Purified Di-Hydrogen Oxide.....

[Zerogee]

I know that most of you chaps who are heavily into Live Steam have your own established ways of getting suitable "free" water for your locos, such as the run-off from dehumidifiers, cunning filtration systems from garden water butts (hurhurhur - "butts".... ) and so on...... but I still recall reading a number of posts in the past about the virtual impossibility of actually buying proper distilled water anywhere these days.

Well, still being a relative newcomer to the Dark Arts, I haven't yet got myself a proper set-up for producing boiler-safe water, so until I do I reckoned the simplest thing was to buy a drum of it.
Applying a little Google-Fu resulted in this company:
https://www.thedistilledwatercompany.com/
....from whom I duly ordered one 20 litre drum of Distilled yesterday, and it turned up around 9am this morning.
Of course the whole "free delivery" thing is a little bit cheeky, what they REALLY mean is that delivery is included, because I reckon a good half of the cost of the item is for the overnight courier! But, that aside, it was a very good, quick and efficient service which I can recommend if you are in the position of actually needing to buy something for your Little Dragons to drink rather than collecting and filtering the stuff that falls out of the sky......

Jon.

 

[PhilP]

I have to ask...
Is it definitely distilled, and not de-ionised water?

 

[Zerogee]

I have to ask...
Is it definitely distilled, and not de-ionised water?

Yes Phil.... they do both, but the one I bought is steam-distilled.... as you know, you can get de-ionised almost everywhere, but the properly distilled stuff is strangely hard to obtain.

Jon.

 

[ebay mike]

I've been taking the ice that builds up in my freezer and melting it. Got a 500ml bottle full so far. Auto electrician at work states this is about as pure as you can get after the condensed steam stuff. Eminently suitable for steamers (and as a battery top-up) he assures me.

 

[G-force1]

You could always check out an old thread "Distil your own".

Sorry, don't seem able to put up a link with this tablet??? A search turns it up.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Surely you rinse off the ice cubes before melting and collecting the water?

 

[dunnyrail]

I've been taking the ice that builds up in my freezer and melting it. Got a 500ml bottle full so far. Auto electrician at work states this is about as pure as you can get after the condensed steam stuff. Eminently suitable for steamers (and as a battery top-up) he assures me.

That is probably better than anything that has been mentioned in this thread so far and after. Do whatever to run your puffers but suffer the consequences long term for the wrong stuff.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

sodium, magnesium and chlorine gas will be frozen in the ice, not everything is "ejected" from the water, when frozen.

And when you do freeze water, the impurities "ejected" are on the surface of the ice cubes, so if you don't at least rinse the ice cubes before melting them down, you have accomplished nothing.

Greg

 

[daveyb]

my freezer ice has rogue garden peas in it,,, back to the dehumidifier for me

 

[ebay mike]

sodium, magnesium and chlorine gas will be frozen in the ice, not everything is "ejected" from the water, when frozen.

And when you do freeze water, the impurities "ejected" are on the surface of the ice cubes, so if you don't at least rinse the ice cubes before melting them down, you have accomplished nothing.

Greg

Greg, I'm not melting ice cubes, just melting the frost deposit which collects on the interior surfaces of the fast-freeze portion of my domestic freezer. I also have a frost-free one, which whilst preserving food satisfactorily, is no good whatsoever in this context.

 

[Railfan]

Here in Northern California, USA we have easy access to steam distilled water. I buy Arrowhead steam distilled water in 2.5 gal. (about 9.5 l) containers for about $2.50 ( £1.86) per container.

 

[stockers]

Make your own - https://www.makewaterpure.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9v6JuZXG2wIV7b_tCh3X_QUzEAQYASABEgLT4fD_BwE

I'll add this to the 'links' section

 

[David1226]

In our house all water is passed by the management.

David

 

[Zerogee]

In our house all water is passed by the management.

David

Are you taking the p*ss, David....?

Jon.

 

[stockers]

No, he is passing it.

 

[G-force1]

Make your own - https://www.makewaterpure.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9v6JuZXG2wIV7b_tCh3X_QUzEAQYASABEgLT4fD_BwE

I'll add this to the 'links' section

At that price I'll refer you back to my earlier post (#5), the link is (so easy on the P.C.).

https://www.gscalecentral.net/threads/distil-your-own.76930/

 

[Fred Mills]

Local Walmart stores list Pure Steam Distilled water, at $1,97 Canadian funds, for a 4 litre jug...in Canada...
Fr.Fred

 

[Zerogee]

Local Walmart stores list Pure Steam Distilled water, at $1,97 Canadian funds, for a 4 litre jug...in Canada...
Fr.Fred

Yes, and that would be wonderful.... but for some reason virtually EVERYWHERE over this side of the Pond has stopped selling it, all you can get is the bl**dy "De-ionised" stuff... I've tried pretty much everywhere locally, as have many others, and finally resorted to the online ordering as the only option. So consider yourselves lucky that you can still get it easily over there!

Jon.

 

[LGeoB]

In Western Australia, e can still get 10 litre bottles from our local auto stores - Auto One - thankfully!

Geoff

 

[Zerogee]

Does anyone actually know WHY it is now so hard to get this side of the Pond? Is it simply that for MOST uses the de-ionised stuff is adequate, so hardly anyone goes to the trouble and expense of making proper distilled?
Or is there some more sinister reason.....?

Jon.