Country wide shortage of distilled water???

[dinomom]

You will definitely need a TDS meter to check it to make sure it is being efficient as you go along.

 

[Lindasjackson]

You will definitely need a TDS meter to check it to make sure it is being efficient as you go along.

Huh? I have no idea what that is or what it’s checking

 

[dinomom]

It checks total dissolved solids. About $35 or less on Amazon. You dip it in to get a reading so you can see if your water is still distilled (which has NO solids in it, such as calcium which blocks your Mist King nozzles). Most distillers get more and more inefficient as time goes on so it does not hurt to check

 

[Lindasjackson]

Ok thank you. I’ll order one.

 

[Chino82]

You can also make distilled water by placing a small pot in a bigger pot with a lid. Water from the smaller pot will collect on the lid and drip down into the bigger pot.

 

[absolutbill]

We got that water distiller from Amazon and love it. We use it for our dart frog, we have a whole house RI system for the chameleons. As for the electric usage I couldn't advise because we have solar panels so it's hard to tell. Good luck!

 

[Chino82]

well I made my first gallon yesterday and it went well but the instructions say to toss the first 3 to 5 gallons you make with the machine so I’ll run it through about 3 gallons then I’ll start saving it. It worked great! It’s really easy to do. It’s a little noisy because of the fan but not bad. I’m just curious what it will do to my electric bill.

If you know how many wattage it is you can calculate how much it will cost to run it per hour . Note that burning natural gas is cheaper than electric to boil water.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Well this distiller is electric so no chance of using gas unfortunately.

 

[Lindasjackson]

It checks total dissolved solids. About $35 or less on Amazon. You dip it in to get a reading so you can see if your water is still distilled (which has NO solids in it, such as calcium which blocks your Mist King nozzles). Most distillers get more and more inefficient as time goes on so it does not hurt to check

I got a TDS meter and checked the gallon of distilled I made today and the meter said 2 ppm. Is that acceptable?

 

[dinomom]

I got a TDS meter and checked the gallon of distilled I made today and the meter said 2 ppm. Is that acceptable?

Perfect! Anything up to about 50 will have very little dissolved solids in it, you need to go over 180 to be considered "hard" water. My tap water in CA is over 300, so we get lime scale/spotting on everything, all the time. The MK nozzles would clog in a month or less if using that water.

 

[Lindasjackson]

Perfect! Anything up to about 50 will have very little dissolved solids in it, you need to go over 180 to be considered "hard" water. My tap water in CA is over 300, so we get lime scale/spotting on everything, all the time. The MK nozzles would clog in a month or less if using that water.

Thank you! I so appreciate your advice and everyone else’s in this community!

 

[dinomom]

So welcome! Love that we all can share

 

[IanGlo]

Has anyone had trouble running reverse osmosis water? I get about 10-18 ppm with my meter coming out of my system. I haven't had any issues yet, but my mist heads also come off pretty easy if i ever need to clean them with vinegar.

 

[MissSkittles]

Has anyone had trouble running reverse osmosis water? I get about 10-18 ppm with my meter coming out of my system. I haven't had any issues yet, but my mist heads also come off pretty easy if i ever need to clean them with vinegar.

I don’t recall what the reading I got when I got the water meter thing, but I was expecting 0 and was surprised that it wasn’t. It wasn’t terribly high though. I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve only had one issue with a mist head and it wasn’t from mineral build up.

 

[Lindasjackson]

I never want problems with my mist heads! That seems like it would be a pain to fix!

 

[dinomom]

Has anyone had trouble running reverse osmosis water? I get about 10-18 ppm with my meter coming out of my system. I haven't had any issues yet, but my mist heads also come off pretty easy if i ever need to clean them with vinegar.

Yes this is plenty low I think a few particles always get through

 

[Lindasjackson]

Well my distiller is working well. Problem is I spend 2-3 days a week for 8 hours making distilled water! It is time consuming!

 

[dinomom]

Well my distiller is working well. Problem is I spend 2-3 days a week for 8 hours making distilled water! It is time consuming!

Reverse osmosis takes about 45 mins for 5 gallons. How many gals/wk are you using?

 

[Lindasjackson]

I use about 3 not counting what goes in my c pap machine. I just upped my misting at night to in order to get his humidity at the right level.

 

[dinomom]

I use about 3 not counting what goes in my c pap machine. I just upped my misting at night to in order to get his humidity at the right level.

Seems like maybe you are misting for a very long time? Not to mess up what is working for you but just curious.