Can I use rainwater as distilled water in my cool mist humidifier?

Question

I have a cool mist humidifier for my bedroom that i use at night. it suggests to use distilled water. if i use tap water dust like particles start accumulating all over my room. (on night stand, dressers, etc.)

Currently, i use purified drinking water (the PRIMO water) that you get from Lowes. but this gets expensive seeing that the humidifier chamber is rather large and uses alot of water daily. i went to my local grocery store and bought some 1 gallon bottles of distilled water. this too is expensive and time consuming. can i collect rainwater and use this in my "American Red Cross" cool mist humidifier? or do i need to process the rainwater through carbon or any other methods? collecting the water in a bucket and then dumping this into 1 gallon bottles would be the easiest and cheapest way, but is it the same, is is safe, and will it cause white dust particles to accumulate? thanks!!!

Answer 1

rain water is not distilled,distilled water comes from steam evaporation

Answer 2

Rain water is not distilled.  Even purified drinking water is not the same as distilled.

Answer 3

Rain water might just be the answer.  The "dust" accumulation is probably the fine particles of minerals that all ground water contains. When the tray dries out, the minerals are showered around by the fan.  Rainwater might have some minute particles it picked up on the way down, but is still very clean.  Just make sure the container you collect it in is spotless.

Answer 4

Not advisable. Rain contains all sort of impuities from the air. Do not collect it from downspouts or it will have even more junk in it.