Yes, you can drink distilled water. It is boiled and condensed, so almost nothing dissolved survives the trip, and the main thing people notice is that it tastes flat and slightly dull compared to the water they are used to. Whether you should build a habit around it is a different question, and it usually comes down to what you are trying to escape.
Safe to drink, and what it tastes like
Distilled water is used daily in plenty of homes without incident. The taste complaint is real: the minerals that give water body and a faint sweetness are gone, so it can seem stale or metallic in the mouth. Chilling helps, as does using it in coffee or tea where other flavors carry. If a household drinks it because of a real contaminant, the flat taste is a small price; if there is no contaminant, it is a habit paid for weekly with nothing to show.
Why people end up buying distilled
The usual reason is a well they no longer trust. That instinct is not silly. The EPA points out that private wells sit outside Safe Drinking Water Act regulation, and cites a USGS study of 2,100 private wells in which about one in five carried at least one contaminant above a human-health benchmark. But buying bottles treats only the glass on the table. A test tells you which contaminant you have, and our well water testing guide sets out what to sample for and when.
A distiller is not a whole-home fix
Even a good countertop distiller produces slowly and only for drinking. It does nothing for the shower, the dishwasher, the water heater or the pipework, so if the underlying problem is hardness, the scale keeps building everywhere it was already building. Match the tool to the fault: a point-of-use device for what you drink, and treatment on the main line for what the whole house sees. Our water softener installation page covers the second half of that.
Questions people ask about can drink distilled water
Is it bad to drink distilled water long term?
Ordinary diets, not drinking water, supply most dietary minerals, and distilled water is drunk routinely in many households. The common complaints are taste and cost rather than safety.
Can babies or pets drink distilled water?
It is widely used for making up formula precisely because it contains almost nothing dissolved. Follow your pediatrician or vet for anything specific to your household.
Is distilled water the same as purified water?
Not quite. Purified is a broader label that also covers reverse osmosis and deionization. Distilled specifically means the water was boiled and the steam condensed back.