Catching Up #1: Eco-Friendly Chronically Ill Brand-Conscious Xennial Kid

Oooooh.

This is a home water distiller. I got it about a month and a half ago and, after slowly introducing the resulting water into my diet, found my first safe alternative to the only brand of distilled water I could regularly drink. I'm quite proud of it.

For over a decade I've only tolerated distilled water for drinking and cooking (and I should be brushing my teeth with it, but I wanted to keep costs down) due to reacting to additives and impurities in tap or normal bottled water. I even struggled with other brands of distilled; my theory on this point was some sort of post-distillation filtration (normal forms of filtration are a known issue for me). Buying all those bottles of water meant that I essentially had a guaranteed monthly bill of around $40/mo for clean, drinkable water. That doesn't sound like a lot unless you have to live on disability and the meager amount of food benefits you do get don't cover the *water* expenses you have due to your disability (no, you can't claim food for disability anywhere, I checked). I chose this particular distilling unit for two reasons. First, it was the only one that was UL listed (!!! It seemed that all of the models came from and were sold in Asia. Maybe their laws aren't as strict for non-US distribution). Of equal importance to me, however, was it was the only one that I could confirm had optional rather than required post-distillation filtration. Once I got the unit and carefully read everything I discovered that the filters were coconut husk based. Guess who has problems with coconut? No filters = no problem.

Two cool things:

* Remember how I said I could only have one brand of distilled water? That brand is Ice Mountain. Some of you may already know this, but Ice Mountain belongs to Nestlé, who are the folks that are damaging the river ecosystem in Michigan. Some of you may know them from a different angle: the people taking Michigan's clean water and then turning around and selling it to the folks in Flint, who STILL don't have potable water in their homes because of lead and other heavy metals in the city's aging and corroding plumbing system. Ice Mountain is a national brand, but they have a higher market saturation in the Midwest as a "local" brand as well. I hated that I was forced to support Nestlé through my actions. Now that I can just draw from the tap to fill my tank and push a button I feel so much better for both environmental and humanitarian reasons. I alone can't stop them from killing the rivers and fish and being at best indifferent to the population of the state they've tapped into, but I'm at least one heavy user gone.

In an additional green move I will no longer be using upwards of 30 PLASTIC JUGS each month. That carbon footprint bothered me for a couple of years. Now it's just a bit of electricity for about 5 to 6 hours of distilling per gallon. I'm very excited about this, as I've been trying to adopt a more eco-friendly lifestyle where I can for about a year. It's been a nice project, and this was definitely a leap for me.

I started researching these units a couple years after I switched over and they were literally over twice as much as the most expensive unit is now. Mine will pay for itself in several months.

...and you wouldn't believe the crap that I cook out of the tap water.

Top down shot of the bright, stainless steel tank after the very first cycle. It stank, too. Ew.

I just realized that an existence where one has to think so much about getting safe water is weird. I certainly don't need to worry about lead or water-borne disease or drought (although the COVID-19 hoarding was worrisome for a bit there), but my little form of it is enough to make one contemplate what others experience.