Recently I got my very own home water distiller system. I had for the last eight years been happy with home water delivery every six weeks or so of a few jugs of distilled water, but with no notice they closed up shop. Luckily I had over a month’s worth of water on hand and some time to do some research.

There was only one local water delivery service left with only one day a week delivery, so if you miscalculated how much you had on hand, too bad for you. I then thought why bother with all that, other people’s schedules, traipsing into my home, why not get a system that does it myself? I then began researching home distillers and found some very fancy and pricey models. Yes, to buy the best would be nice, but I wasn’t looking to spend the better part of a thousand dollars either.

I came across the Mega Home distiller and saw it had very good reviews and was in the mid price range I was looking for, so I ordered it from a company all the way across the country in British Columbia. I looked at the manual and set about making my own distilled water at home, right on my counter top. It’s always harder to tell from just a picture what the actual size is, it’s a good sized model, larger than a coffee maker and prepares one gallon at a time, and that takes around five to six hours to complete.

It’s a stainless steel model, appears well made and sturdy. The first batch you don’t use, you run the cleaning solution through the first gallon and discard it. You fit a filter thing in the nozzle and the whole gallon inside is boiling all that time. The top is not tight fitting at all, if you have children please do not let them anywhere near it, if they pulled on the cord an entire gallon of boiling water would be on them, same for pets, if you let cats on your counters, beware the outside of this unit gets very hot and the hot air blowing out the top from the fan is as hot as a blow dryer.

I watched and I waited, it takes nearly a half hour until the first drips appear in the glass carafe they include and drip by drip, it fills up over six hours time. After the unit has cooled at least a half hour, you can remove the lid.

You should see the disgusting residue that the tap water leaves in the bottom, it’s beige crud that smells like old corn chips. This is what you are drinking in tap water. You need to clean that out the gritty, pasty residue with a damp cloth before doing your next batch. I have been pleased with the unit so far, having made around six gallons so far. I don’t need nearly as much as a family would, so I don’t have to change the filters as often. They consider average use a gallon a day to process. I go through less than two gallons a week, so hopefully the unit will last me many years.

The overall cost is around the same as having water delivered, but I no longer need to call in orders and have to wait on people to bring it at times inconvenient for myself. If pure, good tasting water is something you enjoy, but you cannot be bothered by a home delivery service, this is an excellent alternative.