using distilled water

[N-dog]

so i was given a water distiller http://www.aquavie4life.com/av/index.html would this be better, the same, or worse that rodi? is it better than tap water?

[HighlandReefer]

I would assume this device works like a rodi unit with a RO membrane & hopefully DI resins to get what the RO membrane misses. Running a carbon filter will save on the RO membrane life due to any chlorine or chloramine in your tap water. So if this device is just a RO membrane then it will not remove all the contaminates in your tap water. Testing the effluent for TDS from this machine will tell you a lot about how safe the water is that it produces.

[bertoni]

The output of that unit might be fine, but it will be very expensive to use, even for fairly small tanks. How big is your system?

If the unit has no metals in contact with the water at any stage, the output should be safe. I can't tell from the description.

[jdak]

It turns water to steam right? No RO membrane. It is suppose to be even cleaner than RO. Only produces 1gal at a time?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is not going to be cleaner than Ro/DI. As Jonathan says, it may be perfectly adequate, but we cannot tell from the description what the condensing coils are. Some metals may leach from them if they are not adequately high grade.

It will also be quite expensive to use, due to energy consumption, but may be fine for a small tank. :)

[N-dog]

My tank is only a 20 long and I will take a look at it tonight.

[N-dog]

There is a video on their website showing them using a tds meter, and they got a reading of 4.0

[jdak]

It is not going to be cleaner than Ro/DI. As Jonathan says, it may be perfectly adequate, but we cannot tell from the description what the condensing coils are. Some metals may leach from them if they are not adequately high grade.

It will also be quite expensive to use, due to energy consumption, but may be fine for a small tank. :)

I guess i meant a true distiller brings cleaner water than RO.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Distilled water can be cleaner than RO only, but not RO/DI. :)

[star27624]

I have a similar unit to that at work before changing over to a RO/DI unit. It takes forever to make a gallon of water, you have to put it into a good storage container as soon as it finishes or the TDS goes up. The bottled distilled water from the store tested better than the water produced by the unit I was using. I wouldn't put that water in any of my tanks except under an emergency situation.

[stanlalee]

The bottled distilled water from the store tested better than the water produced by the unit I was using.


the problem with claiming RO/DI work just as well or better than distilled is it doesn't factor in the condition and functioning of the filters. If distilled is succeptable to metal leaching RO/DI are succeptable to functioning poorly based on maintenence practices and use where distilled isn't. mine right now for example is performing horribly hence I'm using distilled for now until I get the filters and membrane replaced. the problem with distilled is it cost an arm and a leg. I pay $2.89 for 2.5 gallons here plus I hate collecting a bunch of plastic bottles. fortunately I only have a 30g and 2.5g last probably 5 days for evaporation.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

True. One must measure that the TDS is 0 ppm to know an RO/DI is functioning properly.

But once made, I would not want it to pass over a metal coil after the RO/DI, as a distiller might. Some metals are fine, and that one pictured above may be, but a copper containing coil in a distilled water apparatus is known in the scientific literature to release too much copper.

[TBartkus]

> so i was given a water distiller http://www.aquavie4life.com/av/index.html would this be
> better, the same, or worse that rodi? is it better than tap water?

I can't speak to the particulars of your unit but I use an (old!) 1 gallon Sears Kenmore distiller. It uses a stainless steel condenser. I bought that because I thought it more practical to use with the very hard (high mineral content) water I used to have. Now that my water is not so hard, I still use the distiller.

Better ? Worse ? I'd call it as or almost as good as RO/DI.
Most certainly better than the best possible tap water.

If you were really concerned about ultimate purity, you could run your distilled output through a deionizing unit. Your DI resin would likely last long and cost next to nothing because you are, after all, feeding it distilled water ;-). I would call that overkill myself.

Pros:
Excellent purity.
Low maintenance - easy.
No consumables other than tap water, electricity, and vinegar (to clean out the pot!).

Cons:
Slow - I run it for a few days filling 5 gallon plastic jugs. Takes 6 hrs to make a gallon.
You have to clean the mineral deposits (frequently!) out of the pot with vinegar. Not really a big deal.

I'm sure that cost/benefit equation depends 100% on your electric rates.
If your curious I will check the juice it draws during the 6 hours it takes to make a gallon.
I figured about 0.32/gal but that was many years ago.
I do not know how the cost/gal compares with using a RO/DI.

-Tom