A fridge with a recessed tap [faucet] from which comes 99.9% pure water [by condensation], would be a bread and butter job for a designer.

It must be baked somewhere because all the necessary bits are already in a fridge - I think- but I'm not certain.
-- rayfo, Jun 29 2001

(?) this one uses uv light + filtration for clean, cold water http://www.innowave...e/products/uvf.html
i'm not sure if that's what you were looking for though [mihali, Jun 29 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

I've seen (and used) fridges with recessed chilled-water taps on the front, but I think they just used the water from the plumbing, not condensed from the air.

One problem with this is that when the air is dry, it won't produce very much water, but that's exactly when you want more water.
-- wiml, Jun 29 2001


Fair enough. I'll delete it after a while.
-- rayfo, Jun 30 2001


I remember asking a neighbor if he had any distilled water (for the racebike radiator) and the old fart started rambling about just getting some out of the distilled water tap. He led me over to the air conditioner condensate drain hose on the house which was steadily dripping water since it was a nice 100+ humid day. I stuck the jug under the hose, came back in 20 minutes and picked up my jug of distilled water.
-- dumbassengineer, Jun 30 2001


[m-f-d] as per rayfo's request. Or not.
-- jutta, Jun 30 2001, last modified Jul 14 2001


Can we [mfe] the 75% of the Halfbakery which is less sensible than this idea, first?

I think [dumbassengineer] may be on to something; put the spigot on the air conditioner, not the fridge. Air conditioners are already in the business of dehumidifying air, after all, and they already collect water -- it would just have to be purified and made available.

Surely there's a problem, or it would already be common.
-- egnor, Jul 01 2001


//I think [dumbassengineer] may be on to something; put the spigot on the air conditioner, not the fridge.//

First off, such condensation will in many cases not be pure enough to drink, much less use in applications requiring distilled water.

Secondly, the most logical use for air conditioner condensate (on the cold side) would be to cool the coils on the hot side. I don't know if any common systems use such a design (in many cases a pump would be needed to overcome gravity) but on hot humid days I would expect it could improve efficiency considerably.
-- supercat, Jul 01 2001


It's true, many modern air conditioners do circulate the condensation over the hot coils. Not only does this improve efficiency, but the hot coils evaporate the water, reducing the need for a drain.
-- egnor, Jul 01 2001


It's totally about the odors. Water picks them up in a fridge and the taste is off. Now if you could figure out a way to get the water nicely condensed without absorbing stale, odd, plasticy metally wierdo foody aspects, you're on!
-- djanaba, Jul 02 2001


Has anyone drunk distilled water? It really doesn't taste very nice.
-- Lemon, Jul 02 2001


It can if you put, um, lemon in it, f'rinstance.
-- bristolz, Oct 09 2002



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