"Raw" water is now a thing...

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Raw water trend

So now people are wanting to drink water that's "off grid" and "raw". They are paying 2.50 a gallon for unfiltered, untreated spring water. There is a natural spring less than 10 minutes from my house where many locals go and fill up jugs and I have had some of that water and it didn't do anything for me.

Now I see some peoples concerns about lead pipes,fluoride, and more importantly chlorine used to purify municipal water. IIRC chlorine is a neurotoxin. I have had been on a municipal system that drew out of Lake Michigan, and water from 2 different municipal wells, and the lake water was by far the best, but you always had a chlorine taste to the water. The worst was the municipal well water because they had trouble meeting standards so it had a lot of chemicals in it. In that municipality and sometimes the chlorine smell/taste was ridiculous.

In that house I had to install a whole house charcoal filter which helped, but was spent pretty quickly.

Now we are on a private well, and I LOVE our drinking water, it goes thru 2 whole house filters, a softner and a 5 stage RO system before we drink it, but its lovely water. Now we have a "raw" well water tap at our kitchen sink that was put in when they built the house. Thats all the guy drank for water, and hes over 80 now and still kicking. Ive drank it before and it tastes like you are licking an iron pipe.

That being said, I always thought well water was a drawback, a uncertain necessity of rural living. Maybe I was wrong.... Though I would say that the people paying 2.50 a gallon for raw water would probably never live anywhere they would have a private well.

2018 is an amazing time to experience, people are eating laundry detergent and washing it down with bacteria laden water.
 
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On a municipal system you might be very surprised to learn that your water comes from a well. Nothing wrong with well water at all. Different regions have various mineral or hardness content.

At my house the water comes from a watershed source but that could easily be a well too. The city itself has numerous wells that are used during summer when usage is up.
 
I enjoy tap water.
Every day.
Cincinnati (and Hamilton, OH) has one of the best public water systems in the country.

If they can pull that off considering where it comes from (Ohio River) it's good enough for me.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
A few diseases like Cholera will eventually cure that fad!

Yep, which is best controlled by getting contaminated sewerage contained and treated.
 
Yet another invented problem that will drive the ignorant (and fools) into needlessly worrying about something that isn't a problem.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
You should check the pH of your water after its been through all that. Guaranteed to be a low pH which is bad.

Bad how? Once it gets into the stomach what happens to the pH there?
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
You should check the pH of your water after its been through all that. Guaranteed to be a low pH which is bad.


The RO has a final "finishing" filter that helps control the PH. Its basically a remineralizer filter. It is a very real issue, I have a tap that does not go thru the finishing filter for filling up humidifiers and such. If you put baking soda in that water you get a bit of fizz.
 
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Originally Posted By: kschachn
Yet another invented problem that will drive the ignorant (and fools) into needlessly worrying about something that isn't a problem.
Close to the which is the oil is the best posts.
 
OP, does your system use any disinfectant such as UV light in lieu of chemical sanitizer? I understand the buffering system for your piping as RO product water is "hungry" water.

What is your permeate to reject water ratio, and where is your reject water discharged?
 
Originally Posted By: Nyogtha
OP, does your system use any disinfectant such as UV light in lieu of chemical sanitizer? I understand the buffering system for your piping as RO product water is "hungry" water.

What is your permeate to reject water ratio, and where is your reject water discharged?


It uses UV light sterilization, All of the tubing is, IIRC, John Guest plastic tubing that shouldn't allow much of anything consequential to leach into the RO water. If you run the RO water thru say, copper pipe, it will leach out all kinds of junk since the RO water is "hungry" as you noted.

The reject rate is roughly 3:1 so for every 3 gallons of water "made", one gallon goes down the drain. I currently run the reject water, along with condensate from my a/c down a floor drain which goes to a ditch.

I have thought about pumping it into a container in the summer to use for watering flowers and such but have not done so yet.

Of course you have to be very careful about the waste water, you would not want to drink it or give it to an animal or something because it is basically concentrated "bad" water.

I use a APEC RO system, made in the USA and very high quality. Their tech support is second to none and I can not say enough good things about it. I did have a permeate pump go bad after a bout 1.5 years in service, which I was told is a very,very rare failure.

They sent me a new pump, free of charge and I sent them the old pump back so their engineer could determine the failure mode. They almost seemed embarrassed that it failed and told me that they didn't want me to think that I would have issues every few years with the pump, he said that should not happen. The new pump has been flawless 4 years later. The Tech guy actually cared, and the whole operation has been top notch in my dealings with them.


Earlier I said that it has a finishing filter on it, I was wrong it does, but it is for taste, but there is an optional finishing filter for PH, but I had the final RO water tested and it did not need correction at that time. I get the slightest amount of fizz when I sprinkle Baking soda into the water. I may want to retest it, but so far, so good.
 
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Natural springs are fine. I live in a fairly rural area and there is one about 15 miles away. Water naturally flows out of it on the side of a lower portion where a road goes by like a faucet is there pouring it out. It’s perfectly clear. Locals take jugs there and fill them all the time. Never heard of anyone getting sick from it. You know when the people are there just to fill water too since the road is sort of a bypass route to a bridge and there is little reason to go that way unless you want to fill your jug.
 
I guess we drink "raw" water out of our well. No filters or treatment at all. Also a lots of lakes just north of us (ones without cottages) are drinkable as is. I find I like well/spring water better but its an interesting experience to go swimming and just drink the water your in.
I always would prefer good well water to "city water", but I won't pay money for bottled water of any kind if city water is available.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
I enjoy tap water.
Every day.
Cincinnati (and Hamilton, OH) has one of the best public water systems in the country.

If they can pull that off considering where it comes from (Ohio River) it's good enough for me.


Hamilton's municipal water system is supplied with wells, the same ones that supply the Butler County system.
The water seems very good out of the tap and is rarely chlorinated enough so that you notice it.
It does seem fairly high in calcium, but you'd expect that given that this is a limestone area and you can find limestone fossils just digging in your yard.
 
The whole hungry water thing is overblown.(as far as drinking PH)

one 8oz glass of orange juice has the minerals of 30gal of mineral water.

They do have alkaline filters available both as part of the APEC filter stack and as add ons.
 
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