Home Water Distiller System Is a Win-Win

by Maria Karameros

According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC), each American consumed 30.8 gallons of water in 2012 and this figure is expected to continue rising. Consumer Reports states that bottled water is currently the most popular beverage, at an average annual cost of $346 per person. While drinking tap water costs an average of only 49 cents per year, there is a reason many people don’t drink it—the taste can be terrible and it is full of unintended, unhealthy contaminants.

People choose to drink water because it is the healthiest of beverages and helps detoxify the body. But water from reservoirs and wells can be overloaded with minerals or contaminated with pharmaceuticals and industrial toxins. Filtered water is often better, but many contaminants are not removed—a sample of professionally filtered local water yielded 156 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids (TDS). The only truly healthy option is distilled water. It is virtually free of all contaminants and provides unparalleled health benefits. One way to get tasty, convenient and pure drinking water affordably is to adapt the tap at home to provide distilled water. There is one local company that gives consumers pure water on tap—H2Only.

When Phil Festa, owner of Edgewater-based H2Only Distillation Systems, first dreamed of bringing better-tasting, cleaner water to consumers in New Jersey, he wasn’t initially aware that he would have to develop an entire system to do it. The company’s roots grew from the idea of transporting clean spring water from other states, but soon realizing the cost and effort of doing so would be inefficient. Then Festa heard Dr. Ronald Hoffman on the radio discussing the benefits of using distillers to purify drinking water.

After researching drinking water purification with numerous sources, including Pure & Secure, in Lincoln, Nebraska, a leading manufacturer of premium water distillers for homes and businesses, Festa decided to come up with a way to make distilled water easily accessible to as many people as possible at once. A master plumber with decades of experience, he says the intricate technology behind his water purification systems are “just another set of pipes.”

Over the last 10 years, H2Only has provided pure tap water by installing distillation units in private homes, municipal buildings and some of the newest high-rise apartment buildings in Bergen County. Refrigerators can also be connected to the units for added convenience. Personal-use distillers only store a gallon (not so handy for hurricane season), have to be cleaned often, cost hundreds of dollars and may have to be replaced every several years. On the other hand, H2O’s home systems store 12 gallons, need cleaning only twice a year (no professional required), cost around $3,000 and are covered by a 15-year warranty.

At first, this may sound like a large expenditure, but it is an investment in health and environment, given that the typical American family spends an average of $1,400 to $1,700 a year on bottled water. The system will eventually pay for itself and can also add value to a home without generating any plastic bottle waste.

H2Only Distillation Systems is located in Edgewater. For more information, call 201-941-7785 or visit H2Onlywater.com.