Can You Drink Distilled Water?

Yes, you can drink distilled water. I know that might sound like a strange thing to lead with, but given how much misinformation is floating around online about this topic, it feels like the right place to start.

There are people claiming distilled water will leach minerals from your bones, that it’s acidic and dangerous, and some corners of the internet will have you believe you’ll actually die if you drink it.

I’ve been drinking distilled water every single day since January 2018. That’s over eight years. My family drinks it too. We make it ourselves at home using a Megahome countertop water distiller, and honestly, I can’t imagine going back to tap water now.

So let’s talk about what distilled water actually is, whether it’s safe to drink, and why so many people – myself included – actively choose it over tap water or bottled mineral water.

What is distilled water?

Distilled water is water that has been purified through a process called distillation. You heat the water until it turns to steam, the steam rises and passes through a cooling coil, condenses back into liquid, and drips out into a jug.

What gets left behind in the tank are all the impurities – minerals, dissolved solids, contaminants, and anything else that was in the original tap water.

The result is very pure water. When I first started testing our tap water with a TDS meter (that’s a Total Dissolved Solids meter), our tap water measured 220 parts per million of dissolved substances.

After distilling, it measured just 2 ppm.

That’s a remarkable difference, and honestly, once you’ve seen the brown residue left at the bottom of the distiller after a few uses, you’ll never look at tap water the same way again!

You can make distilled water at home with a countertop distiller, or in some areas you can buy it in shops – though making your own works out much cheaper and creates far less plastic waste.

I’ve also written about my experience drinking distilled water since 2018 if you want a longer personal account of how we got started.

Is drinking distilled water bad for you?

This is the big one, because there’s a lot of noise online suggesting it is. Let’s go through the main concerns.

“Distilled water leaches minerals from your body.” This claim gets repeated a lot, but there’s no solid scientific evidence to support it. Your body gets the vast majority of its minerals from food, not from drinking water. The idea that pure water somehow pulls minerals out of your bones or tissues isn’t backed up by research.

“Distilled water is acidic.” Distilled water can have a slightly lower pH when exposed to air, because it absorbs a tiny amount of carbon dioxide. But it’s nowhere near acidic enough to affect your body’s pH, which is tightly regulated regardless of what you drink. This concern is significantly overstated.

“You’ll die if you drink distilled water.” I genuinely wish I was making this up as a claim people make, but it’s out there. It’s completely false. Millions of people drink distilled water safely every day. I’ve been doing it since 2018 with no ill effects whatsoever.

The honest, balanced answer is this: drinking distilled water as part of a normal, varied diet poses no meaningful risk to your health. The minerals you might theoretically miss from tap water are minerals you’re getting from your food anyway.

Why I switched to distilled water

Before 2018, we were buying bottled mineral water every week – around 12 litres of it – because our tap water smelled odd and didn’t taste clean. It had what I can only describe as a wet dog smell at times. Not exactly refreshing!

When I started looking into what was actually in our tap water, I was surprised. Tap water in the UK is treated with chemicals to make it safe – including chlorine – and then travels through old pipes before it reaches your tap, sometimes picking up additional substances along the way and containing traces of cleaning chemicals, medications, all sorts!

The 200 ppm reading on our TDS meter made a lot more sense after I understood that.

We considered a water filter, but after some research, distilled water seemed like the more thorough option. Filtration removes some impurities but not all. Distillation removes virtually everything.

We bought a Megahome water distiller and haven’t looked back. We run it every day – sometimes twice – and it’s become as much a part of our kitchen routine as making coffee.

The benefits of drinking distilled water

There are several reasons people choose distilled water, and most of them align with why we made the switch.

Purity. Distilled water is free from chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals, bacteria, and other contaminants that can be present in tap water. What you’re drinking is essentially just water.

Taste. This is subjective, but we genuinely prefer the taste. It’s clean and neutral. Tap water, and even bottled mineral water we used to enjoy, now tastes almost dirty to us by comparison. Once you’re used to distilled water, it’s hard to go back.

No limescale. Our kettle has been limescale-free since we switched. That alone tells you something about what was in our tap water before.

Eco-friendly. We went from going through around 12 litres of plastic bottled water a week to producing our own at home. The environmental difference is significant, and it aligns with how we try to live generally.

Cost savings over time. The upfront cost of a distiller is real, but it pays for itself relatively quickly compared to buying bottled water. Our main ongoing costs are electricity and the occasional deep clean.

Cooking. We often use distilled water for cooking, when the water is a part of the recipe like when making soup, and we always use it for making hot drinks too. No unwanted flavours or minerals interfering with what you’re making.

You can read more about the benefits of drinking distilled water in my dedicated post on the topic, which goes into much more detail.

What about the minerals you’re missing?

This is probably the most legitimate concern people raise, so it’s worth addressing properly. Tap water and mineral water do contain minerals like calcium and magnesium. When you drink distilled water, you’re not getting those from your water.

But here’s the thing – unless you’re eating an extremely restricted diet, you’re getting those minerals from food. Vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and fruit all contain minerals. If you’re eating a reasonably varied diet, the mineral content of your drinking water is unlikely to make a meaningful difference.

That said, if you’re ever concerned, it’s always worth speaking to a doctor or dietitian – particularly if you have a specific health condition. I’m speaking from personal experience here, not as a medical professional.

Also, some people re-add the minerals back to the water after distilling it. Or they add certain salts if they don’t like the pure taste. You can find ideas online if you want to remineralise the distilled water.

Can you drink distilled water every day?

Yes. I’ve been doing exactly that since 2018, as has my family. Daily use of distilled water as your main drinking water is safe and normal for many people. There’s nothing about the distillation process that makes the water harmful for regular consumption.

The why I drink distilled water post I wrote goes into much more depth about our day-to-day experience with it, including what changed for us over the years and what we noticed along the way.

How to make distilled water at home

If you’re curious about trying distilled water, making it at home is easier than you might think. You need a countertop water distiller – we use and recommend the Megahome water distiller, which we’ve had running daily since 2018 and it’s still going strong. There are many similar brands too.

The process is simple: fill the tank with tap water, switch it on, and come back a few hours later to a jug of pure distilled water. One full batch takes around four hours and produces roughly four litres.

Maintenance is straightforward too – a quick swill between uses, and a deep clean of the water distiller with citric acid once or twice a year. That’s genuinely all it takes.

The Megahome is well made, long-lasting, and one of the highest-performing distillers on the market – ours has run daily since 2018 and is still going strong.

So, can you drink distilled water?

Yes. Absolutely. It’s safe, it’s clean, and for many people – myself included – it’s actively preferable to the alternatives. The concerns you’ll find online are largely based on misunderstandings or exaggerations, and eight years of drinking it daily has done nothing but convince me it was the right choice for our family.

If you’re on the fence, I’d genuinely encourage you to look into it. Start by testing your own tap water with a TDS meter and see what comes up. The results might surprise you. A basic TDS meter is inexpensive and easy to find online.