I went to two supermarkets and a target this evening but the shelves of all were devoid of distilled water! Is this local to me (Baltimore, MD area) or have others experienced it too?

In the end I bought a gallon of purified water, which sounds like distilled water + added minerals. This is exactly what I do with the third wave water packets but of course I have no idea how much was added to this gallon. The cheap test strips I have suggest it is pretty low so I think I will use it and hope the distilled water supply resumes!

Reverse Osmosis (RO) water works with 3rd Wave packets. It's likely that the Purified water you bought is RO but reading the label should list what they added to the water after RO process. I think it's best if nothing is added after RO process.

Most bottles labelled "purified with minerals added" will not have much mineral, but are often spiked with calcium chloride, which isn't ideal. Best to check the label for actual contents. If it says purified on the bottle and it's unclear whether minerals were added you can verify it with an inexpensive TDS meter -- it will read a few ppm or less if no minerals were added, and you can use it same as you would distilled.

We've had "runs" where the affordable sources of pre-bottled, distilled water (Target, Smart & Final) have been mysteriously out for weeks at a time.

We've now got a ZeroWater pitcher as a backup. Our tap water is generally soft, so it isn't crazy expensive if we have to go that route.

Just went grocery shopping this week and I had to search behind the bottles of spring water to find the last bottle of distilled water at my local store in San Jose, CA. Not sure why the run on it.

Love the Zero Water pitcher, it work great!

For people that are using Third Wave Water or Perfect coffee water, are you guys using a full pouch per gallon?

I had a super interesting talk with the guys at Rogue Coffee Roaster here in Canada, those guys are like coffee wizard, doing competition and everything, and they recommend to use a pouch for 2 gallon cause in there tests, espresso test better in softer water, around 40 to 80 ppm. (If I'm not mistake a pouch for a gallon of TWW give you around 130 ppm)

What do you thing about that? Did you already try it?

I gave it a shot using third wave water, I went as low as 80ppm, and found my espressos more enjoyable, smoother, . It seems to mellow out the small imperfections of the sh** if you don't get this crazy clean, balance, sweet extraction that we are all aming for.

fizguy wrote:I went to two supermarkets and a target this evening but the shelves of all were devoid of distilled water! Is this local to me (Baltimore, MD area) or have others experienced it too?

In the end I bought a gallon of purified water, which sounds like distilled water + added minerals. This is exactly what I do with the third wave water packets but of course I have no idea how much was added to this gallon. The cheap test strips I have suggest it is pretty low so I think I will use it and hope the distilled water supply resumes!

Use the Target app, that's what I did. Only 3 of 21 Targets near me had it (yes, I live in the home of Target). Previously I had searched and a bunch of the stores said "no longer carrying this item."

But yeah, I've found it hard to find often. None of the water delivery places I've found mention carrying it but it might be worth asking as it's often a hard find.

Not a local issue. I had to shop around to get some. None of the grocery stores around me had any distilled water. Was able to score some at target though.

dixi08 wrote:Love the Zero Water pitcher, it work great!

With my 500 ppm water, the Zero Water pitcher lasts maybe two weeks of water for coffee.