water distiller ??

[olhillbilly]

I been ponderin on distilling water for home use. MY well water aint fit ta use for cooking or drinkin an havent drank it since I can remember. My folks always hauled our drinking water and now I haul my drinkin water from town. Our town dont use chorine as of yet. They have "good" natural water.

So anyhow, I looked at some online. Distillers, that is. Kinda pricey I think. An everyone says, everyone elses sucks. hahaha Typical. Some counter top models look like modified coffee makers. Some stove top models look like reverse dehydrators. ( I spose that wud be a "hydrator",eh) Some look kinda like a pasturizer. Some say that solar distillers are great and/or simple, and some say they aint worth a hoot. I spect them folks want ya ta buy theres an not make one.

I dunno why ya cudnt make one. And I'm thinkin of maybe a gallon output a day? That bout all I drink/consume. Double that up for the amount of family ya got.

What got me ta thinkin was I lifted the lid on one of my rain barrels the other day an the condensation was runnin off the lid. So, I'm thinkin a black barrel an lid. A inverted funnel type thing fastened to the lid. And a suspended container inside to catch it. Sun powered, sealed, no bugs. Dunno why it wudnt work.

12vman, ya got any ideas? Or how or do ya, filter yer rainwater? Or do ya just leave the pollywogs in for protein? ;D

[Owl]

WHEN WE MOVED TO THIS HOUSE THE MAN WE BOUGHT IT FROM HAD MADE HIS OWN WATER SOFTENER FROM A HOT WATER HEATER LINER AND SAND AND HE SOMEHOW HOOKED IT UP LIKE A REGULAR SOFTENER, IT LASTED A LONG TIME, IT FINALLY RUSTED THRU AND WE GOT A REAL ONE BUT OUR WATER WAS NOT FIT TO DRINK WITHOUT IT IT WAS FULL OF IRON AND ALL KINDS OF CRAP!

[12vman]

I had a well and the water was real nasty! And the well was a slow return to boot..

I installed a 500 gal. plastic tank and pumped the well into that at free flow. Had the pump on a timer and a flow switch so when the well was sucked dry, the pump would shut off and the timer would reset everything for another cycle..

The water was very hard and stunk like rotton eggs! Had lots of rust in it too. With using the storage tank, most of the rust settled out to the bottom and the smell went away for the most part. I then installed a shallow well pump to draw water from the tank which pressured the house. I installed a water softner inline between the pressure pump and the house to get the minerals out of it the best it could..

I had great water! Most of the junk seperated in the storage tank and sank to the bottom and the smell was basically gone!

Seemed to make the softener work better..
~Don