Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 We go through 3 gallons a day and they're $1/gallon. I don't want a Berkey etc. because I want cold water and have no place to put a cooler. I used to use a Brita but now that we're in Texas it so doesn't cut it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Can you not get a reverse osmosis unit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 why can you not drink your tap water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 14 minutes ago, Ellie said: Can you not get a reverse osmosis unit? It's against our lease and our faucet does not produce cold water. 3 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said: why can you not drink your tap water? Because it tastes like Satan's pee and has an oily film. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 is it possible to get a water tank and collect rain water off your roof? that is the only water source we have, collected rain water off our roof. I realize it may not be possible in your area but just trying to think out different solutions 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 We have a Berkey and during the long, hot summer, we pour the filtered water into bottles and refrigerate. Least expensive option I have found so far. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 6 minutes ago, Liz CA said: We have a Berkey and during the long, hot summer, we pour the filtered water into bottles and refrigerate. Least expensive option I have found so far. I've considered this and we don't really have a place to put it. We have a little apartment galley kitchen and there's no counter space, no room for a bench, the shelves in the pantry are not removable. I don't think we can do this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 10 minutes ago, Slache said: Because it tastes like Satan's pee and has an oily film. Fine, if you want to be picky about it! 😋 Around here, the groceries have water refill stations. You bring your own container and fill it, it costs a bit less. Maybe have a Brita pitcher water filter as part of the solution, use both it and purchased gallons. 14 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said: is it possible to get a water tank and collect rain water off your roof? With her description of the tap water, I'm gonna guess that the rain water is also not magically delicious. Unless the city is adding both fluoride and Satan's pee. And she's in Texas, so lots of dry spells and even droughts. 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, Slache said: I've considered this and we don't really have a place to put it. We have a little apartment galley kitchen and there's no counter space, no room for a bench, the shelves in the pantry are not removable. I don't think we can do this. Are your concerns mainly bad taste? In that case one of those faucet mounted filters like PUR may work. They won't filter out a ton of other stuff but they may get the worst and improve taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 6 minutes ago, Liz CA said: Are your concerns mainly bad taste? In that case one of those faucet mounted filters like PUR may work. They won't filter out a ton of other stuff but they may get the worst and improve taste. We did that. No go. I think we're getting some 5 gallon jugs and a 3 gallon with a faucet for the fridge to fill nightly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 10 minutes ago, katilac said: Around here, the groceries have water refill stations. You bring your own container and fill it, it costs a bit less. This is the current plan. I just wanted to check in here before I spend $30 on jugs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 2 hours ago, katilac said: . With her description of the tap water, I'm gonna guess that the rain water is also not magically delicious. Unless the city is adding both fluoride and Satan's pee. And she's in Texas, so lots of dry spells and even droughts. I am in Australia - lots of dry weather and very often drought. Most rural properties in Australia have water tanks to collect the water off the roof - if it is a bad drought then the tanks may be filled by truck. here it is the normal. There won't be oil in rain water unless it is coming off the roof and some people have filters in their system to remove leaves etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Brita works great for us, and we are also in Texas, even further south than Slache. Just wanted to let others out there know. Don't blame the whole state. Blame her city. 🙂 I am sorry your water is so bad. I wish I had a solution for you. I think SA has soft water, doesn't it? Maybe others with soft water can chime in. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 1 hour ago, perkybunch said: Brita works great for us, and we are also in Texas, even further south than Slache. Just wanted to let others out there know. Don't blame the whole state. Blame her city. 🙂 I am sorry your water is so bad. I wish I had a solution for you. I think SA has soft water, doesn't it? Maybe others with soft water can chime in. I didn't know. Hard water. I had to buy a clarifying shampoo because my hair was slowly solidifying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arctic Bunny Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 18 minutes ago, Slache said: I didn't know. Hard water. I had to buy a clarifying shampoo because my hair was slowly solidifying. Is a water softener is against the lease, too? We had one place with so much stuff in the water that my hair started coming out. Bleh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 1 hour ago, arctic_bunny said: Is a water softener is against the lease, too? We had one place with so much stuff in the water that my hair started coming out. Bleh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjand6more Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 I know you said no Berkey. But We have a Berkey that we use to fill a Pur container for a mini fridge. There is no filter on the Pur. It was just the narrowest container we could find. We keep the kids' snacks(and a few bottles of wine) in that fridge too. It saves the big fridge from being opened 5000 times a day. You could stack the Berkey on top of the Mini fridge and rotate. We have a routine now and never run out of filtered water. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 34 minutes ago, rjand6more said: I know you said no Berkey. But We have a Berkey that we use to fill a Pur container for a mini fridge. There is no filter on the Pur. It was just the narrowest container we could find. We keep the kids' snacks(and a few bottles of wine) in that fridge too. It saves the big fridge from being opened 5000 times a day. You could stack the Berkey on top of the Mini fridge and rotate. We have a routine now and never run out of filtered water. How much am I supposed to expect to pay for one of these? 5 people. Texas. We only drink water. Mom and Dad drink coffee and wine. Wine comes in bottles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 SA has very hard water. Most of it comes from the Edwards Aquifer, so there is a lot of mineral buildup from the limestone. The aquifer is recharged by the heavy rainfall/flash flooding that occurs north of SA—and some of that runoff is from farmland and so contamination is an issue. After heavy rain they will shock the city water supply with a lot of chemicals. During drier spells, when water overflow incidents happen, or if you leave your tap turned off for a bit—the water is smelly and off color. We once had mustard yellow water. Satan’s pee is a pretty apt name. Nearly everyone I know who drinks the tap water first runs it through a water softener and then through carbon filters if they don’t have a reverse osmosis unit. I wouldn’t get a Pur unit unless it can also deal with the bacteria issue. Slache—if you can’t get a tabletop RO unit (they are even cheaper than the undersink kind), then I would look at getting a minifridge as a water cooler. You can pick them up for under $150 new, but a lot of college students will sell them for $50ish on CL at the end of the school year. We kept our filtered water chilled in 1L glass bottles. Or, you can use filtered water to make ice and keep it cool that way. We all used insulated water bottles so the ice lasted a long time in the water bottles. Most of the grocery stores have water refill stations and you bring your own container. I think it was like .25/gallon? Something cheap. There was a primo station inside our HEB. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Actually, given your specific situation, Slache, I think I’d go the 5 gallon jugs and refill the jug route. You won’t have to pay for filters and you won’t have a huge initial outlay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 10 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said: Actually, given your specific situation, Slache, I think I’d go the 5 gallon jugs and refill the jug route. You won’t have to pay for filters and you won’t have a huge initial outlay. But long-term is this a more expensive solution? I imagine that it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjand6more Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 16 minutes ago, Slache said: How much am I supposed to expect to pay for one of these? 5 people. Texas. We only drink water. Mom and Dad drink coffee and wine. Wine comes in bottles? We spent about $80 on the mini fridge, but it is multi purpose. We have a mid size Berkey for a family of 8. We fill it once or twice a day by transferring the water into the mini.fridge or making a gallon of tea, etc. We use about 4 gallons a day. Most of it is cold(drinking straight from the fridge water), but some like the water to make iced tea or coffee straight from the Berkey. You can buy a water cooler for a 5 gallon jug for $150. For us, I chose to buy the mini fridge/Berkey instead because it solved the issue of opening the big fridge 5000 times a day. How do you buy wine?:) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 13 minutes ago, rjand6more said: We spent about $80 on the mini fridge, but it is multi purpose. We have a mid size Berkey for a family of 8. We fill it once or twice a day by transferring the water into the mini.fridge or making a gallon of tea, etc. We use about 4 gallons a day. Most of it is cold(drinking straight from the fridge water), but some like the water to make iced tea or coffee straight from the Berkey. You can buy a water cooler for a 5 gallon jug for $150. For us, I chose to buy the mini fridge/Berkey instead because it solved the issue of opening the big fridge 5000 times a day. How do you buy wine?:) I would get the Berkey, put it in a closet and keep a 3 gallon jug in the fridge. We have water bottles that we only fill twice a day. I was wondering how much the Berkey is. In a box! Duh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 (edited) Yes and no, Slache.... Under a best case scenario for each option... you could buy a RO unit for $200 that you install yourself and you pay $75/year for filters you replace once a year. (Depending on the water, you may have to replace 2x/year.) So $350 total cost at the end of the second year assuming you changed your filters twice (the RO comes with the initial set). you buy a big berkey for $299 and it works (read the reviews—they have quality control issues and those that buy duds have a hard time returning units and parts) . Your replacement filters are $120 each. Most people install 2 at a time but they don’t last the full 6000 gallons. Let’s assume they both wear out at 3000 gallons ish—so you are replacing every other year. At the end of the second year—$420 total cost. Purchasing water: $30 initial outlay for jugs....which is really nice considering how tight finances are right now...at .30/gallon, your two year cost is $657. That said, you held on to a $200-300 cushion initially. I would choose to rebuild finances post-relo initially and once there is a cushion then look for a longer term water solution. You’ll have extra water on hand (handy during hurricane season), and you aren’t running the risk of something breaking/not working when you are running tight margins right now. Edited June 7, 2019 by prairiewindmomma 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 could you put a Berkey on a rolling cart and send it to another room after filling it? our Berkey is across room from sink and that already makes filling it a bit of a chore in carrying water across the room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 11 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said: Yes and no, Slache.... Under a best case scenario for each option... you could buy a RO unit for $200 that you install yourself and you pay $75/year for filters you replace once a year. (Depending on the water, you may have to replace 2x/year.) So $350 total cost at the end of the second year assuming you changed your filters twice (the RO comes with the initial set). you buy a big berkey for $299 and it works (read the reviews—they have quality control issues and those that buy duds have a hard time returning units and parts) . Your replacement filters are $120 each. Most people install 2 at a time but they don’t last the full 6000 gallons. Let’s assume they both wear out at 3000 gallons ish—so you are replacing every other year. At the end of the second year—$420 total cost. Purchasing water: $30 initial outlay for jugs....which is really nice considering how tight finances are right now...at .30/gallon, your two year cost is $657. That said, you held on to a $200-300 cushion initially. I would choose to rebuild finances post-relo initially and once there is a cushion then look for a longer term water solution. You’ll have extra water on hand (handy during hurricane season), and you aren’t running the risk of something breaking/not working when you are running tight margins right now. So, jugs right now (two 5 gallon, one 2 gallon for in the fridge), RO system when we get the house, then we'll keep the jugs full for emergencies. 3 minutes ago, Pen said: could you put a Berkey on a rolling cart and send it to another room after filling it? our Berkey is across room from sink and that already makes filling it a bit of a chore in carrying water across the room Blah. No? I'm not Berkeying. I finally have an apartment that isn't massively cramped and inconvenient. I do want one, but no. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjand6more Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 5 minutes ago, Slache said: I would get the Berkey, put it in a closet and keep a 3 gallon jug in the fridge. We have water bottles that we only fill twice a day. I was wondering how much the Berkey is. In a box! Duh. This is what I have. The Big Berkey. $278 https://pleasanthillgrain.com/berkey-water-purifier-filter It is 2 1/2 gallon. The smaller would work. You would just have to fill more often. I have had the same filters for 3 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 7 minutes ago, rjand6more said: This is what I have. The Big Berkey. $278 https://pleasanthillgrain.com/berkey-water-purifier-filter It is 2 1/2 gallon. The smaller would work. You would just have to fill more often. I have had the same filters for 3 years. It's huge! Huge. Very big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, Slache said: It's huge! Huge. Very big. Smaller than a couple 5 gallon water bottles! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 16 minutes ago, Pen said: Smaller than a couple 5 gallon water bottles! Yes, but I would put those in the closet and a 2-gallon in the fridge which I would continued to refill. That thing is tall and skinny and awkward. I actually have a shelf in the dining room that I think it could go on. I have to think about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 4 minutes ago, Slache said: Yes, but I would put those in the closet and a 2-gallon in the fridge which I would continued to refill. That thing is tall and skinny and awkward. I actually have a shelf in the dining room that I think it could go on. I have to think about this. If you do, you need room to fill it too. I’m thinking of getting a kitchen faucet hose connector and drinking water quality hose—then my Berkey can move and I can fill it up to 25 feet from sink . Farther with a longer hose I guess. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 We have an ice station in the parking lot of the car wash. It has a place to fill jugs with water. Not sure exactly how much it is. Just remember just thinking it was cheap when I was getting ice one day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 13 hours ago, Slache said: It's against our lease and our faucet does not produce cold water. Against lease even if it were a clip on portable sink top RO , not built in? 13 hours ago, Slache said: Because it tastes like Satan's pee and has an oily film. What is in it? Do you know? Does it catch fire like videos of fracking water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 2 minutes ago, Pen said: 1. Against lease even if it were a clip on portable sink top RO , not built in? 2. What is in it? Do you know? 3. Does it catch fire like videos of fracking water? 1. Oh. Prolly not. I didn't know that was a thing. 2. No idea. 3. What the swear word!? I don't know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Just now, Slache said: 1. Oh. Prolly not. I didn't know that was a thing. Yep there are ... takes pressure and wastes water ... but can get rid of a lot of bad stuff Just now, Slache said: 2. No idea. 3. What the swear word!? I don't know! Yup. Scary stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 No, Pen, it’s not as bad as fracking water. That’s more of an issue south of Slache. There were some trihalomethanes in the last water quality report I saw, along with radium, and some other stuff (google the SAWS report—Slache) but the main thing Slache has to worry about, IMO, is the taste and the cryptosporidium (bacteria) issues from when the sewers overflow into the water system. They actually have EPA fines over that one. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 8 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said: No, Pen, it’s not as bad as fracking water. That’s more of an issue south of Slache. There were some trihalomethanes in the last water quality report I saw, along with radium, and some other stuff (google the SAWS report—Slache) but the main thing Slache has to worry about, IMO, is the taste and the cryptosporidium (bacteria) issues from when the sewers overflow into the water system. They actually have EPA fines over that one. Yes, I've known. When we got here and the water was awful I googled all the things. I will say the water is my only complaint so far. I love it here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Would home water cooler delivery be less expensive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 I was born in SA. The water has always been bad there, especially in older pipes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 17 minutes ago, LucyStoner said: Would home water cooler delivery be less expensive? Not that I can find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjand6more Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 1 hour ago, Slache said: Yes, but I would put those in the closet and a 2-gallon in the fridge which I would continued to refill. That thing is tall and skinny and awkward. I actually have a shelf in the dining room that I think it could go on. I have to think about this. I don't think it would work well if you had to bring water to it from far. Mine is right next to the sink on a short plant stand on the counter. I think you would end up hating that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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