"Triple filtered water"

Restaurants in our area are now touting their "triple filtered water" for environmental and other reasons. Some charge for it; others serve it free and Houston's, a local chain store of high excellence, at least at this location, serves no other water. It actually tastes better than Fiji, Janet's personal favorite.

Houston's runs it through their Crathco dispenser -- list price $7500 -- so it's not an option for home use -- at least our home.

Does anyone use a home water filter? Suggestions for good ones?

Here's the best site I've found for general info and ratings of ten top competitors.

http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com/

Thanks, Bob

We don't use a water filter, but the latest report for the water in our neighborhood is above the numbers it should be for arsenic. We have two wells that are turned on during the summer to help meet peak system demands, but usually they are dormant. Although they say the levels are below dangerous levels, they also say that some people who drink water containing arsenic in excess of the MCL over many years may experience skin damage or circulatory system problems, and may have an increased risk to getting cancer. So, I have taken to drinking Fuji, which I have always had around for car trips, RV trips, and for the dog who travels with us. This is the first time in 46 years that I can recall getting such a report from the City regarding arsenic.

Albuquerque water generally tastes ok without use of a filter. I'd be curious if those filters remove fluorine because there's a problem, particularly for children, drinking filtered or bottled water without tooth-hardening fluorine.

I also don't see anything about removing arsenic, which is present in our local water. That's what makes New Mexicans muy macho and helps innoculate against wives poisoning their husbands.

Albuquerque water generally tastes ok without use of a filter. I'd be curious if those filters remove fluorine because there's a problem, particularly for children, drinking filtered or bottled water without tooth-hardening fluorine.

I also don't see anything about removing arsenic, which is present in our local water. That's what makes New Mexicans muy macho and helps innoculate against wives poisoning their husbands.

I've heard the water is quadruple filtered in Phoenix and that's another item on the long list of why people should move there.

We use salt and a filter on the water coming from our well.

How's your bp?

Restaurants in our area are now touting their "triple filtered water" for environmental and other reasons. Some charge for it; others serve it free and Houston's, a local chain store of high excellence, at least at this location, serves no other water. It actually tastes better than Fiji, Janet's personal favorite.

Houston's runs it through their Crathco dispenser -- list price $7500 -- so it's not an option for home use -- at least our home.

Does anyone use a home water filter? Suggestions for good ones?

Bob,
At the risk of telling your learned self things of which you're already aware, I'll point out that, in general, people prefer the taste of water with a fair amount of dissolved minerals in it. Filtering per se won't get rid of minerals, but passing it through an ion exchange bed as many "filters" do will result in changing electrolytes and a possibly poorer taste. I also question just what filtering is supposed to accomplish. I'm very sensitive to the taste of chlorocarbon products of chlorination, so an activated charcoal filter makes sense to me, and if you're worried about pathogens in your water then a 0.45 micron Nylon filter is great (that's what we use when backpacking). But what is "triple filtering" supposed to accomplish?

Mark Lipton

I've heard the water is quadruple filtered in Phoenix and that's another item on the long list of why people should move there.

Not true - our water is barely filtered and tastes nasty. It will clog a coffee maker in a matter of days and leaves white stains all over the fixtures. Much better to move to Greenly's pastures in Albuquerque and put up with the arsenic.

We don't use a water filter, but the latest report for the water in our neighborhood is above the numbers it should be for arsenic. We have two wells that are turned on during the summer to help meet peak system demands, but usually they are dormant. Although they say the levels are below dangerous levels, they also say that some people who drink water containing arsenic in excess of the MCL over many years may experience skin damage or circulatory system problems, and may have an increased risk to getting cancer.

A lot of communities are getting notification about arsenic in drinking water for the first time. In 2000 in the last days of the Clinton administration, they lowered the upper limit on arsenic from 50 ppm to 10 ppm, in line with new guidance from the World Health Organization. This was many last-minute rules that were reversed by the incoming Bush administration, saying it would be too expensive for small water systems to comply (the same sort of thing seems to happen on each Presidential hand-off these days). Bush & Co. took a lot of heat from enviromental health advocates for the reversal. Less publicized was the fact that the Bush administration finally went along and lowered the limit to 10 ppm. The new regulations have taken some time to filter down to local water systems. Locally, I know of a small system serving perhaps twenty houses that tests at 12 ppm and is going to have to spend a lot of money to comply. In your situation, I guess I'd look at what the actual number is before worrying. After all, until a few years back 50 ppm was OK and you would have heard nothing from your water system.

But what is "triple filtering" supposed to accomplish? Mark Lipton

Taste. Janet doesn't like our water and she loves the taste of Fiji water. The "triple filtered water" at Houston's was actually better than Fiji.

I've got real problems with bottled water in general and Fiji in particular -- concerns about labor relations in Fiji, the type of plastic used in the bottles, the time the water spends in the bottles, the transportation burden, and our out of pocket costs. [If the numbers in the link posted are anywhere near correct, we would save several hundred dollars a year and be able to use the filtered water in our coffee as well.

I agree with all of your other points -- I just need to find a filter that will make our water taste better than Fiji's. I've even considered running it through a lava filter and make it "quadruple filtered".

Thanks for the insights -- the one positive thing in all of this is that the certification standards in states like California are very high, and one doesn't have to rely on seller's talk.

Best, Bob

A lot of communities are getting notification about arsenic in drinking water for the first time. In 2000 in the last days of the Clinton administration, they lowered the upper limit on arsenic from 50 ppm to 10 ppm, in line with new guidance from the World Health Organization. This was many last-minute rules that were reversed by the incoming Bush administration, saying it would be too expensive for small water systems to comply (the same sort of thing seems to happen on each Presidential hand-off these days). Bush & Co. took a lot of heat from enviromental health advocates for the reversal. Less publicized was the fact that the Bush administration finally went along and lowered the limit to 10 ppm. The new regulations have taken some time to filter down to local water systems. Locally, I know of a small system serving perhaps twenty houses that tests at 12 ppm and is going to have to spend a lot of money to comply. In your situation, I guess I'd look at what the actual number is before worrying. After all, until a few years back 50 ppm was OK and you would have heard nothing from your water system.

One well tested at 9.6 ppb, and the other at 8.8 ppb. It was mentioned that the federal drinking water standard is 10 ppb. So, it looks to be safe, according to the federal USEPA. We get detailed test results several times a year. When I was working for the City, I took a group of our volunteers through one City water testing and delivery site. It was so clean and we found out that they test every hour. They delivered water to the west side of town.

A lot of communities are getting notification about arsenic in drinking water for the first time. In 2000 in the last days of the Clinton administration, they lowered the upper limit on arsenic from 50 ppm to 10 ppm, in line with new guidance from the World Health Organization. This was many last-minute rules that were reversed by the incoming Bush administration, saying it would be too expensive for small water systems to comply (the same sort of thing seems to happen on each Presidential hand-off these days). Bush & Co. took a lot of heat from enviromental health advocates for the reversal. Less publicized was the fact that the Bush administration finally went along and lowered the limit to 10 ppm. The new regulations have taken some time to filter down to local water systems. Locally, I know of a small system serving perhaps twenty houses that tests at 12 ppm and is going to have to spend a lot of money to comply. In your situation, I guess I'd look at what the actual number is before worrying. After all, until a few years back 50 ppm was OK and you would have heard nothing from your water system.

That should be "ppb" rather than "ppm", right?

I've heard the water is quadruple filtered in Phoenix and that's another item on the long list of why people should move there.

Not true - our water is barely filtered and tastes nasty. It will clog a coffee maker in a matter of days and leaves white stains all over the fixtures. Much better to move to Greenly's pastures in Albuquerque and put up with the arsenic.

Drinking our water does help protect us from the bubonic plague--if the fleas drink our arsenic-laden water (just under 50 ppb), that is. Only one death from the plague so far this year.

One version of our state motto is (follow the bouncing ball), "...the land of the flea...and the home of the plague." Brings a tear to my eyes whenever I hear it.
And, then, there are the wagons instead of ice cream trucks that periodically roll through our neighborhoods announcing, "Bring out yer dead. Bring out yer dead."

Read all about it at: http://www.health.state.nm.us/epi/plague.html

How's your bp?

I don't buy their gas.

Nor do I. The independents are now as low as $2.31 here.

That should be "ppb" rather than "ppm", right?

Oops, that's right For some reason, the limit is usually described as 0.010 ppm (thus my confusion) but 10 ppm you would definitely not want to drink.

Our water comes into the house through a resin-vessel water softener, and then the portion we use for cooking and drinking comes through a double solid-carbon filter unit. The resulting water tastes quite good, and the state of the kettle shows that quite a bit of crap has been filtered out of the water. The kettle used to be very dirty on the inside before we had the carbon filter unit; now it remains clean. The firm distributing the system is Puratap. I have no idea if they are only in this country.

Looking at the link Bob provides, "selective filtration" seems to describe the process our unit uses.