Easy to construct Water Distiller

By Joseph Parish

Recently my youngest son became involved in making Colloidal Silver and asked me how he could construct a water distiller so he did not have to rely upon the grocery store as a source of distilled water. At the time I told him I would have to check and see what I could come up with.

Being involved with chemistry for a long time I knew that it was basically illegal for him to have the normal distillation apparatus so alternate methods were called for. The following article is the result of my water still research.

This is not a modern idea but rather has been around for many years. The original idea was obtained from some old copy of Popular Mechanics from many years back. The unit is constructed from scrape material to help with the budget.

Materials required:

1. Sheet of glass greater then six square feet. In this case you could use an old glass shower door if you can find one.
2. One sheet of ½ to ¾ inch thick plywood. It should be slightly larger then the glass.
3. A length of 2 X 6 board and a length of 2 X 4 that is approximately the width of the glass
4. A single one inch thick PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise and as long as the width of the glass
5. Some waterproof paint and a bit of caulking.
6. Nail and screws.

The basic idea is to build an enclosed box about the size of the piece of glass that you have available. It should be built in such a manner that the glass will serve as a tight fitting lid. The end of the box will use the above listed 2 X 6’s on one end while the 2 X 4’s will be installed on the other end. You should construct the bottom of the box from the ½ inch plywood as well as the connecting sides. On the subject of the sides, they will need to be cut at an angle to allow the ends of each side to fit exactly flush with the 2 X stock ends. Once you have the box is built you should then caulk it everywhere in order to waterproof it and finish it in black paint to completely seal and protect the wood itself.

Now use some of the scrap plastic and the PVC glue. You will need to block both of the ends of the trough so it will contain the water without leaking it out. Next drill a ¼ inch diameter hole at one end and securely attach a short length of clear plastic tubing. Seal these connections well.

Mount your trough on the 2 X 4’s towards the shallow end of your box at approximately 1 ½ inches above the bottom section of the box. Now drill a hole in the box in order to feed the small plastic tubing through it. Again run a bead of caulking along the width of your glass from one end in such a way that the caulking will be directly above the trough whenever the glass lid is put in place. Put your finished box in a secure location in full view of the sun. Pour into it about one gallon of water that you want to purify. Place the plastic tubing into a gallon water jug. Put on the lid and wait.

As the sun warms the water it will have a tendency to evaporate. This vapor will then condense onto the glass and ultimately run down the underside until it reaches the caulked bead at such time it will then drip into the trough and finally out of the tube into the waiting water jug. If the temperature becomes too hot the vapor may not condense at all and you will need to cool it down. This is done by merely pouring a little cool tap water over the glass to order to cool it down. Be very careful not to get any of this water into the purified water.

You should empty your newly made distilled water daily so that bacteria can not build up in it. When cleaning up use a very mild bleach solution to wipe down the glass, the trough and the tubing prior to continued use.

On the topic of safety most of the commercially available silicon latex caulks should be safe for human use in this project. They typically include an anti-mildew product in it but should not hurt you in any way. If you happen to be concerned over its use you could use an aquarium type caulking. An eight to twelve square foot surface should yield about one gallon of distilled water daily.

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish

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