A new approach is proposed to store excess heat energy in horizontal solar desalination stills during daytime for the continuation of the process at night. This technique divides the horizontal still into evaporating and heat storing zones and combines the advantages of shallow and deep stills. The performance of heat storing zone was studied over one year and exhaustive data were collected, analyzed and presented. To show the effectiveness of the system, its performance was compared with that of the shallow still. The heat storing capacity of the system during the daytime was found to be an average of 35.7% of the total amount of solar energy entering the system. The efficiency of recovering process, in the form of portable water produced at night, was found to be an average of 47.2% of the total amount of energy stored during the day. Furthermore, this technique does not require any kind of external power for storing and recovering processes. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.