My house has well water, and after treating it with a water softener and chlorine to make it safe, it still has a fair amount of tannins giving it a slightly yellow tint (Top cup) and a \"lake\" like taste. Treating Tannins requires very slow Reverse Osmosis filters that are expensive so I thought I'd try distillation first. As you can see the water comes out crystal clear (second cup) leaving behind the very brown tannins (bottom cup). The process takes about 3 hours to process the water. Pros: The water is crystal clear Cons: The water has a metallic taste and smell like it's been in a canteen for a week. The manufacturer says this should go away in time, but it doesn't seem like it. I only use this water for coffee and other flavored drinks and because the canteen taste is more appealing than the swampy lake taste of the original tap water. The other con is it seems to me like the bottom of the distiller burns (the residues) and rusts if you let it run to completion (i.e. it only knows to turn off when it can get significantly hotter than boiling water alone). The easy fix I have found it to just let it run for an hour or so at a time to do a half gallon.