Difficult to find distilled water?

Anyone else finding it harder to buy distilled water? Have never really had a problem previously - but am low and tried grocery stores, Walmarts, CVS, and Walgreens - all cleared out. I'm in Northeast US (CT).

Not sure if it's Covid related or what...

Considering purchasing a distiller (doesn't really make financial sense, but do want to use distilled water).

It's regional, and it is somewhat Covid related in that all forms of shipping is impacted, and people are still being panic-y (see your grocery stores toilet paper section for proof)

You don't need to use distilled water. You can use regular tap water, and you'll possibly see some mineral buildup as a result, but that can be solved by cleaning with white vinegar or citric acid (less smell) and rinsing well.

From time to time I've run out of distilled water and used tap water. A few such nights has no noticeable impact on the humidifier tank, but it will after awhile.

I can understand not wanting to use tap water ... at least when I do that the water has a distinct smell that doesn't happen with distilled. But one becomes nose-blind to that fairly fast....

I usually have some bottled water in the pantry. We drink it when we travel, and we usually have a few bottles left over when we get home. If we run out of distilled water, we use the bottled water. We have also started using bottled water when we travel. I got tired of lugging distilled water around with us.

I used distilled water for months, but recently switched to tap water. Every week or so I remove the chamber, fill it with vinegar or citric acid powder dissolved in water and let it sit for 1/2 hour or so, then use a sort of toothbrush to clean it. It cleans up great and I don't have to lug gallons of distilled water up the stairs anymore!

jdm5 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 07, 2020 12:24 pm

Anyone else finding it harder to buy distilled water? Have never really had a problem previously - but am low and tried grocery stores, Walmarts, CVS, and Walgreens - all cleared out. I'm in Northeast US (CT).

Not sure if it's Covid related or what...

Considering purchasing a distiller (doesn't really make financial sense, but do want to use distilled water).

Distilled water is *NOT REQUIRED*. it's a convenience factor to not have to occasionally give the tank an acid rinse to remove any mineral buildup.

Regarding bottled water.

Often bottled water is just tap water. It can also have higher mineral content than tap water so using it can contribute to more cleaning than ordinary tap water.

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/truth-about-tap

nrdc wrote:In 1999, after a four-year review of the bottled-water industry and its safety standards, NRDC concluded that there is no assurance that bottled water is cleaner or safer than tap. In fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not.

After 10 years use, our distiller is still working, but makes a major racket when starting up.
Luckily, the bullfrog found ANOTHER one while cleaning the "pantry", and it works perfectly,
holds more water, and makes less noise. (We paid under $10 for it.)
Life isn't always this awesome, but I'll take it.

I think the water shortage is likely regional. I had a time period early in the Covid thing when people were hoarding everything where I couldn't find distilled water....so I used tap water because the hoarders had cleaned the shelves of bottled water along with toilet paper and any sort of cleaning products.
Even now the sanitizing cleaning products seem to be in short supply where I live and sometimes the bottled water and/or distilled water supply is smaller than usual. It seems to run in spurts.

Which reminds me....I don't have enough distilled water for tonight. Darn it...and I was in WalMart today and forgot it. I am not making another trip to Walmart tonight. I will use bottled water and if I didn't have bottled water I would use tap water which is my last resort.
I avoid it because I am on a well and live where the water is hard enough to slap you in the face and make it hurt.
I have used tap water in the past. I used it back early in the Covid thing because I couldn't find anything else. The worse thing that happened....I had to use a little lemon juice soak to clean up the water chamber. No big deal. Soak it and rinse it and be done with it.

It's not the end of the world to use tap water.
I refuse to drive one hour one way to go to Springfield (nearest big city to me) just for distilled water. It's just not going to happen.
My blood pressure always goes through the roof when I have to fight that traffic.
My local WalMart is one of those little mini super centers and isn't even open all night anymore....it's often out of what I might want but eventually restocks. Unfortunately it is the only grocery store within 20 miles of my house now. It is what it is. I make do.

One of those pathetic "neighborhood" walmarts . . .
Not even worth punching into the GPS.

Be sure to check the cleaning products aisle at your local grocer. When it's out in the drinks aisle, I pop over to the cleaning products aisle and there always seems to be some there.

During our “empty shelves” hoarding period, I always found some in the baby section of the store. Different packaging to attract new parents.

poppi2 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:37 pm

During our “empty shelves” hoarding period, I always found some in the baby section of the store. Different packaging to attract new parents.

Good to know, back in the covid hoarding time, I was looking all over for it, couldn't find it, called different pharmacys but finally found it at Home Depot of all places, I have no clue why it was there, I bought like 8 gallons of it, used it sparingly and it lasted me like 3 months or so. Which reminds me, I'm out and I should definitely purchase a bunch.

Jerseyguy wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 09, 2020 1:13 am

I bought like 8 gallons of it, used it sparingly and it lasted me like 3 months or so. Which reminds me, I'm out and I should definitely purchase a bunch.

You should either buy 1-2 gallons, or use tap water

You people that are hoarding it are part of the problem

palerider wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 09, 2020 7:56 am

Jerseyguy wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 09, 2020 1:13 am

I bought like 8 gallons of it, used it sparingly and it lasted me like 3 months or so. Which reminds me, I'm out and I should definitely purchase a bunch.

You should either buy 1-2 gallons, or use tap water

You people that are hoarding it are part of the problem

Yeah.

I'm trying to find the logic in that guys post. This topic is about being inconvenienced because of people hoarding, and then this guy is all proud and posting about how he hoarded the very product others can't find.