Recent history has shown us that clean water is almost always one of the first items to become unavailable after a disaster. Since I live within a day’s walk of the Atlantic Ocean and occasionally camp near the shore, I wanted to make a portable water distiller that could handle salt water as well as some of the more contaminated fresh water sources.
In this article, I outlined my objectives for a distiller and now am writing how I built one. So far, in part 1, I have provided a materials list and provided the first few steps, which included wrapping the copper coil around the water bottle, preparing the bottle cap and the barb adapter on that cap, building the cooling/carrying case, and also building legs for the distiller.
Now, let’s continue moving forward with our build of the distiller. Then, I will tell you about the test results and give you some tips on storing and using it.
Paint and Plug
Several coats of battleship grey paint went on the cooling tower. Paint is necessary because uncoated galvanized metal will rust if it is exposed to salt water. Once the paint dried, I temporarily plugged the output hole. (I used a ¼” bolt and some rubber washers.) Then, I filled the tower with water to check for any leaks in the seam or around the base.
Continue reading“A Portable Water Distiller- Part 2, by JMD”