1. Why use distillation ?
When combined with carbon filtration, distillation is the single most
effective method of water purification and can be used throughout the
world on all types of incoming water. Unlike other treatment methods such
as carbon filters and reverse osmosis, our systems are effective on
virtually all contaminants and are not dependent on water pressure, water
temperature, pH, or chlorine and can even be used on water containing
bacteria and parasites and still produce safe, 99.0% pure water.



2. Where can the Monark distillers be installed ?
The portable Monark Water Distiller unit can be installed in the kitchen, the
dining room, the office or practically anywhere. As it is a countertop unit,
no plumbing is necessary. All it requires is on electrical outlet and a well
ventilated location, without other appliances or objects obstructing the flow
of fresh air to the distiller. When traveling, the portable distiller makes a
good companion. The larger models are normally installed in the kitchen
as they require direct tap water supply.



3. What maintenance is required ?

The portable Monark Water Distiller is designed for little maintenance in normal situations. In order to prevent the residue from being encrusted to the boiler tank, use a sponge to wipe and clean the boiler tank about once a day. To soften contaminants that have already solidified to the boiler, just add 2 tablespoons of the stainless steel cleaner to the water that you are going to distill and after the distillation process, rinse out the softened contaminants. Your boiler will be as clean as new.
The cooling fins, cooling duct and fan also need to be cleaned whenever necessary in order that the distiller unit can perform efficiently year after year. However, do not immerse the distiller into water or wet the motor and fan assembly. The larger units should be serviced by our technicians, as indicated in our service and maintenance programme.



4. Is the distillation process expensive? Does it consume a lot of electricity?
The portable Monark Water Distiller uses a total of 580 W of electricity per hour. The cost to distill one gallon (or 4 litres) of water at 6 hours per cycle is calculated as follows :-
0.580 X 6 hours X 21.8 sen ( Malaysian LLN Tariff Rate )
= 75.86 sen per gallon or about 18.97 sen per litre.


Therefore, depending on your requirement, if you distill one gallon of water per day it will cost only about 76 sen and at 3 cycles per day it will cost about RM2.28 for 3 gallons or 12 litres of water. The automatic cut off after every cycle helps to save on electricity. For the larger units the cost to distill one gallon of water is lower.
 

5. I've heard that distillation cannot remove volatile organic?
Some articles have been written about distillation systems being unable to remove volatile organic ( organic chemicals that have a boiling point lower than water ). They claim these gases carry over with the steam. To ensure this does not happen, Monark Distiller units are equipped with a volatile gas vent on the condensing coil, which remove virtually all of these contaminants. For even further protection, each Monark distiller unit is equipped with a activated carbon post-filter to provide you with high quality distilled water with a 99.9% removal rate of virtually all contaminants.
 

6. Aren't there minerals missing from distilled water that my body needs?
There is no doubt that the body needs minerals. This issue is perhaps the 'hottest' one regarding the use of distilled water. It is easy to find an equal number of 'authorities' or ' experts' on both sides of this controversial issue.

In short, virtually all nutritional and medical authorities agree that the body assimilates organic minerals from the daily food cycle. Where the authorities disagree is whether or not the body directly extracts any nutritional value from the minerals found in an inorganic source such as dissolved rocks, dirt and stone found in tap or mineral waters.

Perhaps the best way we have found to sort out this problem is to evaluate various tap and water source around the world and determine the amount of inorganic minerals (by weight) which would be consumed by drinking an average of two litres of tap water daily. Then, we compare this number to the amount of minerals (by weight) found in a normal daily diet. Dr. Jon Kirschmann's Nutritional Alamanac is one of several good sources for this data.

When these two sources of minerals are compared, the results are real eye-openers. On the average, over 95% of the major and trace minerals ingested daily (by weight) come from food (fruits, vegetables, animal products) - and less than 5% from drinking water.

The distilled water 'mineral issue' then can be focused into a much cleaner question; is it really smart to ingest all types of heavy metals, bacteria, chemicals used in water treatment processes, industrial and agricultural chemical residues, etc. simply to get that little additional percentage of daily mineral intake from water sources? We don't think so.



7. Some people assume that distilled water is 'dead water' because it is devoid of oxygen, air and minerals that are present in filtered or purified water. As fishes cannot live in distilled water, wouldn't it be harmful for us to consume such 'dead water'?
Distilled water is the purest form of water which has been condensed from steam or water vapour. When water is boiling in the kettle or distiller or in any other apparatus, oxygen and air is heated up and released into the air together with steam. Therefore both boiled water and distilled water do not have any dissolved oxygen or air in them. But the difference is that distilled water is 99.9% pure and free from any kind of impurities whereas the pollutants and contaminants are still in the boiled water.

Our body can only absorb and make use of organic minerals that are found in food ie. meat, fruits, vegetables etc. More than 95% of the minerals found in water are inorganic minerals which cannot be assimilated by the body and therefore become harmful when they are deposited and accumulate in our arteries, blood, kidneys, bladder, joints, etc.

Fishes cannot live in distilled water or boiled water because there are no dissolved air in the water. However as humans do not live in water like a fish, consuming distilled water will not affect the intake of air when we breathe. The presence of air and minerals in water does not make the water more 'alive' and neither does it become 'dead water' when all the contaminants are removed. In fact distillation produces nothing else but pure water instead of dead water.



8. Does distilled water leach minerals out of the body?
To state that water leaches or does anything in the body is a very fundamental mistake. In their book, " Fit For Life II ", Harvey and Marilyn Diamond wrote, " Distilled water has an inherent quality. Acting almost like a magnet, it picks up rejected, discarded and unusable minerals and, assisted by the blood and lymph, carries them to the lungs and kidneys for elimination from the body. Referring to the elimination of these damaging minerals as a leaching out of minerals is erroneous. The statement that distilled water leaches out minerals that have become part of the cell structure is totally unfounded. It can't and won't. It collects and removes only minerals that have already been rejected or excreted by the cells. "


9. Do athletes drink distilled water?
The wise ones do. The famous Connie Mack, manager of the Yankees for some 30 years, would not allow his players to drink hard water on any occasion - and he had wonderfully healthy teams. Connie Mack also "practiced what he preached" and maintained his own perfect health to age 90.


10. I have an obesity problem. Will drinking distilled water help me to lose weight?
First, eliminate salt from your diet. A major cause of obesity is retention of fluid in the tissues, and a major cause of water-logged tissues is the fact that salt is indigestible by the human body and must be held in solution with water. Hard water makes this condition worse by adding more indigestible inorganic minerals which impair the body's system of elimination. Pure, distilled water will help your body to function at its best in every way, including the elimination of accumulated harmful inorganic substances. Distilled water is especially kind to your liver and kidneys, which are the organs most abused by salt and hard water.