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!

The Brewmatic is great! It connects to a receptacle behind it in the backsplash wall and is fed by a 1/4" line that runs in the wall and pokes out behind the unit as well. I ran the water line in a piece of 3/8" flexible electrical conduit that extends to the basement where I have the water filter. This provides protection to the water line as well as providing the means to replace it if needed in the future. I simply grouted around the water line as it comes through the tile and that seems to be working well. Extra cord and water line are coiled and tied and tucked up behind the unit.

@john how Define "good". Do they provide soft water? Yes, like any other ion exchange water softer that is properly sized and set up, it will provide soft water. The aren't doing anything that makes the water "more soft". Is it more reliable than other softeners? They are probably more reliable than very low-end water softeners, but very reliable softeners are readily available built with industry standard parts for (Fleck control valves, for example) for not much money. Does it provide better value? Value driven customers can probably do better by ordering a Fleck based softer online from Amazon. Do they provide better service? There's a large network of Culligan dealers who can install and service a water softener. If you need that level of service and want a national brand name, they probably aren't a bad choice. Local water treatment companies can also do a very good job, without the cost of a national brand. So, what sets them apart? Water softening is a commodity business - there's no secret sauce. There's no water softer that's going to make your water "more soft". There are some gimmicks out there - such as twin tanks and units that don't require electricity - that don't provide any real tangible benefits. Some of the hardware is better than others. But there is industry standard, highly reliable and highly serviceable hardware available for moderate cost. They have a memorable brand and a dealer network.

If you use dissimilar metals they may not only, fuse but actually disappear. We have a iron fountain. I recently had to change the fittings because of the action between the fountain and the fittings. When I change the fitting the corrosion had eaten half of it away. (And I was wondering why the fountain was not working right!) Any time you have dissimilar metals you will have corrosion. You can get corrosion even if the fittings are in a damp environment and are not submerged or have a water running through them.