Distilled water is not experiencing a widespread, national shortage in 2025, but localized stockouts at grocery stores and pharmacies are common enough that many shoppers find empty shelves. The issue is less about production capacity and more about how distilled water moves through the supply chain: it’s heavy, low-margin, and stores don’t stock much of it at a time. When demand spikes even slightly, whether from seasonal CPAP use, weather events, or regional disruptions, shelves clear out fast and take days to restock.
A gallon of distilled water typically costs between $1.00 and $1.50 at U.S. grocery stores, which means retailers have little financial incentive to keep large quantities on hand. If you’re struggling to find it, there are practical workarounds depending on what you need it for.
Why Shelves Go Empty
Distilled water sits in an unusual spot in the retail supply chain. It’s bulky, cheap, and only a fraction of shoppers buy it regularly. Stores allocate limited shelf space to it compared to drinking water, so even a modest bump in demand can wipe out local inventory. Natural disasters and boil-water advisories trigger panic buying, but so do quieter forces like flu season (when humidifier use climbs) or a new wave of CPAP users stocking up.
The broader food and beverage manufacturing landscape has also tightened. More than 20 food, beverage, and pharmaceutical companies have announced plans to close roughly 21 plants and cut over 30,000 jobs between 2025 and 2028. While none of these closures specifically target distilled water production, they reflect consolidation in the industries that produce and distribute it. Fewer plants serving the same geography means less flexibility when demand fluctuates.
In late 2023, a large recall added pressure on a related product category. Nurse Assist, LLC recalled sterile water and saline products across multiple bottle sizes and prefilled syringes after concerns that the products might not actually be sterile. The FDA warned that nonsterile water products could cause serious infections, including bloodstream and respiratory infections. That recall rippled through hospitals and home healthcare supply chains, temporarily increasing demand for alternative purified water sources.
What CPAP Users Can Do
If you use a CPAP machine with a heated humidifier, distilled water is the standard recommendation because it leaves no mineral residue in the water chamber. But if you can’t find distilled water, purified bottled water or filtered water works as a short-term substitute. The tradeoff is that these alternatives contain trace minerals that build up over time, so you’ll need to clean the humidifier chamber more frequently.
To remove mineral deposits, soak the water chamber in a solution of one part white vinegar to nine parts room-temperature water. Rinse thoroughly with warm drinking-quality water afterward. This is the same cleaning protocol ResMed recommends for routine maintenance, just do it more often if you’re using non-distilled water. For a brief trip where you can’t bring distilled water along, purified or low-mineral bottled water is generally safe for occasional use.
Preparing Infant Formula Without Distilled Water
Parents who use distilled water to mix powdered infant formula have options if it’s unavailable. The CDC recommends bottled water as a substitute when tap water may be unsafe. If bottled water isn’t available either, you can make tap water safe by bringing it to a rolling boil and letting it cool to room temperature before mixing with formula.
For babies younger than 2 months, those born prematurely, or infants with weakened immune systems, the CDC recommends extra precautions: boil the water, wait about 5 minutes, then mix with powdered formula and allow it to cool before feeding. This helps reduce the risk of Cronobacter, a rare but serious bacterial infection. One important caveat: boiling does not remove chemical contaminants. If your local water supply is affected by chemical contamination rather than bacteria, use bottled water or switch to ready-to-feed liquid formula, which requires no water at all.
How to Make Distilled Water at Home
If you consistently can’t find distilled water locally, you can produce small batches at home with equipment you probably already own. The process takes advantage of a simple principle: heating water creates steam, and when that steam cools and condenses, it leaves minerals, chemicals, and impurities behind.
You’ll need a large stainless steel pot with a lid, a heat-resistant glass or metal bowl, ice cubes, and tap water. Fill the pot partway with tap water and place the bowl inside, elevated on a small rack or an overturned cup so it doesn’t sit on the bottom. Flip the pot lid upside down and place it on top, then pile ice on the inverted lid. Bring the water to a simmer (not a hard boil). Steam rises, hits the cold lid, condenses into droplets, and drips down into the bowl. After about 30 to 45 minutes, you’ll have roughly a liter of distilled water.
Transfer the collected water into a clean glass container and store it in a cool, dark place. This method uses more energy than buying a gallon at the store, but it’s reliable when shelves are bare. Countertop water distillers are also available for around $80 to $200 and automate the process if you need distilled water regularly.
Alternatives Worth Knowing About
Not every use of distilled water actually requires distilled water. Understanding the differences between purified, filtered, and deionized water can save you a trip to multiple stores.
- Purified or filtered bottled water has been treated to remove most contaminants but still contains some dissolved minerals. It works for drinking, cooking, CPAP machines (short-term), and humidifiers. It will cause mineral scale in appliances over time, and it is not sterile, so it’s not appropriate for wound care or medical irrigation.
- Reverse osmosis (RO) water is filtered through a membrane that removes the vast majority of dissolved solids. It’s closer to distilled water than standard filtered water, though not identical. Some grocery stores have RO water dispensing stations where you can fill your own jugs.
- Deionized water has had all charged ions (calcium, magnesium, chloride) removed through a resin exchange process, giving it near-zero electrical conductivity. It’s commonly used in labs and for car batteries or steam irons, but it’s not always food-safe unless specifically labeled as such.
For most household purposes, like filling a steam iron, topping off a car battery, or running a humidifier, any of these alternatives will work in a pinch. The situations where only true distilled water matters are those involving medical equipment that contacts your body directly, or laboratory and industrial processes requiring water with zero mineral content.
Finding It More Reliably
If your usual grocery store is consistently out, try pharmacies, hardware stores, and auto parts shops, all of which carry distilled water for different customer bases and restock on different schedules. Big-box retailers with dedicated water aisles tend to have more consistent supply than smaller stores. Online ordering with home delivery is another option, though shipping costs on something this heavy can double the price.
Buying in bulk when you do find it is the simplest hedge against spotty availability. Distilled water stored in a sealed container in a cool, dark location stays pure indefinitely. Once opened, use it within a week or two to avoid airborne contaminants settling in.