning because parts of the muck hardens on the flask, but the distiller comes with cleaners to get that off.

So, the final verdict is: steam distilling rocks. If you have any concerns about your water quality this is the way to go. It is definitely cheaper than buying bottled water, it’s better for the environment, and I actually have fun processing my own water at home.

And, it sure beats dealing with Wal-Mart.

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