Question on storing distilled water

Hi all,

Here's a weird question. I live in earthquake country, and don't have a lot of excess storage space. So I bought a bunch of gallon distilled water from Target, thinking they could do double duty, use 'em up gradually as distilled water for my cpap, or use them all in an emergency.

Good plan, eh? Only one catch. The plastic jugs are incredibly cheapo, and some have started leaking even though they are less than one year old. So I poured a bunch into my 7 gallon Aqua-tainer which is a heavy duty water storage container.

Here's the issue. Online I read that unless you are using chlorinated tap water, you are supposed to add some liquid chlorine to water stored, otherwise it could grow organisms in it. But I don't know if that's a good idea with my Cpap water.

Question: is adding a little Chlorine a bad idea to add to my distilled water? Maybe I should just repurpose the distilled water in the large container as emergency drinking water?

I'll hold off on doing anything until I get feedback from this forum.

Thanks!

If you don't over chlorinate it, it will be fine for your humidifier although you may notice a chlorine smell.

remstarcpap wrote:Hi all,

Here's a weird question. I live in earthquake country, and don't have a lot of excess storage space. So I bought a bunch of gallon distilled water from Target, thinking they could do double duty, use 'em up gradually as distilled water for my cpap, or use them all in an emergency.

Good plan, eh? Only one catch. The plastic jugs are incredibly cheapo, and some have started leaking even though they are less than one year old. So I poured a bunch into my 7 gallon Aqua-tainer which is a heavy duty water storage container.

Here's the issue. Online I read that unless you are using chlorinated tap water, you are supposed to add some liquid chlorine to water stored, otherwise it could grow organisms in it. But I don't know if that's a good idea with my Cpap water.

Question: is adding a little Chlorine a bad idea to add to my distilled water? Maybe I should just repurpose the distilled water in the large container as emergency drinking water?

I'll hold off on doing anything until I get feedback from this forum.

Thanks!

You can buy multi-gallon (heavier) plastic water containers. Rinse them good before using and store your distilled in those.
I can't picture the containers you have that are leaking, but if forced to change containers, that's what I would do.
I can't imagine that adding chlorine to distilled would have much benefit, but as long as the water you put into your HH tank doesn't smell, you should be fine. Even if there were pathogens or "organisms" in the water in your HH tank, they shouldn't be able to get to you because the water vapor molecules are too small to carry anything like that out of the HH tank.

Distilled is recommended to help cut down on the amount of cleaning as it contains no minerals to be left behind in the tank.


Den

.

remstarcpap wrote:The plastic jugs are incredibly cheapo, and some have started leaking even though they are less than one year old.

Yes, some are cheap and can leak... just ask the hardwood floor in my hallway.

Wulfman... wrote:. Even if there were pathogens or "organisms" in the water in your HH tank, they shouldn't be able to get to you because the water vapor molecules are too small to carry anything like that out of the HH tank.
.

I have heard this a few times, on this board, and it is untrue. If mold forms in the tank, the spores will be carried on the air stream. That's how spores travel. It has nothing to do with the size of water vapor molecules.

Distilled water is cheap...often 77¢-97¢ gal. If you have had it over a year, why not repurpose it somewhere and buy some fresh?

WindCpap wrote:

Wulfman... wrote:. Even if there were pathogens or "organisms" in the water in your HH tank, they shouldn't be able to get to you because the water vapor molecules are too small to carry anything like that out of the HH tank.
.

I have heard this a few times, on this board, and it is untrue. If mold forms in the tank, the spores will be carried on the air stream. That's how spores travel. It has nothing to do with the size of water vapor molecules.

That's one big "IF"!
First of all, the source of the mold would have to already be in one's dwelling. They would be breathing it during the normal course of the day. Then, it would have to make it through the filters of the XPAP machine. It can't grow from nothing in sterile water (distilled). If a person is using non-distilled like tap water, it would take some time to grow. If a person IS using other than distilled, it's suggested that they change the water more frequently and clean the water chamber as the "hard" water chemicals and minerals would remain behind as the water vapor is removed.

Bottom line is that if you're living in a dwelling with that much mold growing in it, you'd better move. It's infecting you more than during the time you're using the machine, breathing filtered air.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold_grow ... emediation

http://science.jrank.org/pages/4396/Mold.html


Den

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It only takes a few spores to start growing in the warm, stagnant water of a humidifier. They enter every time you open the humidifier to add water (and if you think they don't enter through the dust filters, you are fooling yourself). Changing the water every day ensures that the few spores that do enter don't have a chance to grow. It is not about keeping a few spores out. That is impossible. It is about making sure that don't grow into a large enough colony to become harmful.

WindCpap wrote:It only takes a few spores to start growing in the warm, stagnant water of a humidifier. They enter every time you open the humidifier to add water (and if you think they don't enter through the dust filters, you are fooling yourself). Changing the water every day ensures that the few spores that do enter don't have a chance to grow. It is not about keeping a few spores out. That is impossible. It is about making sure that don't grow into a large enough colony to become harmful.

Then you're breathing them constantly while you're NOT using your CPAP machine.

GOOD GRIEF!!! Use some common sense.


Den

.

Wulfman... wrote:

WindCpap wrote:It only takes a few spores to start growing in the warm, stagnant water of a humidifier. They enter every time you open the humidifier to add water (and if you think they don't enter through the dust filters, you are fooling yourself). Changing the water every day ensures that the few spores that do enter don't have a chance to grow. It is not about keeping a few spores out. That is impossible. It is about making sure that don't grow into a large enough colony to become harmful.

Then you're breathing them constantly while you're NOT using your CPAP machine.

GOOD GRIEF!!! Use some common sense.


Den

.

I agree

remstarcpap wrote:Hi all,
Maybe I should just repurpose the distilled water in the large container as emergency drinking water?
!

Distilled water is not suitable for drinking water. The lack of minerals in it will pull minerals from your body and, if enough is consumed, will eventually kill you if it is all you drink. Boiling water to kill bacteria in it is different from distilling water for purification. Coming from a chemist, don't drink distilled water!

WindCpap wrote:It only takes a few spores to start growing in the warm, stagnant water of a humidifier. They enter every time you open the humidifier to add water (and if you think they don't enter through the dust filters, you are fooling yourself). Changing the water every day ensures that the few spores that do enter don't have a chance to grow. It is not about keeping a few spores out. That is impossible. It is about making sure that don't grow into a large enough colony to become harmful.

Germs can't multiply in pure water. Germs that fall into the water may continue to live, but the elements germs need to create new germs aren't present in pure water. In particular, germs need nitrogen to synthesize protein. Most germs can't use atmospheric nitrogen to create protein. Germs also need other chemicals not present in distilled water.

This is not a 100% guarantee, but distilled water is pure enough to make germ growth really slow.

That's one of the reasons distilled water is a good idea.

Don't get carried away. The dust in the air brings in some germ food into your humidifier. Also as the distilled water evaporates, whatever chemicals remain get concentrated. Even properly distilled water isn't 100% pure. Some chemicals other than water will evaporate from the "dirty" water going into the still and condense back into the distilled water output.

Even if you use distilled water, I strongly recommend dumping the water at least once a week, or whenever the tank gets nearly empty and you're not throwing away much water. A good washing at least once a week is a good idea too.

adipasqu wrote:Distilled water is not suitable for drinking water. The lack of minerals in it will pull minerals from your body and, if enough is consumed, will eventually kill you if it is all you drink. Boiling water to kill bacteria in it is different from distilling water for purification. Coming from a chemist, don't drink distilled water!

That's simply untrue. Most of us will get an adequate supply of minerals from our food.

It would also only be true if you drank almost exclusively distilled water. (as you say)

You can find a lot of nonsense about this on the internet, some of it from people who are selling some sort of miracle minerals to put in your drinking water.

I don't think you'll find any reputable scientific source saying distilled water is particularly dangerous. If it were, there'd be a warning on the bottles sold in the grocery stores.

However, I wouldn't drink distilled water from any source (such as industrial or lab equipment) not intended for human consumption, especially if the source water is somehow dangerous. Some chemicals will make it through the distillation process, and you might find some distilling equipment may introduce contaminants such as lead or heavy metals if it's not "human rated."

I don't recommend distilled water as particularly healthy, but some people do. I know that there are quite a few people in parts of the world who DO use stills to produce their own drinking water.

archangle wrote:

adipasqu wrote:Distilled water is not suitable for drinking water. The lack of minerals in it will pull minerals from your body and, if enough is consumed, will eventually kill you if it is all you drink. Boiling water to kill bacteria in it is different from distilling water for purification. Coming from a chemist, don't drink distilled water!

That's simply untrue. Most of us will get an adequate supply of minerals from our food.

It would also only be true if you drank almost exclusively distilled water. (as you say)

He mentioned that his emergency water supply was going to be made up of distilled water that he could also use in his humidifier. If his emergency water supply was going to be all the water available to him for some period of time and didn't have anything else, then this would be a real possibility. While distilled water might be safe to drink in small quantities on occasion, it should not be used as a regular, exclusive drinking water source...simple biology. Get regular drinking water jugs for your emergency water source and keep distilled water for your humidifier.

adipasqu wrote:

archangle wrote:

adipasqu wrote:Distilled water is not suitable for drinking water. The lack of minerals in it will pull minerals from your body and, if enough is consumed, will eventually kill you if it is all you drink. Boiling water to kill bacteria in it is different from distilling water for purification. Coming from a chemist, don't drink distilled water!

That's simply untrue. Most of us will get an adequate supply of minerals from our food.

It would also only be true if you drank almost exclusively distilled water. (as you say)

He mentioned that his emergency water supply was going to be made up of distilled water that he could also use in his humidifier. If his emergency water supply was going to be all the water available to him for some period of time and didn't have anything else, then this would be a real possibility. While distilled water might be safe to drink in small quantities on occasion, it should not be used as a regular, exclusive drinking water source...simple biology. Get regular drinking water jugs for your emergency water source and keep distilled water for your humidifier.

Actually, common sense needs to apply here. Normal "emergency" water supplies are supposed to last for up to 72 hours in an emergency. Where you are that is typically 1gal of water per person per day.

Here in the desert I would double that and ANY clean uncontaminated water works just fine for that purpose. The fact that you can purify water onsite with a distilled process makes it common in many parts of the world as well and why I have a distiller in my kit for that very purpose along with a few other water purification methods.

The lack of minerals etc... are not going to mean much for the short period of time you will be using it exclusively to get through the emergency. You make it sound like you will die drinking it. The fact is, during an emergency you die because you don't have water not because it doesn't have minerals in it.

As for going out of your way to have stored water, you might have more than you think. For example, I also have a built in emergency water supply at the house as I have Sparklets water service and due to mix ups in delivery almost always have 5-7 5 gallon bottles of water above what I use in a whole month on site. Just checked, we have 11 bottles here now with one in the cooler.