DIY Water Distiller (Higher Output Version) - Full Build and Demonstration 

Stick that pressure cooker inside a solar oven and it should work without fuel on sunny days. Good job with this vid. 👏

I've been kicking around my mom's old pressure cooker in my garage for the last 25yrs thinking some day I'm going to have a use for this damn thing and low and behold up pops your vid! Thanks now I've got something to do tomorrow 👍👍👍

This gives people another option. And that's a good thing. The more options, the better.

I’ve built several of these for a completely different purpose. In HVAC when recovering refrigerant it makes the recovery cylinder very hot with pressures exceeding 500 PSIG. This takes forever on a hot day and will make the machine shut off constantly. So I rolled about 30’ of copper into a cooling bucket and connected it between the machine and recovery tank. Ice is a good start but it melts super quick, running water is a must. Absolutely the more coiled copper I use the better it works. I never thought about doing that to distill water but I’ll be doing it now. I’ve already got a 20’ inner coil and a 25’ outer coil. I will be surprised if any steam makes it out but we’ll see. Dope video, thanks.

If you let your boiling container run dry through the process, you can use distilled vinegar (which is a mild acid) to soak in the container to loosen and easily remove the sludge that builds up. If you use a stainless steel container, vinegar is the way to go, and by the way, if you use stainless steel cookware that gets caked up with the food you cooked in it, vinegar will help make that clean up easier too, just let it soak in vinegar for awhile then the guck should be easy to remove.

This is one of the best one I seen on making clean drinking water

You don’t need a pressure cooker in a pinch. As he said, he’s not worried about the seal because the pressure won’t be that high. Drill a hole in the lid for any big pot you have, attach a hose connection, and just putting a brick on the lid will suffice.

A very intelligent man to learn from. Highly recommended to watch!

I love this idea! I would absolutely stop the leak from the coil bucket to HOLD that cold water but this is great thanks much

Great setup, that condenser was simple and beautiful at the same time!

If you go watch some videos on still setups you will see its very similar. If you set this up near a water source you can run cool water over your condensers to get a much higher yield. You can also make good use of those little pumps that you can mount in your drill if you set them up to be run by a small water wheel if you have flowing a flowing water source like a little creek. They are also somewhat noiseless.

Good design. I would suggest a bulkhead fitting between the worm (moonshine term) coil. This seals the bucket of cooling water. You could then use a basin of cool water to be circulated by a fountain pump. This should add process time for your ice packs placed in a basin rather than the coil bucket. The same way a lot of moonshiners tried to place their stills near a water source.

this is a good demo on why you need the cooling chamber. if you were in the wild you could set that coil in a stream sideways. you can also use your canning pot with an inverted glass lid and a bowl floating in the water to catch the drip. keep ice in the lid. that was the first vid I saw but I used to wrong lid and I failed spectacularly! The canning pot lid didnt fit tight upsde down. I steamed my stove top!!

Awesome project. I live 1 mile from the ocean and I will build this ASAP...unlimited water supply in the Pacific!

Great video and DIY! One word of warning - distilled water leaches copper. It would be a safer idea to use 316L Stainless Steel Food-Grade tubing for your condenser. It will raise the price, but it is a safer solution.

Hey, thanks for this vid. I was just checking to make sure I understand the condenser from memory (from cub scouts back in the 1980s) and I do. Thanks for this cut to the point presentation!

Your a genius!!!! Thank you for such an awesome video.

Thanks a lot. I will build this when it warms up. I need distilled water for my kratksky hydroponic system and for drinking too

This was smart. Thanks for the video,

Very well explained!! I'm trying to get away from using things that take electricity to make, like frozen cooling packs or ice, to make "emergency" items. So seeing that adding "water" to the condenser bucket really helps, is great information.

I wish I could thumbs up this a billion times! Thank you!😘

Hey brother nice to see someone near the great lakes. Northern MI here. Great video and idea. I think i will make one of these with some mods to it. Thanks for the idea

Makes great moonshine too

Thanks for sharing 👍🏾

Thank you so much!

Great video love the design 👍

SO GLAD YOU ADDED SALT TO YOUR DEMONSTRATION ! I read that if you are trying to reduce sodium from processed foods it's difficult. ❤

I like your video I'm going to add a few of my own tips like twice or three times the copper coil and I will not use any rubber hoses which can leach chemicals into my water I will use the copper straight from the pan straight to my cup but this is all hindsight thanks for the good idea

Thank you.

An excellent video to watch. Well done! This gives you a clear picture on how to create your own effective distiller from nothing practically. No need to buy expensive fancy ones out there that are not as efficient as this. Better to make your own for sure! He gives a very practical and scientific approach to creating one of the most efficient distillers I've ever seen. I have wasted money buying a couple and they are not even close to as efficient as this one. I'm going to use the parts I have and modify them to achieve these kinds of results. Highly recommend it to watch this!

This may have already been addressed here, but you dont want to put dissimilar metals in direct contact with each other. Retired mechanic looking to build a water distiller, and I always look to see what RU-vidrs are doing.. this is a sweet arrangement other than the connection. Additionally, use a rubber pushthrough bulkhead seal for output of condenser and use bucket of water as to make full contact with tubing. The only upgrade to this would be tapwater running into the bucket continuously to dilute thermal storage of water in bucket. Hope this info is helpful to someone.

This is brilliant. Well done.

Good video. Well presented and to the point.

Great demo!

I recommend P&G Purifier of Water Portable Water Packs if faced with the scummiest water. It's utterly amazing ! Salt makes water colder, .maybe salt water in your worm (copper coil bucket ) could be helpful? Off to finish the vid.. Remember to get calcium and magnesium from other sources as distilling removes those.

The problem with the water draining from the bottom, is it's going to drain the coldest water. The hottest water will be at the top, so it reduces efficiency quite a bit. I had a pump feeding through mine, one fitting at the top and another at the bottom. I first ran the cold water into the top and used the bottom as the discharge, so it would siphon the water out as I'm pumping it in to keep circulation going. I've since switched it, cold fed into the bottom, and just let gravity drain the top discharge. Works much better. As the VERY top is all that really gets hot. And I mean just an eighth or quarter inch. The rest of the water stays ice cold. You can stick your hand in, and the very top will be scalding, but the rest is cold. I just run tap water now, instead of having a pump and a big 25 gallon reservoir.

DONT GIVE UP, YOU GOT THE MUSIC IN YOU!

I need distilled water for my cpap machine, in the uk you have to buy distilled water over the Internet and its not cheap, so i have been using just boiled water. I really want my own distiller so this video is a great help, many thanks

That’s a nice set up I like it👍 I was thinking that an induction stove top hooked to an inverter, battery and solar panel...free power from the sun 😉

Great job!

I'm going to make one immediately.

I love the design, as it opens up a few thoughts for me. I am contemplating the possibility of using solar excess (once batteries are full) to run an element to heat water (maybe 500, or 800 w). My concerns are, how much can one distill this way. Ice bricks are not an option if I want, say, 1000 litres per day. Thanks for the video!

Great idea - thanks for sharing. To improve it even more, fill the cooling bucket completely with cold water and keep it filled. Your hose was still bubbling, so you lost some steam to insufficient cooling. Remember: you don't get drinking water, you get destilled water from you device - our body runs on water with 0.3% salt (isotonic solution), anything less or more will dehydrate you. Saltwater from the oceans contains 3-4% salts, so roughly 10 times the amount needed and it's as harmful as destilled water is. To get drinkable water, add 0.3% salt to it. If you get stranded on an arid island, you can add 1 part of fresh seawater to 10parts of destilled water to make a drinkable solution. It doesn't taste great though, due to the content of sulfates in the ocean.

Wow. Just. Wow

I think if i were to attempt this design, I'd add a tap to the bottom of the bucket so I could choose when to drain rather than having it leak out. I think the warm water created by cooling the coil would be a good candidate for adding to the boiler. Idk if that's how thermals work, but i would imagine heating warm water takes less time and energy than heating cold water from a lake or something. If that's the case, it'd be worth collecting that water. I'd also be the mad lad to try and automate this process since the steam could be used to power a pump or something. It would be a steam engine that farts out pure drinking water and fills huge reservoirs of drinking water.

Great video bud. Thanks. 😎👍🇨🇦

more copper tubing means more surface area for heat to be stored which also leads to more water needed to cool the coil. maybe use thinner pipe or even go as far as to make a smaller coil but I get the bucket concept so a thinner gauge pipe should cool more efficiently when submerged in the bucket

Well done !

Thanks

Excellent video

This is a terrific idea. I use distilled water in my CPAP device and sometimes you have a difficult time finding it. Sadly I can NOT use any other type of water in it. This is another great video from you that I am going to share. Great information, Thank You very much. Peace To All!

Well done bro. Quality video Wish you Fortune in the wars to come

Thanks for the nice vidio explaination- that really is all that is needed- i bought a 80.00$ still water distiller off amizon- from seeing your vidio-i can see i will need to add a much bigger condencer / thanks again / my other little plastic water distiller for about 75 $ burned up in just about a year. Probbley more efficient on power-but your preasure cooker design clears my mind- distilled water out of my RO machine comes out pure clear- your water in that design probley still had some impuritys THOUGH. probley a bigger condencer and dial the heat down just a little would be nice and clear.GREAT DESIGN IDEA.

you could place water in the basin next to the condensor and rig up a steam powered water pump(before the steam reaches the condensor) to pump cold water from the adjacent basin(full of water) over the condensor to keep it cool.

A very well thought out plan. Have no doubt you will perfect it in time. Maybe the bucket acts more like an insulator which prevents the water from Cooling quickly. Would suggest more space between the coils perhaps and a fan blowing on the coils to help with the cooling process.???? Maybe a larger diameter tubing like 3/8 inch. What are your thoughts?

This is why I love RU-vid.....we are all geniuses in our own way and sharing it for others. Now I am off to crush reclaimed clay bricks to add as a layer in my soil to retain water in Northern Mexico....if it works I will share.

If I was still teaching school, I would teach my students how to do this. I was going to do a unit on survival and combine science with the other basix skills etc.

Boiling isn't necessary and probably detracts from the process. Just enough heat to cause the water to evaporate and rise at a good rate. Although slower It will be much kinder to your chiller. GREAT BUILD

nice experiment.

Awesome info, just subscribed.

Great video!

If you had ice cubes and kept the condenser bucket filled with ice I feel like would be effective as well. Or maybe making a very large ice chunk and keeping it on top of the coils and it would melt and cool the copper down as it heats up.

this method is solid. I would use my rocket stove as the heat source as it is extremely efficient. I always have a fire going and this is WAY cheaper than buying filters for those fancy filtering system.

This a good demonstration of water distillation. There are a couple things to consider. First, some people have reactions to copper and even develop copper toxicity. Now once scale forms in a new coil this will be less and less of a copper transfer into the water. Second, If you are going to be distilling surface water from questionable water sources, one may be concerned with VOCs, volatile organic compounds. Most commercially available distillers are closed loop systems like what you built and remedy VOCs via activated carbon post filters. Some commercially available emergency or non-electric distillers are open loop, meaning VOCs boil off at a lower temperature and vent into the atmosphere. There is water lost in an open loop, but the water quality is better. The best water distillation possible is fractional distillation, but nobody has $3000+ for a complicated machine with very low output. :-)

I use distilled water in the coffee maker and the tea kettle, no gunk to plug the machine.

Have you thought of using a frenel lense/parabolic mirror to use as a heating source? Cheers!

I liked this video good stuff.

I’m going to try and make my own design with a tea kettle.

Wonder how much copper tubing you would need to not need water to cool it.... I'll have to experiment! Great vid!

That clean water your saying my friend still looks cloudy. Oil can stick to the steam as well.

good job bro

a tip to make the bucket cooler would be puting a lid with a whole for the pipe and put over the bucket. and maybe add some real ice aswell

Nice still ,God makes wine. We make shine 🤩🤩🤩 good video

Moonshine stills were often setup near creeks to make use of cool water.

Great idea! I haven’t read through all the comments yet; but I was wondering if you left on the mason jar top and drilled a hole to accommodate the silicone tubing if that would help trap all the lost steam coming from mason jar and add to volume of produced distilled water?

If it is PURE copper, you are disinfecting your water at the same time. Copper, as is silver, is a great water purifier. Pure copper water jugs are very expensive, because they are so healthy! ⚱️ Also, if you made the drain hole the size of the plastic tubing, you could save water AND disconnect the tube from the bucket easily. 😁👍🏻

Enjoyed your wonderful demo. Suggestion => instead of going to a "jar", buy another "pressure cooker" (exact setup of first), and direct the water to it directly (and let the pressure cooker collect water & vapor (100%). I think you will not lose any moisture/steam (and will not have to keep pouring water in the bucket (once it fills and stays full).

Citric acid in powder form is a pretty good distiller cleaner- works awesome for faucet taps & shower heads

nice coil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a great idea. I was wondering if this removes hexofluorisis acid or fluoride. It says the boiling point of it is °227.3F so it's just a little above the boiling point of water. So I guess you'd have to have a thermometer in the boiling water and try to keep it below that while the water level is going down. You'd. Probably have to keep lowering the temperature as the water level goes down.

Even if you used a fan to cool the coil it might work? That is how it works in the distiller.

If you make the copper condenser coil 3-5 times taller or several layers of coils, turn the heat down under the pan after it comes to a boil and don't put the coil inside anything so the air can pass through the coils it should work without needing anything to cool the coil down. The harder the pan is boiling the higher the steam pressure and flow and the longer the condenser coil needs to be. The copper coil will be hot all the way to the end but by the time the steam gets to the end of the coil it is cool enough to condense back into water. If you don't care about running power you can set a fan up so it blows up through the coil and turn the heat up on the pan.

Good one friend thank you.

This is definitely a moonshiner

Beautiful Execution of Survivor Craftsmanship See you in the Plague

Heat rises.your drain is draining the coolist water.condenser usually fill from the lowest point and drain from the highest.

Even though you did this in a kitchen, you were able to show how it's done. Obviously things are different in a camping/survival situation lol But that's where other knowledge and enginuity come in!

You should seal the endpoint into another large metal pot. The coil can also start in the pressure cooker.

I am learning that it needs to be a multi level approach. Physical filter then chemical then this

If you are loosing steam even after cooling, you need to turn your heat down. The hotter it is, the more pressure that is being produced. After all, you only want to collect the condensation from the steam.

Solid work. Distilled water is definitely what the body needs for maximum optimization. 🤙

distilled water is so important even for vehicle batteries if your low on acid.

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your process. What did you form the copper around?

acting as a drain? as you run the cold water in the condenser heats up. Cold water is escaping the condenser from the bottom. Install a tap half way up the back side of the bucket. Drain warm water from top half. Keep cold water in the bottom now you just need to top it off with cold water. I use a garden hose and tap to drain and refresh keeps condenser water cold as you run.

I love this design and look forward to making one. Can you tell me how long the copper tubing is?

Do you have a parts list especially the component that goes into the pressure cooker and the gasket. Thanks!!!

I love this idea but wonder would the silicone tubing leach plastic chemicals into the water since if I understand correctly steam would be passing through it from the boiling pot.

You could seal the silicon house through the hole in the bucket, that would allow you to still remove the condenser coil and have the water remain. I'm curious how this would work with room temp water, I'm thinking outdoors by a lake scenario

As one who has distilled my drinking water for 20+ years, you have no idea what is coming from your tap and pictures do not convey the smell to what is left behind.

I never even thought about distilled water until I got a CPAP machine. 😃