Wal-mart has a machine in the front or the back, It should be a Culligan water Machine. Before you use it, make sure it was serviced recently. The service card is kept on the side of the machine. If it has not been serviced in a few months then you are just throwing your money away.
Distill water and RO/water is not the same. And distilled water is not better.
Distilled water is made by evaporating water (boiling) and collecting the condisation back.
Most people think when you do that You are getting everything bad out of the water. When in fact what you are doing is killing any bacteria that is in the water. And remember not all bacteria is bad. Some of the chemical that is used to treat water to make it safe for humans will also evaporate and then get collected back in with the water you just collected.
RO water is ran thru a series of fillers that pull or filter out the chemical in the water. so at the end of the process you have pure water. None of the chemical that are put into the water for our benifit. But if the filters are not changed on a regular basis they will start to leach all the stuff back into the new water it is making. That is why I mentioned earlier to check the service card at Wal-Mart or any other place you would go buy your water.
As far a buying an RO/DI unit (the DI part is also recommended) you can pick one up on ---- for about $100.oo or probly even cheaper on the sale forum. Last month (end of July) I filled up my 180 gal with a 75gal sump. Everyday I have to put about 4 to 5 gal of fresh water in to replace the evaportion that takes place. I also have a 75 gal and a 29gal. I had to make water for all of these tanks. water changes and top off. My water bill for the month of July was 23.00. That is the whole bill. Showers, dishes. what not. I spent 3 years hauling water. The back of my Subaru shows it. Water gets spilled. Hauling it into the house is rough on the back to. I paid $1.25 a gal for salt and $1.00 a gal for fresh. I would say it is well worth it.
