How to Distill Water to Drink

Distillation is the process of separating substances (usually liquid) from each other based upon their relative boiling points. The substance with the lower boiling point can be evaporated off, and the vapor collected and cooled to condense the substance back into liquid state. Distillation is often done to separate water or alcohol from mixtures. There is still some debate as to whether it is healthy to regularly drink distilled water, but nonetheless it is a fairly simple process to distill water at home or in a laboratory.

Things You'll Need

• Still pot
• Condenser
• Heating surface
• Collection container

Show More

Instructions

How to Distill Water

• 1

  Acquire supplies. If you have access to laboratory equipment, this will be simple. A large heat-resistant glass flask will act as the still pot. A glass condenser will work perfectly if a rubber stopper is used to connect it to the flask. A Bunsen burner is capable of providing the heat needed, and a beaker can be used to collect the distilled water. In lieu of lab equipment, a pressure cooker can act as the pot. A length of sterilized copper tube can be used as the condenser when combined with a bucket of ice or some similar cooling system. Any container used to carry drinking water will suffice for the collection container.

• 2

  Assemble the distillation system. This is done by placing the still pot on the heatable surface, connecting the pot to the condenser (via rubber stopper or properly sized fittings), and placing the collection container at the other end of the condenser.

  If a pre-made condenser is not readily available, it is possible to make one yourself. Coil a length of copper tubing into a corkscrew shape that is large, but still small enough to fit inside of a 5-gallon bucket. Drill a hole in the bottom of the bucket and run the copper tube through the hole, making sure to create a watertight seal between the tube and bucket. When the bucket is filled with ice or icewater, it will act as a condenser, condensing any vapor that enters the top and dripping liquid out of the bottom.

• 3

  Pour the pre-distillation water into the pot still. Distillation does not remove 100 percent of contaminants, so be sure that the water does not contain any dangerous substances. Bacteria is fine, as it is killed by boiling.

• 4

  Turn on the heating element beneath the pot still and wait. The distillation process might take a while, depending on the amount of water being distilled and equipment variables. However, after some time you should observe the water boiling, at which point it will begin to condense inside the condenser and slowly drip into the collection container.