Water Quality discussion thread

One of the few things that Birmingham has better than a lot of cities in the country is it's mains water supply. Birmingham's water supply is exceptionally soft and tastes great straight from the tap
Code: 
Analysis            Typical Value
---------------------------------
Hardness Level             Soft            
Hardness Clark             2.63            
Hardness French            3.76            
Hardness German            2.11

The water comes from Mid Wales from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elan_Valley_Reservoirs

You can immediately tell when you visit anywhere in the West Midlands that's out side the supply catchment as the change in the taste of the water is drastic. Also few years ago when we had a string of dry winters that caused the reservoirs to drop to levels that meant Severn Trent had to start pulling water into the Birmingham network from the River Severn was also immediately noticeable.
 
You know why that chiller has UV built in? Because its activated carbon filters remove all the residual disinfectant (chlorine) which is what protects the domestic water supply. They then have to use UV to kill any bacteria that would grow in it using UV light. My question would be, what is the contact time of the water with the UV, because insufficient contact time will not kill all of the bacteria. Then you are effectively drinking pond water.
 
SimonR said:
You know why that chiller has UV built in? Because its activated carbon filters remove all the residual disinfectant (chlorine) which is what protects the domestic water supply. They then have to use UV to kill any bacteria that would grow in it using UV light. My question would be, what is the contact time of the water with the UV, because insufficient contact time will not kill all of the bacteria. Then you are effectively drinking pond water.
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Contact time isn't too important, what's more pertinent is the wavelength of the uv light. Water treatment systems have flow speeds of typically 2.5m/s. A single low pressure lamp is sufficient to treat water at those speeds for low flow rates.
 
I'm surprised no one is burning hydrogen to make pure water.

Down here in Kent we like it hard, filtered via underground chalk aquifers, unlike Northern Softies. :)

My local supply is 265 CaCO3 mg, nice and tasty. :P (Where I used to live it was 316 CaCOs mg)
 
I had scanned trustpilot reviews of this £20p/m gadget - it's a competitor to GD laughs ...

I want a cheaper ion exchange solution than Britta ... that changes calcium chloride for other salts.

nonetheless, removing all the minerals, indeed the bottled stuff might have stripped out the fluoride too ? is that as dangerous as coke for childrens teeth.


https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.virginpure.com?page=4
Virgin pure have an amazing customer …
Virgin pure have an amazing customer service. Georgina Simpson dealt with me and I couldn't have asked for a more friendly helpful person. She would be on my Christmas card list for sure. She sorted everything out for me and made me smile. I wouldn't go anywhere else now.
Their water machines are pretty good too

Water is barely purer than TAP WATER

I have been using the unit for nearly a year now, and I am very happy with the service. When we needed a new filter Virgin where compliant and helpful, and sent it out very quickly. We have never had any problems with its operation.

HOWEVER. It is a water filter, so the ultimate test of it's worth is in it's filtration capacity. When I tested the water from my Virgin Pure, it came in at a TDS rating of 274 ppm. To put this in context, the tap water in my area rates at about 310 - 320 ppm. It is barely more pure than TAP WATER!! Now to be totally fair to Virgin, a TDS meter does measure both minerals and contaminants. However, mineral water rates at between 50 - 100 ppm. So, unless Virgin are going to claim that their water contains 3X the healthy minerals of spring water, I think it is fair to say that the majority of these dissolved solids are unwanted contaminants. The water from the Virgin Pure is so far from Pure, I will not be continuing to use it. I DO NOT recommend this product.
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I use a berkey water filter, I believe it's one of the only filters that filter out flouride.

I can tell the difference between tap water, filtered water and bottled water, can anyone else tell the difference? Or am I just weird?
 
We've got a massive berkey filter, all our drinking water and veg water goes through it.

One thing I have noticed is that there is an inconsistency in the tap water when I pour it in, one day it smells fine, next it smells like a swimming pool and sometimes it smells of diesel. Because I'm pouring 20 litres in it every day at eye level I'm very much aware of it. What comes out is odourless.
 
If generally the water smells a little 'chlorine' like, that is just residual disinfectant that hasn't been used up (killing bugs) and generally occurs when a lot of water has been pushed through the mains. No odour generally means that the residual disinfectant has all been used up, the water has been sitting in the pipework a little longer. A diesel or TCP smell, is generally an indication that somewhere in the network there are old tar-lined pipes that the chlorine is reacting with and forms trichlorophenyls (TCP) which has a distinct odour. The water quality supplied into the network, per se, is not changing, its just how long it has sat in the network / pipework or if it has reacted with parts of the network infrastructure. Would I use a water filter? I dont think so. Unless you are scrupulous with the hygiene on these things and you are dumping the water at the end of every day, you are basically risking creating pond water as you are removing the disinfectant that stops bacteria etc growing in it. One of my jobs, early on in my career was testing public and private water supplies and bottled water plants. Samples taken from filter jugs (left out in sunlight for a few hours) - always failed the coliform test). You keep Britta filter jugs etc in the fridge for a reason - not to give you nice cold water to drink, but to slow down the bacterial growth in the water, that you just removed your protection from.
 
SimonR said:
If generally the water smells a little 'chlorine' like, that is just residual disinfectant that hasn't been used up (killing bugs) and generally occurs when a lot of water has been pushed through the mains. No odour generally means that the residual disinfectant has all been used up, the water has been sitting in the pipework a little longer. A diesel or TCP smell, is generally an indication that somewhere in the network there are old tar-lined pipes that the chlorine is reacting with and forms trichlorophenyls (TCP) which has a distinct odour. The water quality supplied into the network, per se, is not changing, its just how long it has sat in the network / pipework or if it has reacted with parts of the network infrastructure. Would I use a water filter? I dont think so. Unless you are scrupulous with the hygiene on these things and you are dumping the water at the end of every day, you are basically risking creating pond water as you are removing the disinfectant that stops bacteria etc growing in it. One of my jobs, early on in my career was testing public and private water supplies and bottled water plants. Samples taken from filter jugs (left out in sunlight for a few hours) - always failed the coliform test). You keep Britta filter jugs etc in the fridge for a reason - not to give you nice cold water to drink, but to slow down the bacterial growth in the water, that you just removed your protection from.
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Thanks for the information, quite a lot better formulated than 'placebo lolz'.

My wife's a or was a microbiologist and she berates me for the filter. I have challenged her to test it but she won't, she might be wrong and then she'd have to zip it. She'd rather half an argument :p
 
jpaul said:
we steam >95% of veg , so it wouldn't be immersed in questionable water.


softeners though ? (what might you recommend?) - which is the main reason I'm in the game.
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I presume that you are talking about using an in-line softener, either on the incoming supply or on a single drinking tap. A softener is basically a means of removing minerals from your water, that calcify when the water is heated or boiled. From a health perspective a bit of extra calcium in your drinking water will certainly do you no harm. From an aesthetic and engineering perspective it is a nuisance.
RO and Ion Exchange historically are what has been used to soften water and these are systems that I am familiar with. Lately nano-filtration is becoming more popular but is only used in commercial applications. Ion exchange is still popular for domestic drinking water as it is relatively cheap to install and run and gives higher flow rates. RO is relatively expensive and has much lower flow rates, but it does not add additional Sodium Ions to the water.
 
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