The distinguishing feature of distilled water is that it is completely free of anything other than the essential base elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Therefore, it has none of the minerals of bottled water, none of the potential contaminants of tap water and no discernible taste. While distilled water does have a handful of culinary uses, making it consumes a lot of energy for the eventual yield.
Step One
You will need: A deep pot with a lid that is concave if turned upside side (i.e is domed if place on pot properly) This will be used to hold the ice. Ice. Amount varies depending on outside temperature and how much water is being boiled. However, if you do not have access to ice, that is fine too. The condensation process will just take longer, but you can still have distilled water. A glass bowl that floats. Depending how deep the bowl sinks naturally, you will need to keep checking to make sure the distilled end product does not cause it to sink. You'll figure this out as you begin seeing water forming in the glass bowl.
Step Two
Fill your pot with much more water than you want distilled. Place on medium to high heat.
Step Three
Place your glass bowl (receiver flask) into your pot, making sure it floats well enough to allow for some water to be poured into it without sinking. Place your lid onto your pot upside down.
Step Four
Once your lid is on, place ice onto it. How much ice you use depends on how big the lid is, but as it melts, you can throw it out and put fresh ice onto it. The ice is designed to cool the distillate to speed and improve condensation, which happens in the receiver flask. Accordingly, you could distill water without ice, but it may take longer to create condensation.
Step Five
If you lift the lid off your pot slightly, you will see small droplets of water forming and falling off the inside of your lid onto the glass bowl. It may be hard to tell from the 2nd photo, but the droplets have turned into quite the small pool in the glass bowl. It's amazing to see the process as it is a mini ecosystem of its own.
Step Six
Once you think that your glass bowl will not be able to sustain any more water weight without sinking, remove it from the pot carefully and store in a clean glass container. Enjoy your new life skill and your freshly brewed distill water!