I have a ton of plants that require distilled water plus several machines (a CPAP, a clothing steamer, and two humidifiers) that also need distilled water. At 8,000' of altitude, this little machine distills water at the rate of about 1 gallon per 3 hours, and on the rare occasion I forget to check on it, it will shut off automatically when it runs dry. If you have hard water, I recommend stopping it early, dumping the last 1/4ish of the water, then rinsing and refilling before continuing. At first I had to use the included cleaner every 5-8 gallons due to excessive mineral buildup, but stopping it early and rinsing it out has really helped reduce the build up in my distiller. If you use a lot of distilled water, I definitely recommend this distiller!