Water Distiller Quick Fixes

Handy tips for Megahome Water Distiller Owners

As with all devices there are often things you can do to extend the life of the device or simply make your life easier. This is our list of things you can do to get the best out of your Megahome Water Distiller.

1. Do a physical clean after each distillation

Hard water leaves white scale inside the distiller. Most people in the UK live in a hard water area (you can check this on your water supplier's website). If you do not tackle it, the scale builds up and it can damage the distiller. In fact if the scale is very thick, the heat from the heating element cannot adequately get through and the machine can overheat. 

If we ever get customers returning bases they almost always have a massive amount of scale on them. So clean your distiller regularly, the cleaning crystals will dissolve any scale present in the distiller. And you can reduce the amount of cleaner you use by physically cleaning the distiller after each distillation. 

To do this put a bit of water in the bottom and use a non-stick scouring pad to physically clean out the distiller. Doing this will reduce the amount of cleaner you use. As a rough guide: clean every 3-4 weeks in most areas and every 2-3 weeks in very hard water areas.

2. Proof the stainless steel on the head unit

Crazy but true, stainless steel does actually stain, it’s just designed not to rust. Very often the metal in the head unit can get stained a dark colour with contaminants from your water. You can clean this off using a non-stick scourer but it is hard work.

You can avoid this entirely by proofing the steel. To do this, rub in some light vegetable oil and wipe off any excess.

When you have done it, it should not feel oily, if it does get a cloth and wipe off a bit more of the oil. You are just aiming to wipe it on and then polish it off.

3. Keep it on the counter top

If distillers ever come back to us with a non-working head unit it is usually because they have overheated. Your distiller has to work hard to get rid of the heat required to cool 4 litres of water/steam. It is a lot of heat.

It needs to be in an open space like a kitchen to achieve this. Sometimes people put them in cupboards and when they do, the motor unit can overheat and fail.

4. Do not let the sockets get wet

If you repeatedly wet the sockets on your distiller this can cause a short circuit. Make sure you keep the sockets away from water and if you do ever get them wet, dry them thoroughly before use.

5. Switch it on and off each time or unplug it

One of the quirks of the Megahome distiller is that it likes to be turned off after each distillation, this is part of its reset procedure for the next distillation. When you are cleaning it out unplug it or switch it off using the switch on the back of the machine.

6. Don't get too hung up on TDS

TDS is Total Dissolved Solids. It measures the amount of contamination in the water. Most tap water in the UK is 250-500 ppm TDS. Most of the time your distiller will produce water that is 0-20.

We often get calls with people worried that their TDS reading is 3 after distillation. In reality the water is exceptionally pure and without very expensive analysis and investigation it is very hard to say where that contamination has come from.

It could be from tap water used to rinse out the jug or from manual contamination or a first use of a charcoal filter. It is impossible to say. Anything below 20ppm on a TDS meter should not be cause for concern.

7. How to use the distiller cleaner?

Your distiller comes with a pack of cleaning crystals. Essentially this is pharmacology grade citric acid - so it is nothing nasty. To clean the distiller, fill with water and put in two tablespoons of cleaning crystals. Then turn on the distiller but leave the head unit off the distiller (do not plug in either).

So you should end up with a full distiller of water that is heating up. Put a timer on for about 30 minutes because it is easy to forget. At the end of this period come back and see how clean the distiller is, if it is very encrusted it might need more cleaning crystals.

Keeping your distiller clean is the best thing you can do to preserve the life of your distiller

8. Going away? Rinse the distiller before you leave

Distiller crud can be highly corrosive so, if you are going away on holiday, make sure you rinse out your distiller before you go so it is not left with a load of nasty gunk in the bottom.