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 👍👍👍
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.
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.
@@stevoblevo probably much less, because the alloy as a whole rusts/oxidises less than copper (if high grade S.S is used). Side note, avoid aluminium pots and tubing too.
We need copper anyways most people are defiecent right? Id rather have extra copper than 50 random people prescription drugs including birth control woman pee out not to mention flouride chlorine the list goes on and on. Dont stand directly over the distillation and breath the fumes in thet have phalates from what I've read
Anyone know how much? Im trying to distill well water for cannabis plants, very high iron content but potable for people. Dont wanna trade one metal toxicity for another
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.
Hey Jerry, thanks for the advice! I have bought a few stainless steel cookwares, and plan to get more in the future! My family always used aluminium cookware, and I'm slowly weaning out all the aluminium cookware in the house.
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!
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 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 RUclipsrs 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.
@@nikkilav824 ALL copper structure is fine, as long as you isolate the copper and support metal, you're fine. I have yet to build mine, but this guys arrangement is pretty sweet. In my state, Sams just raised the price of water cooler jugs for drinking to $1 a gallon. I believe I can distill water for about 27¢ per gallon.. And no more wrestling 5 gallon jugs up my stairs. Also.. Your reference to underneath? I am talking about anywhere copper comes into direct contact with any non copper material. Silicon interface between condenser and boiler, and support for condenser in bucket. Hope this was what you were asking.
An excellent video to watch. Well done! This gives you a clear picture on how to create your own effective distiller from nothing practically. No need to buy expensive fancy ones out there that are not as efficient as this. Better to make your own for sure! He gives a very practical and scientific approach to creating one of the most efficient distillers I've ever seen. I have wasted money buying a couple and they are not even close to as efficient as this one. I'm going to use the parts I have and modify them to achieve these kinds of results. Highly recommend it to watch this!
You don’t need a pressure cooker in a pinch. As he said, he’s not worried about the seal because the pressure won’t be that high. Drill a hole in the lid for any big pot you have, attach a hose connection, and just putting a brick on the lid will suffice.
Thanks for the nice vidio explaination- that really is all that is needed- i bought a 80.00$ 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.
If you let the distiller shut off by itself they will burn out, I lost two of them, now I set mine on timers and have one about 6 years now that is still running great. I also put 1 teaspoon of Citric Acid in the water that I am going to boil, on the 2nd boil I do not add it, on the 3rd boil if the 1/2" water at the bottom is clean then I do another boil. I don't clean or empty the water between boils unless I need too.
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
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.
@@mannihh5274 You can drink Distilled water. That is just silly. Yeah its not super good for you but its not harmful to the degree youre expressing at all.
@@equilibriahealth1727 ... I would agree with that, because you're not just drinking distilled water, you're also eating food, juices & condiments/seasonings (salt, pepper, soysauce, vinegar, etc) along with it, i.e. the bigger picture, if you didn't have any other kind of drinking water around.
You are all correct! When i am fasting, you will start twitching about day 3 if you don't have at least salt. I have a bottle of water with my minerals when fasting. When not fasting, your food takes care of the salt and other minerals.
This is why I love RUclips.....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.
Okaaayyyeee... so it's hit the fan & here I am with my DIY distillery, (great simple, easy design by the way), & I'm gonna just grab some cold packs out of my electric freezer in a grid down situation aaand... I really do like the conveniently simple design that anyone can do & the principles taught that again, anyone can grab onto. I'd just have left out the cold packs.
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.
@jen: Exactly. No electricity. No daily sun for solar power = sooner or later no cold or frozen anything. Re-use the condenser cooling water. What happens if there's an interruption in the water supply? Folks will have to use and re-use what they have on hand and not let it go on down the drain. I agree that this video has great info too. :)
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!
@@akosreke8963 Which chemicals? Copper pipes and tubes are perhaps the most common material for hot water lines over the last several decades. Copper is used for all sorts of beer and wine-making purposes. Why would this small-scale application pose a risk, while all the water lines in my house are perfectly fine?
I have used tap water in my CPAP for 50 years and just let the chlorine evaporate for a day. Then once a week I soak my tank in vinegar and water and rinse it out. Easy and no equipment cost, vinegar is almost free.
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
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. :-)
Scale isn't going to form from water vapor in a still...kinda the point, to get rid of all the solids that form scale. And stainless is always an option.
@@salvadordollyparton666 Oh yes it will. A pressurized system will definitely transfer some unwanted product with it and copper it self will anneal due to temperature and harden from contact with oxygen, so the end result will coat the copper tubes pretty well. 😉
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.
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.
@@matthewjohnson9746 Fluoride is essentially poison doesn't kill you instantly but overtime shortens your life span and is linked to Alzheimer's, also plastic releases estrogenic chemicals. Fluoride filtering water and storing it in not plastic containers is the only way to drink water free from toxins.
@@m0gg83 distilled water leaves all the fluoride behind. You get pure H20. It will taste a bit 'flat' because all the minerals are removed as well, however, they sell liquid minerals you can add to your water.
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.
This is high-temp, food-grade silicone tubing that's made for this sort of thing. I have no concerns about leaching chemicals. The same is probably not true for basic plastic tubing.
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!
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.
While the design is a bit impractical for this use, the channel Jairus of All has an excellent rocket mass heater build series where he goes into great detail on how he configured his and the reasoning behind it. I recommend his channel, his research skills are impeccable. What you learn on Jairus's channel can contribute to your other projects like it has mine.
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!
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!!
Make the port at the bottom sealed and have it connect to the pipe on the inside with a threaded adapter like a flare fitting or something and then u get beat if both worlds. Can fill it with ice water, but can also remove coil and use it as a drain once the coil is removed.
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
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.
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.
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?
Heat exchangers are all about surface area and turbulence. All of the steam/water NOT scraping along the sides of the copper pipe is just going for a ride. Longer, thinner copper tubing would increase surface (cooling) area. If he's not getting the cooling rates he wants, running two concentric coils of 1/4" would improve things. Also, water on the outside of the coils is always going to work better than air. Think of it this way: if you went outside during a 50 degree day, it might feel a little cool but once you started working you'd warm up. If you went for a swim in a 50 degree lake, you'd be dead in an hour.
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.
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.
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?
It's possible, but I think if the hole/hose fitting was snug enough to not let the steam escape, it would become pressurized very quickly, and probably explode hot water all over the place!
If you seal both ends you will start to create pressure which could cause a problem in the Mason jar or the cooker...... likely not the cooker, but the Mason jar could explode if you're pushing too much steam/preasure through it. As long as the water around the condenser is not boiling it will cool the steam to produce pure water
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).
@@marianocenteno4603 I saw a video of someone using a 2-3 foot piece of bamboo into a food grade plastic bag that was held to the bamboo with rubber bands. Nearly 0 vapor loss. The bag did inflate, but didn't pop, and didn't seem to have steam venting much from the rubber bands.
can you substitue silicon tube with copper or any other metal (outside alumiium). Can plastic from silicon get into water? Thank you for taking time to show us this, important video
Copper tubing would work instead of the silicone tubing, though it would likely need to be a bit wider than the tubing I made the condenser out of. Some people use flexible copper tubing (like goose-neck style tubing). I've not figured out how to attach that to my pressure cooker, but I'm sure it could be done. As for the silicone tubing I'm using here, it's high-temp, food-grade silicone and I have no worries of anything leaching into my water.
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
Would filling up the bucket with dirt help the cooling process? u can always add water to that too if the dirt alone doesnt do the job. Id imagine coolness in the condenser would last longer with dirt and water (as the water would be soaked by the dirt
That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure if it would help cool the coils, or act like an insulator and prevent the coil from radiating/dissipating the heat. Might be worth an experiment.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Try sand, you know how on the hottest days at the beach the sand is still rather cold if you dig like 8 inches down? Thinking more into it I theorize that sand would be very effective at keeping cool. Especially if some water (doubt it even has to be cold) gets added to the sand from time to time.
Does it have to be copper? I get why copper is used, good conductor so the heat does leave easily with the condenser cooled, but copper is in short supply and going up, would silicone tubing all the way have any notable demerits?
Well, I'm certainly not an engineer of thermodynamics, but copper seems to be pretty much the standard for heat coils, condensers, etc. I would think that silicon doesn't conduct nearly well enough, compared to copper. Some other type of metal may, but it's probably not flexible like copper, to be able to bend it yourself without specialty tools. You might be able to check craigslist or facebook marketplace for some scrap copper tubing that someone has leftover from some sort of job, maybe get it for cheaper.
What if you build this but run it thru a deep freezer or maybe even a fridge? maybe use bigger and longer pipe in a bigger bucket or series of buckets, seal the buckets and leave them full of either water/ice, or something like propylene or ethylene glycol?
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.
I run a coil like this to make moonshine on my still and ice melts super rapidly. If I had to make a guess that 3 gallon bucket full of ice packed around that coil would be warm water in 20 minutes
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. 😁👍🏻
Hi...thanks for sharing! As I watched i began thinking. First the Silicone tubing gets very hot and the chemicals in the tubing as a result of the heat will end up in the finished drinking water. 1. Could you use copper tubing from the pressure cooker to the bucket! 2. Could you add ice or snow in abundance in the cooling bucket to keep the output of distilled water at its maximum? 3. Could a brass spigot drilled into the side of the cooling bucket to release on demand and or as needed the melted ice or snow and excess water after cooling the coils. This would drastically reduce the amount of water waste. The water removed from the bucket could be reintroduced into the pressure cooker. If somehow the cooker could be larger the output would be increased because OUTPUT is the most important part of this operation. Thanks!
All good ideas. But I will mention that the silicone tubing is made for this. It's high-temp tubing made for brewery equipment (food-grade). I have no concern over chemicals leeching like they might with regular plastic tubing.
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
Thanks Dave. The copper came in a spiral already, though much wider. I just gradually reshaped it with my hands, a little at a time, until it was the diameter I wanted.
Nice. Trying to cut the fluoride, chlorine from water that I brew my coffee with. The recirculating pump seems like it would be the hot setup. Thanks again.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Filling the copper tube with dry sand and plugging the ends with tape or something, then bending it around a form will reduce or eliminate the tube from kinking while it is being bent and formed.
I did the same thing and got fantastic results, however the distilled water is coming out cloudy. I read somewhere that that's because there is a lot of micro bubbles in the water so will it turn clear with time?
That's certainly possible. That was is just shy of boiling when it condenses and falls out into your jar. If it's not clear within a few minutes, I'm not sure why.
Use mineral or sunflower OIL instead. It has a much higher thermal capacity and will still cool the steam without using water, which is the whole point of the exercise! :) . Splitting the pipe into multiple channels will also prove to be more efficient, as you reduce pressure and increase surface area for heat exchange.
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 👍👍👍
Fantastic! It really is a perfect use for an old pressure cooker.
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.
have you ever tried dry ice? i used it for solvent recovery in a different industry, and it slurps it out quick.
This gives people another option. And that's a good thing. The more options, the better.
This is one of the best one I seen on making clean drinking water
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.
thanks! Conversely, how much potential Chromium/Nickel/etc. might leach into the distilled water?
@@stevoblevo probably much less, because the alloy as a whole rusts/oxidises less than copper (if high grade S.S is used). Side note, avoid aluminium pots and tubing too.
gold plated problem solved
We need copper anyways most people are defiecent right? Id rather have extra copper than 50 random people prescription drugs including birth control woman pee out not to mention flouride chlorine the list goes on and on. Dont stand directly over the distillation and breath the fumes in thet have phalates from what I've read
Anyone know how much? Im trying to distill well water for cannabis plants, very high iron content but potable for people. Dont wanna trade one metal toxicity for another
Awesome project. I live 1 mile from the ocean and I will build this ASAP...unlimited water supply in the Pacific!
And sea salt for seasoning
DONT GIVE UP, YOU GOT THE MUSIC IN YOU!
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.
Hey Jerry, thanks for the advice! I have bought a few stainless steel cookwares, and plan to get more in the future! My family always used aluminium cookware, and I'm slowly weaning out all the aluminium cookware in the house.
Barkeeper's Friend is less than $2 a can and works even better.
You can also steam vinegar through the copper, which I've heard is corrosive(?)
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!
Thanks Ryan, glad it helped
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.
Good idea brother
Great setup, that condenser was simple and beautiful at the same time!
A very intelligent man to learn from. Highly recommended to watch!
except rubber hose tied to cupboard / highest point where greatest heat gathered -bend the copper str8 to cooker
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 RUclipsrs 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.
Hi just so I'm clear, instead of the metal piece that was used underneath, he should've used copper for both?
Btw thank you for your input...every little bit counts.
@@nikkilav824 ALL copper structure is fine, as long as you isolate the copper and support metal, you're fine. I have yet to build mine, but this guys arrangement is pretty sweet. In my state, Sams just raised the price of water cooler jugs for drinking to $1 a gallon. I believe I can distill water for about 27¢
per gallon.. And no more wrestling 5 gallon jugs up my stairs.
Also.. Your reference to underneath? I am talking about anywhere copper comes into direct contact with any non copper material. Silicon interface between condenser and boiler, and support for condenser in bucket. Hope this was what you were asking.
Makes great moonshine too
I wish I could thumbs up this a billion times! Thank you!😘
An excellent video to watch. Well done! This gives you a clear picture on how to create your own effective distiller from nothing practically. No need to buy expensive fancy ones out there that are not as efficient as this. Better to make your own for sure! He gives a very practical and scientific approach to creating one of the most efficient distillers I've ever seen. I have wasted money buying a couple and they are not even close to as efficient as this one. I'm going to use the parts I have and modify them to achieve these kinds of results. Highly recommend it to watch this!
Thanks friend, I appreciate your comment!
You don’t need a pressure cooker in a pinch. As he said, he’s not worried about the seal because the pressure won’t be that high. Drill a hole in the lid for any big pot you have, attach a hose connection, and just putting a brick on the lid will suffice.
Thanks for the nice vidio explaination- that really is all that is needed- i bought a 80.00$ 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.
If you let the distiller shut off by itself they will burn out, I lost two of them, now I set mine on timers and have one about 6 years now that is still running great. I also put 1 teaspoon of Citric Acid in the water that I am going to boil, on the 2nd boil I do not add it, on the 3rd boil if the 1/2" water at the bottom is clean then I do another boil. I don't clean or empty the water between boils unless I need too.
Solid work. Distilled water is definitely what the body needs for maximum optimization. 🤙
Thanks a lot. I will build this when it warms up. I need distilled water for my kratksky hydroponic system and for drinking too
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
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.
so you are saying we can't drink distilled water? Do you have any scientific evidence?
@@doctorkhan2255 -Ask any doctor - basic medicinal knowledge. I suggest, you look up "osmosis effect" too
@@mannihh5274 You can drink Distilled water. That is just silly. Yeah its not super good for you but its not harmful to the degree youre expressing at all.
@@equilibriahealth1727 ... I would agree with that, because you're not just drinking distilled water, you're also eating food, juices & condiments/seasonings (salt, pepper, soysauce, vinegar, etc) along with it, i.e. the bigger picture, if you didn't have any other kind of drinking water around.
You are all correct! When i am fasting, you will start twitching about day 3 if you don't have at least salt. I have a bottle of water with my minerals when fasting. When not fasting, your food takes care of the salt and other minerals.
This is why I love RUclips.....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.
Okaaayyyeee... so it's hit the fan & here I am with my DIY distillery, (great simple, easy design by the way), & I'm gonna just grab some cold packs out of my electric freezer in a grid down situation aaand... I really do like the conveniently simple design that anyone can do & the principles taught that again, anyone can grab onto. I'd just have left out the cold packs.
Good video. Well presented and to the point.
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.
Thanks Jen, I'm glad it was helpful
@jen: Exactly. No electricity. No daily sun for solar power = sooner or later no cold or frozen anything. Re-use the condenser cooling water. What happens if there's an interruption in the water supply? Folks will have to use and re-use what they have on hand and not let it go on down the drain. I agree that this video has great info too. :)
I'm going to make one immediately.
Great demo!
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!
Thanks Scott. Yes! It's one of the things that made me want to build one. I can't even find the stuff at my grocery store anymore.
@@akosreke8963 Which chemicals?
Copper pipes and tubes are perhaps the most common material for hot water lines over the last several decades. Copper is used for all sorts of beer and wine-making purposes. Why would this small-scale application pose a risk, while all the water lines in my house are perfectly fine?
@@akosreke8963 Thanks Akos. I'm inclined to do some more research on the subject, either way.
I have used tap water in my CPAP for 50 years and just let the chlorine evaporate for a day. Then once a week I soak my tank in vinegar and water and rinse it out. Easy and no equipment cost, vinegar is almost free.
SO GLAD YOU ADDED SALT TO YOUR DEMONSTRATION ! I read that if you are trying to reduce sodium from processed foods it's difficult. ❤
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
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. :-)
Scale isn't going to form from water vapor in a still...kinda the point, to get rid of all the solids that form scale. And stainless is always an option.
@@salvadordollyparton666 Oh yes it will. A pressurized system will definitely transfer some unwanted product with it and copper it self will anneal due to temperature and harden from contact with oxygen, so the end result will coat the copper tubes pretty well. 😉
Love it
Couldn't you just wait to put the lid on until after the water reaches boiling point? Would this not get rid of VOCs?
Guess after distilling you could pour it thru a zero water pitcher filter?
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.
Well, did it work okay 'errr?
Brilliant 👌🏾 ❤
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.
Even bottled water is filled with poison.
yaboyGOODVIBES Factually incorrect but ok
@@matthewjohnson9746 Fluoride is essentially poison doesn't kill you instantly but overtime shortens your life span and is linked to Alzheimer's, also plastic releases estrogenic chemicals. Fluoride filtering water and storing it in not plastic containers is the only way to drink water free from toxins.
@@m0gg83 distilled water leaves all the fluoride behind. You get pure H20. It will taste a bit 'flat' because all the minerals are removed as well, however, they sell liquid minerals you can add to your water.
@@watchingvideos2235 yep
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.
This is high-temp, food-grade silicone tubing that's made for this sort of thing. I have no concerns about leaching chemicals. The same is probably not true for basic plastic tubing.
This is definitely a moonshiner
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!
Nice still ,God makes wine. We make shine 🤩🤩🤩 good video
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
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.
While the design is a bit impractical for this use, the channel Jairus of All has an excellent rocket mass heater build series where he goes into great detail on how he configured his and the reasoning behind it. I recommend his channel, his research skills are impeccable. What you learn on Jairus's channel can contribute to your other projects like it has mine.
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!
For sure! I may have to make a follow-up video where I set it up in the woods.
Have you thought of using a frenel lense/parabolic mirror to use as a heating source?
Cheers!
Excellent video
Wonder how much copper tubing you would need to not need water to cool it.... I'll have to experiment! Great vid!
Your a genius!!!! Thank you for such an awesome video.
Well done bro. Quality video
Wish you Fortune in the wars to come
Even if you used a fan to cool the coil it might work? That is how it works in the distiller.
This was smart. Thanks for the video,
Great video!
Thanks!
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!!
Make the port at the bottom sealed and have it connect to the pipe on the inside with a threaded adapter like a flare fitting or something and then u get beat if both worlds. Can fill it with ice water, but can also remove coil and use it as a drain once the coil is removed.
Well done !
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
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.
nice experiment.
That clean water your saying my friend still looks cloudy. Oil can stick to the steam as well.
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 😉
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.
This is brilliant. Well done.
I liked this video good stuff.
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?
Heat exchangers are all about surface area and turbulence. All of the steam/water NOT scraping along the sides of the copper pipe is just going for a ride. Longer, thinner copper tubing would increase surface (cooling) area. If he's not getting the cooling rates he wants, running two concentric coils of 1/4" would improve things. Also, water on the outside of the coils is always going to work better than air. Think of it this way: if you went outside during a 50 degree day, it might feel a little cool but once you started working you'd warm up. If you went for a swim in a 50 degree lake, you'd be dead in an hour.
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.
Great video bud. Thanks. 😎👍🇨🇦
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.
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?
It's possible, but I think if the hole/hose fitting was snug enough to not let the steam escape, it would become pressurized very quickly, and probably explode hot water all over the place!
If you seal both ends you will start to create pressure which could cause a problem in the Mason jar or the cooker...... likely not the cooker, but the Mason jar could explode if you're pushing too much steam/preasure through it. As long as the water around the condenser is not boiling it will cool the steam to produce pure water
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).
Good idea. Anyone try this?
if u make it a closed system u are just making a pressure bomb
@@marianocenteno4603 Drill an extra hole for a release valve. You might lose a bit of steam, but it prevents the big bang.
@@marianocenteno4603 I saw a video of someone using a 2-3 foot piece of bamboo into a food grade plastic bag that was held to the bamboo with rubber bands. Nearly 0 vapor loss. The bag did inflate, but didn't pop, and didn't seem to have steam venting much from the rubber bands.
You should seal the endpoint into another large metal pot. The coil can also start in the pressure cooker.
can you substitue silicon tube with copper or any other metal (outside alumiium). Can plastic from silicon get into water?
Thank you for taking time to show us this, important video
Copper tubing would work instead of the silicone tubing, though it would likely need to be a bit wider than the tubing I made the condenser out of. Some people use flexible copper tubing (like goose-neck style tubing). I've not figured out how to attach that to my pressure cooker, but I'm sure it could be done. As for the silicone tubing I'm using here, it's high-temp, food-grade silicone and I have no worries of anything leaching into my water.
Hot glue the hole. You can heat it up later to remove. fill the bucket up with water. I like it.
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
Citric acid in powder form is a pretty good distiller cleaner- works awesome for faucet taps & shower heads
I just mix some in a spray bottle and spray it on.
vinegar is the best
Thank you.
Thank you so much!
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
Would filling up the bucket with dirt help the cooling process? u can always add water to that too if the dirt alone doesnt do the job. Id imagine coolness in the condenser would last longer with dirt and water (as the water would be soaked by the dirt
That's an interesting idea. I'm not sure if it would help cool the coils, or act like an insulator and prevent the coil from radiating/dissipating the heat. Might be worth an experiment.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Try sand, you know how on the hottest days at the beach the sand is still rather cold if you dig like 8 inches down? Thinking more into it I theorize that sand would be very effective at keeping cool. Especially if some water (doubt it even has to be cold) gets added to the sand from time to time.
Great job!
good job bro
Does it have to be copper? I get why copper is used, good conductor so the heat does leave easily with the condenser cooled, but copper is in short supply and going up, would silicone tubing all the way have any notable demerits?
Well, I'm certainly not an engineer of thermodynamics, but copper seems to be pretty much the standard for heat coils, condensers, etc. I would think that silicon doesn't conduct nearly well enough, compared to copper. Some other type of metal may, but it's probably not flexible like copper, to be able to bend it yourself without specialty tools. You might be able to check craigslist or facebook marketplace for some scrap copper tubing that someone has leftover from some sort of job, maybe get it for cheaper.
Great video love the design 👍
I'm curious whether the copper tubing will introduce too much copper into the drinking water.
It doesn't. All the water lines in millions of houses are made of copper.
what about the length of the silicone tubes? does the steam need to be in the tube that long?
Nah, you could use a shorter silicone tube. That's just the length that worked for my setup.
What if you build this but run it thru a deep freezer or maybe even a fridge? maybe use bigger and longer pipe in a bigger bucket or series of buckets, seal the buckets and leave them full of either water/ice, or something like propylene or ethylene glycol?
That would surely produce a lot more distilled water, much faster. You've more or less described a commercial-grade distiller.
Dry ice would be ideal for this
thank you for sharing. how long does it take to distil 1l.Thanks
It takes awhile to distill water. You can't really rush it, unless you have a way to cool a lot of steam very quickly and constantly.
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.
I run a coil like this to make moonshine on my still and ice melts super rapidly. If I had to make a guess that 3 gallon bucket full of ice packed around that coil would be warm water in 20 minutes
Beautiful Execution of Survivor Craftsmanship See you in the Plague
Do you have a water fall near by you can hang your condenser in it 🤗
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. 😁👍🏻
Could use a water tester next time to test how clean it is also like add that I was surprised you didn't drink it. Lol Thanks for the video
Moonshine stills were often setup near creeks to make use of cool water.
Good one friend thank you.
Hi...thanks for sharing! As I watched i began thinking. First the Silicone tubing gets very hot and the chemicals in the tubing as a result of the heat will end up in the finished drinking water. 1. Could you use copper tubing from the pressure cooker to the bucket! 2. Could you add ice or snow in abundance in the cooling bucket to keep the output of distilled water at its maximum? 3. Could a brass spigot drilled into the side of the cooling bucket to release on demand and or as needed the melted ice or snow and excess water after cooling the coils. This would drastically reduce the amount of water waste. The water removed from the bucket could be reintroduced into the pressure cooker. If somehow the cooker could be larger the output would be increased because OUTPUT is the most important part of this operation. Thanks!
All good ideas. But I will mention that the silicone tubing is made for this. It's high-temp tubing made for brewery equipment (food-grade). I have no concern over chemicals leeching like they might with regular plastic tubing.
I hit all the bells and whistles. Are you from MN or WI? 🤙
Thanks TreeLynn, Michigan actually.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Right on. I'm on NE Wisconsin.
Try multiple coils of smaller tubing. Much more surface area
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
Thanks Erick. I'll mention that I did not use any rubber hoses in this build. The flexible hoses are high-temperature, food-grade silicone.
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your process. What did you form the copper around?
Thanks Dave. The copper came in a spiral already, though much wider. I just gradually reshaped it with my hands, a little at a time, until it was the diameter I wanted.
Nice. Trying to cut the fluoride, chlorine from water that I brew my coffee with. The recirculating pump seems like it would be the hot setup. Thanks again.
@@GreatLakesPrepping Filling the copper tube with dry sand and plugging the ends with tape or something, then bending it around a form will reduce or eliminate the tube from kinking while it is being bent and formed.
@@gr8-fun162 Interesting idea, though I didn't have any issues with kinking.
Thanks for sharing 👍🏾
I did the same thing and got fantastic results, however the distilled water is coming out cloudy. I read somewhere that that's because there is a lot of micro bubbles in the water so will it turn clear with time?
That's certainly possible. That was is just shy of boiling when it condenses and falls out into your jar. If it's not clear within a few minutes, I'm not sure why.
Use mineral or sunflower OIL instead. It has a much higher thermal capacity and will still cool the steam without using water, which is the whole point of the exercise! :) . Splitting the pipe into multiple channels will also prove to be more efficient, as you reduce pressure and increase surface area for heat exchange.