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[SoulSkorpion]

I'm on a saltwater map and trying to desalinate water. The wiki says "Salt water pumped through a pump will become drinkable if then kept separate from natural walls, natural floors, other salt water or an aquifer", so I tried pumping a lake out into box made of stone floors and walls (with ramps for access while constructing):

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(saltwater lake)
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 ▲This didn't work. I tried removing the pump, building a floor tile under the "output" square of where the pump goes, waiting for all the water to evaporate out of the reservoir and trying again. No luck. What am I doing wrong?

[Grumman]

If it helps, I have successfully desalinated water by pumping it into a chamber with constructed walls and smoothed floors.

[Village_Idiot]

Are the floors, ramps and walls all constructed?

[Safe-Keeper]

Is there a real-life way to do this with the available technology of DF? Like for example evaporating water in an enclosed space, leaving the salt which is somehow removed, for then to let the vapour cool and become water again?

[slothen]

Is there a real-life way to do this with the available technology of DF? Like for example evaporating water in an enclosed space, leaving the salt which is somehow removed, for then to let the vapour cool and become water again?

im pretty sure when water evaporates it disappears, so no.

[BigD145]

The df wiki has your answer.

[Jim Groovester]

Wells ignore salinity. Plop a few down over saltwater bodies, and rely on booze for normal drinking.

This worked in 40d. I don't know if it does in 31.03.

[Sphalerite]

Is there a real-life way to do this with the available technology of DF? Like for example evaporating water in an enclosed space, leaving the salt which is somehow removed, for then to let the vapour cool and become water again?

It raises the question of what exactly the workshop we call a 'still' is.  A real-world still boils liquid and re-condenses some of it to increase the alcohol content of liquid.  The same device can be used for water desalination.  If the 'still' workshop is actually intended to represent a real distillery, rather than some magical undefined alcohol-producing device, it should be possible to use the still to produce fresh water from salt water.  You should also be able to use it to produce mercury from cinnabar - a technology that's been around since Roman days.

[gtmattz]

  You should also be able to use it to produce mercury from cinnabar - a technology that's been around since Roman days.

When I read this the first thing that popped to mind was brewing booze in the same still that you used to condense mercury out of cinnabar.  Would make for some interesting shenanigans having a fort full of dwarves with mercury poisoning 

[SlipshodDorf]

try dropping the water into it instead of pumping it onto the same level as the pump, thats about all i can suggest.

[o_O[WTFace]]

I once built something just like that out of jet blocks, and desalinated aquifer water successfully.  I once built an odd contraption that desalinated ocean water... once.  It never worked again, possibly due to mud or blood.  I built ocean desalinaters just like the one that worked on the aquifer and neither of them ever worked, possibly due to being outside.  So my suggestion is, sacrifice an offering to the salt god. 

[Corona688]

If it helps, I have successfully desalinated water by pumping it into a chamber with constructed walls and smoothed floors.

In what version?

[SoulSkorpion]

The floors and walls are all constructed in my case.

Ok, I'll try pumping it do that it drops into the reservoir and see if that helps.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Is there a real-life way to do this with the available technology of DF? Like for example evaporating water in an enclosed space, leaving the salt which is somehow removed, for then to let the vapour cool and become water again?

im pretty sure when water evaporates it disappears, so no.

...

Water doesn't disappear when it evaporates. It turns into water vapor, which will disperse in open air, but if confined will condense as 100% pure water. This condensation can be accumulated to make pure water, even if the source is contaminated.

[czolus]

I'm sure he meant, in DF, water disappears when it evaporates.