When it comes to ensuring the purity of drinking water, two terms are often mentioned: purified water and distilled water. While both types of water are treated to remove impurities, they are not the same.

Understanding the difference between purified water and distilled water can help consumers better understand what equipment they should purchase to obtain the right water source. This article will explore some of the main differences in their production processes.

What is purified water?

Pure water is water that has been filtered or distilled to remove impurities (such as salt, organic matter, and bacteria). This process ensures that the water does not contain any harmful substances, making it relatively safe and suitable for human consumption.

Pure water is often used in medical, laboratory environments, pharmaceuticals, and other applications that require extremely high water quality. For daily life, people also choose to drink purified water to reduce the impact of possible contaminants in the water on their health.

How to get pure water?

Now more and more people will buy some water purifiers for their homes for safety reasons, to obtain safer pure water. You can also obtain it from the following methods:

Reverse osmosis: The reverse osmosis system uses semi-permeable membrane technology to apply pressure to make water molecules pass through a selectively permeable membrane to remove dissolved solid substances (such as salt), macromolecules, and other impurities.

Ion exchange: This technology removes minerals and salts from water by exchanging them with ions in water. It is mainly used to remove calcium and magnesium ions in hard water.

Filtration: Use various filter media (such as activated carbon, ceramics, sand and gravel, etc.) to remove particulate matter, organic matter, and some chemicals in water. Microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration are all common filtration technologies.

Ultraviolet disinfection: Ultraviolet lights can kill bacteria and viruses in water and are often used in combination with other filtration technologies to improve the purity of water.

Chemical treatment: The use of chlorine, ozone, or other chemicals can kill microorganisms in water or remove harmful chemicals.

These methods can be used alone or in combination to achieve the required water quality standards. For example, it is common for home water purifiers to combine activated carbon filtration with reverse osmosis technology to provide high-quality drinking water.

For more information about purifying pure water, check out this article: How to purify water at home?

What is distilled water?

Distilled water is water that is produced through the process of distillation, which involves heating water to boiling, causing it to evaporate, and condensing the vapor back into a liquid state. This process effectively removes minerals, bacteria, viruses, harmful chemicals, and other impurities from the water.

Because distilled water contains almost no dissolved components, it is useful in many applications that require high-purity water, such as laboratory work, medical equipment, car batteries, and certain industrial processes. However, because distilled water lacks many of the minerals found in natural water, it is not generally recommended for daily drinking.

How to get distilled water?

There are many ways to get distilled water. You can go through the following steps of the distillation process:

Heating the water source: Place the water in a heating container and heat it until it boils. When the water boils, it turns into steam, which can leave most of the impurities such as dissolved solids, bacteria, and viruses in the original container.

Steam condensation: The steam then flows through the condensation pipe, which is usually a cooling system, which can be water-cooled or air-cooled. During the condensation process, the steam turns back into liquid water.

Collecting the distilled water: condensed water is the distilled water, which will flow from the condensation system into a clean collection container.

Storage: The collected distilled water should be stored in a clean and sealed container to prevent impurities in the air from dissolving back into the water.

Homemade distilled water equipment

If you want to make your own distilled water at home, you can use the following simple equipment:

Pot and lid: An ordinary kitchen pot with an inverted lid. A cooling source, such as ice cubes, can be placed on the top of the lid to help the steam condense.

Collector: A clean container to collect the distilled water dripping from the lid.

Notes

Make sure to use clean raw water and equipment to avoid contaminating the distilled water.

Monitor the equipment during the distillation process to ensure that the water is not completely evaporated to avoid dry boiling.

Distilled water may taste slightly bland due to the lack of minerals.

Using this method, you can prepare small amounts of distilled water at home relatively easily for specific uses that require high-purity water.

is purified water the same as distilled water

Purified water and distilled water are not the same, although both are water that has undergone some form of purification. Here are the main differences:

Purification methods

Purified water: Can be produced by a variety of methods, such as reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, microfiltration, and UV oxidation. It refers to water that has been purified to a large extent to remove chemicals and contaminants, but not necessarily all minerals.

Distilled water: Distilled water is made by boiling water and then condensing the collected vapor into a liquid. This process removes impurities and minerals from the water.

Purity levels

Purified water: Purified water generally refers to water with less than 10 parts per million of total dissolved solids. It may still retain some minerals that cannot be removed by certain purification techniques.

Distilled water: Distilled water is considered one of the purest forms of water because the distillation process removes nearly all particles, minerals, and contaminants. Distilled water is nearly 100% H2O.

Usage

Purified water: Often used for drinking and cooking in locations where tap water quality is poor, or for medical and pharmaceutical applications where some impurities must be removed but complete demineralization is not required.

Distilled Water: Often used in applications that require very high purity, such as laboratories, automotive cooling systems, humidifiers, etc., where impurities could damage equipment or distort experimental results.

Taste

Purified Water: Taste can vary depending on the purification method used, but is generally more flavorful than distilled water because it can retain some of the minerals that affect the taste of water.

Distilled Water: Often described as bland or tasteless because it lacks minerals and impurities that provide flavor.

In summary, while both purified and distilled water are purer than tap water, their production methods and final water quality are very different. Whether it is for drinking, cooking, or special purposes, choosing the right type of water can have a significant impact on the health and effectiveness of various applications.

Why use a countertop reverse osmosis water filter to get pure water?

Using a countertop reverse osmosis water filter can effectively reduce dependence on bottled water, thereby reducing the use and waste of plastic bottles, which is beneficial to the environment.

There are many other advantages to using a countertop reverse osmosis water filter to obtain pure water:

High-efficiency filtration performance: Reverse osmosis system uses semi-permeable membrane technology to remove more than 99% of dissolved solids (TDS) in water, including salt, heavy metals (such as lead, mercury, and arsenic), viruses, bacteria, and other particulate and chemical contaminants.

Improved Water Quality: RO systems not only remove harmful substances but also impurities that may affect the taste and odor of water, thereby significantly improving the taste and odor of water.

Increased strontium: TOKIT water purifier filter is rich in strontium, which not only helps to delay cell aging and protect the cardiovascular system, but also promotes bone growth, inhibits bacteria, and reduces tooth decay.

Cost savings: Although the initial investment of the RO system is relatively high, it can reduce the cost of purchasing bottled water in the long run, making it a more cost-effective solution.

Convenience: Once installed, the RO system can continuously and quickly provide a large amount of pure water. It is very convenient to use and suitable for home and commercial environments.

Wide range of applications: Due to its excellent filtering ability, the RO system is particularly suitable for use in areas with poor water quality and can handle hard water and high TDS (total dissolved solids) water quality.

Relatively simple maintenance: The maintenance of the RO system mainly includes regular replacement of the filter element and inspection of the system. Although some maintenance is required, the overall management is relatively simple.

Using the RO water purification system to obtain pure water can provide users with safe, clean, and good-tasting drinking water. It is currently a very popular and effective solution for home and commercial water use.

The TOKIT Akuapure T1 RO water filter uses advanced six-stage reverse osmosis filtration technology with a filtration accuracy of 0.0001 microns, which can remove 99.9% of more than 1,000 pollutants, ensuring that the water you drink is pure and safe. This water filter adopts a plug-and-play design, does not require installation, is very convenient, suitable for use in a variety of environments, and comes with two 1.6-liter water bottles, making replacement and drinking easier.

In addition, TOKIT Akuapure T1 also has an intelligent control display function, which can monitor the TDS value of water quality in real-time, and automatically remind when the water level is low. At the same time, it provides four different water output options (4OZ, 8OZ, 12OZ, 17OZ) to meet your various needs. The filter itself has a service life of up to 36 months, which reduces the frequency of replacement, is economical and environmentally friendly. If you need any technical support, TOKIT provides a one-year service, and you can get help through the website or email.