Bottled or Tap Water?

[jasonc]

You do have to read the labels carefully. A lot of bottled water is merely tap water. The best water one can drink would be reverse osmosis water.

So much of our water and food supply is tainted somehow, that I have taken to asking God to bless it, sanctify it, and make it clean for me to consume, when I am giving thanks.

We largely have little choice about our sustenance nowadays. What they sell is what we have to eat and drink if we want to live. Whole Foods sells better foods than most places, but you almost have to be a zillionaire if you wanted to eat organically consistently.

since I have reverse osmosis water. and I will mention this story. I once didn't buy Gatorade and used my "tap water" that is r&0. I couldn't drink more then a few cups of it. my body didn't like it. Gatorade and that water , no problem. remember that water has no taste and take what we need during the heat out of us. I have posted that fact before.

my city that I work for uses r&o water and adds minerals back into it and also so does the county.

 

[Edward]

since I have reverse osmosis water. and I will mention this story. I once didn't buy Gatorade and used my "tap water" that is r&0. I couldn't drink more then a few cups of it. my body didn't like it. Gatorade and that water , no problem. remember that water has no taste and take what we need during the heat out of us. I have posted that fact before.

my city that I work for uses r&o water and adds minerals back into it and also so does the county.

Yeah, you can't fool your body. It knows. I so much wish that I had an RO system. I have probably installed a couple hundred of them over the years. Mostly the small units which go under the kitchen sink, with the smallish storage tank. The best installations are where I put the unit downstairs in the basement and just run the tubing through the floor and cabinet. It makes for a real clean install and leaves all of the room under the sink. Most people don't know, but the storage tanks can be increased in size over the 2.5 or 5 gallong or whatever they are that come with the unit. Another consideration is the reject water. To make RO water the filter rejects a lot of water down the drain. It's possible to run the reject drin to an external storage tank so that water could be used for other things instead of going down the drain.

RO water is so good...When you use it for coffee making, the coffee pot will not become discolored over time like they usually do. I lived in a place which had RO water once, but I couldn't take it with me when I left...

 

[jasonc]

ice is visible clearer, but its also expensive, 6000 usd for mine and 600 dollars for the filters. it also has water softeners to it as well.

 

[Edward]

ice is visible clearer, but its also expensive, 6000 usd for mine and 600 dollars for the filters. it also has water softeners to it as well.

Yep, you got that right. Expensive. Running a sediment filter (Those cheap ones from Home Depot or wherever) have good effect on filter life for the RO units. Every little bit helps

 

[Kathi]

since I have reverse osmosis water. and I will mention this story. I once didn't buy Gatorade and used my "tap water" that is r&0. I couldn't drink more then a few cups of it. my body didn't like it. Gatorade and that water , no problem. remember that water has no taste and take what we need during the heat out of us. I have posted that fact before.

my city that I work for uses r&o water and adds minerals back into it and also so does the county.

My body does not have a problem with reverse omosis water at all.

 

[jasonc]

My body does not have a problem with reverse omosis water at all.

you don't live in florida where say today. by 9am its over 80f with 90% humidity. you do realize that if you don't keep your blood in an slighty alkaline state its a higher chance for sickness? ro water is more acidic, which is bad for the blood and bad for our health. that is why natural wells with minerals are the best and most water grids mineralize water. also keep in mind how old some of the pipes are. if they don't break they don't get replaced. I wonder if some of the lines in my town are about 100 years old.

 

[Obadiah]

I have looked at a couple of rentals that said they had well water and they said it was great.Is there ever a chance that well water can get contaminated?

Yes, they can get contaminated. I have a friend who owns a manufacturing company with several employees and his facilities are on well water. He has to do a daily test of the water and keep records of the results for inspectors for just this reason because his employees use the water. If you are talking about rentals in an apartment building, they may have the same requirements and probably have someone assigned to do that, so you would be pretty safe. But if your talking about a rental house with it's own well, you may be on your own with that.

 

[Kathi]

Yes, they can get contaminated. I have a friend who owns a manufacturing company with several employees and his facilities are on well water. He has to do a daily test of the water and keep records of the results for inspectors for just this reason because his employees use the water. If you are talking about rentals in an apartment building, they may have the same requirements and probably have someone assigned to do that, so you would be pretty safe. But if your talking about a rental house with it's own well, you may be on your own with that.

I think I would continue to drink bottled water .There might be alot of controversy regarding bottled water but I still think it is safer.

 

[Obadiah]

I think I would continue to drink bottled water .There might be alot of controversy regarding bottled water but I still think it is safer.

I wouldn't say to stay away from well water. Just make sure it's good well water. If someone else tests it you can ask to see the record, and if you have to test it, the test is easy to do. Then you know you have good water from the well. You have no practical way of knowing that from the bottles. It would be a lot harder to get those results from the bottling company, and even then, that doesn't show contamination over time spent in the plastic bottles after they fill them. I wouldn't totally write off well water on the safety issue alone. I'd be more concerned about how it tastes. Some wells are great and others aren't .

 

[Kathi]

I wouldn't say to stay away from well water. Just make sure it's good well water. If someone else tests it you can ask to see the record, and if you have to test it, the test is easy to do. Then you know you have good water from the well. You have no practical way of knowing that from the bottles. It would be a lot harder to get those results from the bottling company, and even then, that doesn't show contamination over time spent in the plastic bottles after they fill them. I wouldn't totally write off well water on the safety issue alone. I'd be more concerned about how it tastes. Some wells are great and others aren't .

That is great information....Thanks Is it posssible to test the bottled water that I drink myself?There must be kits of some kind.

 

[Edward]

That is great information....Thanks Is it posssible to test the bottled water that I drink myself?There must be kits of some kind.

Testing is easy. If you have a Sears store in your town, you go by there and go to the department that sells filters, they give you a small bottle and you bring in some of your water. They test it free and tell you what alls in it and what type of filter that you need to buy from them. More filter places probably do the same thing, so I'd call around and get at least two tests so that you can compare cost and results/honesty. ;)

 

[Obadiah]

That is great information....Thanks Is it posssible to test the bottled water that I drink myself?There must be kits of some kind.

I don't know. I was thinking about that same thing, but just don't know. The well test is easy to do, much like testing the chemicals in pool water. But for bottled water I just don't know. I'll bet there is a way to do it, but if it's not mass produced (yet?) it might be expensive and maybe not very practical to test every bottle you drink.

 

[Edward]

Well, I used to work for a filter outfit and installed a whole bunch of them for them. I had a test kit and would routinely test the customers water. I would test for TDS, calcium and magnesium, and barium too IIRC. I think these are the typical minerals that are in "hard water" I can't remember if I tested for lead or not, dangit. Good old fashioned carbon gets rid of a lot out of the water. I *think* that distilled water is even better than Ro water. There's not a lot of things that can make it through vaporizing and then condensation back into a liquid. I think the more serious contaminants like rocket fuel and selenium take more sophisticated test equipment than I had on my truck, but don't quote me on that, it's been awhile since I was in this industry.

I think the key things to consider when getting a filter is a) testing to see what's in the water that needs filtered out, and b) do you get a point of entry filter, to filter the whole house, or a point of use filter, like one of the under the sink filter systems. I also think it's important to get more than one test, from a different outfit just in casr they're unscrupulous and fudge in order to sell you a more expensive filter.

After it's installed...take some of the filtered water to a even different place and say nothing about it being filtered water. Just say hey test my water and tell me if I need a filter and what type.

 

[Kathi]

Alot of times people do not know that alot of medications that people dump in the water systems comes through into their tap water.A guy I know who is in the know told me that.I read something a while back that said Reverse Osmosis is one of the purification systems that took care of that.I don't like the bottled water than just has one process I like it to have 3 or 4 processes it goes through.That is hard to find but it is out there.I can tell from the looks and smell of my tap water that it is really nasty stuff.It smells and tastes terribly like chlorine.When I occasionally draw a bath it smells like a swimming pool.

 

[Edward]

Alot of times people do not know that alot of medications that people dump in the water systems comes through into their tap water.A guy I know who is in the know told me that.I read something a while back that said Reverse Osmosis is one of the purification systems that took care of that.I don't like the bottled water than just has one process I like it to have 3 or 4 processes it goes through.That is hard to find but it is out there.I can tell from the looks and smell of my tap water that it is really nasty stuff.It smells and tastes terribly like chlorine.When I occasionally draw a bath it smells like a swimming pool.

My limited understanding of RO (being merely an installer and no water expert, lol) is that there are 5 filter chambers and different types of filters can be installed in them, dependent on what you need.

I've even heard of a water filter which charges the water with electric somehow, which causes...purification on some level. It changes the ions from negative to positively charged or something like that.

 

[reba]

That would be ozone ...

 

[Edward]

That would be ozone ...

Ah, thank you sister.

 

[reba]

testing ozone levels was one of my jobs..

 

[Obadiah]

Alot of times people do not know that alot of medications that people dump in the water systems comes through into their tap water.A guy I know who is in the know told me that.I read something a while back that said Reverse Osmosis is one of the purification systems that took care of that.I don't like the bottled water than just has one process I like it to have 3 or 4 processes it goes through.That is hard to find but it is out there.I can tell from the looks and smell of my tap water that it is really nasty stuff.It smells and tastes terribly like chlorine.When I occasionally draw a bath it smells like a swimming pool.

Wow, yours is terrible! Here (far Northwest corner of Washington State) they don't even put chlorine in the water because it is clean enough to not need it. The city (or county, not sure which) has their own wells and we have lots and lots of ground water near the surface. What comes out of our taps is essentially what you get in the bottles. There's no difference in taste or smell. Only we pay about 1/10 penny for a gallon! I remember going into a restaurant in Morro Bay, California years ago and getting a glass of water with my meal that smelled and tasted like water form the public swimming pool instead of from the public well! I couldn't drink it at all. Terrible stuff. Sure glad I don't live there.

 

[Kathi]

My limited understanding of RO (being merely an installer and no water expert, lol) is that there are 5 filter chambers and different types of filters can be installed in them, dependent on what you need.

I've even heard of a water filter which charges the water with electric somehow, which causes...purification on some level. It changes the ions from negative to positively charged or something like that.

I have heard have RO plus some other filters installed into a home is very expensive.