An innovative design compound conical concentrator (CCC) with a crescent shaped absorber coupled to a single slope solar still (SSSS) has been investigated. The performance is studied by four different approaches: (1) SSSS alone, (2) CCC-SSSS with crescent shaped absorber, (3) CCC-SSSS coupled crescent shaped absorber with top cover cooling and (4) CCC-SSSS coupled crescent shaped absorber with top cover shaded. This is the first research work ever to analyze the natural circulation of water by covering the SSSS by cotton cloth. The purpose of the external absorber is to circulate the heat by natural circulation mode. The system temperatures such as water temperature, air temperature, inner cover temperature, outer cover temperature and absorber temperatures are measured every 30 min. From the experimental results, the productivity of the single slope solar still, CCC-SSSS with crescent absorber, CCC-SSSS coupled crescent absorber with top cover cooling and top cover shaded CCC-SSSS coupled crescent absorber is 2100 mL/day, 2680 mL/day, 2912 mL/day and 1584 mL/day respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.