Anyone made a DIY water distiller?

[lub0]

Hi all, just hoping some of you nutters here may of made a DIY distiller before and could give some tips and advice? I'm at a loss as to where I can buy a ready-made coil of either stainless steel or copper tubing, or maybe buy the tubing and bend it myself, however I'm not sure of the diameter needed, or the length. I also don't want any plastic/rubber parts where the distilled water will make contact with, so it must be SS/copper all the way through. Also what is the best method for cooling the condenser coil bearing in mind I want to design the thing as an emergency/survival type that can be used on an open fire without electric so that rules out using ice cubes and electric motor fans! Maybe just submerge the entire coil in room temperature water would be good enough??

I also what it designed so I can take it apart and stack it neatly away, so no big cumbersome pipes hanging out that cant be threaded off.

I have an old pressure cooker that I can modify already so the only difficult bit is the condenser coil as explained above!

 

[John Fenna]

I made one out of a pair of metal mugs, a bit of scrap alu for a lid for one mug and the tube of a hydration system.
Sea water went in one mug with the alu as a lid (chewing gum gasket) and the hose froma hole in the lid to the second mug. The hose was coiled and strung on a tripod and wrapped in rags soaked in sea water.
The mug with sea water was sat on a hot fire and boiled away merrily.
The steam condensed in the tube and dripped into the second mug.
The resulting water was very drinkable
I dont think this is quite what you are after - but the principle is simple!