We sell water distillers and we deliver distilled water. That puts us in an unusual position: we have no reason to talk you into the wrong one. This page has the machines, the prices, and the arithmetic that tells you which side of the line you are on.
The machines
| Model | Reservoir | Pump | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dol-fyn, 3 gallon tank | 11 L | No | $1,495 |
| Dol-fyn, 7 gallon tank | 26 L | No | $1,795 |
| Dol-fyn, 7 gallon tank with pump | 26 L | Yes | $1,795 |
All three are refurbished, rebuilt and bench tested in our own Mississauga workshop, and verified producing pure water before they leave. Refurbished is not a euphemism here. These are the same machines we have serviced for decades, which is the reason we can rebuild them and the reason we stock every wear part.
A note on the two 7 gallon versions. They are the same price. The pump is what lets you draw water off the tank without lifting or siphoning. Unless you have a specific reason to want it without, take the pump.
The reservoir size is about how much finished water you want standing ready, not about how fast the machine makes it. A 3 gallon tank suits a household or a CPAP user. A 26 L tank suits a clinic, a small lab or a busy kitchen that does not want to think about it.
Should you buy a machine at all?
Here is the honest arithmetic. An 18 L bottle from us is $5.00 collected or up to $8.90 delivered, so between 28 and 49 cents a litre.
| Machine | Price | Bottles it equals, delivered | Litres |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 gallon | $1,495 | about 168 | about 3,000 L |
| 7 gallon | $1,795 | about 200 | about 3,600 L |
Now put your own usage against that.
- A CPAP user going through one 18 L bottle a month. The machine takes about fourteen years to pay for itself. Buy the water.
- A household using two or three bottles a month. Four to six years. Marginal. Buy the water unless you want distilled water on tap for its own sake.
- A clinic or salon using two bottles a week. Under two years, and you stop scheduling deliveries. The machine makes sense.
- A lab, a dental practice or anyone who cannot afford to run out. The machine plus a standing water order. Redundancy is the point, not the payback.
And this is before electricity, descaler and the occasional part, all of which push the real break even further out than the table suggests. We would rather say that than have you work it out afterwards.
What actually comes out of it
Distillation boils the water and condenses the steam. Minerals, salts, heavy metals and most organics have no way to follow, so what condenses is close to nothing but water. Our own distilled water tests between 0 and 5 parts per million total dissolved solids, and a home machine on the same principle lands in the same place.
That is a different product from reverse osmosis, which typically leaves 10 to 50 ppm, and from filtered water, which in the GTA still runs 80 to 250 ppm because carbon does not remove dissolved minerals. If your specification says distilled, a filter jug will not satisfy it. The full comparison is here.
Running one, honestly
A distiller is a kettle that never stops, so treat it like one.
- Scale is the enemy. Boiling GTA tap water leaves calcium and magnesium in the tank and it bakes onto the element. Descale monthly on daily use. This single habit is the difference between a machine that lasts five years and one that lasts fifteen
- It uses electricity, and not a trivial amount. You are boiling every litre you make
- It is not silent. There is a fan, and it runs for the length of a cycle
- Carbon post filters need changing every two to three months, or the water starts tasting flat
None of that is a reason not to buy one. It is the reason we keep every wear part on the shelf: parts and troubleshooting are here, worked backwards from the symptom.
Buying from us rather than online
You can buy a distiller from a marketplace listing for less. What you cannot buy there is somebody who will answer the phone in three years when it starts cutting out mid cycle and tell you it is the thermal overload, not the element.
- Bench tested before it ships, in our own workshop, by the people who service them
- Every wear part stocked, not ordered in from overseas when you call
- Parts ship Canada wide. They are small and light, so freight is not the obstacle it is for bottles
- Forty years of the same machines. We have seen how they fail and in what order
Common questions
Do you ship distillers across Canada?
Ask us for a quote with your postal code. A machine is heavy and boxed, so freight is real money, but unlike bottled water it is worth quoting anywhere in the country. Pickup at our Mississauga plant is free.
Is a refurbished distiller a risk?
Less than you would think, because the parts that fail are the ones we replace during the rebuild, and we stock the rest. A refurbished machine from the shop that services them is a different proposition from a used one off a classifieds site.
How long does a distiller last?
With monthly descaling, well over a decade. Without it, a few years. Scale, not age, is what kills them.
Can I use it for a CPAP machine?
Yes, distilled water is what CPAP manufacturers specify. Whether the machine is worth it at CPAP volumes is a different question, and the arithmetic above says usually not.
What if I buy one and it turns out I did not need it?
Call before you buy and tell us what you go through in a month. We will tell you which way to go. We sell both, so it costs us nothing to be straight with you.
Do you take trade ins?
Ask. Depending on the machine and its condition we can sometimes do something.
Or just have the water delivered
If the arithmetic above pointed you the other way, that is the easier answer and we do that too. Distilled water in 18 L and 11 L bottles, cases and 1,000 L totes, delivered across the GTA on our own trucks or collected free from the plant. What it costs per litre is here.
Puretap Water Distillers Ltd., 950 Verbena Road, Mississauga. Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 15:30. 905-670-7400.