Distilled or Filtered??

[Radiant_Cow]

I have been using filtered tap water for my soaps up until now with no issues...But I'm seeing a lot of recipes that call for distilled water. Does that make a difference? I can't justify the extra plastic unless it is necessary. :thumbdown:

Thanks
Elisabeth

 

[Susie]

I filter my tap water. I feel the same way about plastic. I have soft water, though, and I am willing to guess that many(not all) people who use distilled do not have soft water.

 

[craftymom0263]

My friend that got me started making soap told me to use distilled water. I've never used filtered water

 

[Mellifera]

We have city water, not softened (it's not too hard). I use filtered tap, and haven't had a problem. I do use distilled for liquid soap, though, just to make a clearer soap.

 

[lsg]

I finally bought a one gallon water distiller and I use that water for all of my soaps and bath and body products requiring water.

 

[haksaktiawan]

I use filtered tap water in all of my batches. But I always cook tap water before filtering it.

 

[Shalisk]

I buy the water from walmart with the UV filtering and all that Jaz, the bottles are re-usable and re-fillable, and for 1.25 a gallon its not a bad price, and refills are like 60 cents

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I use plain tap water.

 

[Saponista]

Me too with the plain tap water

 

[Dennis]

At $2.18/1000 gallons I use tap water.

 

[shunt2011]

I use distilled or filtered.

 

[seven]

distilled. it's bloody cheap, so why not.

 

[LunaSkye]

I use filtered water. I haven't had a problem so far.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...I am willing to guess that many (not all) people who use distilled do not have soft water. ..."

No, that's not what distilled water is all about. Soft water, hard water, filtered water, ozone treated water, spring water, city water, well water, tap water, etc. ... all have dissolved minerals and metals in them. If you are having good luck making soap using water from the tap, then by all means keep using it.

Distilled (or lab quality reverse osmosis) water do not have these contaminants, so if you're running into problems with spots of DOS cropping up in your soaps, you may want to switch to distilled to see if your water is the culprit. DOS can be triggered by calcium, copper, and other dissolved materials in non-distilled water. These materials will NOT be removed except by distillation or laboratory quality RO treatment.