# Are distilled water refill stations an option at stores **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 4, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913 "2022-02-04T17:29:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/1 "2022-02-04T17:29:58Z")
I’m wanting to set up a humidifier and read I should use distilled water. A lot of grocery stores have water refill stations (where you can refill a gallon jug for 40 cents or so, rather than spend $1 on a new jug) but I get the impression those are just for spring water, not distilled water. Do stores tend of offer the option to refill a gallon jug of distilled water for a fraction of the price of buying new jugs of it? I’m snowed in right now and can’t go to the store to check, but I’m wondering if other people who use distilled water or use refill stations know if this is generally an option. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/2 "2022-02-04T17:35:18Z")
There are some water companies that deliver the big 5 gallon jugs of distilled water. I’ve never seen or heard of a store that does refills. There is a two pot stovetop solution to making distilled water. It looks like C/Net has it written up pretty well. Search/Scroll down to " How to make your own distilled water" > **[Making Distilled Water at Home Is Easy and Free. Here's How to Do It in 5 Steps](https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/making-distilled-water-at-home-is-easy-and-free-heres-how-to-do-it-in-5-steps/)** > > Why spend money on distilled water when you can easily make it yourself for free? ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/3 "2022-02-04T17:39:38Z")
> **[Primo® Water Refill Stations | At Grocery Stores Near You!](https://primowater.com/self-service-refill-water/)** > > Primo® Water Refilling Stations near you provide surprisingly affordable refill water, because safer water shouldn’t be hard to come by. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/4 "2022-02-04T17:50:26Z")
The issue is I think Primo water is only for drinking water, not distilled. As far as making my own distilled water at home, I’m wondering if the electricity costs of using the stove are about the same as buying it from the store. The article said it took an hour of heating water on the stove to create 12oz of distilled water, while a gallon of store bought distilled is about a dollar. The total cost is probably about the same assuming around 10 cents per kwh of electricity. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/5 "2022-02-04T18:48:10Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I get the impression those are just for spring water, not distilled water. Not even that; usually just filtered city water. (which is the case on a whole lot of bottled water as well) The big issue is that distilling water isn’t the sort of thing they’d do on-site in a kiosk, so it would have to have a 100 gallon tank or something to draw from as people came up and filled whatever receptacle they have. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/6 "2022-02-04T19:15:37Z")
Primo water – get the purified — (and other purifiers like them) should be fine for use in humidifiers. ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/7 "2022-02-05T06:33:30Z")
If you look up solar stills on youtube there are some quick and easy ways to set up a still that costs nothing to operate ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/8 "2022-02-05T09:33:57Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Not even that; usually just filtered city water. (which is the case on a whole lot of bottled water as well) This. Those water vending machines don’t simply have a big tank of water from which they dispense, that is refilled from a big truck that makes the rounds each week. (Like those tanker trucks you see refilling the underground tanks at gas stations.) They just connect to the local water supply, and treat the water there in the machine before vending it. Where I live, the municipal water is putrid. So those vending machines are everywhere around here (at 35 cents a gallon). I use that for drinking and cooking. The machine has a placard describing at least five ways the water is processed. But the source is still the local water supply. The water is filtered, reverse osmosified, ozoned, ultraviolated, charcoalated, and maybe something else too. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/9 "2022-02-05T15:19:54Z")
Our drinking water here in Dallas is pretty good, and most of those vending machines seem to be in immigrant/ethnic areas - presumably the people there don’t have the trust in the public water system that native born people do. Or maybe they’re more discerning… I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/10 "2022-02-05T18:38:29Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > The water is filtered, reverse osmosified, ozoned, ultraviolated, charcoalated, and maybe something else too. That seems a bit extreme; filtration and reverse osmosis ought to make any water considerably better to drink by itself. _Maybe_ a pass of charcoal filtration to remove smells and odors might be good, but I don’t know that the ultraviolet light or ozone is really necessary- city water ought to be microbiologically sound to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/11 "2022-02-05T19:11:42Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > … ultraviolated … Sounds like a water treatment from _A Clockwork Orange_. On a more relevant note, I put regular tap water in humidifiers and haven’t really felt like I’m missing anything. With the cheap way that these things are made, the electronics fry or a key piece of plastic cracks long before the thing becomes unusable from water deposits. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/12 "2022-02-05T19:16:12Z")
I don’t know what your humidifier recommends but I have a Rowenta clothes iron and its manual specifically says not to use distilled water, and that it’s designed to be used with tap water. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/13 "2022-02-06T01:02:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I don’t know what your humidifier recommends but I have a Rowenta clothes iron and its manual specifically says not to use distilled water, and that it’s designed to be used with tap water.   That way, it automatically starches your clothes for you while you iron them. (Depending on how hard your tap water is.) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/14 "2022-02-06T18:14:19Z")
Our Opal ice maker does recommend only distilled water for purposes of keeping deposits to a minimum. Since we’ve got the add-on reservoir that holds exactly one gallon, using the jugs from the store is pretty easy; probably easier than buying in bulk would be. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/15 "2022-02-06T18:27:09Z")
I was able to buy a 5 gallon carboy of distilled water at my local grocery store. I know that they do not have a refill station for it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/16 "2022-02-06T18:44:41Z")
A big reason, I think, why there aren’t distilled water refill stations is that if the container you’re refilling isn’t scrupulously clean, it’s going to be impure water. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/17 "2022-02-06T23:36:46Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I’m wanting to set up a humidifier and read I should use distilled water. What kind of humidifier, and where did you read that? I have an Aprilaire whole-house humidifier installed on my furnace and it just uses water from the cold-water line. I use a portable blown-air humidifier with tap water in the room where I store my guitars to no ill effect. I used to use ultrasonic humidifiers and if you use tap water in those you will get white dust everywhere. I quit using those. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-distilled-water-refill-stations-an-option-at-stores/958913/18 "2022-02-07T02:06:58Z")
I have an Opal as well, and back when it lived in the kitchen, it got reverse osmosis water, but now that it’s been exiled to the garage it gets tap water. If I remember, I run a little vinegar through it now and again, but otherwise it’s no worse for wear six or seven years on.