Do you drink tap water?

[indyk]

agree 100% but if something requires PURE not perfectly safe drinking, a meter such as mine Is what I depend on, i wouldn't need a unit that gives me a full spectral water analysis,
I know my well is bad, I measure to see how "contaminated" it is, if its organic or not.

Wouldn't that be an accurate reading for these standards?

If im measuring a pool and I suspect its loaded with chemicals, etc that meter reads way over the allowed ppms etc for that size pool, im going to depend on a unit that solely measures for total PPM, SAL, EC. Based off my "generic readings from the meter and knowledge about pool and spa chemicals, I would make adjustments, introducing fresh water, etc based off PPM's and other chemical readings.

A unit such a mine is darn accurate to measure if drinking water is "PURE" like Distilled water, it reads .5 on a PPM meter, thats pure, thats what I go for.
?

And Shibumiseeker, your trolling is exactly whats wrong with INGO, Im suprised a 09 er is standing by with nothing to contribute but 1 line trolling remarks, " A hammer?"
INGO used to be about sharing information, any kind of information. Not posts such as yours.
Its simply not needed or respected here.

 

[danmdevries]

Sure, if you want to drink distilled water, go ahead.

Mind you, many trace elements required by your body are found in water. RO and Distilled water (which it seems are the only things you're advocating) are stripped of pretty much everything but molecules containing two hydrogen to one oxygen.

It is not an accurate reading for standards of safety. Here's another example. "I have seven. Is it safe to take a nap?" (a la I have 140ppm water is it safe to drink) Seven what? Seven toes on your left foot? Sure, you can take a nap. Seven beers in your belly? Well, you probably should take a nap. Seven rooms of your house on fire... probably shouldn't nap.

Yes, you are testing the purity of the water, but your application of the test is incorrect. You can still VERY easily exceed safe standards while maintaining the range of dissolved solids you specified. Shamwowspeaker has a point. You have a tool, but the application/interpretation of the values is incorrect.

If I have 80ppm dissolved sodium cyanide (an example - I don't know off hand the toxic dose) by your test, the water is pretty gosh darn pure. But I wouldn't drink it

 

[bwframe]

Do we weaken our immune system by overdoing the killing of bad stuff in our water?
(Please pardon my poor terminology.)

 

[danmdevries]

Do we weaken our immune system by overdoing the killing of bad stuff in our water?
(Please pardon my poor terminology.)

Not directly, no.

You don't want to consume pathogens unnecessarily.

If you only drink highly purified water like distilled and maybe to an extent, RO, you may cut yourself short on some essential minerals and trace elements. Highly unlikely as you're still consuming other things made with water that wasn't distilled or run through an RO unit.

 

[SERparacord]

The only thing you need from water is the water itself.

Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight and a person can't survive for more than a few days without it. Why? Your body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance, your blood, which contains a lot of water, carries oxygen to all the cells of your body. Without oxygen, those tiny cells would die and your body would stop working.
Water is also in lymph (say: limf), a fluid that is part of your immune system, which helps you fight off illness. You need water to digest your food and get rid of waste, too. Water is needed for digestive juices, urine (pee), and poop. And you can bet that water is the main ingredient in perspiration, also called sweat.
In addition to being an important part of the fluids in your body, each cell depends on water to function normally.
Your body doesn't get water only from drinking water. Any fluid you drink will contain water, but water and milk are the best choices.
Why Drinking Water Is the Way to Go

 

[indyk]

If you only drink highly purified water like distilled and maybe to an extent, RO, you may cut yourself short on some essential minerals and trace elements

Wouldn't it be safe to say,
along with good multivitamins,
RO, Distilled, Purified Spring waters are excellent sources of water and minerals that supply the body?


http://www.tdsmeter.com/education?id=0018

 

[danmdevries]

Wouldn't it be safe to say,
along with good multivitamins,
RO, Distilled, Purified Spring waters are excellent sources of water and minerals that supply the body?

Those are excellent sources of water.

But there are others that are plenty safe.

Would not advocate exclusively drinking distilled or RO water. Maybe with MVI you'll be fine. Really depends on the rest of your diet overall. I don't advocate the use of multivitamins to replace a well rounded diet.

 

[shibumiseeker]

And Shibumiseeker, your trolling is exactly whats wrong with INGO, Im suprised a 09 er is standing by with nothing to contribute but 1 line trolling remarks, " A hammer?"
INGO used to be about sharing information, any kind of information. Not posts such as yours.
Its simply not needed or respected here.

Oh, I could have expounded further, but considering your responses so far it's pretty obvious you have no desire to learn much further from us ignorant plebes who don't have your magic meter.

And quite frankly, if you look at what I've posted on this subject over the years you'll find I've consistently contributed way more useful information than most ever will, as well as on a host of other topics with which I actually know something. On the stuff I don't know anything about I try to keep my mouth shut and learn from those who clearly have more experience, not throw a temper tantrum when someone questions me.

There is far more to water quality and water chemistry than TDS, and while you keep throwing out the term "ppm", several people have pointed out that such term is pretty meaningless without knowing WHAT is being measured in ppm. Your meter is ONLY going to give you a first order approximation that there is SOMETHING in the water and it's the one often used by water softener/filter salesman to sell people stuff. TDS, BOD, and the overall composition of what is in the water at a ppm or ppb level can only be done with lab analysis (I've done them, in a lab, using GC and GC-MS). Furthermore, what is the TDS composed of? It makes a difference whether it is calcium, magnesium, manganese, or iron (the biggies and most common).

So if you come in slinging around a few terms that are poorly used and defined and then get defensive when someone else questions you on that, you indeed are not contributing in a meaningful fashion and I think you'll find that kind of stuff is what isn't respected much "around here." Curiously, the LAST person who made such statements to me on InGO was someone who was trying to sell snake oil and got mad about being questioned too.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

Full disclosure:

No, I don't use one of those $$$ meters to do any kind of water testing.

But I have, professionally, taken groundwater and soil samples to be tested for myriad petroleum products, dry cleaning solvents, their derivatives, etc. And metals, but, generally, those aren't really a concerned "here" with "average" soil. Old gas station soil and for lead contamination - yes. Same with the Praxair facility in Speedway. Used to be a battery manufacturing business there. They were constructing a new building several years ago - and unearthed some chunks of lead. Full-stop to the project until testing and a soil-containment plan could be developed. Even had micro-pumps and filters fitted onto half a dozen construction employees to monitor how much lead they MAY have been breathing. (Answer- hardly any).

This was done because there was a quantifiable amount of a substance. Not just a random number.

My work these days consists of monitoring fluids of a much much much much less dense nature than groundwater, though. Sulfur compounds, carbon compounds, nitrogen/oxygen combinations that cause health issues, weird forms of oxygen that can cause health concerns, tiny stuff that floats in the air, etc etc.

Just about everything we do is measured in ppb. 1 is in ppm. Others are in micrograms / cubic meter.

 

[marv]

So now you're drinking water that has dead mice in a city cistern?

No, I don't think T C has cisterns anymore. It comes from their wells pure. They filter certain elements from it and chlorinate it and pump it into elevated tanks. State law requires that water must be chlorinated before it can be sold. Therefore, the same water can be treated 3 or 4 times before it reaches the consumer.

 

[VN Vet]

I drink two gallons of tap water per day, not straight from the faucet. I like my tap water chilled/cold before I drink it, so I fill my five open topped water containers and put them in the fridge. It gives the water a chance to air-out also.

Angola, IN has the best water I've ever tasted and next comes New York City and Louisville.

 

[DragonGunner]

Well water.....the tap water at work from the city is like drinking sewer water and turns my stomach....pop is much better for ya and safer at work. Give me well water!!!!!

 

[Leadeye]

Meh, I mix bourbon in my water, kills the bugs and makes it taste good.

 

[Daggy]

I filter my water if I'm drinking it straight. For my Keurig I only use bottled water, since South Bend city water has so much mineral / calcium it clogs the machine in a short time.

 

[Lumpy76]

Prefer bottled. Our city water has a slight bleach smell. Don't want the flouride either. I will cook with it though.

 

[Knife Lady]

We have well water and it stinks. I do not drink it. I cook with it but that is all. I drink bottled water and use bottled for my coffee too.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

well water straight. a bit of iron, but i don't notice it anymore. my parents have terrible sulphur water- when i lived there i could drink it but not now.

 

[BogWalker]

We've got a well that also has a bad sulfur problem. Used to be good drinking (right out of the garden hose was the best), but now I just can't stand it. I'm fine with the taste of our local town tap water, but in all the larger cities I've been in the tap water tasted just awful. Indianapolis has especially foul tasting tap water IMHO.

 

[dwain]

I drink city water ran through a Brita filter. Just saw a news report, that our city water was so discolored because they had algae growing in the filter beds. We do get our city water from wells now, instead of from the Wabash River. We used to joke, not to drink city water this coming weekend, as there was a Turd alert, as Terre Haute was flushing their sewer system.

 

[Frosty]

I go for it straight from the faucet… I'm on city water but grew up on well water, it took some getting used to.