Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: DREDIOCK on November 09, 2006, 07:44:53 PM
-
A while back we were discussing water.
And Bottled Water Vrs Tap.
I had mentioned that the main difference between bottled water. and water from your faucet. Was..the faucet it came out of.
Seems in at least 25% of the cases.
Im pretty much right on the mark
Is your bottled Water comming from a Faucet? (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5467759/)
"Not only have consumers changed their habits based on concerns about calories, but in the belief that bottled water has health benefits beyond the alternative coming out of their faucets.
Truth is, there’s a good chance that fancy water you’ve just forked out a buck for comes from just the same place — a municipal water supply"
-
Most bottled water comes from municipal supply, it says so on the label. But it is not straight from the tap. Usually it has been microfiltered, exposed to ultraviolet light and reverse osmosis. It's much cleaner that tap.
-
Do a search for pen & teller bottled water episode.
Although I have tasted some pretty nasty chlorinated tap water in my time.
-
I blame those statistics on fluoride.
-
"Spring water" comes from a well.
We have a tested pure well, my wife buys bottled "spring water" go figure :)
shamus
-
For me it comes down to taste. "Clean" means nothing if the water has "clean" (harmless) byproducts that make it taste like crap.
That's why I use brita filters at home. It "cleans" the water a little I suppose, but for the most part it really just makes the water taste a whole lot better. That's why on occasion I buy bottled water. Aside from the convenience of not having to carry good-tasting water around, being able to procure good-tasting water is the objective. If the tap water doesn't taste good and I don't have access to my brita filtered water, then it's probable I'll spend a little on bottled water because I don't like drinking water that doesn't taste good.
On top of that, public water fountains are a great way to pick up various viruses. My job depends to a certain extent on staying healthy, so I'm willing to spend a bit to buy water instead of drinking out of a fountain that some kid slobbered on a few minutes earlier or which was used by some moron who doesn't wash his hands after taking a crap.
I've come to the conclusion that people who bag on bottled water never leave their homes and have no taste buds. That makes them someone to pity rather than valid sources of consumer information :)
-
Pure water baby.... http://www.seafriends.org.nz/images/pupu.htm
-
Really it just depends on where you live. Where I used to live the tap water tasted like ass. And if you live in a european city.. forget about it. Where I'm at now the tap water tastes.. well doesn't taste like anything, and that's good. In texas even, go figure.
Also I've found that people who grew up drinking heavily chlorinated water (El Pashole) don't like the "taste" of pure water.
Sort of like people who grew up without heated water can't tolerate a warm shower or bath.
-
Always find it hilarious that people buy bottled water in my country, the tapwater is mostly springwater and as such, superb!
-
We have excellent water in the taps so i only buy it when out and about. Plenty of suppliers of great spring/glacier water here and we export it in huge numbers to the US and Europe. Just make sure to read on the bottle when it was tapped. Water that has been for too long in a bottle has alot worse quality than than your average tapwater.
-
At least here you get cleaner water from the tap. Bottled water has typically grown bacteria inside before it's consumed, it's not sterile.
Of course there are many places like the mediterranean where you're forced to drink bottled water due to tapwater being unsuitable for human consumption.
-
Usually the taste of the water depends on the suspended minerals it contains. I have a "Glacier" brand water machine at my store that filters local tap to 99.99% pure. You can definitely taste and see the difference. After I saw one of the used microfilters I was amazed at how much crap there was in the local supply.
-
oooops
sorry dude, i'll stop bathing in your water supply
my bad
-
We have a Culligan filter that goes on our kitchen faucet.
Once a week we bleach & rinse a big stack of diet Pepsi 20 oz bottles.
Assemble the filter, and fill the bottles. Gives us bottled water taste (Fargo has widely fluctuating water taste). Its extremely cost efficient as we only paid 30$ for the filter 2 years ago. And as of yet have not had to replace the filter cartridge.
Whats funny is that the cat has developed a taste for it as well.
He'll drink it right out of the cap if you'll pour for him. Depending on how thirsty (and cold) the water is he goes through 2 - 6 caps of water at a sitting.
-
Bottled water is one of the few things that few people foresaw as a really popular item. Regardless of the actual water used, it's very convenient. Much like the portable cell phone, having water with you in a disposable bottle is very convenient. Whether the water comes from a tap or some special mountain stream, it always tastes ok and is an idea whose time has come. I always wondered if they would come out with a bottled water 'kit', where you just get the disposable bottles and fill them up with tap water. I would prefer the 'kit' but suspect most people wouldn't.
Regards,
Malta
-
I'll sell you a kit.
-
Outstanding!! Keep a close watch on your mail for my check!
Regards,
Malta
-
Originally posted by Debonair
oooops
sorry dude, i'll stop bathing in your water supply
my bad
That's actually not a joke. Many municipal water services take their water directly from rivers. The same rivers that are used for dumping of sewage upstream.
Even if it's cleaned it's a pretty gruesome thought of drinking the water someone upstream flushed down the toilet.
Luckily we get our water from artificial ground water plants where lake water is filtered through natural process before the actual purification process.
-
I lived in Odessa Texas for a bit.
The day I arrived there I was parched from having flown a whole bunch of connecting flights that did not serve food and I had no American change to buy a coke with.
I got to my hotel and turned on the tap and drank 3 glasses of water in a row until I finally tasted how foul it was halfway through the 3rd glass.
I spent the next week sick as a dog.
I could not order fountain drinks at restaurants as they were made out of the same water. I had to drink bottled or canned beverages only.
Here in Canada the tap water is fine and I drink it all the time.
If you live in different parts of the world bottled water is either very necessary or a waste of money. I have experienced both.
-
Originally posted by Shamus
"Spring water" comes from a well.
We have a tested pure well, my wife buys bottled "spring water" go figure :)
shamus
same here.
-
I was an Arrowhead delivery/salesman < their term > in the mid 70's. Very little has changed in that operation since. What has changed is the packaging and marketing of water.
Tap water varies so much from city to city and their muni suppliers in most states that the maximum allowed ppm of dissolved solids is detirmined by each muni system and it's capibilities.
Back then, in my home town of Santa Barbara, Ca. that statewide max was on average 750-900 ppm. Our muni supply had an average of 1100-1375ppm. These numbers were from raw water at the tap.
The market for bottled water in So. Cal. is huge because of the low quality of water we've had for some 70 years.
As for the quality of bottled water, my knowledge is limited to the product I sold and our direct competitors at the time.
Arrowhead offered several types of water but they were just the basics.
Spring Water. This was collected directly from the spring on Mt. Arrowhead, then it was trucked in glass lined tankers to their processing facility for filtration, QC and bottling, back then it was all glass bottles.
Pure Fresh. This was water taken from the muni supply at their bottling facility and processed. They would distill it and then replace some minerals to a saturation of 96ppm for flavor.
Flouridated. Same as Pure Fresh but with flouride added in a quantity that I can't remember , it was 30 years ago.
Distilled. The name describes the process. Heated to steam then evaporated and bottled.
Our competitor had one way of processing their their water, de-ionization. They had the same 'types' of available but the di process requires a well maintained process that can become a bacteria breeding ground if not done properly.
That is why it isn't a great idea to use that water vending device at the grocery store as your source for drinking water as they use the di process in most cases.
When I left Arrowhead we had just began selling a reverse osmosis device for under the sink processing. R/O wasn't accepted by most of my customers because of the plastic bladder it used. Glass was king back then.
Bacterial growth will happen if the bottle is reused w/o propper processing. That made a great selling point back then but is very true today. A bottle that is left in the sun will grow alge and bacteria no matter how pure the water is inside, the only thing it takes is time and an unfriendly environment.
The age of plastic has introduced another degree of threat that most people are oblivious to. That is the fact that most water isn't packaged in reuseable containers but they are reused and most times w/o propper washing. Most disposeable bottles cant be processed for reuse legaly unless they are recycled. The reason being that plastic leaches out chemicals into the water in a predictable manner once opened and exposed to the environment or left on the shelf too long.
I didn't mean for a WOT, I'll just end by saying that for over 35 years I've been using bottled water from sources I trust and I will continue until and if I move to someplace where you don't have to chew the tap water.
Anybody for 'Bundy Ice Tea'?
-
Originally posted by Shamus
"Spring water" comes from a well.
We have a tested pure well, my wife buys bottled "spring water" go figure :)
shamus
That's a "Here's your sign" situation! :lol
-
I do buy bottled sometimes, because the tap water is not too good in my community. Not that it's unsafe to drink it, but I can't drink bad tasting water because of a childhood trauma(half a dozen dead mices in our water well).
-
Originally posted by Flatbar
Our competitor had one way of processing their their water, de-ionization. They had the same 'types' of available but the di process requires a well maintained process that can become a bacteria breeding ground if not done properly.
That is why it isn't a great idea to use that water vending device at the grocery store as your source for drinking water as they use the di process in most cases.
I can't speak for any purification machine other than the Glacier machines we have. Ours are kept on a very strict maintenence schedule and the digital display shows the last date and time it was serviced. It will also shut it's self off if it detects contaminants. It's a very sophisticated piece of equiptment and a far cry beyond using a Britta pitcher.
Our machine stays very busy and gets serviced weekly. Our municipal supply is very poor. The city has sent out warnings about contaminants in the supply. The sad thing is our source is the 1st resivour on the Trinity River system. It gets worse downstream. Oil and gas production has cause quite a bit of polution.
-
You don't want to drink deionized water because it is a really good solvent. Drinking DI water has the effect of removing minerals that your body might want. DI water is great for nuclear reactors or if you want a salt solution of a specific molarity, since the water acts as an excellent mineral solvent. Usually distilled water is fed to a deionizer when making DI water.
Starting with DI water and adding minerals 'to taste' might be a pretty good approach to 'making' great tasting bottled water. Of course, taste is always subjective.
Regards,
Malta
-
Originally posted by stantond
B Regardless of the actual water used, it's very convenient. Much like the portable cell phone, having water with you in a disposable bottle is very convenient.
Regards,
Malta
Why is it so convienient? You planning on a trek across the sahara any time soon? LOL
Always astounds me (not directed at anyone in particular)
Mankind has been around fro a pretty long time drinking the water at hand.
Even without Bottled water
the overall water quality is probably the best its ever been in history.
We are what we are. A generation of paranoids.
For most of you. Your tap water is fine.
Making things too clean is just as bad for you as living in filth
Like Carlin said.
"We have an imune system. But. For it to work. It needs practice"
-
Is that a trick question?
If you have water with you, there is no need to go find any. Personally, and I don't think I'm alone on this, I need water. Dehydration is not fun.
While it could be some sugary carbonated liquid rather than water carried, I prefer water. Apparently, others do too. The type and 'pedigree' of water is always something to question, but having water with you? Yes. I also always carry a pocket knife.
I'm a boy scout leader, so being prepared is part of my life. I carry a one liter playtpus water bottle with me every day to work because the water there tastes bad. However, most people bring bottled water. I also like to keep water in my vehicle along with a first aid kit. It's part of being prepared, self sufficent, as well as a time saver. Mankind has been doing this for millennia, disposable polyethelyene bottles just make having water with you easier and more convenient.
Regards,
Malta
-
Originally posted by Maverick
That's a "Here's your sign" situation! :lol
Every now and then I fill up an empty or two and put them back in the fridge, she gets pissed when I tell her a day or so after she drinks em :)
shamus
-
I drink bottled water for convienience, and it does not taste of chlorine. I also drink tap water plenty, I suffer no illusion about bottle water being healthier.
-
Originally posted by stantond
Is that a trick question?
If you have water with you, there is no need to go find any. Personally, and I don't think I'm alone on this, I need water. Dehydration is not fun.
Malta
Why? are you normally that far away from water you cant get any if you need it?
LMAO its not like your gonny dehydrate at a moments notice.
Unless..Your trekking across the sahara ;)
I can understand keeping water as part of a first aid kit. to clean wounds and whatnot.
And even to some extent if the water in your building tastes bad.
But to constantly carry it with you in this day and age is downright silly.
Where in most places your local convienience store is less then 10 min away, Most buisness offices carry a watercooler with spring water. or a filtered water fountain
-
Originally posted by Dago
I drink bottled water for convienience, and it does not taste of chlorine. I also drink tap water plenty, I suffer no illusion about bottle water being healthier.
In my house I have Two gallons of water for emergancy.
I get littel 8 oz bottles for may daughter for school cause she prefers water over jiuce. and if she wants Chocolate milk she can simply buy it there.
But the rule here is. the waterbottles are for school. If anyone wants water here. We have a perfectly good Tap to get water from.
If your unwilling to drink that. then your not thirsty.
We get reports on the water in the mail yearly.
Always well within the regulations and doesnt taste bad.
So I see no point in buying water for drinking when the unfiltered Tap water is fine.
Why do I buy the bottled water for my daughter you wonder.
Cause its cheap and sealed so it wont leak.
For me to refill the bottles then tighten them up enough so I know they wont leak all over her bookbag.
A- she wouldnt be able to open the bottles
B- My time and aggrivation is worth more then the nominal fee for it to be pre packaged for me
-
Here's the reality when it comes to bottled water:
Fancy restaurant, sampling waters (http://www.dump.com/omcve/)
-
dred,
Don't take this wrong, but you sound like a city boy who doesn't get out much. It's terribly common for me to be in places where I can't easily get at clean water. You stay a home a lot? Do much camping, traveling, driving? Go shopping more than an hour at a time?
Heck, even during day trips around the city I like to bring a little water with me because I don't like using public fountains (risk of illness is a problem in my job) and don't like paying for drinks when I'm out. I always do this on trips to public parks, even disneyland because all food and drink are very overpriced there. I'll bring a reusable bottle full of water or some other drinks I bought at a supermarket for 1/10th the park price.
I do sweat more than most people so dehydration is more of a problem for me than for most, but it's still a good idea to be prepared. Toss some water in the car during trips, etc.
-
Originally posted by eagl
I do sweat more than most people
Too much info! :D
I normally take a bottle of water along when I am riding in an airliner, and for international trips, I take a large bottle. Dehydrating during an airline flight is coming due to the dry air.
The Boeing 787 is going to have more moisture in the air, so that will be a nice differance.
-
Originally posted by Angus
Always find it hilarious that people buy bottled water in my country, the tapwater is mostly springwater and as such, superb!
Mostly?
The water I drink at home comes from a spring well. It tastes better alone then any other water I've ever had, including any bottled water.
-
Sorry for the wall f text
Originally posted by eagl
dred,
Don't take this wrong, but you sound like a city boy who doesn't get out much. It's terribly common for me to be in places where I can't easily get at clean water. You stay a home a lot? Do much camping, traveling, driving? Go shopping more than an hour at a time?
Heck, even during day trips around the city I like to bring a little water with me because I don't like using public fountains (risk of illness is a problem in my job) and don't like paying for drinks when I'm out. I always do this on trips to public parks, even disneyland because all food and drink are very overpriced there. I'll bring a reusable bottle full of water or some other drinks I bought at a supermarket for 1/10th the park price.
I do sweat more than most people so dehydration is more of a problem for me than for most, but it's still a good idea to be prepared. Toss some water in the car during trips, etc.
LOL No offence taken.
I get out plenty. Go camping. Long drives. Even the occasionally 1300 mile trek to Fla.
Camping is about the only time I will pack water with me.
Unless my brother in law goes with me then he brings his water purification thingamabobber which claims it can filter out 99% of impurities out of sewer water if need be.
The upper Delaware isnt exactly a sewer and its a pretty cool device actually. Havent gotten sick yet from it.
But for camping I mostly use water for Coffee in the morning and washing whatever pots & pans I may have cooked with.
All of my drinking the rest of the day is either beer/soda or whatever juice drinks I packed for the kids.
On long drives. If I get thirsty I just hop off an exit explore the local community (as opposed to a rest stop)stop and pick something up at one of their local mom & pop convieniance stores (doing my part to help their local economy).
Provides a good reason to stretch the legs And I get to see more of America then just its highways which all pretty much look the same from state to state till ya hit Florida LOL.
I will pack a 5 gallon container of water in one of those collapsible jugs for emergency or radiator problems. just in case. But that water all comes right from my tap
I find as long as I dont buy anything from a rest stop. I usually dont spend much, if anything more then I would had I just packed. And getting off the interstate from time to time helps with fatigue and boredom.
Disney makes perfect sense to bring your own...ANYTHING
Good god the food there is expensive. Make the mistake of Eating in the MK at the joint set up like an old drive in Theater. and paid $10 for a burger and fries.
Cant fault ya there.
for around town. or basically for the work day I bring my own drinks particularly when Im working outside in the summer I just pick up a big jug of Gator Aid. (Cause your body looses more then just water and I like the taste)But barring that. much to the horror (and often because it freaks alot of people out these days) I wont hesitate to turn on the spigot of whatever house Im working on and drink right from the hose if need be.
I did have one instance on a BRUTALLY hot day I was working on the outside of a house and went through my 2 gallon jug of gator aid in like 5 hours.
I only had about an hours worth of work left and wanted to finish.
Lemme tell ya. when its REALLY hot and your working in it. You can get thirsty in a hurry. I was spending 10 min on the ground drinking for every 10 min I was up on ly ladder.
In any event I ran out. The area I was working in wasnt exactly high class so I didnt want to just leave all my stuff out to be stolen. and I didnt want to pack everytying up to run to the store 1/2 mile away.
I went for the spigot on the house but it wasnt turned on one the inside. and nobody was home.
My head was pounding at this point and I knew Dehydration was effecting me.
On super hot days it can come up on ya in a hurry. Particularly if on that super hot day your working in the sun. On top of a black roof
Then I remembered that I had neglected to open the bag and dump the ice in my cooler but rather just placed the bag in the cooler with the gator aid. (A practice I continue to do to this day) and there it was. some had leaked out but I had about 1/3 of a bag of melted ice water.
Man Water never tasted so good
-
Originally posted by Dago
Too much info! :D
I normally take a bottle of water along when I am riding in an airliner, and for international trips, I take a large bottle. Dehydrating during an airline flight is coming due to the dry air.
The Boeing 787 is going to have more moisture in the air, so that will be a nice differance.
See now there is another good reason to brin gwater with you.
Thing is for most people. most of the time. There is no need to constantly pack water with you.
Particularly most of the people I see that carry water like EVERYWHERE they go.
ITs really at the point where people dont need to.
They do so because its the "In Fad" like Tie dye teeshirts and those wheelie shoes the kids like to wear these days.
For me. I just see it as one more thing I would have to lug around
though with one of those cute little sling thingies they have now so you can carry it around like a woman carries a purse It might make for a pretty nifty weapon if need be.
Specially if I froze the water first ;)
-
I find it very interesting that when we pay over $2 a gallon for gas, everyone is up in arms complaining, and if you think about it, is it really that expensive? They pump oil from the ground in the middle east, pump it to a port city, where it is loaded on a tanker ship, then transported half way around the world where it gets pumped into land tanks, then it is piped or trucked half away across the country to refinery, where they have to break it down and extract the gasoline, store it, then truck it to the gas station where we buy it. All that work, movement, storage, all those costs and salaries to pay, including all the taxes, and we only pay $2 a gallon and complain.
Bottled water on the other hand, is just local river water or tap water that is filtered, bottled and put on your markets shelf or in a vending machine, for which we pay anywhere from $4 to $8 a gallon and we don't mind at all.
What the heck is up with that? Try and buy a pint of that local filtered water, same as you get from your tap almost free, try and buy it for less than a dollar and you are lucky. Yet, nobody complains.
Strange.
-
I am in close contact witht the production and manufacture of a popular brand of bottled water. regular tap water is diverted to a series of filters that remove 99.9% of all impurities from this tap water. THhis filtered water is now ok to use for soda and juices and teas but it is not ready to become "purified" water. The filtered water is then refiltered through micro-mseh filters and hundreds of feet of speical sand filters then it is "electrocuted" or saturated with ozone to further purify this water and it is then sent through a "polisher" with super fine micro filtration technology. From this point it travels through a UV light tunnel to remove a certain amount of the ozone (ozone is simply H203 instead of H20). The rest of the ozone naturally turns back into h2o after about 12 hours. The water is then piped through pre-sterilized tanks and fillers and bottled and capped. Each hour a quality control tech checks a sample for impurities. If any are found, the entire run is placed on 'hold' and probably destroyed and the system is resanitized and the whole process starts over again. I cant speak for all bottled waters but if it says "purified" on it, it legally must use this or a similar process to qualify as 'purified' water.
-
I must admit, I am fascinated by portable water purifiers. Here is one of the UV water purifiers:
http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php?products_id=1473
Pure science in action! It does nothing but kill every living organism in the water with UV radiation (won't change the taste). A prefilter is needed for murky water. The unit requires 4 AA batteries.
This is another 'kill everything' water purifier:
http://www.prepare-now.com/840.html
I don't like as much because of cost, it requires a salt along with batteries, takes longer to work, and needs a prefilter for murky water. However, for a large group it would work better than the UV model.
Regards,
Malta
-
Tap water in most places tastes like crap. I just buy the big cases of bottles at walmart for like $4.
-
Originally posted by stantond
I must admit, I am fascinated by portable water purifiers. Here is one of the UV water purifiers:
http://www.nitro-pak.com/product_info.php?products_id=1473
Pure science in action! It does nothing but kill every living organism in the water with UV radiation (won't change the taste). A prefilter is needed for murky water. The unit requires 4 AA batteries.
This is another 'kill everything' water purifier:
http://www.prepare-now.com/840.html
I don't like as much because of cost, it requires a salt along with batteries, takes longer to work, and needs a prefilter for murky water. However, for a large group it would work better than the UV model.
Regards,
Malta
I use a RO filtration system. Theyare now quite affordable at around $150 (home depot) and very effective in removing virtually all impurities including chlorine and lead. It does not kill bacteria or virus but it is designed to be used with tap water and not pond water. I use to spend about 10 bucks a week on water, i figure this system has paid for itself already.