Many regions, including Basrah Governate in Iraq, suffer from undrinkable water due to high salt content and an economical means of desalinisation is needed. Ohmic heating was tested as a potentially more efficient method for water distillation compared to traditional resistance heating. An ohmic heating distillation apparatus was designed, manufactured, and tested to remove Ca and other metals from high salt content tap water. Ohmic heating was used as a lower operational cost alternative to a traditional distillation device. Three values of electric field strength (7, 9, and 11 V/cm) were used. The results showed that the highest water distillation productivity was 500 ml/hr using both electrode configurations at 11 V/cm, while the lowest yield of the device was at 7 V/cm with the vertical electrodes. The results showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in the electrical conductivity and TDS values for all electric field strengths compared to untreated tap water. The lowest values were 0.85 μS/cm and 0.45 ppm, respectively, with both horizontal and vertical electrodes, while the highest values were 1.65 μS/cm and 1.2 ppm, respectively, using the electric field strength of 7 V/cm with the horizontal electrodes.