I run this 2 to 3 times a week. The water is fantastic. It is clean and clear and crisp and the flavor is great. I'm amazed at how much gunk comes out of my water every time. And it cleans up so easily with a little distilled vinegar, which once rinsed lightly never comes out in the flavor.

Heats up quick and really is easy to use.

I have not used this unit yet. I have just opened and unpacked it. First off the box showed some damage, although the contents inside appear to be undamaged. The stainless spout that holds the charcoal filter, is TIG welded poorly and has a hole (dark spot) on the corner where it will leak if used. See photo. The spout has a tube that is no longer round on the end, (see pictures) by using a piece of tubing on this spout I can avoid the leaking stainless steel filter holder. Which won't help the flavor of the water if folded into spout as the instructions illustrate. To be effective, all the water MUST pass THROUGH the filter, not around it. I plan to pour all the distilled water into a Britta water pitcher equipped with a charcoal filter. Way better and cheaper than the little paper filters. Don't even bother with them. to use them properly, they must cover the outlet hole, and that can cause an overflow, and the resulting water isn't filtered then anyway. It says to toss the first 3-5 bottles of distilled water. I find that ridiculous. Just boil a 50/50 mix of distilled vinegar and water through the unit the first time to clean it out, then rinse with clean water and you are good to go. Distilled water tastes bad. If you can use clean all glass, as in a lab, it might taste good, I can't say for certain as I don't have access to that type of equipment. For CPAP, batteries, steam irons, and such filtering isn't needed because flavor isn't important. For drinking, you must run the distilled water through a good charcoal filter to get rid of the metal taste. I found filter pitchers to be the best and most cost effective way to do that. You might want to use a glass pot instead of the plastic catch bottle that comes with the unit, if you notice a plastic taste. Also, normally, the only thing that comes out of the unit is water. Pure water, without anything else in it. This is because the water in the pot is changed into a hot gas. This hot gas will not hold any minerals, or most chemicals, for that matter. The hot gas passes through a coil heat exchanger, where it is cooled. That's what the fan does, remove the heat from the gas. The gas, which is a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, then changes to water, and drips out. I mention this because what is left behind is everything in your water that is NOT WATER, and can't be changed into a gas. The more impurities in your water the more concentrated the residue left behind will be. I don't like to let this residue get too concentrated. For instance, you might want to fill the unit, but only distill half of the water, then empty and rinse, and refill with more water and again, distill about half of it. By doing this the residue left behind is less concentrated and easier to get rid of. It just depends on how much minerals are present. I don't have a water softener, and it's not good to drink softener water because of the high salt content in it. I would think however, that distilling water from a softener, would make it ok to drink by removing the salt. It should be easy to find out. Any residue should taste salty. If it does, it's removing the salt, and you can drink it. I will write more after I test the unit.
Ok, I have had a chance to use the unit several times. I made a mixture of 50/50 white vinegar and tap water, about 32oz or so and let that go through the distiller to clean it out. I rinsed it out good and then ran a gallon of my tap water to distill. My water has lots of calcium carbonate in it, and totally leaves a chalk like powder behind on every surface that boils it. For this reason I don't want to boil the pot dry. It causes this chalk to bake on, making it more difficult to remove. For this reason I want to stop before the end of four hours. You can set an alarm or timer, or I used a smart plug that I can have count down 3 hours and 30 minutes, and then shut off the power. This way, I don't have to hover over it, and I'm not worried about forgetting to shut it off before it boils dry. This should extend the life of the boiler pot. I don't find the fan to be too noisy at all, and it raises the temperature in my kitchen only a slight bit. The water directly from the distiller is not too bad tasting, just a slight metallic taste, but the Britta pitcher and charcoal filter I use will improve the taste dramatically. The stainless steel spout with the leak in the corner, (see pictures) isn't a problem because I don't use it. I put a length of 3/8 ID food grade silicone tubing on the inner spout, and into my own water jugs. I'm not using the plastic container that came with the unit, because it has a larger footprint than I care for. Just make sure that your bottle is below the spout of the distiller, and that the hose doesn't form a big "U" in it, so that the water can flow into your bottle. I like the clear plastic gallon bottles that fruit punch is sold in, and a friend of mine is kind enough to save them for me to use after they are empty. No need to send them to the land fill. Not a bad unit for the price, depending on how long it will last. I will write more after I use it for several months.

I have had this for almost 3 years now. I have been using it for my CPaP humidifier, but recently bought a room humidifier and now use it almost 12 times a week. I have more than gotten my money's worth. I find it takes 5 hours to run.

It is easy to use. Just put in the filter and fill the tank! The residue it leaves behind is really yukky...smells awful. I was drinking that stuff? Not anymore! I even use it for my coffee.

With distilled water at $1.15 a gal, this has saved me a ton of money. The filter is easy to change (although I have to look up how to do it every time) and it is easy to clean (get pure citric acid-not the stuff that is "special" for distiller cleaning). The instructions say wipe it clean after every use and use citric acid once a month. I find because of the build up of my hard water, I have to clean it with citric acid about every week. It really is not a big deal. in using the citric acid, fill it to the top with regular water, do not put the lid on, and let it boil for 15 min or so. Then let it cool down before you try to rinse it out to get it ready for use again.

DO NOT TRY TO RUSH THE COOL DOWN. I tried to dump the water and fill it with cold, but ended up scalding my hand. Not fun. Lesson learned. I am sure some of you will think I am a clutz and will try it yourself, but you have been warned!

Pros: saves money, easy to use, result of clean, pure water

Cons: cleaning takes some time and cleaning supplies.

Upshot: BUY THIS MACHINE.

This distiller is perfect! I am on well water. I have a whole house water filter and a water softener. I use this to distill water that I use in my Bunn coffeemaker. Using well water has led to me having to replace the heating element twice due to calcium buildup. No more! It also has allowed me to use my humidifier, which uses heat to produce steam without cleaning it all winter long. It actually produces one tank of distilled water faster than advertised. It usually takes a few hours depending on how cool it is in the house. It is very easy to clean. I only need to clean it every few tanks of water and even then, rinsing it and pouring a little vinegar in the heating chamber for an hour or so does the trick! I LOVE this distiller! I use a Zero Water filter on top of a water cooler/heater for drinking but the Zero Water filter would take too long to filter enough water for the amount of water needed for the coffee and humidifier needs. My well water has about 142ppm in total dissolved solids. The Zero Water has, well, zero ppm until I need to replace the filters and the distilled water from this unit has from 2-4ppm. This is awesome. I highly recommend this unit. I have distilled approximately 3 gallons a day with this unit for the last 4 months. So that's around 360 gallons and it has worked perfectly! If you need pure water for any of your drinking needs or things like humidifiers, units that use steam to remove wrinkles from clothes, coffeemakers, espresso machines, or even steam engine toys, this is the unit for you!!!