Water, water, everywhere, nor a drop to drink.

[caseydog]

I couldn't fathom why everyone in Spain (well not quite everyone but a the vast majority) drink bottled water. The water here is classed as potable quality. When I tried to make a cup of tea with it and it was truly awful. It has almost a slimy quality and certainly makes odd tasting tea. I immediately bought a water filter and that made a little difference but not a lot.
So I look it up and apparently Spaniards buy water because in most areas they don't like the way their water tastes.

I've just tested the waters TDS (total dissolved solids) and it's currently at 376ppm so it's not a surprise the water has a 'flavour'
A brand new Brita filter doesn't even half it, it brought it down to 273ppm and theres still quite a film on the tea.
I don't want to buy bottled water, environmentally it bothers me and I'm not entirely convinced health wise drinking water stored in plastic bottles is good for you. So I'm thinking an upgrade to a Zero water filter might do even if they are rather pricey.

Can you drink straight from your tap or do you have to do something to make your water palatable?

I'd go with the better filtration. I drink filtered tap water here.

Our water supply in North Texas comes from reservoirs, so it is lake water. It is safe, but not particularly tasty. In the summer, it is worse, as the lake water is warmer, meaning more organic matter in it. Our water is very safe, just not pleasant in taste.

A good combination particulate and charcoal filter works great. My filtered water tastes as good as bottled water. The top level is to add a reverse-osmosis filter to that filter. I had that in my previous home, and that water had no flavor at all. That was overkill, for where I live.

BTW, make sure you make your ice cubes out of filtered water, or the ice cubes will ruin the taste of everything you add them too.

CD

 

[caseydog]

When a government agency is involved, there's no personal liability.

The water supply in my city is rated "Superior" by The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Public water systems in Texas are regularly tested for 102 different contaminants to ensure it meets all federal and state drinking water standards. They are then given a rating.

Now, these ratings are for safety, not taste. If you want better tasting tap water, that really needs to be done at the point of consumption, not at a water treatment plant.

CD

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I'd go with the better filtration. I drink filtered tap water here.

Our water supply in North Texas comes from reservoirs, so it is lake water. It is safe, but not particularly tasty. In the summer, it is worse, as the lake water is warmer, meaning more organic matter in it. Our water is very safe, just not pleasant in taste.

A good combination particulate and charcoal filter works great. My filtered water tastes as good as bottled water. The top level is to add a reverse-osmosis filter to that filter. I had that in my previous home, and that water had no flavor at all. That was overkill, for where I live.

BTW, make sure you make your ice cubes out of filtered water, or the ice cubes will ruin the taste of everything you add them too.

CD

Thanks CD

I'm going to go for a more robust water filter that can reduce tds to zero. Had looked at a reverse osmosis filter, I really don't have the room for that here and I don't think the spend is warranted until I've tried out the upgraded filter

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I grew up with brown water. We'd joke that bath water was already dirty before you got into it! It was the peat from the local environment. It was totally fine to drink. It was also private water and untreated. It would rain and literally run off the mountainside and into the burn alongside the cottage and you'd drink that.

For a short time I lived in Staffordshire on mains water and that was unbelievable hard water. So much limescale on everything, but kettles were the worst. Dishwashers and washing machines needed a water softener in them for every wash just to keep them working for more than 12 months. The boiler for the central heating was always filled with demineralised water to keep it working, but the hot water system was left to its own devices and frequently needed help from a plumber. You never drank the bottom of a hot drink because of the limescale in the mug.

For the 3 years I was at university in Lancashire we had the exact opposite. The kettle looked brand new after 3 years of use. The water was stunning soft and pure. That was the last time I lived on mains water (early 90's).

Here, my/our water is rain water. If it doesn't rain, we don't have water. I can see the shearing shed from my dining room window. That's our rain collection shed with an old concrete water tank alongside it. The concrete doesn't give any issues anymore. Despite the water being incredibly pure, and soft, we do get an odd build up in the kettle and I suspect on the boiler as well, that is dark brown in colour. It's from the eucalyptus gum leaves decomposing in the gutters on the shearing shed. (That big tree in the photo below). But you can't easily get to those gutter because it's a 2 storey high roofed building, so we just have to use kettle cleaner periodically to remove the build up. You can't taste it. All of this water is unfiltered and untreated, so we do get insect remains turning up from time to time, but that's part of life. It used to happen in the UK at one of our old rental houses as well.

View attachment 100732

That concrete tank is our rain water oddly enough called tank water here in Australia (Aussies have very literal naming systems). It's a touch over 22,000 litres. In the shadows between the 2 tree trunks, there is another much smaller tank for the sheep, connected to an old bath in typical farm style. That's about 3,000 litres. We've another 3,000L tank behind the garage that is also for sheep (in another old bath) and our chooks on a drinking trough. And at the back of our house there is another 22,000L task for the garden/veg plot and emergency use (as in fire fighting). It could at a stretch top up the house if the supply ran short, but the concrete tank is in a daisy chain with another shed roof tank plus the dams can be used if really needed (but that would need treating unless it was washing and sanitation only), so despite 3 years of drought, we never needed to use it for drinking water.

Thats very interesting.
So rainwater from the roof you drink just as is without any further filtration or treatment?
I have a large water butt that fills up so quickly a connected hose has to left open so it can drain away which makes me feel a tad guilty but I'm not really sure what to do with the water?!

I've just planted out some herbs so a bit can go on that but it's nothing in comparison to the size of the water butt.

 

[Master Cutler]

The thing about water filters is they are only able to remove solid particles from the water but most of the chemicals found in water are salts which, like sodium chloride, exist as ions and can only be removed by distillation. So filtering tap water won't do much to improve the taste or remove the residues left in kettles or washing machines.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

The thing about water filters is they are only able to remove solid particles from the water but most of the chemicals found in water are salts which, like sodium chloride, exist as ions and can only be removed by distillation. So filtering tap water won't do much to improve the taste or remove the residues left in kettles or washing machines.

But it does make a difference. Even basic Brita filters reduce limescale. Depending on the type of water filter they remove a lot more than you'd think.

What Does ZeroWater Remove?

 

[Master Cutler]

Agreed, and I also have three Brita water filters and have used them for the last ten years or so.
However we have iron in the water in Mansfield and the Brita removes mainly the chlorine taste and only a bit of the iron.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Agreed, and I also have three Brita water filters and have used them for the last ten years or so.
However we have iron in the water in Mansfield and the Brita removes mainly the chlorine taste and only a bit of the iron.

Are you saying it only removes a bit of the iron taste?

I'm wondering because Iron is one of the things Brita is good at removing, even when the filter is at the end of its life it will continue to filter out iron. What makes you think it doesn't?

 

[Master Cutler]

I'm comparing the taste of the Brita filtered water at home in Mansfield with the Brita filtered water in Anglesey where my wife lives. Mansfield filtered water retains its slightly musty taste, which which is masked by the chlorine taste in the unfiltered tap water. Ultimately, without going into the chemistry, it's all down to the type of iron present in the water which can vary slightly day to day.

 

[caseydog]

Thanks CD

I'm going to go for a more robust water filter that can reduce ads to zero. Had looked at a reverse osmosis filter, I really don't have the room for that here and I don't think the spend it warranted until I've tried out the upgraded filter

My previous house had a whole house system like this in the garage...

PLUS, additional filters and a reverse osmosis system under the kitchen sink...

Like I said, the water tasted like nothing. I did not do that in my current house.

CD

 

[caseydog]

The thing about water filters is they are only able to remove solid particles from the water but most of the chemicals found in water are salts which, like sodium chloride, exist as ions and can only be removed by distillation. So filtering tap water won't do much to improve the taste or remove the residues left in kettles or washing machines.

See my previous post.

CD

 

[GadgetGuy]

I buy distilled water for the ice machine. A friend of mine makes his own with THIS.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

So rainwater from the roof you drink just as is without any further filtration or treatment?

Yes, but the tanks are designed to keep it sterile and safe. They're not cheap. It's very much an Australian thing (though we used to collect a lot of water in the UK for the garden in 5 × 1000L white plastic tanks in that metal cage (can't think what they are called right now (update IBCs)). It always looked good enough to drink but we never needed to test it. ).

Here in Australia it is very common to be on "tank water" if you're not in a town or city. And in cities and towns you'll still have tanks for collecting rain water for the garden or fire brigade use (Rural Fire Service volunteers). A lot of places will also have bore water which will have a separate pipe work for garden and toilet use. No point in flushing the toilet with your drinking water if you don't need to. In our last rental, the washing machine was also on the bore water with a decent filter in place before it. Living at the top of a mountain this time around we don't have that option, so the backup are 7 dams (it's a sheep farm, so there is serious contamination issues to consider before drinking it and during the drought the dams actually ran dry before we ran out of tank water (we actually didn't run out of tank water, but all you can do at that point is buy it in at $$$$ as our neighbour had to. )

There are quite a few countries I've drunk stream/ river and lake water in, but they are known for good quality water and little to no air pollution. The south of England isn't one of them, but when we lived in the lake district or water supply was from the beck at the back of the farmhouse. That went through a sand trap before getting to us. That was beautifully clean and clear. When I was living in the Scottish highlands, the water was stained brown with peat, but perfectly good to drink.
We see a similar colour residue build up in the kettle here at this place. It's from the gum leaves in the gutters of the shearing shed. They release a pigmentation that permanently stains clothes/ wool etc (and is used to dye fabric) when they soak in water.

 

[caseydog]

In my backpacking days, I carried a lightweight portable water filtration pump. I was around plenty of streams that looked crystal clear, but at some point on the stream, something peed, pooped or died in or near that stream.

CD

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

In my backpacking days, I carried a lightweight portable water filtration pump. I was around plenty of streams that looked crystal clear, but at some point on the stream, something peed, pooped or died in or near that stream.

CD

We carried 2 systems with us on tour. One was a filter and deodoriser (carbon filter) on a pump systems, the other was a solar rechargable battery operated UV pen because filter systems can not remove viruses, but UV kills them, rather than removing them. We never bothered carrying anything backpacking or mountaineering (though emergency sterilisation tablets were always carried, never used). The irony was that until we got to Macedonia we never needed to use any of it, so 10 months (about 12,000km at that point) on tour before we used it and it was tap water in a hotel that we needed it for!