Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been using this distiller for almost a year, and it makes the best water I've ever tasted. The only reason I don't give it five stars is that I think there might be a way to make it more convenient; I think an older or frail person would have a tough time removing the upper cover (fan unit) after distilling (it's fairly heavy, and it makes a tight seal with the body of the distiller). When I first started using this distiller, I thought there was a slightly acrid taste to the water, even with the carbon filter. Eventually I figured out what was wrong. I live in an area where the tap water has a very high mineral content. The body of the distiller is essentially an electric kettle that holds a gallon of water. It shuts off automatically when the water boils off. But the mineral gunk left over gets burned onto the bottom and the sides of the "kettle", and that's what was causing the slightly off taste. By setting a timer so that I remember to shut off the distiller before the last few ounces of water boil away, I've been able to improve the taste of the water, as well as make de-scaling the kettle a less frequent task. (Starting from cold tap water, it takes about 6 hours to distill a gallon of water, so I shut it off at about 5 1/2 hours.) Curiously, the little button on the front of the distiller body is only an "ON" button; to manually turn the distiller off, you have to pull the power plug. Another slight drawback to this product is that the cooling fan is pretty loud. I run the distiller in a downstairs utility room, so it doesn't bother me at all, but you wouldn't want to be in the same room with it when it's running.