These are called dehumidifiers and you should not drink the water that comes out of them.

The condensed water is pure, yes. But dehumidifiers almost instantly become a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty shit. Nasty shit that is now in your ‘pure’ water.

Edit: It's the same problem as the WaterSeer which is also a passive dehumidifier. This same idea comes up several times a year, yet you don't see them deployed in quantity anywhere. They simply don't work well. (The WaterSeer actually seems like a better design than what is in OP's article.)

These are called dehumidifiers and you should not drink the water that comes out of them.

The condensed water is pure, yes. But dehumidifiers almost instantly become a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty shit. Nasty shit that is now in your ‘pure’ water.

Edit: It's the same problem as the WaterSeer which is also a passive dehumidifier. This same idea comes up several times a year, yet you don't see them deployed in quantity anywhere. They simply don't work well. (The WaterSeer actually seems like a better design than what is in OP's article.)

Are the plans open source, freely available online? Or is this a situation where you need at modern manufacturing facility to produce one?

There are plenty ways to purify water once it's been obtained

Read the article. No electricity required. Uses outside air. Not really a "dehumidifier" unless you want to play strange pedantics. Just like a water filter, you probably wouldn't suck on the filter element

Absolutely. And that is the problem you actually need to solve in the places lacking potable water. They generally have some water, it just isn't potable. Filters need regular replacing, additives like chlorine need constant resupply, and reverse osmosis is extremely energy intensive. It's fundamentally a logistics problem.

Or is this a situation where you need at modern manufacturing facility to produce one?

Probably the second one:

The team also shaped the hydrogel into a dome-like origami array, like a sheet of bubble wrap. The unique structure increased surface area and maximized how much the material could swell so it would hold more water vapor. The team then sandwiched the gel between two glass panels roughly the size of a small window, both coated with a cooling chemical layer, and added tubing to collect the water.

Assuming I'm wrong, you'd still need a ton of those for a single person. They got approximately 5.5oz in one night from one panel in death valley, but a quick Google says you need about 32oz per hour in high heat. You'd need just under 6 panels/person/hour you need water, which takes away from the idea that this is portable or really usable for hiking when you'd need like 80+ of these things to get anywhere close to having enough water for one day.

Or is this a situation where you need at modern manufacturing facility to produce one?

Probably the second one:

The team also shaped the hydrogel into a dome-like origami array, like a sheet of bubble wrap. The unique structure increased surface area and maximized how much the material could swell so it would hold more water vapor. The team then sandwiched the gel between two glass panels roughly the size of a small window, both coated with a cooling chemical layer, and added tubing to collect the water.

Assuming I'm wrong, you'd still need a ton of those for a single person. They got approximately 5.5oz in one night from one panel in death valley, but a quick Google says you need about 32oz per hour in high heat. You'd need just under 6 panels/person/hour you need water, which takes away from the idea that this is portable or really usable for hiking when you'd need like 80+ of these things to get anywhere close to having enough water for one day.

If you're concerned with bacterial growth in the condensate of a dehumidifier, all you need to do is boil it

There's such a thing as botulism ; so - once the toxin causing it has formed, it doesn't matter that you kill the bacteria that produced it with boiling the water. The toxin itself survives much harsher conditions.

I think it's not the only danger which you haven't considered here.

No electricity required.

Means this dehumidifier produces even less water than the standard powered dehumidifier.

Uses outside air.

Will breed even nastier shit in the water than one inside a building.

Might work better where it's more humid. Might bring humidity to more bearable levels if you have a lot of them?

But when it's really humid, there's usually much better ways of getting water.

Y'all, we're talking about condensate from a device specifically designed to capture water for drinking. We're not talking about drinking the water dripping from your AC. Ensuring this water is drinkable is remarkably simple.

Not only that, but Clostridium botulinum only grows in anaerobic environments, so it isn't even a remote concern in this case. That's why you don't hear about it much outside of canned food or instances where it's purposefully cultivated for medical applications.

Or is this a situation where you need at modern manufacturing facility to produce one?

Probably the second one:

The team also shaped the hydrogel into a dome-like origami array, like a sheet of bubble wrap. The unique structure increased surface area and maximized how much the material could swell so it would hold more water vapor. The team then sandwiched the gel between two glass panels roughly the size of a small window, both coated with a cooling chemical layer, and added tubing to collect the water.

Assuming I'm wrong, you'd still need a ton of those for a single person. They got approximately 5.5oz in one night from one panel in death valley, but a quick Google says you need about 32oz per hour in high heat. You'd need just under 6 panels/person/hour you need water, which takes away from the idea that this is portable or really usable for hiking when you'd need like 80+ of these things to get anywhere close to having enough water for one day.