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R**Y
Good value ... but maybe I went too cheap - and things to be aware of
I use a lot of filtered water for coffee and tea. I was using the Zero Water jug - which you can now see repurposed in the photos, but got so miffed at the cost of the filters and how they wear out so quickly (If you've had one and live in a hard water area, you'll know the problem - they start brilliantly then the slight metallic taste, then the fishy smell - and then that's another £12.50 gone. We were getting through about a filter a week. My Bobby basic maths was: this basic unit is the same cost as 7 Zero Water filters (amazon price is £12,50 each at time of review) and then there is that plastic waste. So I thought "Hey, lets see if this distiller is any better and cheaper!!" and that's what I did.FYI, I live on the Surrey/Hampshire/Berkshire border ... and our water is hard. We find that our kettle will have visible scale after one use unless you use filtered water.First impressions of this bottom of the range model are mostly good. However it's not without issue. Let's cover some of these. I am pretty certain that the basic method of working is identical across the range, so don't expect the quality of water to change in any model.The jug it comes with has a little metal guide to steer the distilled water in. If it's not perfectly aligned (which is quite easy to do), the water can escape and you end up with water everywhere - drop by drop. I now keep that jug in the fridge with my cold distilled water and discovered the zero water filter fits perfectly and is 100% leak proof.The next issue I will bring to your attention is the white plastic is very prone to dirt catching. Rather than letting scale build up, I have been scrubbing the unit with a bit of stainless steel wool. This works brilliantly and is chemical free. The photos show a before and after. This goop at the bottom is a mix of scale and brown slime. No idea what it is, but that is in my water and I am glad it's out. It's quite easy to clean with the steel scourer, but you end up with brown grey muddy water. I found that if my wet hands touched the plastic, it absorbed it and was really difficult to clean the brown water stains off. The plastic is textured. The best analogy is if you imagine a flower pot that you expected to be glazed, but discover it is a little porous. This textured surface feels nice, but sucks the dirt off your hands and holds on to it, just like a terracotta flower pot might. The effect is almost certainly only cosmetic, but i would have appreciated an easy clean surface. Hence I wonder if I should have got a stainless one? With hindsight, yes - but hey, it's cheap and times are hard and I will upgrade if and when this unit dies.The next bit you all want to know is "How much does it cost to run?" and what power does it consume? Well I've separated the rather iffy estimates I've seen in other reviews with some facts. I connected this to an electricity monitor for a complete full 4l cycle. The unit's peak power draw was 932 watts (more than the 750 on the specs); and the total number of kwh consumed was 3. At time of writing (Aug 2022), the price cap rate is £0.30p per KWH ... so four litres of distilled water is costing me about 90p. If you've got solar power and storage ... I am envious and your run costs might be nil and your house a little warmer.Now in summer ... when you don't need to heat the house, that money is wasted and just causes global warming (Sorry Greta). However in winter, when its cold outside, you could argue that the 90p of electricity consumer is turned completely into heat (OK pedants, there is a small amount of noise from the fan - but in the grand scheme of things - that's irrelevant); so if you are heating your house - it's now 100% efficient (OK pedants, I know if I had an air-source heat pump I'd get five times that heat - but they cost £10,000).Things to note ... it works like one of those old electric fan heaters. The heating element boils the water, the steam goes through a condenser and the fan blows ambient room air over the fins so the water condenses. This creates a gentle warm breeze in your kitchen at around 750-900W, which if you had a fan heater of that rating, it would achieve pretty much the same heat output (because of the law of conservation of energy).The finished water is condensed boiling water so you need to leave it to cool if you want to chill it (don't put it straight in the fridge while hot as you'll get food poisoning).The TDS in the water I've been producing has been showing as zero. The taste is great, especially I think as I clean the boiler every time to prevent build up of sludge - and that does smell.The spout has what looks like a teabag in it which is full of activated charcoal. These are supposed to be changed every now and then. Their purpose is to remove some of the more nasty stuff in water, namely organic volatile compounds - but they wear out. I see they are cheap as chips.Noise wise, this is pretty quiet. The sound is that of a fan going for a few hours and while the water is initially boiling the heating element makes a noise like a kettle when it gets going. Also, you may think you've left the tap dripping in the kitchen as it's a constant drip drip sound as the water comes out.So if you clean the insides (which are stainless); with a bit of stainless wire wool - you'll save a lot on descalar costs too. I seem to be able to keep it really quite clean with a quick scrub.Size wise, I actually thought this unit would be bigger than it actually and thought it was quite compact.I did like the way the water jug came inside the unit for storage ... but in reality, if you want regular distilled water, it's never going back in.My coffee machines and kettles are now 100% scale free. However with coffee, if you are obsessive, you'll know that the perfect brew water is made by distilling water. Then to your 4L of distilled water, add back 0.75 grams of Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulphate) and 0.25 grams of the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) - and shake. This may sound like "Local woman discovers crazy zany trick to make perfect coffee and pensioners are going wild" but annoyingly, it is noticeably better.The other thing I make with the water are super large ice cubes. These are very very clear with only minor air bubbles. When they melt into your whisky/gin/lemonade, you'll not find any sediment or nasty taint.
A**R
This is an essential piece of kit for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea sufferers using CPAP therapy.
This is an essential piece of kit for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea sufferers using CPAP therapy. I was diagnosed in January and picked up my CPAP machine in February. As I have really bad Allergic Rhinitis, they recommended that I get a CPAP machine with a humidifier circuit and water reservoir [AirSense 10 Elite Autoset].The nurse told me I could use boiled water in the reservoir, but all of my research on CPAP machines indicated that this would not be pure enough and would damage the machine as well as potentially cause respiratory infections. Boiled kettle water is not free from mould spores and other organic and inorganic matter and minerals, the boiling process doesn't kill or remove them and the water, if you're in a hard water area like me, is still full of limescale. As you're using the boiled water from the kettle and it isn't being filtered through anything, rather than using the steam, which is later condensed and then filtered in a distiller, boiled tap water has all of the impurities of standard tap water.After a mere three days of using boiled water in the CPAP machine reservoir, a white limescale mark started to show in the tank.I immediately bought one of these distillers and honestly, it's a fantastic piece of kit. I have been distilling and using my own water for over two months now, almost three, and there's no limescale build up whatsoever in my CPAP machine. Unlike simply boiling water, the distillation process means that the water you end up with is free from mould spores and limescale and is extremely pure. This is further evidenced by the gunk that is left behind in the distiller's main tank once the cycle has ended. All of that gunk in the tank is what is in your tap water and what you were breathing in via your CPAP machine if you used boiled tap water.All of the CPAP and OSA sites recommend distilled water, so I thought this was worth the investment. The hospitals and nurses tend to recommend boiled tap water because distilled water is extremely expensive in the long term. However this device is well worth the investment to extend the life of your equipment, protect your respiratory system and save money on distilled water. The distiller pays for itself in no time as pre-bottled distilled water is extremely expensive and often the jerry cans are very difficult to open due to overtightening. I've had to return a few that could not be opened even with a jar opener because the caps were fused shut.I have distilled about eight 3.5L loads so far for use with my own CPAP device and my father's. Neither one has any limescale build-up anymore and I feel better knowing that I'm not breathing in as much rubbish.The distiller is very efficient, creating around 3.5L of distilled water from 4L of tap water. It only takes a few hours and you can see that the distilled water is crystal clear. The equipment is very well made, solid and sturdy, but because of a few bad reviews, I opted for the additional three year breakdown and accidental damage cover for £14.49. I haven't had any issues with the distiller but the peace of mind of having three years of cover is fantastic and at that price, a steal.I've cleaned the device once using the descaler crystals and they worked perfectly. Even the hardened limescale was stripped off and it was like new again.My only criticism is that the instruction manual translation [it's from China I believe] is very poor and can be a little confusing. Thankfully the product is very basic to use and it's all self explanatory. A single button activates the distilling cycle and it automatically turns itself off when the jug is full.I paid £22 for 11L of distilled water before buying this distiller and I've made 28L myself, with another two loads of 3.5L each being required at the end of the week. The distiller is paying for itself at an incredible rate. At this rate it'll have paid for itself within four months and then it's saving me money on expensive distilled water. With the three year cover, I've got a few years worth of distilled water I can make at no cost.I highly recommend that people distil their own water for use with CPAP machines, as per the recommendations on all of the CPAP websites. It makes a visible difference and extends the lifespan of your CPAP equipment by preventing limescale build-up. It also helps to prevent rare cases of pneumonia, should your water have mould spores or other nasties.Please see this useful explanation from a water treatment website:'Distillation is one of the oldest methods for creating pure water. Filtered water is heated until it has evaporated, turning into steam. This steam is collected in a sterile container, where it condenses and becomes water again. Because water has a lower boiling point than most contaminants (including minerals), they are left behind when the water turns into steam. The resulting water is, therefore, very pure. In addition, some water is double or triple distilled, with the condensed water being boiled and condensed a second or third time.Organic materials and inorganic minerals are the most common impurities found in water. The organics can typically be removed via filtering methods, including physical filters, carbon filters, and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. After this pre-treatment, the water is sent through a DI system, which contains two types of resin: cation and anion. These two resins attract positive and negative ions, respectively, replacing them with H+ and OH-. H+ combined with OH- becomes H2O – water. The combination of filters and DI resins can remove nearly all contaminants.'I highly recommend this kit. It's use goes beyond CPAP machines and distilled water is useful for healthcare devices, cosmetic devices, steam irons and more.
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