Filtering drinking water...

[Externet]

Hi all.

I see the act of installing filters to improve drinking water a double edge sword.

It may stop some microorganisms, minerals, debris, perhaps toxins from drinking.  But right now and during all the time you are not serving a glass of filtered water,  inside the filter there is a multitude of undesirables that were previously captured and held in,  as intimate soup with the water for the next glass you will serve.  Water that can be in a reasonably good condition being forced to pass trough the rotting filter accumulations.

What are the alternatives ?  What process to improve drinking water for better and more convincing methods that does not use filters ?  Ultraviolet?  Boiling?  Chemicals?  ...?

[Endy0816]

Yeah, you're supposed to change them regularly due to that. They can only trap/block things.

Distillation is probably the best single option but does depend on what contaminants you are hoping to remove.

[StringJunky]

If you are trying to improve the taste, put a jug of water in the fridge. This will allow the chlorine and other gases to dissipate.

[Carrock]

You could distill the water to make it very pure. The only downside is it doesn't taste very good.

Coca-Cola used to sell excellent bottled London tapwater which tastes rather better than distilled water and was safe to drink. Fortunately all I have to do is turn on a tap...

If I thought a source of water unsafe to drink without filtration, I wouldn't trust it after filtration either unless I knew exactly what was wrong with it.

[J.C.MacSwell]

Some types of filters don't work without, or until, the bacteria having settled in.

[dimreepr]

Who thinks water is better, after we made it profitable??? 

[Externet]

Thanks, gentlemen.

Searched with not enough success...  Is there any commercial/municipal radioactive treatment for potable water ?   Seen it is done at some food packing factories,  but the web mentions mostly the reverse, removal of radiation contaminants from water.

And what would such ionizing irradiation get rid of in water ?  How does the medicine industry purifies their water for manufacturing/research purposes ?

[Carrock]

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

Who thinks water is better, after we made it profitable??? 

After London tapwater is bottled, the water is "premium tasting water accessible to everyone." How could premium tasting water not be worth a premium price?

It's also "purified and enhanced with minerals" for designer limescale in my kettle rather than the plebeian limescale I get from tapwater.

Importing a bottle from America is on my bucket list. Strangely, it's not on sale in London.

 

[Later]

Seems it's not bottled in Sidcup any more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasani

 

Quote

Richard May, Chief Publicity Officer of Dasani, was said to be disappointed that the water had not been more successful.

On 18 March 2004, UK authorities found a batch was contaminated with levels of bromate, a suspected human carcinogen, in a concentration above the legal limit for sale, although the FSA announced there was "no immediate risk to public health" from the contamination. Coca-Cola immediately recalled half a million bottles and withdrew the "Dasani" brand from the UK market.

Perhaps it should be the very last item on my bucket list.

[PhilGeis]

8 hours ago, Externet said:

Thanks, gentlemen.

Searched with not enough success...  Is there any commercial/municipal radioactive treatment for potable water ?   Seen it is done at some food packing factories,  but the web mentions mostly the reverse, removal of radiation contaminants from water.

And what would such ionizing irradiation get rid of in water ?  How does the medicine industry purifies their water for manufacturing/research purposes ?

Radiation?  Do you mean UV treatment?  Can be used but bacteria will grow in distribution subsequent to treatment.  Chlorine treatment is effective and the low levels of residual chlorine inhibit subsequent growth.