Using water from a dehumidifier?

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Pray tell how Radon gas can condense? Its boiling point is -71C.

I've just tasted the water from my desiccant drier and it's not very nice, but I would use it once boiled.
Hey don't knock it. I'm working on a plan to get my beer to glow in the dark so I can find my glass during a power cut.
:hat:
 
It seems a bit ridiculous to me to be getting uptight about a few spurious bits in condensed water collected from a dehumidifier for use in AG brewing, when you take into account what it will to be used with in the brewing process. All brewing grain comes from fields ffs, and will contain all sorts of foreign matter, soil, animal and bird dropping particles, who knows what else in small quantitities. But after its all been mashed and the product wort boiled for an hour or so any hazard will be eliminated.
 
Some here are more willing to embrace a Zombie Apocalypse setting or the lifestyle of a Dune character (by Frank Hebert) than others. It's not necessary at this time.

How many of you use your dehumidifier water for beer or otherwise on a regular basis?
 
Re:> foxy.
When I lived in Ullapool at the hotel where i was staying,All the guests started complaining about the water (there was a kettle in each room for morning tea/coffee ).After a few days the culprit was found,It was a dead seagull that had got into the cold water tank and had died and was now rotting in the tank.
Allthough people complaned about the taste fortunately no one was ill.
 
Re:> Kelper
Its not a question of condensation its a question of solubility.!!

All substances even pure gold which is not attacked by most acids will disolve in plain water if ground fine enough first.And particles in the air are very fine indeed.

As I posted earlier de-humidifiers can do a really good job of cleaning the air in a room.
 
Re:> An Ankou. Brew it with tonic water and fit UV lighting:laugh8:
Hey don't knock it. I'm working on a plan to get my beer to glow in the dark so I can find my glass during a power cut.

Excellent suggestion. I'll get UV lighting in in case I have a power cut. And the tonic'll save on bittering hops. :beer1:
Nearly time for a pint as it's POETS day!
 
It was this and other similar articles that made me think it might be useful as a basis for a water supply that I could add to to create different profiles.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-technology-you-asked/water-dehumidifier-drinkable

It is compressor style dehumidifier rather than revolving wheel. Yes I could just continue brewing with my tap water and campden tablets as before, or buy Ashbeck water from Tescos, but just chucking away regular gallons of this water piqued my interest.
 
You can do whatever you want, just don't drink it, lol.
 
The water that condenses on the chiller coils of a dehumidifier is (by definition) distilled and chemically pure. BUT the tank it accumulates in isn't sterilised, and as there are no antibacterial agents in the water there will be nothing to stop all manner of microbial nasties building up in there.
Of course in times past, one of the main benefits of brewing beer was in order to make water safe to drink...
 
My dehumidifier, as said already, is used for helping to dry line hung clothes in our utility room on wet days. It is plumbed to a drain, via a clear plastic pipe to avoid having to empty it regularly. The dehumidifier draws air in with a fan, which is preceded by a washable filter. None-the-less, the plastic pipe is black on the inside from the bugs coming out of the dehumidifier drain water. Drink it - NEVER!
 
There was a Dragon's Den where someone pitched a system that was basically a dehumidifier as a device to make pure water for drinking. There was a lot of back and forth between them about the purity claims etc until one of the "Dragon's" had a taste, followed by some of the others. They all said it was foul. I'm not sure if it was a failure of the principle or the execution but their facial expressions were pretty off putting.
 
Last edited:
Just yesterday I watched a show about a brewery in Florida that gets it's water from a dehumidifier type system, but it's system was outside.
 
We have had dehumidifiers over the years and as someone else said, the pipework and the water collection tray always appeared to have mildew(y) type things growing in and on them.
I would never consider drinking the water from a DH boiled or not, especially when there is perfectly good tap and bottled water available.
 
Back
Top