I’m picky about what water I put into motorcycle batteries or cooking/coffee pots/drinking. Distilled in the first, purified/reverse osmosis in the latter.
My dog seems to prefer the latter after I tried her with it.
Tap water here tastes OK and is rated “excellent” by the state, but sure leaves a lot of white residue (mineral crap) if it boils away. And after all these years has probably calcified my bladder and prostrate.
@phendrick I use water from the local water store for my kettle to keep it free of mineral build up.
For regular drinking water it’s out of my refrigerator, which has a filter.
@ircon96 My bladder is prostrate until the bladder wakes me up; then the prostate takes charge and keeps me vertical for a while. Then prostrate, bladder, et al all return to prostrate for a few more hours.
Yeah, I know, TMI.
But it seems to me that BPH is easier to deal with than PMS, VMS, or GSM. Or ultimately. MHT/HRT and even CVS.
@phendrick if I need “distilled” water for something. Like car applications. I’d just disconnect the dehumidifier drain hose, let them fill their bucket, and bottle it from them like dad did. I have a few jugs around. I just flush the radiator with the hose though. Then “distilled”. Then coolant. Premix coolant is for suckers lol.
This may sound redicululous to some people but I distilled that water from the air at significant cost to keep the basement and half below grade garage from growing mold or rusting my tools. I will harvest the water like I’m on dune! Ok not really. It mostly just goes to the floor drain. And yes it’s a $ at Walmart. But still lol
@unksol Agree on the premix. You get half the antifreeze for 2/3 of the price. I imagine whoever came up with that idea was made a vice president of Prestone or Xerex or wherever.
Having had horrendous giardia infections a few times, I am concerned about the water I drink. Taking Flagyl is not pleasant. I prefer filtered or bottled, but don’t go crazy if tap is the only thing available. You can get it from eating salad if the person preparing it has the infection and handled the greens, but that doesn’t stop me from eating salad when I go out for a meal.
I’m not picky about taste but the water at the schools I went to had visible flakes in it and made me vomit after about 20 minutes. I have a pretty basic under-sink filter now and it’s fine.
@brennyn Nevermind, that is not fun. Google’s AI result says it’s either polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride but neither of those things are combustible.
My girlfriend is from Argentina and refuses to drink anything except bottled water. It’s hard to blame her, but I don’t get the people who grew up in my densely-populated city and are the same way.
@tohar1 I inadvertently drank the water in Mexico, Thailand, and India. And I am still here.
In Thailand, I went to the hotel nurse and told her I had three symptoms. She gave me four subscriptions, an extra one for a symptom I had but did not mention. Oh, and she was reaching for the bottles before I finished my first sentence.
I think she something in Thai. Probably, “dumb weak tourist” or similar.
@hchavers@tohar1 .
People who will totally avoid the local water often forget and have ice in their drinks. Also the water that they use to rinse your salad is the same water you would have been drinking.
When we went to Machu Picchu in Peru everybody in the group of eight except my wife and I ended up with some sort of nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea issue. I don’t know if it’s because we camped as much as we did or we just have high resistance but neither of us had any problem.
@chienfou@hchavers@tohar1 What were the subscriptions for, travel magazines? But seriously, that’s one of my worst fears. I only remember being that sick once, from bad ham on a Papa John’s pizza. Needless to say, I haven’t eaten there since!
@hchavers@tohar1 When my daughter was in Mexico for a month as a short-term cultural exchange student, she took along several things that she expected to need for GI issues. When the Mexican woman running the hostel saw her pull them out, she said “No, I have something better.” The local remedy, which proved effective, was a couple of limes’ worth of juice in a glass of cold water.
Not too uptight, as long as it has flavor in it. If not, it has to be ice cold for me to gag it down. The only bottled water I’ve tried that’s tolerable without flavor added was Fiji – i guess it has the right minerals or something – but I’m not paying that much on a regular basis, so flavor packets it is!
@ircon96
Same here. I use those packets designed for half liter bottles to flavor a half GALLON of water at a time. Those are sufficiently sweet and flavorful to make the ensuing liquid palatable.
@chienfou That’s true, any bit of flavor helps, and some of those flavor packets are intense! I’m currently addicted to Sonic limeade packets & those sure do pack a punch – almost pure citric acid! Very refreshing. Lol
We have a brita tank in the fridge that barely gets used. I usually just grab a glass from the faucet if I’m wanting water at any point. Grew in a split family that had both well and city waters so no flavor issues for me. It all sucks
We had a well at home when I was a kid. Think it was a two inch in retrospect/didn’t really know what this metal pipe cap in the front yard was i had to mow around when I was 10. And septic system.
Literally across the street from the elementary school between it and AM general.Not modern subdivisions. Built in the 70s. Outside city limits. Just a little neighborhood of 5x4 blocks. 5-6 houses long and 2 deep. Per block. Good to ride your bike around.
Looking at Zillow now that house is 1000 square feet. Although does have a full basement. And a ~10000 sqft lot.
Anyway never had water problems there. I think the septic needed some work. And we did drink from the hose. Just let it run first.
I suppose a good thing about that was no lead pipes
College had City water.
Now out a mile up and over from a small town with no stoplight and an artesian well (not artisanal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artesian_well. Pain in the ass when you try to check the well cap cause a leak and get a gyser) . And a septic system.
I’m very grateful I’ve never had bad water. I know some places it’s awful and needs serious treatment. and ground wells need monitoring anyway.
Hard water and some iron is all which can be dealt with.
@Kyeh I do remember that. Although I think that was fracking related. NG leaking in.
My first thought was about how polluted water used to be that RIVERS were regularly on fire and the EPA was a good thing. And before I got there I started thinking about polluted ground water around industrial sites.
And how ground water can be corrupted. And the cases of cancer… etc.
But ours has been ok. Then. Wait how big was that neighborhood… Brain rain away on me lol. Found it in Zillow.
And… I don’t know how anyone can think that corporations who are only interested in profit and themselves like they are lords and everyone else is a serf. Should ever be trusted and not regulated.
The current immediate problem is the illegal destruction of those agencies built to try to protect ALL of us. Then we need new laws/actual work getting done to stop these people from stealing from their workers. But I digress
@unksol We built our current house on rural forested land. When I had the well digger out to pick a spot for the well, he couldn’t/wouldn’t recommend a location, but gave me the general guidelines for required distances from animal pens, septic system, etc. Then it was up to me to pick the spot. So, with all that in mind I said “OK, how about, um, here?” and hoped for the best.
Turned out our new well has served us beyond our expectations for 27 years (and counting). No filters or other treatment needed, the water is clear and good tasting and plentiful (no snow or streams above us, so rain water sourced).
(Not so with several other properties in the area, I have learned. Just dumb luck on my part, I guess.)
@unksol It’s a crap shoot. Our well went ~230 feet deep and we got 20 gal/min flow. The next neighbors to the south have a similar well to ours. The next door neighbors just to the north went down 750 ft and got 1.5 gal/minute. They have to (pretty much constantly) pump water up from the well to a large holding tank, then pump on-demand from the tank to the house. (BIG $$.)
Wait. Water? I’m supposed to have city water running through my apartment’s water pipes at all times? Not in this city. For a while there we were going 1-3 weeks without any water at all, and much longer with boil water notices. The worst no water was starting 1pm Dec 24 running through Jan 2. It wasn’t the longest period of time we had no water (that was about 3 weeks), but over those two holidays made it horrific.
@chienfou Nope. I have a 5 gal and 6 gal camping water container plus a number of saved 1 gal containers and I just go to the next suburb up the highway (in the next country so different water system - about 6 miles away) and fill up all that stuff there. The big containers I use to flush the toilet and the smaller ones for drinking water. I take a shower at a friend’s house.
It needs to taste good at room temperature. Also, no floaties.
@yakkoTDI I liked floaties when i was a kid… They were yummy!
I’m picky about what water I put into motorcycle batteries or cooking/coffee pots/drinking. Distilled in the first, purified/reverse osmosis in the latter.
My dog seems to prefer the latter after I tried her with it.
Tap water here tastes OK and is rated “excellent” by the state, but sure leaves a lot of white residue (mineral crap) if it boils away. And after all these years has probably calcified my bladder and prostrate.
@phendrick switched to AGM batteries in the motorcycles so no more topping off. Distilled water only in the radiators.
@phendrick I use water from the local water store for my kettle to keep it free of mineral build up.
For regular drinking water it’s out of my refrigerator, which has a filter.
@phendrick Wait, your bladder is prostrate? Is there anything they can do for that?
@ircon96 @phendrick Good thing it’s not standing at attention, that would be painful.
@ircon96 My bladder is prostrate until the bladder wakes me up; then the prostate takes charge and keeps me vertical for a while. Then prostrate, bladder, et al all return to prostrate for a few more hours.
Yeah, I know, TMI.
But it seems to me that BPH is easier to deal with than PMS, VMS, or GSM. Or ultimately. MHT/HRT and even CVS.
@werehatrack You’re talking bladder here, right?
@phendrick Ahh, so true, when we hit a certain age (usually, around the time we start cresting “the hill”), life becomes a cluster of acronyms. <sigh>
@phendrick if I need “distilled” water for something. Like car applications. I’d just disconnect the dehumidifier drain hose, let them fill their bucket, and bottle it from them like dad did. I have a few jugs around. I just flush the radiator with the hose though. Then “distilled”. Then coolant. Premix coolant is for suckers lol.
This may sound redicululous to some people but I distilled that water from the air at significant cost to keep the basement and half below grade garage from growing mold or rusting my tools. I will harvest the water like I’m on dune! Ok not really. It mostly just goes to the floor drain. And yes it’s a $ at Walmart. But still lol
@unksol Agree on the premix. You get half the antifreeze for 2/3 of the price. I imagine whoever came up with that idea was made a vice president of Prestone or Xerex or wherever.
RO at home but tap water most other places
As long as it doesn’t ruin my coffee.
Having had horrendous giardia infections a few times, I am concerned about the water I drink. Taking Flagyl is not pleasant. I prefer filtered or bottled, but don’t go crazy if tap is the only thing available. You can get it from eating salad if the person preparing it has the infection and handled the greens, but that doesn’t stop me from eating salad when I go out for a meal.
Plastic bottles water has microplastics!
@damjadi yup. And xenoestrogens.
I’m not picky about taste but the water at the schools I went to had visible flakes in it and made me vomit after about 20 minutes. I have a pretty basic under-sink filter now and it’s fine.
@brennyn corn flakes, frosted flakes, what flakes are we talking about, because right now that sounds pretty rad.
@Colinisok Unknown small white flakes, smelled terrible, and other kids would ignite it with a Bic lighter for amusement.
@brennyn @Colinisok
@brennyn @Colinisok @Kyeh
Wow! Did you live near a Superfund site?
@brennyn Nevermind, that is not fun. Google’s AI result says it’s either polypropylene or polyvinyl chloride but neither of those things are combustible.
My girlfriend is from Argentina and refuses to drink anything except bottled water. It’s hard to blame her, but I don’t get the people who grew up in my densely-populated city and are the same way.
I bought a filter when I hiked the Himalayans.
“Montezuma’s Revenge” anyone? A buddy of mine found out the hard way when he visited Mexico one time…“Don’t Drink The Water!”
@tohar1 I inadvertently drank the water in Mexico, Thailand, and India. And I am still here.
In Thailand, I went to the hotel nurse and told her I had three symptoms. She gave me four subscriptions, an extra one for a symptom I had but did not mention. Oh, and she was reaching for the bottles before I finished my first sentence.
I think she something in Thai. Probably, “dumb weak tourist” or similar.
@hchavers @tohar1 .
People who will totally avoid the local water often forget and have ice in their drinks. Also the water that they use to rinse your salad is the same water you would have been drinking.
When we went to Machu Picchu in Peru everybody in the group of eight except my wife and I ended up with some sort of nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea issue. I don’t know if it’s because we camped as much as we did or we just have high resistance but neither of us had any problem.
@chienfou @hchavers @tohar1 What were the subscriptions for, travel magazines?
But seriously, that’s one of my worst fears. I only remember being that sick once, from bad ham on a Papa John’s pizza. Needless to say, I haven’t eaten there since! 
@hchavers @tohar1 When my daughter was in Mexico for a month as a short-term cultural exchange student, she took along several things that she expected to need for GI issues. When the Mexican woman running the hostel saw her pull them out, she said “No, I have something better.” The local remedy, which proved effective, was a couple of limes’ worth of juice in a glass of cold water.
@werehatrack
Remedy or prophylaxis? I’ll need to file that away for future travels…
Straight tap water
I don’t know if I turned out Great, but hose water/tap water is fine.
@jerry559 we think you’re swell
Not too uptight, as long as it has flavor in it. If not, it has to be ice cold for me to gag it down. The only bottled water I’ve tried that’s tolerable without flavor added was Fiji – i guess it has the right minerals or something – but I’m not paying that much on a regular basis, so flavor packets it is!
@ircon96
Same here. I use those packets designed for half liter bottles to flavor a half GALLON of water at a time. Those are sufficiently sweet and flavorful to make the ensuing liquid palatable.
@chienfou That’s true, any bit of flavor helps, and some of those flavor packets are intense! I’m currently addicted to Sonic limeade packets & those sure do pack a punch – almost pure citric acid! Very refreshing.
Lol
We have a brita tank in the fridge that barely gets used. I usually just grab a glass from the faucet if I’m wanting water at any point. Grew in a split family that had both well and city waters so no flavor issues for me. It all sucks
We had a well at home when I was a kid. Think it was a two inch in retrospect/didn’t really know what this metal pipe cap in the front yard was i had to mow around when I was 10. And septic system.
Literally across the street from the elementary school between it and AM general.Not modern subdivisions. Built in the 70s. Outside city limits. Just a little neighborhood of 5x4 blocks. 5-6 houses long and 2 deep. Per block. Good to ride your bike around.
Looking at Zillow now that house is 1000 square feet. Although does have a full basement. And a ~10000 sqft lot.
Anyway never had water problems there. I think the septic needed some work. And we did drink from the hose. Just let it run first.
I suppose a good thing about that was no lead pipes
College had City water.
Now out a mile up and over from a small town with no stoplight and an artesian well (not artisanal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artesian_well. Pain in the ass when you try to check the well cap cause a leak and get a gyser) . And a septic system.
I’m very grateful I’ve never had bad water. I know some places it’s awful and needs serious treatment. and ground wells need monitoring anyway.
Hard water and some iron is all which can be dealt with.
@unksol There was a town in CO sixteen years ago where you could set the water on fire!!!
@Kyeh I do remember that. Although I think that was fracking related. NG leaking in.
My first thought was about how polluted water used to be that RIVERS were regularly on fire and the EPA was a good thing. And before I got there I started thinking about polluted ground water around industrial sites.
And how ground water can be corrupted. And the cases of cancer… etc.
But ours has been ok. Then. Wait how big was that neighborhood… Brain rain away on me lol. Found it in Zillow.
Anyway. I’m just going to link to the Smithsonian.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/
And NPR present day
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/12/nx-s1-5123532/cuyahoga-river-cleanup-sturgeon-cleveland-ohio
And… I don’t know how anyone can think that corporations who are only interested in profit and themselves like they are lords and everyone else is a serf. Should ever be trusted and not regulated.
The current immediate problem is the illegal destruction of those agencies built to try to protect ALL of us. Then we need new laws/actual work getting done to stop these people from stealing from their workers. But I digress
@unksol We built our current house on rural forested land. When I had the well digger out to pick a spot for the well, he couldn’t/wouldn’t recommend a location, but gave me the general guidelines for required distances from animal pens, septic system, etc. Then it was up to me to pick the spot. So, with all that in mind I said “OK, how about, um, here?” and hoped for the best.
Turned out our new well has served us beyond our expectations for 27 years (and counting). No filters or other treatment needed, the water is clear and good tasting and plentiful (no snow or streams above us, so rain water sourced).
(Not so with several other properties in the area, I have learned. Just dumb luck on my part, I guess.)
@macromeh I think in the Midwest it really is an option. Like where do you want it/there will probably be water. Never had to drill one though.
If not try again which is probably why they make you pick.
South West. Like Arizona/new Mexico it’s stupid expensive to drill 1000 feet and not get anything. Then retry… Ouch
@unksol It’s a crap shoot. Our well went ~230 feet deep and we got 20 gal/min flow. The next neighbors to the south have a similar well to ours. The next door neighbors just to the north went down 750 ft and got 1.5 gal/minute. They have to (pretty much constantly) pump water up from the well to a large holding tank, then pump on-demand from the tank to the house. (BIG $$.)
@macromeh ouch. Mine is like 60 feet/can’t keep the water in the ground
Wait. Water? I’m supposed to have city water running through my apartment’s water pipes at all times? Not in this city. For a while there we were going 1-3 weeks without any water at all, and much longer with boil water notices. The worst no water was starting 1pm Dec 24 running through Jan 2. It wasn’t the longest period of time we had no water (that was about 3 weeks), but over those two holidays made it horrific.
@Kidsandliz
So did you buy a pair of these for NEXT time??
@chienfou Nope. I have a 5 gal and 6 gal camping water container plus a number of saved 1 gal containers and I just go to the next suburb up the highway (in the next country so different water system - about 6 miles away) and fill up all that stuff there. The big containers I use to flush the toilet and the smaller ones for drinking water. I take a shower at a friend’s house.
Drinking 1970s water from the hose is probably a lot safer than drinking 2020s water from the hose in Flint.
I can’t believe we’re going to have to “vintage” water.