Do you drink tap water?

[Herb Hunter]

Having spent time in third world countries where we had to filter and boil the water in order to make it safe for drinking, being able to drink water straight out of the tap, is a luxury I’ve come to appreciate. Some municipalities have very good tasting water and I think it absurd to buy bottled water, some of which is even bottled municipal water.

[The Bard Rocks]

When you research the minimal testing that is required for "spring" water, tap water sounds a lot better (unless you live in Flint, of course). There are often marked differences between the taste of well water and city water, especially if the cities add halogens.

As long as what you have is safe to drink, I cannot see buying and lugging around water. Not everyone thinks so, and so an industry was born. 50 years ago, no one would have thought there'd be a whole industry devoted to selling water!

[fatt-dad]

I drink tap water. It's from the James River above the falls of Richmond.

I don't play cheap guitars though!

f-d

[Acousticado]

We're also on a drilled well in the countryside, not in a farm area. The water is pristine and tastes absolutely great! Been drinking it for over 32 years.

[random works]

We have a Big Berkey unit and use water from it for drinking and cooking. When setting the unit up, I did the recommended test and added a spoon of red food coloring to the water in the chamber, then was amazed to have clear water with no trace of red.

I can smell chlorine in our tap water from time to time, and sometimes we get water that's cloudy and dark ( when the water company works on the iron pipes) Between the chlorine, the iron, and who knows what else, I decided to stop drinking tap water.

[Riverwolf]

I have performed enough plumbing in my life to know that the insides of fresh water pipes can be really disgusting.
A house does not have to be very old before you would take one look and say that you would never drink from that pipe.
Then again, those filters that you "periodically" change can look so discolored and scummy that you would not want it in your mouth.
So what's a poor boy to do?
I drink the tap water.

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

When you research the minimal testing that is required for "spring" water, tap water sounds a lot better (unless you live in Flint, of course). There are often marked differences between the taste of well water and city water, especially if the cities add halogens.

As long as what you have is safe to drink, I cannot see buying and lugging around water. Not everyone thinks so, and so an industry was born. 50 years ago, no one would have thought there'd be a whole industry devoted to selling water!

Very near to where I go for my spring water , yes it is true spring water , there used to be 2 locations that simply had free , constantly running spring water for the public . In fact , you can still see the nameplate for Buckshot Spring at the one abandoned location .
I have no doubt that the tap water here is safe to drink . The odor at times , more often than not , is unacceptable to my nose . Rather than store water to use at those times , I simply use the spring water .

[flaggerphil]

We don't drink the tap water here because we don't like the taste. It's perfectly safe, though. We do use it for cooking and making ice through our refrigerator.

[sled]

The standards for tap water far surpass the standards bottled water has to pass. I drink tap water almost exclusively, and it tastes great. I guess if I lived somewhere where it didn't I would buy more bottled water. The only one I really like better than tap is Fuji, and it is crazy expensive.

[sled]

Originally Posted by seannx

I mostly drink tap water at home, cook with it, and reserve buying bottled water when out of the house and traveling. My favorite brands are Arrowhead and Evian. I hate how Aquafina is often the only brand available at airports or convenience stores.

Ah, Evian. Now spell it backwards and there you have the bottled water industry......

[HDRider]

Originally Posted by teleamp

Flint, MI got me to thinking... why the big uproar, i haven't used tap water for drinking or cooking in years Don't they have access to bottled water up there?

Why the big uproar?

How about because a city should, at the very least, be able to provide safe, clean drinking water to its citizens. How about because the city, in an effort to save a few bucks, ended up with a toxic level of lead contamination.

How about because people shouldn't get this when they turn on the tap:



Yes, they have access to bottled water. But we're talking about a scale so great that the bottled water has to be trucked in by the National Guard.

So, yeah, that's "why the big uproar?".

[Herb Hunter]

Originally Posted by sled

Ah, Evian. Now spell it backwards and there you have the bottled water industry......

I would think you would’ve said, spell it backwards and you have the bottled water consumer.

[Herb Hunter]

Originally Posted by teleamp

... Flint, MI got me to thinking... why the big uproar...?

Because children, with assurances from state officials that it was safe to drink, consumed lead-tainted city water and are now at risk of having brain development stunted and life-long health consequences, because people are being billed monthly for unusable water, because poor people can’t afford bottled water, because - well, you get the picture.

[Bikewer]

Almost exclusively for me. The local St. Louis County water is really of high quality.

Years ago, the local tabloid newspaper, the Riverfront Times, did a taste test. At the time, bottled water was just starting to get popular in the area and Perrier was a big thing.

They set up a test with a bunch of people trying various commercial brands and the local tap water.... (all "blind", of course)
St. Louis County water won hands down.

Many reports over the years have show that much of the high-end bottled water that's sold contains much more in the way of various contaminants than does most tap water, and also that much commercial water that's marketed in such a way (pretty mountains on the label, "so-and-so springs".....etc,) is just tap water bottled and sold.

[Arthur Blake]

My family moved from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Los Angeles California in 1962.

Couldn't believe how bad the tap water tasted.

Never had a problem drinking tap water before.

A friend thought I was nuts and swore no one could tell the difference, so we covered my eyes, and he filled one glass with tap water and another with bottled spring water. I could tell first was tap water before I began to drink by the odor in the glass.

We use tap water for washing and bathing, but I drink distilled water now.