Poor water in many machines

[PeteC]

This is worth remembering. I've never used the machines but I know many Thais and a few farangs who do. Their number seems to be growing as well as I see them everywhere. Pete

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 92901.html

Poor water in many machines
The Nation October 24, 2012 1:00 am


Random checks of water-vending machines nationwide by the Department of Medical Sciences found that more than a third -38 per cent - had substandard water quality, DMS chief Dr Nipon Phopattanachai said on Monday.

Udon Thani, Trang and Surat Thani had the worst water quality, while Chon Buri, Nakhon Sawan, Nakhon Ratchasima and Chiang Mai had substandard quality at 40 to 50 per cent of machines.

Songkhla had the best water quality with only 12 per cent of water samples being substandard, while in Bangkok some 22 per cent of water samples were poor.

Nipon said the standard was determined by water quality, filters and microorganism contamination, as well as each machine's location. Some 26 per cent of substandard water was tainted by chemicals/metal or had acidic imbalance, which indicates an issue with water filters, while 16 per cent had microorganism contamination, mostly coliform bacteria.

Nipon has urged operators to check the quality of the water on a regular basis, keep their machines clean and change the water filters at least once or twice a year.

[blue05]

as the money rolls in you can bet they wont be spending any profits on things like filters

[margaretcarnes]

I haven't used these water fountains either - but I'm sure they are free?
As for the quality of the water - surely it can't be any worse than the quality of most tap water - and is probably a better quality than the tap water which many Thai people have in their homes.
To give a clearer idea of the standard the 'powers that be' need to provide comparisons of quality against average domestic water supplies.
All too often they set so called 'standards' without providing enough information on the criteria for those standards, how they are set, and what the average standards actually are.

[Big Boy]

I haven't used these water fountains either - but I'm sure they are free?

They are very cheap compared to shop bought water, but definitely not free.

[Nereus]

The article writes about water "vending" machines, which by definition means you have to pay. They are designed to fill a container, and some of them resemble a refrigerator, others a stainless steel structure.

Then in Bangkok at least, you can find some water "bubbler" types provided by the Bangkok Administration, which are free and designed just to get a drink of water. I think that I would have to be extremely thirsty to use one of them!

I get my drinking water from a "vending" machine in the Condo complex in Bangkok and have never had a problem with the water from it. The price is 1 Baht per litre, but it is not set correctly and I can fill a 6 litre container for about 4 Baht.

[Korkenzieher]

To give a clearer idea of the standard the 'powers that be' need to provide comparisons of quality against average domestic water supplies.

I don't think so - it is pretty much accepted that domestic water is non drinkable. The whole purpose of these machines is to provide a source of cheap drinkable water. Some of them claim to be 'spring' water, which I seriously doubt.

The dispensers makes sense though - why provide drinking quality water to homes just to flush down the drain as laundry, kitchen or bathroom waste. I use the machine at my place, and have only once had an issue - which was caused by a filter (bad, old, faulty - who knows). The landlord replaced it as soon as he became aware of it. About 4.5 baht for 6 litres.

[Cityman]

I just filled empty tank bottle one of that machines, went home and compared with unopened bottle with Singha water.
Singha bottle was crystal clear, water from vending machine had YELLOW color and strange smell.
As result - NEVER AGAIN! Don't use these machines, if you don't want to have a good excursion in HuaHin's hospitals.

[GLCQuantum]

Used them for four years never had a problem. Haven't used them for the past year though.