How to Make Distilled Water at Home Without a Distiller

Author:

I made distilled water at home to top up my car battery and I'd like to share my experience.

You can make distilled water with nothing more than a pot and some ice

DIY Distilled Water in Four Steps

There are many reasons you may want to make distilled water. I needed to make some because my car battery needed to be topped up with water, and I read that it is best to use distilled water to do this. After doing some research, I found out that it was relatively simple to do this, so I went ahead and gave it a try.

What You'll Need

Stainless steel pot
Heatproof bowl
Glass pot lid, larger than the pot you are using
Water
Ice

Note About Ice: Regular chunks of ice from an ice maker are fine, but a large block might be easier. I filled an ice cream container with water and froze it, making a nice, large block of ice that worked well.

Step 1: Fill the Pot With Water

This first thing that you want to do is fill your pot with water. Just regular tap water is fine. I filled mine about a quarter of the way.

You need to leave enough room in the pot so that you bowl can float on top of the water but still have room to place the glass lid on top of it.

A regular stainless steel pot should work fine.
Author

Step 2: Place the Bowl Inside the Pot

The next step you need to do is place your bowl inside the pot. Like I said earlier, the bowl must be heatproof. I used a stainless steel bowl, but you can also use a heatproof oven bowl.

The bowl must float on top of the water and should be smaller than your pot, or else it will not fit inside. This is where your distilled water will end up.

A stainless steel bowl will work fine.
Author

Step 3: Cover the Pot With a Glass Lid

Now you need to cover your pot with a glass lid and bring the water to a boil. The glass lid must be placed upside down, as we will be placing our ice on top of it in the next step.

You also want to make sure that if there is a hole in your glass lid that it is covered or that it is sitting on the outside of the pot. You do not want the water that melts from the ice to drop down into your bowl.

Make sure there's enough room to still place an upside-down glass pot lid on top of the bowl and pot.

Step 4: Place the Ice on Top of the Glass Lid

Now that your water is boiling, you want to place your ice on top of the glass lid. The steam that rises will hit the cold glass lid, which will cool it down and turn it back into water droplets.

The droplets will fall down into the bowl below, and you will have your distilled water!

Note: You may also need to remove the water that forms on top of the lid every now and then as the ice begins to melt.