01-24-2009, 12:10 AM
Distilled water supposedly has essentially zero minerals. A high quality industrial deionized water is functionally equivalent unless you are doing water analysis down in the 10 part per billion range.
The deionized water from a dispenser at the grocery store ($0.35 to $0.50 per gallon) should be good enough for 99.9% of home uses where distilled water was specified 30 years ago. Retail gallon jugs of distilled/deionized water are usually $0.75 to $1.50 if you do not have your own jug for the dispensers.
Edit: you can drink distilled or deionized water with no problem as long as you do not overdo it (like 4 or 6 gallons a day) and the source is sanitary.
The deionized water from a dispenser at the grocery store ($0.35 to $0.50 per gallon) should be good enough for 99.9% of home uses where distilled water was specified 30 years ago. Retail gallon jugs of distilled/deionized water are usually $0.75 to $1.50 if you do not have your own jug for the dispensers.
Edit: you can drink distilled or deionized water with no problem as long as you do not overdo it (like 4 or 6 gallons a day) and the source is sanitary.