Shaving with distilled water - How much does it take?

**PugslyCat** · 05-02-2012, 02:37 PM

There has been talk several places and at several times about using distilled water to shave with due to hard water from the tap. Can anybody who actually does that tell me how much distilled water they go through in a month?

I have posted about softening water in small batches to use while shaving. I am trying to figure out just how much water I would need to soften to supply typical shaving needs for a month. The amount of water that would need to be softened at home instead of purchased really determines the economics of this.

How much distilled water does it take to support your shaving:
1) I don't use distilled water. The tap water works just fine.
2) 1 gallon per month or less - I sprinkle just enough on the brush to wet it and make lather.
3) 2 gallons per month - I use about a cup of water a day. I can fill my antique scuttle to really soak my brush in and make lather with.
4) 3-5 gallons per month - I use several cups of water a day. I can fill a bowl or sink to soak my brush, make lather, and easily rinse my razor during my shave.
5) More than 5 gallons per month. I do all of the above and perform my pre-shave face wash and post shave rinses with distilled water.

My guess is that most people would be able to get by with 2 gallons of distilled water per month, supplemented by some tap water for rinsing the razor during the shave. In my area, that is about $20/year of distilled water. I haven't priced the equipment to soften the water, yet, but I figure if I can't pay off the softener within two years it isn't really worth doing.

**eth** · 05-02-2012, 03:02 PM

Won't water hardness affect other appliances in your household as well? Dishwasher, washing machine and such? Repairs or extra maintenance could be things you want to consider in your calculation. I also believe saving some hassle is worth money, it is easier to just open the tap instead of heating up water from a bottle before shaving.

Oh, and I'll leave a stupid question here: is distilled water the same as bottled drinking water, or is it a different product?

**The Kiwi** · 05-02-2012, 03:18 PM

I probably use a quart and a half of rain water per shave, but I could use cold tap water to mix with it for washing and rinsing.

**PugslyCat** · 05-02-2012, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by eth

Won't water hardness affect other appliances in your household as well? Dishwasher, washing machine and such? Repairs or extra maintenance could be things you want to consider in your calculation. I also believe saving some hassle is worth money, it is easier to just open the tap instead of heating up water from a bottle before shaving.

Oh, and I'll leave a stupid question here: is distilled water the same as bottled drinking water, or is it a different product?

Hardness does affect the other appliances, the clarity of your ice cubes, and the taste of beverages such as coffee and tea. To use distilled water for all of these purposes pretty much requires a whole house water softener be hooked into your plumbing. I have this at my house in the country and thoroughly enjoy it and recommend anybody with hard water get one if they can. I spend a lot of time at an apartment near my job site which has horrendously hard water and getting a whole house system installed is not an option.

I am looking into softening water a bucket at a time for a few limited uses such as shaving where I really need the reduced mineral content to get the soap to lather. This won't produce enough water to use with appliances, but I suppose it could be used for cooking.

Distilled water has been boiled and the steam collected and condensed, leaving all kinds of minerals and other stuff behind in the boiler. It's about as close to pure water as you get.

Bottled water is usually just the local tap water at the bottling works put into a bottle with no additional treatment. It may have chlorine, flouride and minerals in it. Not that it's bad, it just isn't soft water.

Softened water has had the mineral content reduced usually by passing it through an element that exchanges calcium and lime for sodium ions.

**PugslyCat** · 05-02-2012, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by eth

I also believe saving some hassle is worth money, it is easier to just open the tap instead of heating up water from a bottle before shaving.

Definitely true. I have been living with poor quality lather during the week just because it's easier than dealing with the water quality issue. Then I shot off my mouth in a thread about shaving in hard water and figure I need to at least complete the research as to what it would take to soften water for shaving if you don't have a whole house softener.

The end result of all of this is that I am likely to just start carrying bottles of softened water from my house in the country to my apartment in town to use while shaving, but I'll be able to tell the rest of you what you can get to soften a sufficient quantity of water for shaving. Maybe I can become the father of WSAD - water softener acquisition disorder.

**The Kiwi** · 05-02-2012, 04:09 PM

I started using rain water to shampoo my hair because I use an expensive Psoraisis shampoo to control the scalp problems, and the results with the hard water had proved to be poor. I've used distilled water for coffee for about 35 years or so. The hard water does awful things inside of a coffee maker, and requires constant maintenance procedures, including using copious amounts of vinegar weekly, or more often if the buildup of calcium is deposited more rapidly than usual.

Incidentally, it seems that the human palate is a stranger sensory function than we know. Distilled water is tasteless, and the lack of taste makes the tap water, with its fluoride, chlorine, calcium, etc giving it flavors we've grown acquainted with, "better" tasting somehow.

Supposedly, the water from the Edwards Acquifer, in spite of its hardness, makes a desirable starting point for beer-making. We've had as many as three breweries in operation a couple of times, although none are running here right now.

**EL Alamein** · 05-02-2012, 07:02 PM

Get a Moss scuttle. Pour a little distilled water in the bowl and you're good to go for the whole shave. This is how I do it and it's worked fantastic for years.

Chris

**memoryleak** · 05-02-2012, 11:00 PM

Only use DW to presoak brush in a thick walled coffee mug, gallon jug lasts me a month. Buying DW in plastic jugs will always be a bargain compared to installing a water softener system

**brothers** · 05-03-2012, 05:02 PM

I voted "more than 5". We use it in a small room humidifier and also in the Keurig coffee maker. In addition I keep a gallon in the cabinet for shaving. That gallon lasts at least 2 or 3 months. The other two sources use all of the other water. Probably 2 to 3 gallons per week.

**InHotWater** · 05-04-2012, 04:16 AM

I use water from the tap for showering, and shaving.

**PugslyCat** · 05-05-2012, 05:45 PM

I did some checking at Petco today and found that they still carry that packets that replace a fish tank filter element to soften water. The water softener pillow and a small power filter sell for about $20, so if you replace 20 gallons of distilled water at $1.00/gallon you break even. For most of those responding to the poll that they use water other than tap water, that would be 1-2 years to break even.

If you are starting with potable water and you keep the softener and container you are softening water in, it could probably be used in coffee makers and cooking. I have been looking at making small batches of softened water with aquarium supplies, though, so this doesn't exactly have an FDA seal of approval. A whole house water softener has to be built to standards suitable for human consumption.