DistillationHow does it work? Distillation works by boiling water, capturing the purified steam, and recondensing that steam into reasonably pure water. Many distillers are sold with an activated carbon filter as part of the system to supplement water filtration and provide pure water at the business end of the tap.
What are it’s strengths? Distillation leaves behind salts, sediments, and metals and kills pathogens through the boiling process. As long as the distiller is clean, water quality and purity will remain high and consistent throughout the life of the machine.
What are it’s weaknesses? Distillation is not effective against VOCs. VOCs will evaporate with the pure water and recondense in the clean tank. Like all other water filtration products, distillation is best used in conjunction with another technology, usually a vapor trap and an activated carbon filter.
Why does Exup use distillation? With a ten-year warranty, distillers are a wise investment with a few caveats. First, an abundance of electricity must exist. Home sized distillers use large amounts of electricity, around 1,000 watts, while commercial level distillers can use 5,000 watts. This translates into a higher cost for water than other technologies. Average electrical costs for distillation are 30 cents per gallon of water.
Second, distillation works at a slower pace than other water purification systems, with a gallon of water sometimes taking two or three hours to produce in smaller systems. Small commercial systems can produce as much as a gallon an hour, but this pales in comparison to reverse osmosis, which can produce a gallon per minute.
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