food Do you drink tap water?

[Away 2,077]

Our kitchen sink has a filter That still counts, right?

[Guest]

The water coming from our tap is clean and has no yucky aftertaste, so I do drink from it. It hasn't been giving me any side-effects so far, so I'm good. 

[Chip Circuit 1,842]

I myself avoid drinking tap water, I'll use it for making large quantity of drinks such as a pitcher of koolaid. My reasoning is a few different parts, one reason is as for myself I have a good sense of taste and can taste the fluoride (which is unsafe for human consumption in large quantities) along with several other minerals and chemicals that still can pass through the cleaning process the use. Another reason is lack of trust of maintained pipelines, while most pipes now a days that carry "tap" water are made with corrosion resistant metal there are still older buildings to consider, maybe the pipes are old enough to have corroded or rusted slightly if air was allowed into the pipes. The last is a distrust of the people who maintain, observe and operate the water treatment plants, their systems use large filters and systems to make sure all of the water is run through the system the correct way. If a filter isn't in place or is even skewed inside the machine it can allow many of the harmful compounds in the water to make it through the system. Granted there are failsafes but human error is always a very possible deal and in the last town I lived in where my uncle worked they had that very issue happen where a filter was put in backwards and it wasn't noticed for a couple of hours.

I do drink from the tap.  My family buys bottled water, but to make it last longer, I just refill a bottle from the tap until the thing's too battered to keep using, then I get a fresh one and repeat.

 

I do have to wonder how the people who avoid tap water brush their teeth, though, but I guess that's a matter for another day.

 

It's still used for brushing teeth you just don't swallow it considering that sloshing and drinking are two different things

[Carl Poppa 464]

I myself avoid drinking tap water, I'll use it for making large quantity of drinks such as a pitcher of koolaid. My reasoning is a few different parts, one reason is as for myself I have a good sense of taste and can taste the fluoride (which is unsafe for human consumption in large quantities) along with several other minerals and chemicals that still can pass through the cleaning process the use. Another reason is lack of trust of maintained pipelines, while most pipes now a days that carry "tap" water are made with corrosion resistant metal there are still older buildings to consider, maybe the pipes are old enough to have corroded or rusted slightly if air was allowed into the pipes. The last is a distrust of the people who maintain, observe and operate the water treatment plants, their systems use large filters and systems to make sure all of the water is run through the system the correct way. If a filter isn't in place or is even skewed inside the machine it can allow many of the harmful compounds in the water to make it through the system. Granted there are failsafes but human error is always a very possible deal and in the last town I lived in where my uncle worked they had that very issue happen where a filter was put in backwards and it wasn't noticed for a couple of hours.

 

It's still used for brushing teeth you just don't swallow it considering that sloshing and drinking are two different things

If you put it in your mouth at all, the germs in it will be in your mouth, whether you swallow the water or not.  Either way you're exposed to the stuff that's in it.  If it's gonna make you sick, brushing your teeth will be enough to do it.

[Chip Circuit 1,842]

If you put it in your mouth at all, the germs in it will be in your mouth, whether you swallow the water or not.  Either way you're exposed to the stuff that's in it.  If it's gonna make you sick, brushing your teeth will be enough to do it.

 

True but in this sense the bacteria isn't a big deal, it's mainly the chemicals people avoid and the after taste of those chemicals. bacteria you'll pick up from a bottle of water, a water cooler, faucet, anything that can possibly come in contact with people really. So if you avoid anything for the sake of not coming in contact with bacteria you'll die via starvation/ thirst unless you bring water up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) and food up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit

I would rather not. It might be because I am not used to it. I don't find drinking from the tap sanitary (It probably is). If I had to I would though.

 

That is true, faucets usually are very dirty in a sanitary sense. Since it takes water being 212 degree fahrenheit to kill bacteria around freezing to keep them from multiplying. The chemicals they mix with the water is meant to kill most bacteria but that's just it, unless you go into an amount of chemicals that will make people sick from drinking it, you won't kill all the bacteria int the water.

[Light Diamond 950]

I do drink tap water. it's safe to drink but i much rather drink bottled spring water or mineral water, it tastes nicer.

[Not_active 731]

Yes I do, the tap water in Norway is awesome

[TePineer 82]

Maybe it's a dumb question, but is there like something wrong with the tap water in the US? I've never heard of people not drinking tap water.   Maybe it's because I live in Sweden, but I would still like to know.

[Fhaolan 4,468]

Maybe it's a dumb question, but is there like something wrong with the tap water in the US? I've never heard of people not drinking tap water.   Maybe it's because I live in Sweden, but I would still like to know.

 

It depends on exactly where in the US, and in Canada for that matter. There's several places where 'city water' is rather unfortunate due to poor infrastructure relying on old piping or cross-contamination. Where I used to live in Canada (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario), they had regular issues where septic water ended up in the drinking water for reasons I'm still not clear on. It happened on an annual basis back then, but I haven't lived in that region for decades so they may have fixed it by now.

 

Currently, I'm on a well with extremely high calcium and some manganese, so we put in a water softener. As the well testor described it our water was 'As hard as fuck!' and it was causing some problems with the water heaters, washing machines, and the like. To the point that we had to have the water heaters replaced due to the massive calcium build-up in the tanks. (We've got three buildings on the farm, each with a water heater).

 

But we drank the water before that. The calcium wasn't harmful to us, its just messed up the equipment when it precipitated out and coated everything.

[CT-1138 3,179]

Currently, I'm on a well with extremely high calcium and some manganese, so we put in a water softener. As the well testor described it our water was 'As hard as fuck!' and it was causing some problems with the water heaters, washing machines, and the like. To the point that we had to have the water heaters replaced due to the massive calcium build-up in the tanks. (We've got three buildings on the farm, each with a water heater).

 

But we drank the water before that. The calcium wasn't harmful to us, its just messed up the equipment when it precipitated out and coated everything.

The worst thing high calcium will do is leave deposits on your water fixtures, which can be unsightly, and even clog them if left unattended to. But God knows that there's plenty of people in this country that could USE high calcium in their water. Especially with all the pop we drink in this country. 

 

The worse thing found in my area is high amounts of iron in our water. We have to use a home softener and a filter on our well, or else the water will have a funky smell. At the local high school, they use the well water in the sprinkler system, and if you walk through the grass, the tips of your shoes get red dust on them from the iron in the water. 

[WhisperingDreams 16]

I prefer not to drink tap water but if there's nothing else I'll drink it. But that's usually not the case my mum buys hundreds of bottled water, we have a water filter and my dad often goes to the mountain to get water from there XD

[The Pixelated Pony 883]

well it depends on what era of my life your talking about. if it's the years following my birth and the first house then yes i drank tap water. when we moved here we had a big copper boiler and it was only safe to drink from the cold taps as copper is copper,then we got rid of said copper boiler and the water was drinkable again

[Thuja 3,658]

Depends on where I currently live.  Where I used to live, I had to use a water cooler to drink water.  Now I just drink from the tap.

[ProjectRKA 2,840]

Denmark, among other countries in Europe (such as Germany) has some of the cleanest tap water in the world. So yeah, I drink it. I often do so as well when I'm traveling Europe, but of course I make sure to check online if the tap water is drinkable.

[Ice Cube 19]

Sometimes but most of the time I drink well water!!

[Lunar Echo 10,334]

I do and it's safe for now, we actually have some of the cleanest tap water where I live. Unsure how long that'll last once they start fracking this country. But yeah, my area has been quite fortunate with the local tapped water in it being crystal clear and persistent. And I must admit, bottled water does taste that little bit better, but I've started to grow un-trusting of them as tastes can vary. 

[powerpuff-tsubasa 447]

yes. tap water cleanses away the dirtyness inside the water

[gamecubeguy214 2,511]

I only drink tap water when I'm really, REALLY thirsty, otherwise I'll be drinking cubed ice water in a medium sized cup from the fridge.

[ShadowEclipse 1,209]

No XD i drink water from bottles

[Spark Thunderbass 1,394]

I used to when I was a kid at school, I don't really drink tap water anymore.

[Phosphor 11,522]

I drink the tap water at my house. It's pretty good. I've been to some places where the tap water had so much chlorine, you could smell it several feet away with the sink on. 

[Midnight Solace 5,129]

At school only. I don't trust tap water, I always boil it first.

[Mercury 351]

Yep, tap water's spring water here. Delicous stuff  

[Odyssey 5,713]

Nope, I don't. I usually borrow rain water from my relatives, they all have water tanks.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

Yes, I do. I'm kind of used to it at this point...