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Is it really necessary to use filters, isn't tap water safe for drinking in the US?

asark 7y ago
Filtered or bottled often tastes a lot better. Depends on where you live. Tap's noticeably worse than bottled or filtered where we live now, but not intolerably bad. We used to live somewhere (in the US, to be clear) that, if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. You could tell if a restaurant didn't filter their water because you could smell it in the cup, from a good foot away (luckily, most filtered it). This despite bathing and washing clothes in it and therefore probably being less sensitive to the odor than someone from out of town would be. Needless to say it tasted terrible. We didn't even cook with that stuff. Cheap gallon jugs of filtered water for cooking.
- voldacar 7y ago
  >if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. Well water I assume?
  - asark 7y ago
    It was municipal water. Whole town was that way. googles Looks like it came from the Ozark Aquifer. No clue what weirdness was happening to it in between, but it reliably drew a "sniff sniff WTF?" from visitors. Again, you could tell when a restaurant in the area was serving water straight from the tap in by smell, before the water reached your lips.
ralph84 7y ago
There’s a big gap between safe and palatable. Anyone who says just drink from the tap has never lived somewhere where the water source is very hard groundwater.
- ubercow13 7y ago
  London has hard water and it tastes nice.
electricslpnsld 7y ago
Even in rich major cities (read: NYC), where the city itself does a reasonable job monitoring water quality and updating delivery systems, buildings will often have ancient decaying lead pipes for the last 'mile' of delivery to your unit. It was only a year ago that multiple Bay Area schools found massive amounts of lead coming out of water fountains [1]. Be cognizant of your water, especially if you have kids! [1] https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/05/03/oakland-unified-lead-in-tap-water-issue-taken-care-of/ https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/05/03/oakland-unified-lead...
zaroth 7y ago
Definitely not a matter of safety, just preference. The chlorine levels in my tap water are high enough to smell. I used to RO my water with a 5 stage filter. Lately I bypass the last two stages and just do one stage of 5micron sediment and 2 stages of charcoal block. Chlorine smell is gone, taste is great, and the filters in bulk cost $1.50 each for the sediment and $3.00 each for the charcoal. I change the sediment monthly (it gets quite discolored) and the charcoal every quarter. So $42/year in filters. My wife had a pretty bad bottled water habit before I filtered, so it’s a huge cost saver. We fill water bottles several times a day for us and the kids, so probably ~1,000 gallons a year? Plus it also goes in the coffee machine, and for cooking.

Filtered or bottled often tastes a lot better. Depends on where you live. Tap's noticeably worse than bottled or filtered where we live now, but not intolerably bad. We used to live somewhere (in the US, to be clear) that, if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. You could tell if a restaurant didn't filter their water because you could smell it in the cup, from a good foot away (luckily, most filtered it). This despite bathing and washing clothes in it and therefore probably being less sensitive to the odor than someone from out of town would be. Needless to say it tasted terrible. We didn't even cook with that stuff. Cheap gallon jugs of filtered water for cooking.

voldacar 7y ago
>if you made iced tea with tap water, you could smell it as you brought it to your mouth. The water, I mean, not the tea. Smelled kinda sulfurous, and otherwise just off-putting. Well water I assume?
- asark 7y ago
  It was municipal water. Whole town was that way. googles Looks like it came from the Ozark Aquifer. No clue what weirdness was happening to it in between, but it reliably drew a "sniff sniff WTF?" from visitors. Again, you could tell when a restaurant in the area was serving water straight from the tap in by smell, before the water reached your lips.

ralph84 7y ago

There’s a big gap between safe and palatable. Anyone who says just drink from the tap has never lived somewhere where the water source is very hard groundwater.

ubercow13 7y ago
London has hard water and it tastes nice.

electricslpnsld 7y ago

Even in rich major cities (read: NYC), where the city itself does a reasonable job monitoring water quality and updating delivery systems, buildings will often have ancient decaying lead pipes for the last 'mile' of delivery to your unit. It was only a year ago that multiple Bay Area schools found massive amounts of lead coming out of water fountains [1]. Be cognizant of your water, especially if you have kids! [1] https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/05/03/oakland-unified-lead-in-tap-water-issue-taken-care-of/ https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2019/05/03/oakland-unified-lead...

zaroth 7y ago

Definitely not a matter of safety, just preference. The chlorine levels in my tap water are high enough to smell. I used to RO my water with a 5 stage filter. Lately I bypass the last two stages and just do one stage of 5micron sediment and 2 stages of charcoal block. Chlorine smell is gone, taste is great, and the filters in bulk cost $1.50 each for the sediment and $3.00 each for the charcoal. I change the sediment monthly (it gets quite discolored) and the charcoal every quarter. So $42/year in filters. My wife had a pretty bad bottled water habit before I filtered, so it’s a huge cost saver. We fill water bottles several times a day for us and the kids, so probably ~1,000 gallons a year? Plus it also goes in the coffee machine, and for cooking.