Water Coolers

[madmike]

We use a lot of bottled water. My wife and daughter will not drink it from the tap. I have been buying those big boxes of Highland Spring which save a lot on the plastic bottles but would prefer a more permanent solution.

Does anyone hereabouts use a water cooller attached to the mains water supply? Are they any good?

 

[Ian G]

Do you mean water filter ?

 

[JensenHealey]

Do not consider a reverse osmosis filter if you are on metered water - is what I would caution. They are incredibly wasteful of water.

many other under-sink filtration systems are around - I cannot believe that the result varies by much. But the cost of replacement filters might. Should still be les expensive then buying bottled water - and reduce consumption of plastic bottles!

Or you could 'train' yourselves to drink the perfectly safe existing tap water - and save even more!

 

[stevec67]

Is it the taste of chlorine that you dislike? If so a standalone filter and jug will do.

 

[wulbert]

Is it the taste of chlorine that you dislike? If so a standalone filter and jug will do.

Yep. If you leave the tap water standing for a while, the chlorine will evaporate and it will taste better. (why dogs like drinking from the toilet bowl). You could fill some nice glass bottles up with tap water, to where the neck narrows, and stick 'em in the fridge for a few hours, see if that satisfies the ladies.

We used to have lovely tap water here in Glasgow, until they "improved it" with extra chlorine and stuff to make it appear more "shiny". Now it surpasses the relevant standards but taste is not as good.

Sorry, you were asking about water coolers and I've done that very annoying "Have you thought about this instead?" thing.

 

[Amber Audio]

We use a Brita Filter Jug cos of the chlorine taste our tap water has, before that we both lived/grew up off track and had fresh water from hill streams so notice the chem taste now we are in a town I guess

https://www.brita.co.uk/water-filter-system/water-filter-jugs

 

[ian123running]

Fridge? We always have two 1 litre pitchers ( not sealed bottles) in the fridge - just fill from the tap (no filters) and within a few hours the water tastes totally fresh and untainted. You could easily try it anyway. Never felt the need to filter.

 

[TomF]

+1 Brita filter jug. Though having to replace the filters does strike me as environmentally wasteful.

These days I just drink the regular tap water. Doesn’t taste great, but then it was worse when I grew up (the hard water of the Cotswolds tasted pretty awful).

 

[sean99]

We use PUR jug filters - removes the chlorine taste completely (which tends to be much stronger in the US than the UK) and also claims to reduce lead and other nasties. The filters are quite expensive, but last 2 months each, so it works out a lot cheaper (and more environmentally friendly) than buying bottled water. We use it for all drinking and cooking.

 

[Cav]

I drink water only from the tap. It is safe, tastes no different from fancy water, has fewer bacteria and is ridiculously cheap.

 

[sean99]

I drink water only from the tap. It is safe, tastes no different from fancy water, has fewer bacteria and is ridiculously cheap.

Some places have a stronger chlorine taste than others. If I make tea with tap water it's almost undrinkable due to the chlorine taste.

 

[Big Tabs]

Friends in Scotland use a jug with filter as their tap water is unpleasant. Brita filter in the jug I think.

In-laws in Rye have yucky tap water, and they use a Brita jug thing as well.

Here in the East midlands, the tap water is excellent. Severn-Trent I think.

 

[gintonic]

brita undersink filter, and 3 glass bottles in the fridge.

 

[monkfish]

Water is fine in Dundee for drinking from the tap.

 

[gustav_errata]

+1 Brita filter jug. Though having to replace the filters does strike me as environmentally wasteful.

Brita recycles their filters. We have a drop-off point at our local Sainsbury's.

 

[TomF]

Brita recycles their filters. We have a drop-off point at our local Sainsbury's.

Aha. I’ll have another look into them. Thanks!

 

[awkwardbydesign]

I drink water only from the tap. It is safe, tastes no different from fancy water, has fewer bacteria and is ridiculously cheap.

Here in Plymouth our water tastes of soil, mainly peat I think. Anglesey was similar; during the drought of '76 it came out brown, and taking a bath would make you gag! I use an under-sink replaceable filter system.

 

[Eyebroughty]

We use a Brita Filter Jug cos of the chlorine taste our tap water has, before that we both lived/grew up off track and had fresh water from hill streams so notice the chem taste now we are in a town I guess

https://www.brita.co.uk/water-filter-system/water-filter-jugs

This, have one, excellent, boil tap water in a non stick pan and there is a white mark left in the pan at the water level rim.

Use water from the Brita filter jug and no marks in a pan and the water tastes better, one cartrdge a month is better than many plastic bottles in the waste bin.

 

[gintonic]

Brita recycles their filters. We have a drop-off point at our local Sainsbury's.

only the jug ones, not the under sink ones - they dont fit in any of the recycling points i have seen.

 

[BTC3]

We have pretty revolting tasting, very hard water here. We've used Brita filters for a while, but a friend gave us a Phox filter system for Christmas. They have a choice of refillable Brita Maxtra style filter, or their own glass jug - which is a lot easier to clean than the plastic Brita ones - and you can get sachets of the activated carbon to refill the filters as needed. No more storying the used filters and then hoping they'll actually get recycled if you drop them off at the designated bin. The taste test was positive, so we'll stick with it for now.