[Kental]

Hello everyone, I seem to be having a bit of a problem here distilling water.  I have a stainless boiler and condenser and I am attempting to distill some tap water.  The problem is that when I distill the water the condensed vapor has a very strange sweet smell to it, almost like hay or maybe sweet grass.  Clearly something is getting into the water as the tap water smells nothing like this.  I have tried to narrow down the source of this smell and I can only assume it is coming from the condensing coil.  I distilled a little water using a different method and it has no smell to it.  The steam coming out of my boiling chamber seems to be normal, no smell at all.  My distiller setup goes like this: Stainless steel grade 304 boiling chamber > small silicone gasket around the dome (also 304 stainless) > 304 stainless condensing coil > glass holding vessel.  I have eliminated the glass container as a possible source as well.  So my question is what on earth could possibly be going on inside that coil to produce water that has a stronger aroma than the tap water it was distilled from?

A side note the condensing coil is crafted from rolled steel tube so perhaps there is a small amount of welding residue left inside it?  This distiller is not new however and has had a decent amount of use.  I also let a little vinegar sit in the coil for a few minutes and scrubbed it with a q-tip, nothing really came out...

[Hunter2]

Could it be some biological stuff. Some bacterria survive even 100 ° C. I would clean the system with some formaldehyde or hypochlorite.

[Kental]

Hi Hunter2, thanks for your reply.  I considered this possibility, I flushed the system out with vinegar and isopropyl quite vigorously yesterday and then let everything thing sit in vinegar overnight. I am just running it now to see what happens.  I will post back with results in about 30 min. 

[Kental]

Alright, the smell seems to still be present, however it definitely seems to be weaker than before.  I suppose I will go back to soaking it for the time being and see if it reduces the aroma any further. 

[kellyannk87]

Did you ever figure this out? I bought a home distiller and have the same issue. Using tap water, distilling, then transferring to glass container. I am in Houston. There is several tablespoons of orange crud in the distiller, almost smells like diluted honey? After doing some googling I wonder if it is Benzene. My water actually tastes like the smell after distilling so I am a little worried.

[P]

What reason are you distilling the tap water for? To get distilled water for chemistry? Pretty sure you aren't supposed to drink distilled water...  tap water should be fine and has 'some' minerals in it depending where it comes from.

[cactuskitteh]

Hello I known this is an old post but wondering if you ever found an answer about the odor from your distilled water? There is scant info on reasons that I can find. Hope you see this!