If you've ever tried finding a good source of fresh drinking water,
other than bottled, well, spring water, or pricy machines, it is surprisingly difficult.

Well, i was looking into these new (and expensive) pure water from air machines,
and they basically work exactly like a window air conditioner.
SoO, i found out the water that drips to the ground all day long from the
back of air conditioners is pure water condensed from the air.

The only problem being possible bacteria, and maybe some dust particles.
Both of those problems are easy and cheap to fix.
A carbon filter for the particles. Boiling, or a UV filter, or other kinds, for the bacteria.

Just wanted to share with my favorite people, and hope that someone finds it useful.

Very interesting point. One of those duh its in plain sight things. And awesome Beeker avatar btw hahah

What do you mean by "pure water"? The way you describe it, you are referring to distilled water and distilled water may not be too safe to drink.

Trickle it through some dolomite chippings? Add a tiny pinch of sea salt (per unit volume ) as well?

PS Inf, it's "körper"

^
Believe it or not, you're the second person this week that corrects my German!

I still haven't decided if I want to correct it though.

Thank you all very much for your comments.....
I did hope others would have input on improving this idea.

So, what is wrong with distilled water, (other than the lack of minerals)?
The dolomite and sea salt, or other sources, sound like it would fix that.
Only guessing here, but making tea seems like it would be very beneficial.
Maybe using a natural clay pot could replace some of the missing minerals.

Calloidal silver is an easy, though i admit questionable technique....
Run DC current threw two electrodes of 999%pure silver, placed into the water.
Magically speaking, this might help restore some of the 'life' back into the water.
And technically speaking, this is a proven process for disinfecting drinking water.

I love when infin tells people not to drink distilled water. Lol. This is like the third time I've seen him do it.

If you're going to use that water I would suggest using it to make tea with or something else and not just drinking it straight.

I guess my only concern re distilled water is that since it is as hypotonic as hypotonic can go, it may osmotically and thus homeostatically stress the body. Or maybe not, but the risk is there.

Making tea off this distilled water or pinching some salts sounds good.

In other words....

the air conditioner water is all stressed out,
and so could cause the drunkard to stress out.

So tea leaves, and salt, and love, helps to make it all good, and chill, and happy again.
Thanks for explaining in science terms though!


I'll probably just collect the water in a big bucket for watering plants.
It's winter right now anyway, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Drinking pure RO or distilled water long term is not supposed to be good for you as it lacks essential minerals.

Air con water although effectively distilled from the air is likely to contain any airborne contaminants. More importantly the surfaces used to condense are not easily cleaned or tested to be food safe. I would give this water to plants but be wary of drinking it.

I have been drinking distilled water and only distilled water for years. Respectfully, I think all this fear of distilled water is nonsense, in fact I would posit to you that distilled water is the only water that is truly fit for human consumption. You don't need minerals from your water, you can link mineral buildup to things like kidney stones, gall stones, bone spurs, and the like. There is a lot of argument from both sides and you can cite papers and doctors opinions in either direction all day, but in the end I just don't see that adding the cleanest purest H2O you can to an organism that is 50-60% H2O is going to be a bad thing.

Maybe drinking distilled water for years have had a negative impact on you that
you are unaware of.
What makes you think that "distilled water is the only water that is truly fit for human consumption"?

Distilled water readily takes up minerals from whatever it comes to contact with so instead
of providing the body with minerals it takes them from you.
Minerals we need to stay healthy like magnesium, calcium etc.

The distilled water from the air conditioner (like all distilled water) could potentially fill the "mineral gap" with carbon dioxide from the air making the water acidic which may not be good to drink
in the long run.

Really?

please link me to the previous instances, as I have no recollection of doing do.

I don't know if its healthy or not but distilled water (and tap) tastes like crap to me compared to the water at the spring i go to. But i guess that could just be due to familiarity...

I drink distilled water from a professional industrial grade distiller, I can't speak as to air conditioner water. The reason I say it's the only one fit for human consumption is that it's actually clean, it's really the only truly pure water there is, you can't get more pure than distilled. I'm not sure I buy the whole leeching minerals from your body thing, you get plenty of minerals from eating a healthy diet and using good quality sea salt, both of which I do. I maintain that pure water is not going to harm you, it's pure water, you are mostly water.

As far as I know there are no long term studies on the effects of drinking distilled water, so any argument you want to make for or against is merely speculation and anecdote. It's really common sense in my eyes though, drinking pure water is not going to somehow magically cause it to be harmful because it's not filled with dissolved solids, it's just water.

For the record if I had better access to spring water I would drink that instead.

Dreamer, unfortunately a lot of people aren't getting enough minerals in their body through their diet, especially with how exhausted the soils most of our food grows in are becoming, and how unnatural much of the food is... In these cases I don't see why distilled would be better than spring water with a good/safe mineral profile.

There actually is some reason to think that it could leach minerals from the body. From what I'm reading it looks like distilled water is more difficult to contain/put through pipes because it leaches so much into itself. If true this would be another negative for people who are already lacking enough dietary minerals to begin with.

Our bodies never consumed distilled water for the millions of years we've been evolving here, which probably has something to do with why in general it tastes worse to people. I hardly think its the only one fit for human consumption but in cases where only tap water or low quality spring water is available, and ones diet provides plenty of minerals, it might be the best option.

This thread piqued my interest so i rummaged around a bit on the web. Here is a long report on distilled water and the possible negative health affects, from the world health organization. I haven't read through the whole thing yet but its interesting so far. (Infund this one touches on homeostasis, as you mentioned) http://www.who.int/water.../dwq/nutrientschap12.pdf

Here is a general summary of some studies on this topic, found on another site. I haven't read the studies though myself so take it with a grain of salt. Hopefully they're not quite as harsh as they seem to imply, but its something to look into:

The following is from here

"Why is demineralised water not suitable for consumption?

There are three evident reasons:

-Demineralised water is highly aggressive.
Its distribution through pipes and storage tanks is not possible because the aggressive water would leach metals and other materials from the pipes and other plumbing materials.

-Demineralised water has poor taste and thirst-quenching characteristics.
This is again due to its lack of minerals.

-Demineralised water has been proven to have adverse health effects for humans, due to the deficiency of certain constituents. This is further documented in the following paragraph.

What supports this theory?

There are a number of studies, conducted by health professionals in different parts of the world, which support the three statements above. Here is an example of some of these studies and the resulting conclusions:

Rahmmanin et al, 1989. Study conducted on rats. Conclusions: distilled water caused decreased secretion of tri-iodothyronine and aldosterone, increased secretion of cortisol, morphological changes in the kidneys (including a more pronounced atrophy of glomeruli), swollen vascular endothelium limiting the blood flow and reduced skeletal ossification in fetuses.

Studies conducted on human volunteers by the WHO, 1980. Conclusions: low mineral water consumption increased diuresis (almost by 20%, on average), body water volume and serum sodium concentrations, decreased serum potassium concentration, increased sodium elimination.

Robbins and Sly, 1981. Study conducted in patients who received balanced intravenous nutrition diluted with distilled water. Conclusion: The intake of low mineral water is presumed to be responsible for an increased elimination of minerals from the body.

Study conducted by Basnyat et al, 2000. Conclusion: Ingestion of several liters of low-mineral water following intense physical efforts may cause severe acute damage, such as hyponatremic shock or delirium.

Epidemiological studies by Sauvant and Pepin 2002; Donato et al. 2003; Monarca et al. 2003; Nardi et al. 2003. Conclusion: Soft water and water low in magnesium is associated with increased morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease.

Study conducted by Verd Vallespir et al.1992. Conclusion: Intake of water low in calcium is associated with higher risk of fracture in children.

Jacqmin et al.1994. Conclusion: Intake of water low in calcium is associated with certain neurodegenerative diseases.

Yang et al. 1997, 1998, 2002. Conclusion: Intake of water low in calcium is associated with pre-term birth, low weight at birth and some types of cancer.

…and a very long etcetera of properly conducted experiments, which demonstrate what the World Health Organization is also claiming:

The WHO published in its latest report available (2004), that it has been adequately demonstrated that consuming water of low mineral content has a negative effect on homeostasis mechanisms, compromising the mineral and water metabolism in the body."

That is an interesting report and I will study it further, though I'm still quite skeptical that the cleanest purest water you can drink is absolutely detrimental to your health till you add a few minerals to it then it's suddenly the greatest thing ever. Keeping in mind the World Health Organization not only approves of but actually suggests adding chlorine and fluoride to drinking water.

In the meantime here is an interesting link refuting that particular paper.

http://www.cyber-nook.co...er/DistilledWaterWHO.htm

I'll be the first one to admit that site doesn't really meet the criteria for quality of information and should be taken with a bit of sea salt (hehe pun definitely intended )

Really the fact remains there are no studies specifically on the effect on the human body of drinking distilled water long term vs drinking spring/well/mineral water long term, so we don't really know.

This has turned into a debate about drinking distilled water and it's health benefits or issues. That is another whole topic in itself.

I think water from an AC unit is going to have all sorts in it. Large surface area of condensers can't be cleaned. It has also been condensed rather than distilled which will not kill any airborne bacteria. AC units may have coatings of oil ect to protect the components these could get into the water and contaminate it.

"the cleanest purest water you can drink" does not equate to being healthy for animals as the reports show.

The WHO report concludes that in studies done in rats their food consumption did not
compensate for lost minerals when drinking distilled water.

Chlorine in drinking water kills harmful bacteria.
What are the cons for chlorine in drinking water?

What kind of water do you drink?