Education is the key to making any good decision.  It's also key to a healthy body, mind, and spirit.  In this section you will find useful information to help you in the education process.

Why Steam Distillation?

Distillation is simply the most effective and reliable method of producing pure drinking water.  It has been an essential part of nature since the earth began.  The heat of the sun evaporates water from the earth's surface into the atmosphere, leaving impurities behind.  As the vapor cools, it condenses and falls back to the earth as rain, snow or other forms of precipitation.

The mechanical process of distillation follows an identical pattern to nature's hydrological cycle.  Distillers boil the feed water in a boiling chamber, creating steam.  As the vapor rises, it passes through cooling coils and is collected in a storage chamber as pure distilled water.  Contaminants are left behind in the boiling tank.  Gases that vaporize at temperatures lower than the boiling point of water are released through "volatile gas release vents".  Quality distillation systems are also equipped with activated carbon charcoal "post filters" which need to be changed routinely to ensure the purest water.

The prolonged boiling process of distillation is the most effective method of killing and removing bacteria and viruses.  There is no other process as efficient or reliable!  Distillation is the only process that removes water from the contaminants as opposed to removing the contaminants from the water -- this is a significant distinction between distillation and other filtration methods (including RO).  The four classes of drinking water contaminants are removed:

• Inorganic

• Organic (by releasing gases)

• Biological

• Radioactive

Water distillation will remove chlorine, nitrates, fluoride, ammonia, aluminum, arsenic, copper, iron, lead, mercury, radium, asbestos, viruses, bacteria, herbicides and pesticides, to name only a few.  No other process is as dependable!

We should all be familiar with the distillation process as demonstrated in Mother Nature's hydrologic cycle.  At the point of condensation; rain water is purely distilled through the process of evaporation.  Rain water becomes contaminated as it passes through the atmosphere and collects dust particles in the air before it reaches the ground -- similar to water that passes through miles of pipe from the treatment plant to your home -- it picks up contaminants along the way to your drinking faucets.

Distillation vs. Reverse Osmosis (RO) or Filtration

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a filtration process whereby water is forced, under heavy pressure, through a synthetic, semi permeable membrane, while contaminants are held back.  This is a filtration system. However, like all filtration processes, RO's effectiveness is dependent on a number of variables.

When the membrane is new, RO is 70-90 % effective in removing only certain contaminants.  Because RO is essentially filtration, its effectiveness depends largely on the quality of the filters, and the frequency of filter cleaning or replacement.  In addition, RO systems can be adversely affected by changing water pressure and extreme temperature, which can cause deterioration of the membrane.

The greatest disadvantage to RO is that this process is unable to remove bacteria from source water.  Over time, clogging of the membrane pores occurs; iron, salts and bacteria accumulate on the membrane surface.  This not only affects the performance of the RO system, but it can cause serious bacterial contamination of your water.  RO systems also vary in their ability to remove chlorides, nitrates and viruses.

In comparison, steam distillation consistently and reliably removes a much broader spectrum of contaminants - over 99% of all bacteria, viruses, chemicals, metals and poisons are removed.  Distillation is not affected by temperature, pressure, bacteria, varying quality of source water of other such environmental condition as RO is.

RO is only filtration, Distillation means purification.

Benefits of Steam Distillation:

• Easily and efficiently removes the toxic chemicals, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals and other contaminants that are so harmful to our health

• More effective than R.O. (reverse osmosis) in contaminant reduction, even on high levels of pollution

• Does not rely on physical barriers (filters) which can fail, letting contaminants through without the user realizing it

• Produces consistently high quality water for the lifetime of the unit - the quality does not decline with use

• Distillers are extremely durable, trouble-free appliances that require a minimum of the service and maintenance for efficient operation

• Distillers do not require a complicated disinfection process when used on water containing bacteria

Distillation is a process whose time has come! It is highly efficient, reliable, available and crucial for the pursuit of good health.  If it has been awhile since you've checked distillation out - or if you never have - now is the time!