VIVOHOME 4L Brushed 304 Stainless Steel Water Distiller Countertop Distilled Water Machine with an Extra Smart Switch Purifier Filter for Home Office

PROS:-- I paid ~ $90, a good price for a still that includes a glass collection vessel. With glass, one should have no worries about leaching contaminants into the collected distilled water.-- It looks and feels well-made. The glass vessel is thick, thus heavy, yet has a silicone cushion at the bottom to protect from dings that could otherwise shatter the vessel. This is an excellent feature, as I have broken not-cushioned glass carboys used in homebrewing.-- It makes very pure distilled water. After a half-dozen trial/cleaning runs per the instruction manual, then installing an activated charcoal filter (NOT included with the purchase of still), my extremely hard local tap water, over 500 ppm (parts per million) TDS (total dissolved solids) was distilled to about 5 (five) ppm. Anything under 50 ppm should be considered pretty good. EDIT: Lately my TDS measurements have been consistently 0 ppm. Zero. I thought my meter was bad until I checked it in a jug of kiosk RO water.-- It's nice to have distilled water on hand at home versus taking jugs to a distilled water kiosk where one must often wait in line, or return later when the kiosk is out-of-service.VARIOUS VEXATIONS:-- The thick glass vessel is heavy, especially when filled with water.-- The glass vessel liter fill marks are inaccurate. Four liters should be a bit more than a US gallon, but the 4 L mark on the vessel is about 3.75 gallons.-- Even when the still is filled to the full mark embossed on the inside of the still, the output is about a cup less than a gallon; my gallon storage jugs from this still are filled to a bit less than a full gallon.-- I spent ~ $20 for 24 activated charcoal filters on Amazon, which should last a couple of years. Monthly replacement seems to be the thing. No filters are included with this still.-- I bought a $20 countdown timer to turn off the still after about 3 hours & 40 minutes, so that about a 1/2" of water is left in the still. Otherwise, the still, by design, shuts itself off after about 4 hours, when the still begins to get hotter when all the tap water boils away. But my dang water is so hard that the remaining mineral deposits are much easier to remove when they remain wet versus getting cooked to the bottom of the still.-- So I've got about $130 invested so far, which makes me reconsider my choice for this still versus an under-counter reverse osmosis system.-- A reverse osmosis system would surely be more convenient, I suspect. Convenience was my main goal, not savings. There's a good bit of fiddling with this gizmo.-- The still's cooling fan is not quiet, significantly louder than any refrigerator or computer fan. Therefore, my still is set up away from the rest of our house, in an attached storage room.-- The still, logically, puts out heat, as much as a portable electric heater. This would be tolerably comfortable in the winter, but is not appropriate indoors in the summer.-- There is some minor splashing onto the collection vessel's lid; I mostly solved this with a 1 1/2" piece of clear vinyl tubing that extends below the surface of the lid.-- I may return it and get an under-counter RO system so I can just fill & go, like at the water kiosks.

This distilled water maker works great. It takes several hours but I would expect that considering how distilled water is made. The only thing I’m not crazy about is pouring the distilled water into a jug. I use a funnel but the water just pours out of the top. I wish the glass decanter had a more pronounced lip on it.

I purchased this and started the initial cleaning cycles two days ago. I’m doing a detox that requires ALOT of distilled water…like 4-5 gallons a day for two people so I’ve already run this at least 7 times. I’ve cleaned it with the included cleaning product twice. I let it run until it turns off, and maybe that’s my mistake, but it keeps tasting burnt with dark brown stuff at the bottom inside when the distilling cycle is over. I’ve used distillers before that don’t require as much cleaning however this one is pretty easy to clean and the solution works well. I’m trying to figure out if the burning smell is because I need to add more water than the “fill” line but nothing I can find online indicates one way or the other. Does anyone know if this machine is simply timed so if I add more water, there will be some leftover at the bottom and my water/machine won’t burn?Update: I’m returning it. I can’t keep running a distiller that produces burnt tasting water. It takes too much time and I’m ending up buying distilled water anyway

I've gotten several uses from this distiller and am pleased with it. It takes 4 hours to produce one gallon of distilled water. But, unlike a manual distiller once you fill it with tap water and turn it on you just let it go and return in 4 or 5 hours to a full carafe of clean water.

This is my 3rd distiller, my 2nd by this company. The first lasted a couple of years before the switch melted out. I tried a different brand, one which looked to be made better but it developed 2 small holes in the bottom of the tank in less than a year. So back to VIVO, now with a better switch design and hopefully a long lasting appliance. Kidney issues make distilled water and not just filtered critical for me. Lately the reports for tap water have been less than stellar here too. All my appliances that use distilled water last longer. I like being able to measure any mineral content I can easily add without causing more harm than good.

Works OK but how cheap can you get when you can't even include a few charcoal scahets to get started with.

I’ve had one of these before and unfortunately I gave it away and so I purchased a new one and I can make a gallon of distilled water in about four hours. I use the water in the iron and I also use it in by CPAP.

So far we really like our new distiller.