Can you drink water from a dehumidifier? You see, from a very young age, most people are taught that they should never put things in their mouths as there is no telling where something a toddler has picked up was before that moment. As people grow older, that rule switches from not putting anything but what you are fed into your mouth to being that you shouldn’t ingest anything that you aren’t completely sure whether or not it is safe and okay for you to eat.
With that being said, this is one of the many, many reasons why you should not drink the water that comes from your dehumidifier. Besides the fact that you do not have an idea on whether or not the water in your dehumidifier is clean, there are a whole host of other reasons why you should not be drinking that water.
In fact, the water that comes from your dehumidifier is classified under a group known as grey water. Grey water is known as the wastewater that comes from your home, aside from the toilet. Sinks, showers, tubs, even laundry machines and dishwashers all produce grey water. This includes dehumidifiers as well. The reason that grey water is typically not consumed is that it can contain quite a few different contaminants. Depending on where the grey water came from, these contaminants can be anything from residual soap to dead skin. Considering that dehumidifiers are known for taking water out of the air, there’s a good chance that the water stored in a dehumidifier contains things such as dead skin, dust mites, and so on. However, dehumidifiers pose one more unique aspect to them that makes their water even more harmful to drink: mold.
Is Dehumidifier Water Safe To Drink?
Simply put, it is a terribly unsafe idea to drink water from a dehumidifier. For a longer answer, there are so many potential contaminants that you could end up consuming if you tried to drink this water. Of course, there’s going to be the usual things that you could find in any container of grey water. Whether this is skin cells, dust mites, or even specks of dirt, there’s a good chance that your body wouldn’t react well to you ingesting these things. If the taste doesn’t put you off from tasting the dehumidifier water, then the effects of drinking it would discourage you from ever trying it again.
There is one other major reason why you should especially stay away from ingesting dehumidifier water. Relatively warm, moist areas meet the perfect conditions for growing mold and this is exactly what your dehumidifier is. Not only does your dehumidifier boast an enormous pool of water that mold could thrive on but many dehumidifiers provide the perfect place for mold to grow. If you choose to drink the grey water from your dehumidifier, there is a very good chance that you are drinking mold along with it. The consequences of ingesting mold can range from an awful taste in your mouth to a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. Neither of these are good. These are just a few of the problems that would come with drinking the water from a dehumidifier.
In addition to the potential mold in your dehumidifier’s water, there’s also a good chance that there are quite a few other contaminants that could end up harming your body. For instance, heavy metals are fairly common in a dehumidifier’s water. Ingesting heavy metals has been shown to have horrible effects on the human body, making it all the more reason for you not to drink the water that comes from your dehumidifier.
Another reason why you really shouldn’t be thinking about drinking the water from your dehumidifier is that the manufacturers didn’t intend that to be what you use the dehumidifier for. Others might think that this holds no sway over whether or not you should drink the water; however, it should hold quite a bit of sway. Because the manufacturers of your dehumidifier did not intend for it to be used for drinking, they had absolutely no obligation to build the humidifier to food-grade standards. This means that as the water collides with the walls of the dehumidifier, plastic compounds and heavy metals can rub off into the water. Some of these heavy metals include copper, aluminum, and potentially lead. With all of these potentially harmful contaminants in your dehumidifier’s water, you most certainly should not drink it nor should you let anyone else in your family, including pets, drink it either.
Some people want to advocate for saving as much water as possible, which is a righteous cause, but it is no reason for you to endanger your own life. As with many other types of grey water, the water from your dehumidifier can be used for a number of other tasks besides quenching your thirst. For instance, if you have a garden, you could easily use the grey water to water your plants. However, you should take care not to use it on plants that you intend to eat. You should also test it on a small portion of your garden just to make sure that your plants can safely absorb the grey water before dumping it on your entire garden. The EPA, or the Environmental Protection Agency, even suggests that you could refill your car battery with the grey water that comes from your dehumidifier instead of drinking it.
A few other uses of your dehumidifier’s grey water could be to conserve water by flushing your toilet with it. Of course, you should pour it in the bowl of the toilet and not the tank to ensure that you do not damage your toilet in the process. Other uses of this water could be to fill your iron or to pre-soak your laundry. There are so many uses for your dehumidifier’s water that can help you conserve water usage without putting your own life at risk. Instead of harming yourself in the name of saving water, you should consider some ways that would end up conserving water without getting anyone hurt in the process.
Is Dehumidifier Water Distilled?
Even if you are not interested in drinking the water that comes from your dehumidifier, you might want to know whether or not the water is distilled. After all, this can have effects on the plants that you water with the dehumidifier’s grey water. By a technical definition, water that comes from a dehumidifier is considered to be distilled. This is because the definition of distilled water is water that has very few or no minerals. Dehumidifier water also has very few of the particles that are typically removed in a genuine distillation process, making it technically distilled. However, if you are going by technicalities, there are a few things that you have to consider.
For instance, the true distillation process goes through a lot more than just being collected and filtered. The distillation process will involve condensing the steam of boiled water to ensure that the water is as clean as possible. By turning the water into steam, many of the particulates that are found in tap water are lost and any microbes or bacteria are killed off. These steps are not involved when it comes to your dehumidifier’s water. This also means that while the water meets the definition of being distilled in a sense that there are few minerals and other select particles, there are a number of other things that are never even thought of in distilled water.
Because one of the key concepts of distilled water is making sure that the water is as clean and as pure as possible, it would be common sense to think that there would be no heavy metal particles, microbes, or even mold in the distilled water. Since this is the case, these aren’t usually requirements listed for water to be considered distilled, which makes it so that your dehumidifier’s water is considered distilled.
What this means is that you have water, or more specifically grey water, that doesn’t have the minerals necessary to add the flavor to water that most people taste when they drink from the tap. In addition to this, dehumidifier water is full of contaminants that would ruin any purpose that you would have had for distilled water in the first place. Instead of a container of the purest water that you can come across, you instead have a container of water that is contaminated. The only time that your dehumidifier’s water should count as distilled water is if these potential contaminants will serve no harm to what you plan to do with it, such as watering a garden or filling an iron.
If you intend to use your dehumidifier’s water as distilled water, you will need to take special care to ensure that the areas on your dehumidifier where mold commonly grows are as clean as possible. This will prevent the water from being too muddled with microbes and mold, making it easier to use as distilled water. There are so many ways that you can use your dehumidifier’s water, conserve your usage of tap water, and benefit the plants around you without having to ingest something that is potentially harmful. These are all the things that you can use your dehumidifier’s water for without drinking it.