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Do you filter your water?

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dukebound85 said:
Do you filter your water?

I recently purchased a Berkey filter system (parents have had one for many years) and am glad I did.

What systems do you use?
Click to expand...
When my wife and I were first married we used a Brita pitcher and filters for our coffee, but drank from the tap.

We moved to Arizona in 2000 though and that was the end of that. Phoenix, AZ water has an algae taste and it's pretty bad. The water authorities have been aware of it for years, but the water is tested safe. It's just the taste that remains and as long as that's the case it won't ever be treated.

Consequently, we have been through a series of home watercoolers. We had Sparkletts deliver for a while, but it's easier just to take your own 5 gallon bottles to Walmart or one of the machines outside Quicktrip or Circle K. I need to go do that this morning, btw.

So, whatever filter those machines use.

My former job has a water cooler with a filter attached, but my former boss was never particular about replacing it. It got to a point that I was bringing in my own bottled water.
 
My tap water is run through a Brita on-tap filter. I rent so I can't change the plumbing to the extent to put a different filter in-line. We have water service with a water cooler at work.
 
We keep a Brita pitcher in the fridge. I am not sure we actually need it here but we got in the habit years ago in another location and just like it already chilled now.
 
Installed an RO system this year after years of 5 gal jugs. Hard water here and not super tasty, even with the fridge or other type of conventional filter. Had to install a softener as well, but I Gotta say the RO is amazing.
 
For drinking cold, no. Never have. However, I use a Brita filter for all water that goes into the kettle or my espresso machine. Not for taste, but to remove the limescale/scum when the water is heated.

Don't like the idea of mineral water, as most has less minerals than my tap water. Plus, the environmental cost.

If I wasn't renting, I'd probably install a softener (bypassed for drinking water) so that washing/showering etc was better for my skin and required less soap. Had hard water when I lived in central London, and have somehow managed to find a rare place in Switzerland that is supplied with hard water too. Apparently, it's good for you.
 
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Great water here, so no.
But I’ve done it for awhile, to see if I noticed any difference. I didn’t.
 
We have a filter for the icemaker, but we normally drink bottled water. If we're making tea, I'll use regular tap water. Our coffee machine has a built-in filter.
 
I use a 3 stage under sink system for my drinking/cooking water. It helps because city water isn't up the standards I like; most days it's okay, every once in a while it has a funky smell. I'm thinking of switching over to a reverse osmosis system. I've been looking high and low for one that doesn't waste 5-10 gallons of water to filter out 1 gallon. If there was some way to salvage the waste water (I can think of plenty of grey water usage), then I would have gotten one already.
The Missus and the kids drink only water that's been RO filtered. I have to go to the special RO filtering places to fill up several 5 gallon bottles for the water dispenser.
 
dukebound85 said:
Do you filter your water?

I recently purchased a Berkey filter system (parents have had one for many years) and am glad I did.

What systems do you use?
Click to expand...

Only our drinking water. We use a couple of the Brita filters. It makes our water taste a little better. If we are going to be cooking, we use the water straight from the tap. But coffee, tea, and the like we use the filtered water.
 
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adrianlondon said:
For drinking cold, no. Never have. However, I use a Brita filter for all water that goes into the kettle or my espresso machine. Not for taste, but to remove the limescale/scum when the water is heated.

Don't like the idea of mineral water, as most has less minerals than my tap water. Plus, the environmental cost.

If I wasn't renting, I'd probably install a softener (bypassed for drinking water) so that washing/showering etc was better for my skin and required less soap. Had hard water when I lived in central London, and have somehow managed to find a rare place in Switzerland that is supplied with hard water too. Apparently, it's good for you.
Click to expand...

Environmental cost I understand, and, when I was younger, the idea of ordering water in a pub, or having a bottle of water to drink from as one walked the streets, or sat in one's office, would have struck me as completely crazy.

Our tap water is perfectly drinkable, - and I use it for cooking, tea, coffee, - but, in recent years, I have discovered that I absolutely adore sparkling mineral water.

I drink still mineral water only when I am in countries where the standard water is not drinkable; but, sparkling water is something I love.
 
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We have very hard water here, but I didn’t want to get hooked into lugging bags of salt home so we bought a water treatment device that also run the water through a carbon filter so all the water in the house is filtered, except the kitchen. Most of the water we drink comes out of the fridge, which is filtered. I have no problem drinking out of the bathroom faucets, water tastes great. Just in the habit of getting it from the fridge now. We drank reverse osmosis for many years. It’s my favorite. It seemed necessary for California but not where I live now.
 
Sparkling (well, we have a choice of lightly or normally carbonated) is very popular here. So much so, many people I know have soda streams. It's like going back to the 1980s.

I've never developed a taste for it. Reminds me of alka seltzer and hence of alcohol-fuelled nights at the student union bar many years ago.
 
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dukebound85 said:
Do you filter your water?

I recently purchased a Berkey filter system (parents have had one for many years) and am glad I did.

What systems do you use?
Click to expand...

I want to get one, those gravity filters are great for extracting toxins.
 
Our Hetch Hetchy tap water is known for being pretty great, but usually when I get water for myself I use the built-in filter on the refrigerator. We do not have any kind of filter on any of the sinks, though.
 
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