hi Bellowbelle,in James Green's "the Herbal Medicine-maker's Handbook" he says "a true hydrosol is a particulaly pleasant offspring of the steam distillation of aromatic plants." He has whole chapter( only 5 pages) on distillation of hydrosols. He mentions that the oil is on top of the liquid and that it is certain herbs and does n ot mention fresh or dry.My guess is yes, it is a hydrosol. Your distiller sounds interesting. Gloria````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

The reason this subject is so mysterious is that distilling essential oil is probably one of the most frustrating, fruitless activities a person can pursue. I have been distilling oil in my home for a while now and luckily I am not relying on the oil I make to help me make a living. Yo truly need to actually grow fields/ trees/ huge bushes of the plant you're trying to distill in order to get a reasonable amount of oil. That said, if you are passionate (and/ or obsessed)with essential oils and aromatherapy, it will be totally worth the frustration. I tried for years to be craftly and cheap and to make a still myself, using all the old moonshiner methods. Nothing worked. I was being foiled at very turn! So, I stopped being such a scrooge and I saved up the money and bought me a real essential oil still which has proven to be much better quality than the ones I was making myself. Who knew? So let's say you have a still- either bought or of your own devising-and you have found a source for loads upon loads of plant material to make this oil distilling thing worth your while, there is another problem that you have- your oil doesn't smell like the oil you bought from the store. Why is this? My lavender oil just smells like burnt, wet plant matter! What's the deal? I think part of it is that the oil needs to sit uncovered for a while, just to air it out. That seems to help quite a bit. Also, I was fortunate enough to have a chance to make essential oil of lemon rind in an actual chemistry lab. For those who don't know,citrus zest probably produces the most oil of anything on the planet. It's the most rewarding distillation I've ever had. So int this lab we distilled the zest just like I would have done at home and came away with the same amount of oil. But then we did this extra step where they stuck the oil flask on this weird looking science fiction-y machine that spun the flask around for a couple of minutes very fast. I was told that it would evaporate all the extra water out of the oil, making it pure. WHAT??? I thought it WAS pure after the distillation- that's what distilation is supposed to do, right? Well not quite. So I got my oil back and low and behold, there was about 1/2 as much oil in there as there had been before the spinning. It smelled like lemons. Wow. I wish I had a weirdo-science spinner of my own. I don't have a spinner. So, I think all we simple people can do is, a few times a day for several days, put a lid on the oil, give it a good shake and then leave it opened to the air. This will give the little remaining water a chance to come to the surface and possibly evaporate. ANYWAYS, back to something most people will care about- heartmagic.com/essentialdistiller is where to go to find the still I bought. I have the glass one which is the cheapest ($400)but there are also copper ones and I think they even have a pelican for over a grand. Someday... Thanks for reading!

You might want to consider using rain water or water from a dehumidifier - both are essentially deionized and are similar to distilled water. There are actually 2 things to consider in your question. One is the actual level of chlorine/fluorine in your water. It's a certainty that letting the water set out doesn't reduce fluoride levels, and a near certainty it doesn't reduce the amount of chloride in the water ..... and a near certainty that it doesn't reduce the amount of chloride. Only in water purification systems that are throwbacks to the 50s & 60s will you find a volatile form of chlorination. This is because of the short short half life of the compounds formerly used. Newer forms of chlorination use chloramine, which doesn't gas off. The fluoridation process (of drinking water) has always used a compound that is nonvolatile, so it too, remains in any water left out to rest for any length of time. As water left out evaporates, it leaves the elements/compounds dissolved in the water behind, which actually increases the concentration. The second consideration is the TOTAL of all dissolved elements/compounds in the water. ANYTHING dissolved in the water contributes to the TDS (total dissolved solids) and EC (electrical conductivity) of the water. These measurements are valuable to greenhouse growers because they help to determine safe levels of solutes in the soil. If their concentration is too weak, nutritional deficiencies are assured; too strong, and it becomes difficult for the plant to take up water and the nutrients dissolved in it. Using distilled water eliminates the extra ions dissolved in tap water, which can reduce the TDS/EC of the soil solution. This can facilitate water uptake and make it easier for the plant to move water to distal parts, like leaf tips & margins - so spoiled foliage is greatly reduced. All this is pretty much a nonissue if you're using a suitable soil. By suitable, I mean one that allows you to water copiously, so that you flush salts from the water and prevent them from accumulating without worrying about root rot. If you're using an appropriate soil and watering correctly, chlorine/fluorine are usually never a problem, and you shouldn't NEED to worry about using distilled water, though it can still be helpful if you want to. Be very sure though, that your plants are getting the Ca and Mg they need - especially if they have been in the same soil for more than a year or two. Most soluble fertilizers don't supply these elements. SOME, is usually dissolved in tap water, which is why you need to be extra vigilant if using deionized water in any form. Al

I buy it by the gallon also. My mom use to use it all the time, but me being of the 60's generation or maybe I was just not smart back in the day abandoned vinegar and used store bought cleaners and such that my mom used vinegar for. I came back full circle when I got wiser, in my mid thirties..I think that is when I realized mom wasn't so dumb after all. LOL