A modified basin type solar still equipped with an air-cooled condenser is constructed and tested. The system is operated at reduced pressure in batch-wise mode. Better measured performance of the modified still is obtained compared with that of the conventional one. On the other hand, the system is simulated using a mathematical model and solved numerically using a computer program written in MATLAB code. The developed model is validated against experimental measurements. The parametric study using the validated model is carried out to explore the improvement potentials of the constructed system. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.