Premium 304 Stainless Steel Water Distiller - Home & Lab Water Purification System for Pure Drinking Water | Perfect for Emergency Preparedness, Camping & Off-Grid Living

This distiller works great! The glass pitcher is also a real plus as I didn't want plastic. So is the price. I have had this for about a month now and I use it every day - mostly twice a day. All of our drinking water is purified (humans and critters) so we go through a lot of water each day. We have well water and I have a TDS (total dissolved solids) meter that came with a filter system I used prior to this distiller. Water from the tap reads on average about 300+. We also have a lot of iron that creates orange stains After distilling the meter reads about a 2 (maybe not a 0 because of the tap water residue in the glass pitcher because I use it to fill the distiller). I used the Zero Filter prior to this and the maintenance was WAY too much and very expensive as I was filtering ALL day and still running out of filtered water, the filter lasted less than one month and as the filter aged the water quality degraded (they do work and their purity claims are true though - just not for my needs). I also tried an under counter filter system that didn't really work and was very expensive to maintain. With this distiller I get the same purity EVERY time and am not buying filters.After reading other reviewer's tips/experiences, I have my routine and experiences down to share --* The unit is bigger than I thought it would be - you will need a dedicated space for it. The unit itself gets hot and the fan on top also blows heat so there should be space around it and not be under kitchen cabinets when running. I am still deciding it's true home - it's something I turn on and walk away so it doesn't have to be front and center. A little rearranging and maybe on my kitchen rack or bakers rack... Also, it does make noise so maybe another reason to have it out of the way if that bother you.* When I plugged in the distiller, the power was automatically on, meaning it began heating. I am unable to turn it off by pressing the button (It doesn't toggle) so I unplug the power cord to turn it off. I don't know if this is by design but I think I remember something in the user manual that mentioned something about this (I don't have the manual anymore). This doesn't bother me because of a recommendation noted below...* It takes about 3 hours to distill a full pitcher of water for me. I put hot water in the distiller to start with - it cuts down on the time to distill since it doesn't have to heat up as long. I have a hot pot that I use to preheat the water because it is convenient and fast and I already had it but you can boil some water or just use hot tap water.* I fill the distiller to slightly under the fill line - maybe 1/4". The delta between what the hot pot heated water doesn't fill I use hot tap water.* I put the top on - MAKE SURE THIS CABLE IS PLUGGED IN ALL THE WAY. If it is not, the fan doesn't turn on and the unit will leak everywhere from the seal. The fan MUST be running to work properly - visually make sure. I bump the plug-in with my hand to make sure it's plugged in all the way. I learned this the hard way.* Do not let the distiller run dry (I have never used the automatic shut off). There will be water left in the unit - this is KEY to avoid having to clean the scale, etc.!!!!! Because it doesn't burn on the bottom I have not had to clean this other than a wipe out just because not because I needed to. I plug the distiller power cable into an inexpensive 24 hour plug-in timer I bought on Amazon - it is set for a three hour 'on' block of time - it doesn't matter what the time block is (for example, I have mine set from 9am-12pm) just as long as it's three hours 'on' (adjust the 3 hours of time as needed due to how hot of water you start with).* I turn the dial on the timer to the three hour 'on' time mark until the power turns on and walk away.* Three hours later I have a full pitcher of water and the distiller is turned off! (Using the timer is a great tip if the distiller's noise is an issue because you can run it overnight, etc.)* Unplug the timer or the power cord from the timer within 21 hours (so it doesn't turn back on!!!)* Let the unit cool down a bit before taking the top off. If it is still hot at all, use oven mitts or kitchen towels in both hands and keep your face back while removing the lid to avoid steam burns (personal experience).* I have a water pitcher with a spigot that holds at least two of the glass pitchers worth on my counter that I put the distilled water in to free up the distiller's glass container to make another batch so I always have distilled water available.I love this product. It sounds like effort but so are filters yet they don't offer 100% of their claimed initial quality as they age, I was always testing the quality (Britta only barely reduced the TDS to begin with BTW) and it's a reoccurring expense - the filters are expensive. After running your first batch of water through this you don't even have to think about it. I can have a batch of water running in five minutes and am confident that the water is pure.