Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2000 16:20:51 -0400 From: Kit Halsted <kit@kithalsted.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2637$foo@default> Subject: Steam Distiller
Back in May, I bought a distiller to purify the water I use for my
plants & said I'd post a review after using it for a month or so.
Well, I'm not good with doing things on time but I do eventually get
around to them...
The countertop steam distiller manufactured by Eco-Water &
distributed by Sears under the Kenmore brand was widely recommended,
& at $130 (on sale for $89 at the time) seemed like the best deal. If
you have easy access to a Sears store, this may well be the best bet.
Unfortunately, I discovered that it's nearly impossible for me to get
to Sears due to the fact that all of their NYC-area locations are
inaccessible via public transit. I did some more research & found
another distiller in the same price range available for mail order
via the Web.
The distiller I got is available from
<http://www.steamdistiller.com>, priced at $130 plus shipping. It's
also available from several other sources for $199 & up, but I can't
imagine why you'd want to get it from one of them. It processes 4
liters, or just over a gallon, at a time. It takes 6 hours per cycle
starting with hot tap water, probably more like 7 or 8 if you use
cold. It's manufactured in Taiwan by MegaHome,
<http://www.megahome.com.tw>. It's got a baked enamel finish on the
outside, the heating chamber & cooling coils are stainless steel. It
consumes 580 Watts & is about as loud as a recent Pentium III or
Athlon computer. It puts out a fair amount of heat as well. I have
mine in the shed where my washer & drier live, so the noise & heat
don't bother me. It should be cleaned every week or so, but I've been
doing it closer to monthly with no ill effects other than the buildup
of some nasty-looking sludge that stays in the heating chamber. This
sludge is why I use this for my drinking water now. The unit has no
on/off switch, just what appears to be a thermal breaker with a reset
button. When all of the water in the heating chamber has boiled off,
the breaker trips & turns it off. Refill, reset the breaker, & it
starts heating again. I'm sure this was done to make manufacture
cheap, but it makes for a nice, simple unit with less to go wrong.
All in all, it works great & is a fine option for anyone who finds it
more convenient to order from the Web than to go to Sears. That's
about it. It pretty much just works. It's horribly overpriced for a
consumer appliance less complicated than a coffee maker, but it's
cheaper than most of the other distillers on the market.
-Kit
-- Kit Halsted Brooklyn, NY, USA, USDA Zone 7
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:12 PST