ask the expats

Post by **berks** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:28 pm

Can somebody give me some details about the water filters sold in town. In principal they sound like a good idea. The thought of not having to carry lots of bottles of water on every shopping trip, sounds good. Is the filtered water drinkable?

Post by **hhfarang** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:09 pm

Is the filtered water drinkable?

That depends on the type of filter you get. We have a big one outside that filters all the water coming into the house but it is a gross filter in that it only filters out large particles like sand and grit, etc.

To make the water drinkable you need a filter with two or three stages that filter the water several times finally going through a filter that is fine enough to filter out bacteria.

Post by **richard** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:25 pm

berks

Bottles of water when you go shopping?????

You can get a delivery of the large 10 litre (10 or 15?)bottles from any of the water tracks cruising about

Post by **Wanderlust** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:05 pm

richard,
That is a good option if you can rely on the quality, which I think is questionable sometimes; however there is still normally some lugging to do, as well as putting the 10 litres into smaller bottles that can be chilled, which becomes a pain in a household that consumes a lot of water. With the filters there is a whole range available - HomePro for all it's faults does have a good selection and the short stockyish girl with short hair who works in that department is very helpful and knowledgeable.

Post by **berks** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:17 pm

Yes I think delivered water is still not satisfactory. The question is simple. Is the water filtered through 4 processes, including activated carbon, suitable to drink, on a long term basis?

Post by **STEVE G** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:28 pm

I don’t know if Thailand is any better, but when I was living in Indonesia there were often news stories of people being busted for selling dodgy water.
They would be running millions of litres of tap water through domestic filters that never got changed. They would even refill brand name bottles and reseal them with heat-shrink plastic.

Post by **berks** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:45 pm

I understand that nobody may be able to give me a confident answer to this one. I would imagine that drinking only home filtered water may have a slighter long term risk than using different sources,,,,,,, but I do not know.

Post by **Francois** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:47 pm

berks wrote:Yes I think delivered water is still not satisfactory. The question is simple. Is the water filtered through 4 processes, including activated carbon, suitable to drink, on a long term basis?

Hi!
Depending of the amount of money you can invest

I tried to get big battles of water but it's an annoying process...

I think that I will invest in:

- a whole house water softener
- a 4 stage filtering system with UV

Post by **HHTel** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:03 pm

WL, why waste all your time and effort decanting into smaller bottles. Get a water cooler. They're very cheap and take a big water bottle. Cold water when you need it and more space in the fridge for beer.

Post by **BaaBaa.** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:01 pm

HHTel wrote:WL, why waste all your time and effort decanting into smaller bottles. Get a water cooler. They're very cheap and take a big water bottle. Cold water when you need it and more space in the fridge for beer.

Agree with HHTel.

Ours can also heat the water.

10 baht for a huge bottle.

Post by **hhfarang** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:11 pm

Be careful with that bottled water in the big white cooler bottles. Make sure you find a company you can trust. We have a cooler and used to have that type of water delivered in a pickup truck, but one day after changing to a new bottle the water had a definite smell and taste of gasoline. People can use those containers for anything and then just turn them back in for refill. Obviously, after our experience, they sometimes don't wash out the containers.

Also, a friend of mine in Bangkok said he saw a truck load of those containers being filled in an alleyway from an outdoor tap so you may just be buying tap water.

My cooler has a plastic top that you can put over it when there isn't a bottle installed so now we use that top and just fill the reservoir from those 6 liter bottles you can buy at any store here in brands like Singha, Tesco, Nestle, or Minere. We use Minere even though it is a few baht more because it is natural mineral water from a spring, not just filtered tap water. I do that because of studies I've read about that site magnesium deficiencies in many populations since people started drinking bottled water (tap water in most places provided the necessary amount of magnesium). Magnesium is essential for the heart to function properly. Minere (though sometimes hard to find in the 6L size) has that as well as other beneficial minerals.

Post by **berks** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:21 pm

Looks like I have opened an interesting topic here. I have read that in SOME areas, tap water is better for you than bottled. If there is any further info on the 4 - canister type filter units, I think we would all find this an easier option than any of the above.

Post by **Randy Cornhole** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:29 am

I have been drinking the large 25ltr bottles on a cooler for at least 5 years and have not suffered one single day...
I woudnt drink straight tap water thats for sure. I know a few mates that have had filters fitted but to be honest their water tastes no diffrent to my bottled stuff. I have never found water to be a problem in Thailand (tap water aside of course)...

Post by **margaretcarnes** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:11 am

Agree with Randy there. Even with a filter I'd be dubious about tap water in HH. (Granted, I know you still can't be sure of the large white bottles, and have also had a bad one, but otherwise no probs.)
I used to have a place with large settlement tanks. 5 of them across 3 houses. Mains inlet to the first in the row, which always had a load of sediment. We rigged up a 'filter' under the mains inlet, comprising a basket and old T shirt! Within a week or two, quite apart from the gunge collected, the fabric had actually rotted.
May be someone can assure me that whatever chemical caused such rotting would be eliminated by using a proper filtration process?
But to be honest, however good the water you drink, there are still the ice-cubes used in bars/restaurants, the salad washing, cleaning of food prep surfaces etc etc. However careful you are at home, you can't totally avoid risk.

Post by **berks** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:59 am

I think the body can handle the odd bad ice cube, or the dodgy lettuce leaf, but its the long term effect that I was more interested in. A friend of mine has a 4 canister water filter fitted, and we did a test. He gave several of us a glass of water from the filter a glass of water from a purchased bottle and a glass of tap. Whilst most of us correctly identified the tap ( not all, I must add.) there were no taste differences between the other to. Therefore I am quite happy to drink the filtered water via the canisters, but still would like to know the long term results...... perhaps I worry too much.