4 ms·

One of the worst thing I did for many decades was drink bottled water and/or tap water. For many years I bought bottled water for home consumption. I eventual

by Dowwie 4y ago

One of the worst thing I did for many decades was drink bottled water and/or tap water. For many years I bought bottled water for home consumption. I eventually learned about under-sink reverse-osmosis water filtration systems and invested in one. For the last ~15 years, I've used such systems, following scheduled filter replacements. The water tastes and feels better than bottled water. Last year, my county water utility issued a boiled water alert due to high levels of e-coli. This wasn't a problem at all for me because of my water filtration system.

lucb1e 4y ago
Add country and region for regional advice please. In the Netherlands and afaik all surrounding countries, this is definitely not necessary. Drink tap water all you want.
- BrandoElFollito 4y ago
  I live in France where tap water is considered good and very tightly controlled. You cannot go wrong with tap water. Now, there is the matter of taste. My tap water is ok, some are much better. I drink from a Brita pitcher (the one with overpriced filters) and the taste is noticeably better. But again it is just the taste. The safety of tap water is a given here (town halls have to post results from water tests that are done on a regular basis).
account42 4y ago
This depends a lot on where you live. In a lot of places, tap water is just fine. In others you might as well be drinking from a public swimming pool.
shard 4y ago
Typical reverse osmosis filter systems have to throw away 1x-3x the amount of water filtered, which could be quite wasteful depending on your water usage. It also removes many minerals which some people then have to add back into the water. With the water shortage issue in California, I decided to switch to just regular undersink water filter as a replacement for bottled water instead of reverse osmosis.
- solarmist 4y ago
  It could be wasteful if hooked up to the whole house, but it's unlikely an under-sink reverse osmosis system will have a meaningful impact on your water consumption. Accurately identifying where to implement it matters. If you have hard water, I suggest a whole-house water softener and reserve reverse osmosis for the kitchen. Re: remineralization. Ick, I just skip these. They taste awful to me.
  - aussieshibe 4y ago
    Is drinking de-mineralised water from RO not bad for you? I'd always heard it leeches minerals out of you.
    - solarmist 4y ago
      Not a significant concern because it's what your digestive system is designed for. Pulling out the materials it needs from a slurry. Deinionized water on the other hand immediately chemically to pull in ions. So same action, but with a more powerful mechanism. You'd probably have to drink a lot of deionized water to cause issues, plus water reionizes pretty quickly in air, and it takes terrible.
      - solarmist 4y ago
        There is no consensus [1] except that exclusively drinking demineralized water could cause issues. So like everything moderation matters. I only use it for drinking water not cooking for example. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/
charlieflowers 4y ago
Can you recommend a brand? They are expensive and there are the usual low quality, planned obscelesence game playing techniques to sort through.
- solarmist 4y ago
  AO Smith works well from what I've tried. > there are the usual low quality, planned obscelesence game playing techniques to sort through Umm, a water filter is mostly a reservoir, tubing, and a pile of chemical reactants. This is not planned obsolescence. This is just pure chemistry. The reactants become saturated and need replacing. All water filtration systems require periodic changing of filters. That said, there are many stage filtration systems, and you don't need most of them. A three-stage reverse osmosis system will give you the cleanest water possible. Like mine was a 4 stage with a final remineralization step that I just didn't hook up. If you want to understand it better watch this [1], just skip the deionization step because drinking deionized water is very unhealthy. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w15DHO4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w15DHO4g
- Dowwie 4y ago
  I own an iSpring under-sink RO system and it's been working fine for the last 8 years. I'm replacing filters every 6 and 12 months, and RO membrane every 3 years. I also replaced the RO tank once when pressure couldn't be restored. I don't think you're going to be able to sort through planned obsolescence schemes for water filtration systems. The money is made in the filters, not the under-sink systems. There are generics for just about every part.
- mesarvagya 4y ago
  I installed APEC RO HI filter, which is really good. https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-hi-detail.htm https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-hi-detail.htm

by Dowwie 4y ago

lucb1e 4y ago

Add country and region for regional advice please. In the Netherlands and afaik all surrounding countries, this is definitely not necessary. Drink tap water all you want.

BrandoElFollito 4y ago
I live in France where tap water is considered good and very tightly controlled. You cannot go wrong with tap water. Now, there is the matter of taste. My tap water is ok, some are much better. I drink from a Brita pitcher (the one with overpriced filters) and the taste is noticeably better. But again it is just the taste. The safety of tap water is a given here (town halls have to post results from water tests that are done on a regular basis).

account42 4y ago

This depends a lot on where you live. In a lot of places, tap water is just fine. In others you might as well be drinking from a public swimming pool.

shard 4y ago

Typical reverse osmosis filter systems have to throw away 1x-3x the amount of water filtered, which could be quite wasteful depending on your water usage. It also removes many minerals which some people then have to add back into the water. With the water shortage issue in California, I decided to switch to just regular undersink water filter as a replacement for bottled water instead of reverse osmosis.

solarmist 4y ago
It could be wasteful if hooked up to the whole house, but it's unlikely an under-sink reverse osmosis system will have a meaningful impact on your water consumption. Accurately identifying where to implement it matters. If you have hard water, I suggest a whole-house water softener and reserve reverse osmosis for the kitchen. Re: remineralization. Ick, I just skip these. They taste awful to me.
- aussieshibe 4y ago
  Is drinking de-mineralised water from RO not bad for you? I'd always heard it leeches minerals out of you.
  - solarmist 4y ago
    Not a significant concern because it's what your digestive system is designed for. Pulling out the materials it needs from a slurry. Deinionized water on the other hand immediately chemically to pull in ions. So same action, but with a more powerful mechanism. You'd probably have to drink a lot of deionized water to cause issues, plus water reionizes pretty quickly in air, and it takes terrible.
    - solarmist 4y ago
      There is no consensus [1] except that exclusively drinking demineralized water could cause issues. So like everything moderation matters. I only use it for drinking water not cooking for example. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4223198/

charlieflowers 4y ago

Can you recommend a brand? They are expensive and there are the usual low quality, planned obscelesence game playing techniques to sort through.

solarmist 4y ago
AO Smith works well from what I've tried. > there are the usual low quality, planned obscelesence game playing techniques to sort through Umm, a water filter is mostly a reservoir, tubing, and a pile of chemical reactants. This is not planned obsolescence. This is just pure chemistry. The reactants become saturated and need replacing. All water filtration systems require periodic changing of filters. That said, there are many stage filtration systems, and you don't need most of them. A three-stage reverse osmosis system will give you the cleanest water possible. Like mine was a 4 stage with a final remineralization step that I just didn't hook up. If you want to understand it better watch this [1], just skip the deionization step because drinking deionized water is very unhealthy. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w15DHO4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb1w15DHO4g
Dowwie 4y ago
I own an iSpring under-sink RO system and it's been working fine for the last 8 years. I'm replacing filters every 6 and 12 months, and RO membrane every 3 years. I also replaced the RO tank once when pressure couldn't be restored. I don't think you're going to be able to sort through planned obsolescence schemes for water filtration systems. The money is made in the filters, not the under-sink systems. There are generics for just about every part.
mesarvagya 4y ago
I installed APEC RO HI filter, which is really good. https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-hi-detail.htm https://www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-hi-detail.htm