Can’t find it anywhere around here in NE WI. Stocks have been sporadic since mid Nov. Local Walmart puts out a pallet of the stuff and it’s gone in minutes, same with other stores. Once in a while I can find a gallon jug for an extremely inflated price at the local C store. Can’t see any reason why folks would be hoarding the stuff, so what’s up?
I can’t believe that many people suddenly have thirsty CPAP machines. We mostly use it for making coffee because our “soft” water is still “hard” and will ruin any coffee maker in less than a year, even with descaling.
I was looking for some jugs of ordinary drinking water and at the store today they ONLY had distilled water! Maybe your distilled water was mistakenly sent our way?
We have plenty of high price bottled waters, no shortage there. But the 99 cent gallon of plain old distilled water has gone away. Now, you pay $4 for for the one bottle they have at the C store, if they have it.
Maybe the distilled water folks took a cue from the toilet paper folks. I sense a conspiracy here. Create a shortage and up the price
Another anecdotal data point, this one from Albuquerque, NM. My local grocery store has been completely out of distilled water for two or three weeks out of every month since August or so. I thought maybe it was one of those supply chain issues (or maybe just my store, which is often out of specific items for weeks at a time).
ETA: It’s costing $1.99 here for name-brand and $1.19 for store-brand, when they have it.
It’s hit and miss around here. The local Wal-Mart never has it (although they often have stocking problems with just about everything. At one supermarket it’s such a big seller they have it on an end-cap. At another store in the same chain three miles down the road they don’t even stock it. Aldi doesn’t have distilled water, but they have an ample supply of “purified water” using reverse osmosis.
And according to my CPAP manufacturer, water purified with reverse osmosis is perfectly fine for my CPAP. In fact, they told me I could just filter the water in a Brita (specific brand) and that would also work. The OP might want to try that with their coffee maker.
Well, sure, I understand why you would buy name-brand distilled water if you needed distilled water and that was the only kind available; what I don’t understand is why the more expensive name-brand version exists in the first place. I mean, by definition there can’t be any difference in the product, so what do regular customers think they are getting by paying that extra 80 cents?
I don’t know why the shortage is happening, but I’ve learned to “make do” since the world ended. Distilled water is really simple to make at home using things you already have. Here is a link to a recipe, but there are bunches out there.
This thread is making me glad that I found an unopened gallon of distilled water on a shelf in my basement this morning so I didn’t need to add it to today’s shopping list.
Eastern Massachusetts here. Distilled water used to be plentiful at CVS (pharmacy chain) but they haven’t had it for months now. Plenty of bottled water but no distilled at most grocery stores. Market Basket used to have their own in-house distilled water but now they have only Poland Spring branded distilled water at twice the price.
No distilled water in my area in the several grocery stores and drug stores I’ve tried, for a few months now. The supply has always been variable. Used to be, some times when grocery shopping, the shelves would be loaded with it, and other times empty. But it’s probably been 6 months since I’ve found it in a walk-in store.
I ordered it on Amazon, but the order got cancelled as “Undeliverable”. So I ordered a different one, two cases of 6 gallon jugs each, and one came but the other was cancelled as “Undeliverable”.
Then I ordered on Amazon in the form of six-packs of pint bottles, labeled “CPAP” distilled water. That worked. It was expensive that way, but I need it and it’s not like I consume many gallons in a year.
I’ve looked at purchasing a still, and I think it appeared to be $300 or so, enough to discourage that approach (that plus the trouble of running and maintaining yet another home appliance).
It has certainly been frustrating, for years now (though worse today than ever). I just don’t get why distilled water should be so hard to find.
Distilled water has been of iffy availability around here since shortly after the start of the pandemic. I usually buy 3 or 4 gallons when they actually show up.
Yes, there is always an ample supply of distilled water in any of the stores I normally shop at. I’m thinking the OP has a distribution problem in his area, not a supply problem.
We’ve got one of those Opal pellet ice machines (highly recommend!), and it works best with distilled water, so we buy it with some regularity.
For us (Dallas), the big shortage seemed to be a few months ago- back in about September/October, it was hard to find anywhere- only the more expensive stores had it on the shelves at all. But now in February, it’s back to being stocked everywhere and in large quantities.
Raleigh, NC, data point here: My wife needs distilled water for her CPAP and has had a very difficult time finding any for several months. Three weeks ago I just went ahead and purchased a counter-top steam distiller for $80. It would take a long time to justify the purchase based on the price of bottled distilled water alone, but it does save money when the alternative is having to drive to three or four stores to even find distilled water at all.
Takes about 90 minutes to make a liter of water, which is more than she needs for a week.
BTW, I was surprised to find that the unit I purchased included instructions for using it to make fortified wine.
