"Tastes like Pool Water!"
 

Does anyone have any decent experience with water filters for drinking? Do you subscribe to a bottled water service and are happy with it? Maybe one you have one of those "in-line" water filters for the whole house?

I've heard the argument before. "Drinking bottled water is paying extra money for something you can get out of the tap for cheap." I believed this, until I moved to Florida.

And let me tell you something: Florida tap water is vile.

This has a lot to do with living near the ocean and over-development of the area. The aquifer has a very light salt content to it, so the taste is a little... strange. Mineral content is also a little on the high side, with the coffee maker having to be decalcified frequently even with the use of a Pur water filter on the tap. With so many people moving in and the aquifers being drained, the water develops a really funky taste, complete with smell. This means heavy treatment at the plant, and on the weekends the facility is unmanned, meaning they drop in plenty of extra chlorine on Friday night. Plus they've started bubbling ammonia gas to assist in the killing of bacteria. Bleh!

The result: when you fill a bathtub, the water clearly has a blue tint. Baby blue. And it smells like a city pool. Do I really want to drink the stuff? I already have a filter on the kitchen tap, but I'm considering getting bottles. Is it worth it?

My dad lives in a fairly low-scale part of Phoenix, which apparently has crappy water. His solution is to go to one of many water-selling depots around town and fill up a few five-gallon jugs from time to time.

I'm not sure if such an option exists where you live, but it would be cheaper than bottled water.

His solution is to go to one of many water-selling depots around town and fill up a few five-gallon jugs from time to time.

Oh, yeah! You're talking about those little, unmanned stands that crop up, right? Those things attract people at all hours of the day. Standing outside a bar, once, around one or two in the morning I witnessed a line of peope, all carrying empty bottles, form. Creepy. :3eye:

Any idea what those things do to improve the water? Some have UV lights or something, but I don't get how that helps.

We have a UV filter (to sterilize coliform bacteria), a sediment filter, and then a regular paper water filter - and there's still no way in hell I'm drinking our water. We need to get one of those water cooler things... Jim told me to do that awhile ago and I keep forgetting.

If the PUR filters live up to their specs, they produce better water than the bottled which is readily available around KC, and at a tiny fraction of the cost.

We had a cooler and bottled water deliveries for several years. The cooler rented for $8.00 a month or thereabouts, and the bottles of water were $5.50 per 5 gallon bottle, plus a $5.00 deposit on the bottles themselves. We went through about 20 gallons of bottled water per month, so the average cost was about $30.00/month.

We've now had a PUR filter on the kitchen tap for over a year. The water quality is, to my taste, *better* than the reverse osmosis filtered Kansas River water with salts and minerals re-added that we were buying. I can get four cartridges at Sam's Club for $30.00, and each cartridge does 100 gallons of filtration minimum, so now I'm getting 400 gallons of water for $30.00 plus the cost of the water (which is a few cents). That is 80 jugs worth at $5.50, or $440.00, or a mere 7% of what I was spending before.

I lose the convenience of refrigerated water on demand without the cooler, but you know, I had to make ice cubes when I was a kid, and I find I still have the skill set. Wish I had a remote control for it, though.

Oh, there was the initial investment in the PUR cartridge housing (the part that actually fits to your faucet), and I did have one fail, so I'm on my second unit, so my actual cost efficiency may only be about 15%.

Try one and see how it does. Even if you don't like it, it is worth the try when you consider the savings over bottled water, and especially the energy consumption involved in delivering it to you, etc.

Can't argue with the math :yelgreedy

GE and Kenmore both make cartridge sytle filter systems that go under your sink, filter the water more than Britta and PUR faucet mount systems, and cost less per gallon to operate. It's a bigger installation job though.

You really need to figure ou what you want to filter out first. A lab test may be in order. Or maybe a cheap at home kit might shed light on your situation. http://www.watersafetestkits.com/html/drinkingkits.asp

good luck.

Jinx once again I must pick on your tendency towards panicking over this kind of stuff.

People live out where you live because of the water. Bottlers find springs out where you live and bottle the water so they can say they got it from out there. The practice of living with cats is far more likely to expose you to coliform bacteria but if they do it'll be good for you anyway, your body will need the practice after living germ-free for so long your immune system will be weak and I will start to write like zippyt!! Believe me!!!

No actually we had the well tested. It's scary. I think the words "shit soup" were actually on the lab report.
It's funny that you've decided I'm a germaphobe because I close the toilet before flushing though :D.

Oh its a well! Never mind then! :blush:

Oh its a well! Never mind then!

Drink water from right out of the ground? You nasty!

Philadelphia tap water is blecch...we have a Brita pitcher, which makes it taste much better.

I'm very picky about my water and could not live without my brita. I have the large brita with the spout because I drink a lot of water.

I'm also a brita fan. The faucet filters are a pain in the ass, and the flow-rate for filtered water is abysmal.

The problem I had with Floridian Water (Florida Water is something entirely different) was the high sulfur content.

The problem I had with Floridian Water (Florida Water is something entirely different) was the high sulfur content.

"Sulfur Content" just triggered some of my worst memories, ever.

If you've been to Florida you are probably aware of the sulphur problem, especially if you happen to have been someplace that uses well water with little or no filtration. This is rare and I had my first encounter with it at a party.

A party in which my intoxicated brain thought it was a good idea to switch between beer and hard liquor about six or seven times.

So, the inevitable finally happened and I woke up with a pain in my jaw, which is understandable considering that I had fallen asleep with it on the toilet seat while kneeling on the bathroom floor. I got up, washed my face, and immediately got sick all over again -- the smell of the water from the sink was repulsive! I "began talking to Rolf on the big, white telephone" again and the water in the toilet was just as bad. This process repeated itself countless times until I had clearly flushed all the alcohol out of my system. Anytime I smelled unfiltered water in that house, I threw up. Hours later, I'd sobered up and feeling better as I drove home along the back highways of rural Florida. It isn't until I hit town and my apartment complex that something odd happens: the spinklers are on and they use well water/recycled water. Not good. The smell of the sulphur comes through the vents and it hits me in the face.

I wretch.

Too late -- the association had already been drilled into my head. Sulphur = vomit. For months afterwards, I got so sick when I smelled sprinklers running that it would even cause me to miss meals when I was driving out to grab food. To this day, a smell that wasn't pleasant to begin with is really nauseating. Ugh.

A unusual reason to filter water, but an important one.

An activated charcoal filter will remove chlorines and chlorine by-products, but it won't remove salt; I think your only options there are reverse-osmosis, distillation, or bottled water.

Good point, Russotto. Initial tests with a facet filter indicate that it improves the taste a lot. But, that isn't too difficult around here, as I think running it through a gym sock would be an improvement.

It could be worse, though. vB could have truncated my subject line by one more letter.

http://fox.org/~vince/photos/out/pool.gif

I lived in Florida and I agree that the tap water needs something. I used a faucet-mount Brita filter and it did the job well enough that with the addition of enough Kool Aid and sugar, I couldn't taste the underlying water anymore. I didn't resort to a cooler or even bottled water for two years.

That said, I live in Hazleton, PA and I have a well. The water is very drinkable, despite a slightly elevated mineral content, which merely causes my hair to feel dry and my skin to itch slightly. Mousturizer solves the skin problem and conditioner solves the hair problem. Well, until I cut it all off that is. Now I don't care again. :)

Anyway, I've been thinking of buying a cooler and investing in a half dozen five gallon bottles of fresh water so that I have on-demand cold water (my tap water isn't as cold as I would like) as well as on-demand HOT water. I have an In-Sink-Er-Ater hot water thingie, but it makes a lot of noise, leaks by the valve sometimes and costs me more in electricity than it saves me from heating the kettle. All I need is an outlet in the intended corner and I'm set!

Brian

That's the short, less accurate argument. The full argument is, "Drinking bottled water is paying extra money for something you can get out of the tap for cheap, assuming you live in the same town as the bottling plant."

And you don't have a well. ;)
I do, and wed a guy is coming out to measure for a new treatment system. Let's see,...how many cases of bottled water @ $6, will I have to not buy to recover the $7k. Oh, and operating costs. :eyebrow:

Ugh! This thread reminds me of why I only drink alcohol.