Bottled Water

[bgmnts]

Can someone explain bottled water in countries where there is easy access to clean water from the tap?

Thanks.

[SavageHedgehog]

I recommend you watch the 1985 Dick Clement documentary Water.

[Fambo Number Mive]

If you are going on a very long walk, you may drink all of the water you have taken with you in a bottle/flask from your tap and need to pop into a shop for some more. It's also handy if there is an interruption to the local water supply.

I know these are niche reasons but these are two reasons I can think of where bottled water is useful. Having public refill stations would reduce the first* need for buying bottled water, but these aren't very frequent and I don't know if there would be an issue with people drinking directly from them during a Covid-like event.




*not a pun

[BlodwynPig]

Where do you take your long walks? The Trafford Centre?

[RenegadeScrew]

I suppose it depends on the definition of clean.  I was horrified by London tap water upon visiting.  In Scotland the water doesn't ruin your kettle instantly.  In Luxembourg it depends where you are it seems (weirdly) but as I'm in a shithole part my tap water is terrible although drinkable.  The cheapest bottled water is only 60c for 5L so it isn't so bad. I mainly just drink beer anyway.  I use tap water for coffee and (rarely) washing.

[Sebastian Cobb]

What if you need a bottle for putting more tap water in?

[shiftwork2]

Do you have a carbonated water tap?

[Bazooka]

What about countries where it's easy to access clean Ribena from the taps?

[thr0b]

Vimto.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/family-gets-vimto-on-tap-1123361

[honeychile]

If you are going on a very long walk, you may drink all of the water you have taken with you in a bottle/flask from your tap and need to pop into a shop for some more. It's also handy if there is an interruption to the local water supply.

I know these are niche reasons but these are two reasons I can think of where bottled water is useful. Having public refill stations would reduce the first* need for buying bottled water, but these aren't very frequent and I don't know if there would be an issue with people drinking directly from them during a Covid-like event.

For long walks, i've always just gone into pubs or cafes and asked them to refill my bottle from the tap. Not an option at the moment i expect.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I suppose it depends on the definition of clean.  I was horrified by London tap water upon visiting.  In Scotland the water doesn't ruin your kettle instantly.  In Luxembourg it depends where you are it seems (weirdly) but as I'm in a shithole part my tap water is terrible although drinkable.  The cheapest bottled water is only 60c for 5L so it isn't so bad. I mainly just drink beer anyway.  I use tap water for coffee and (rarely) washing.

I take it since you mention ruining the kettle that the water is full of lime? It's prohibitively expensive to remove lime from water at the water treatment plant so unfortunately in hard water areas you just have to put up with it.

[RenegadeScrew]

I take it since you mention ruining the kettle that the water is full of lime? It's prohibitively expensive to remove lime from water at the water treatment plant so unfortunately in hard water areas you just have to put up with it.

Yeah I think it's limescale or calcium, if they aren't the same.  I recently cleaned my kettle with vinegar which I'd just discovered was a thing.  I presume southern England is the same but I never stayed long enough to observe kettle spoilage.

They might actually filter it out in newer houses here, or something.  It's definitely far better in certain places than others.  It's not north/south like the UK, I can go 5km away from my house and find acceptable tap water.

[idunnosomename]

Vimto.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/family-gets-vimto-on-tap-1123361

i wonder how their fuckin vimto tank is doing 16 years on. Probably all died of dysentry.

[Buelligan]

Yeah I think it's limescale or calcium, if they aren't the same.  I recently cleaned my kettle with vinegar which I'd just discovered was a thing.  I presume southern England is the same but I never stayed long enough to observe kettle spoilage.

They might actually filter it out in newer houses here, or something.  It's definitely far better in certain places than others.  It's not north/south like the UK, I can go 5km away from my house and find acceptable tap water.

As we're doing a household hints moment, I'll just mention that white vinegar is an excellent cleaning product.  I have an old spray bottle that I refill with it - showers, baths, steel pans, window-cleaning of course.  Even leaving white vinegar in burnt pans to lift off the horror - fantastic stuff, for cleaning out kettles and coffee machines, it's good but citric acid's better because it doesn't leave any sort of taint.  We don't want that in a coffee machine.

[touchingcloth]

Yeah I think it's limescale or calcium, if they aren't the same.  I recently cleaned my kettle with vinegar which I'd just discovered was a thing.  I presume southern England is the same but I never stayed long enough to observe kettle spoilage.

They might actually filter it out in newer houses here, or something.  It's definitely far better in certain places than others.  It's not north/south like the UK, I can go 5km away from my house and find acceptable tap water.

Our water comes from a well and it's massively hard, to the point that the kettle is never clean, the taps are never really sparkling because even after a thorough cleaning with vinegar they're full again quite quickly, and even things like the toilet flushes get furred up and stop working until the lumps of calcium get chipped off. The float switch which controls when water gets pumped up from the well also gets knackered by it.

But it's very tasty water (we treat it with UV precisely to avoid the plastic waste), so I don't think hardness per se is the cause of shite tap water, and I've lived in different hard water areas in the UK with different tasting water.

Most people here drink bottled water at home because the municipal water isn't always the safest, and supermarkets are always rammed with big 5-7l bottles. Some supermarkets have switched to a system where you buy a bottle and fill it from a machine, then if you bring that bottle back again you can fill it for a pittance per litre. I'd like to see more of that sort of thing, because bottled water is fucking scandalous.

[confettiinmyhair]

Hasn't France really pushed natural water in a couple of cities? I think you even have outdoor taps of sparkling water.

I was watching a documentary about Flint, Michigan's underfunded Police force and the whole city had a tainted water supply. Without bottled water they'd have been doomed .

[Puce Moment]

Brita filter £25

[Rizla]

Brita filter £25

Prefer my Britta unfiltered if you know what I mean

[Marner and Me]

I carry my big fuck off bottle of water everywhere.

[Wonderful Butternut]

I take it since you mention ruining the kettle that the water is full of lime? It's prohibitively expensive to remove lime from water at the water treatment plant so unfortunately in hard water areas you just have to put up with it.

You can get a water softener, but it costs about €500.

And my hippie neighbour thinks all the sodium from the salt tablets it uses to clean its filters is bad for me. He has a 'water ioniser' instead. Whatever the fuck that is.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I carry my big fuck off bottle of water everywhere.

Mm, we can see. You are developing quite the reputation around town.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Hasn't France really pushed natural water in a couple of cities? I think you even have outdoor taps of sparkling water.

I was watching a documentary about Flint, Michigan's underfunded Police force and the whole city had a tainted water supply. Without bottled water they'd have been doomed .

In emergencies big condensers can be applied to pull water out the air. They're not that efficient though depending on how the electricity to power them is being generated, it can be more environmentally friendly to just bring water in on a truck.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Maybe this should be in the F*ck my hat thread, but the use by date on a bottle of water isn't for the contents. Water doesn't go off so it is for the plastic bottle.

[RenegadeScrew]

As we're doing a household hints moment, I'll just mention that white vinegar is an excellent cleaning product.  I have an old spray bottle that I refill with it - showers, baths, steel pans, window-cleaning of course.  Even leaving white vinegar in burnt pans to lift off the horror - fantastic stuff, for cleaning out kettles and coffee machines, it's good but citric acid's better because it doesn't leave any sort of taint.  We don't want that in a coffee machine.

I quite enjoy mixing it with bicarbonate soda....just to make it fizz.  I didn't find it left any taint in the kettle, but I rinsed it out afterwards and boiled some water to empty out.  Citric Acid seems expensive for the job unless you are diluting it.   I will need to try and burnt pans technique.

[monkfromhavana]

Everyone needs a cheeky Volvic.

[touchingcloth]

As we're doing a household hints moment, I'll just mention that white vinegar is an excellent cleaning product.  I have an old spray bottle that I refill with it - showers, baths, steel pans, window-cleaning of course.  Even leaving white vinegar in burnt pans to lift off the horror - fantastic stuff, for cleaning out kettles and coffee machines, it's good but citric acid's better because it doesn't leave any sort of taint.  We don't want that in a coffee machine.

Because the calcium deposits here are so damn tenacious - e.g. the back of the toilet looks permanently skidmarked because there's a film of solid calcium where the flush jets are, and some dripping taps now have mini stalactites on them - white vinegar doesn't touch the sides in some cases, and we have to break out the muriatic acid.

In general, tho, agreed that vinegar is a miracle cleaning product and most proprietary household cleaners don't offer much that vinegar doesn't besides stopping the place smelling like a chippy. Though I must confess unlike with Dettol I'm much more inclined to turn the spray bottle of vinegar into my mouth.

[bgmnts]

I can concur white vinegar is a miracle cleaner.

It'll get smeared shit off a running wheel in minutes and make it an absolute pleasure to clean.

[RenegadeScrew]

Our water comes from a well and it's massively hard, to the point that the kettle is never clean, the taps are never really sparkling because even after a thorough cleaning with vinegar they're full again quite quickly, and even things like the toilet flushes get furred up and stop working until the lumps of calcium get chipped off. The float switch which controls when water gets pumped up from the well also gets knackered by it.

But it's very tasty water (we treat it with UV precisely to avoid the plastic waste), so I don't think hardness per se is the cause of shite tap water, and I've lived in different hard water areas in the UK with different tasting water.

That sounds like a pain.  It must knacker stuff like washing machines far more quickly than in soft water places.  UV light treatment sounds interesting, how does that work?

It seems here there are several different sources and pump stations/etc so I suppose in England there might be hundreds.  That along with different pipes to different houses must be the big difference.

You are right, a lot of English drinks like beer and cider actually owe some qualities to the hardness of water.  And (I think) people who try to emulate certain beer styles with soft water need to add calcium and stuff.

I suppose it's really in my head.  Letting water 'settle' seems wrong.  Although it's still better than fizzy water.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think you can get water softener things for stuff like washing machines. When I worked in a kitchen the commercial dishwasher had a big cylinder full of salt connected to it.

I used to throw the mop head through it before cleaning the floor.

[RenegadeScrew]

Though I must confess unlike with Dettol I'm much more inclined to turn the spray bottle of vinegar into my mouth.

Household Tip#34 - My mum puts a bit of Dettol in the washing machine and it does something magical (or my mum does other stuff).  You can wear a t-shirt more than a day and it still smells clean.  I'll let others judge how many days.