Drinking Water

I have always endured the little expense of buying plastic 12 and 6 packs of water from the Supermarkets.I always feel better breaking the seal of a bottle to drink it.I do drink water at the vendors and resturaunts that get the big plastic bottles though.

I've started using the larger bottles you can buy in Tesco, the Nestle and Singha 6 litre bottles, - for drinking anyway.

My wife spoke to the 10 baht bottle delivery man about the water quality. He suggested we had been keeping the water too long. I don't think a week or even 10 days would have made that much difference, if the water and bottle were "clean" and uncontaminated in the first place!

When she asked if we could therefore return a couple of bottles, in order to reduce our stock level and thus reduce the time we were keeping the bottles of water, he said he would have to check with the water company (if they would "buy" them back). I thought the 100 baht was a deposit on the bottle, not a purchase price! Does anyone have any experience on that one?

I did suggest to my wife that she asked him to check with the water company that they had changed their filters recently or had their equipment checked by the local authority recently (which I understand does happen). But she didn't relay that onto him.

We have started using Kitco bottled water. About two months ago, we switched from a previous supplier of transluscent bottles to clear bottles, which we refer to as "Nam falang". There is a 300 baht deposit on the large bottles (5 gallon ?) and 22 baht for a "refill". They also have smaller bottles (2 gallon?) which are 70 baht deposit and 9 baht for a "refill". The water is great - clear, clean and without any odors. The label on the bottle gives their email as kitco88@hotmail.com

I bought a used Mazumo UV-compact from some kind missionaries leaving Udon. They said filter replacements available everywhere, like Lotus, HomePro, etc.

Turns out the "compact" ones are not being stocked in these places anymore, though I've managed to replace the resin and the ceramic filters.

1) Anyone know where I might find a carbon filter for this model?

2) How important is the carbon one? I.e., will it be fine using - and drinking - it without the carbon filter?

3) Someone above said something about having to replace the UV also? What's that all about? How often? Can one tell when it is old, or toasted, or whatever?

If I don't respond quickly, I may have been taken ill...or worse! Cheers, Dude

thedude wrote:I bought a used Mazumo UV-compact from some kind missionaries leaving Udon. They said filter replacements available everywhere, like Lotus, HomePro, etc.

3) Someone above said something about having to replace the UV also? What's that all about? How often? Can one tell when it is old, or toasted, or whatever?

If I don't respond quickly, I may have been taken ill...or worse! Cheers, Dude

[b]UV bulb[/b]
When to replace

If your unit has a separate UV bulb, it must be replaced every 18 months or it is replaced with the cartridge.

Why replace

Replacing the UV bulb is necessary to ensure that it is performing with enough energy and UV intensity to destroy optimal levels of contaminants.

Sourced from:
http://www.espring.com/English/products ... x?pgid=146

thedude wrote:I bought a used Mazumo UV-compact from some kind missionaries leaving Udon. They said filter replacements available everywhere, like Lotus, HomePro, etc.

Turns out the "compact" ones are not being stocked in these places anymore, though I've managed to replace the resin and the ceramic filters.

1) Anyone know where I might find a carbon filter for this model?

2) How important is the carbon one? I.e., will it be fine using - and drinking - it without the carbon filter?

3) Someone above said something about having to replace the UV also? What's that all about? How often? Can one tell when it is old, or toasted, or whatever?

If I don't respond quickly, I may have been taken ill...or worse! Cheers, Dude

As I understand it Dude, the Carbon filter is mainly for Taste, and the other two Filter out the Nasties

I think the lucky ones are living outside Udon.

I buy the 20 l bottles directly from the water supplier who uses reverse osmosis to clean the water, the best system available.
They have trucks driving around the villages, I have 4 bottles stock, they arrive (irregularly) and replace the empty bottles. I never buy in a shop, never had a problem with the water!

Joe

An update, I've gone for a Unipure "Hallow" Water Filter fitted in the kitchen, with it's own little tap. Made in Taiwan. It's got 5 separate filters, - Sediment, carbon, resin, carbon and hallow fibre membrane. The saleslady told me it filtered down to 0.05 Microns, but the engineer installing it said 0.3 Microns (the brochure didn't say on that particular model). The range of models vary between 0.3 and 0.0001 Microns.

Anyway, that will at least mean we don't have to spend days waiting for the water bottle delivery man to come round, only to later find the water smells or turns green!

Started with TESCO water. Then moved on to the large white bottles. Had no problems with the water, but couldn't coneect with the delivery trucks. Now considering getting water from the road-side, stand-alone vending machines. Is that water safe? What is the system/physics behind that supply? Are the internal, nozzles, etc. maintained properly?

arjay wrote:An update, I've gone for a Unipure "Hallow" Water Filter fitted in the kitchen, with it's own little tap. Made in Taiwan. It's got 5 separate filters, - Sediment, carbon, resin, carbon and hallow fibre membrane. The saleslady told me it filtered down to 0.05 Microns, but the engineer installing it said 0.3 Microns (the brochure didn't say on that particular model). The range of models vary between 0.3 and 0.0001 Microns.

Anyway, that will at least mean we don't have to spend days waiting for the water bottle delivery man to come round, only to later find the water smells or turns green!

What were your costs installed and where did you purchase the system?

Ray.Charles wrote:Started with TESCO water. Then moved on to the large white bottles. Had no problems with the water, but couldn't coneect with the delivery trucks. Now considering getting water from the road-side, stand-alone vending machines. Is that water safe? What is the system/physics behind that supply? Are the internal, nozzles, etc. maintained properly?

If referring to the dispensing machine in the photo, there's one across the road from us that we frequently use and have been for about 3 months and have no complaints. I had some doubts at first, but as it turns out a neighbor has a business supplying and servicing these machines and see them periodically coming to do maintenance, they appear to make entries of some type of record and even witness them replace the filter once. The details on the machine claim filtration and reverse osmosis. The cost is 1bt per litre.

That's the same machine I always use.
I only use the water for cooking or hot drinks. I use Supermarket bottles for cold drinks.

arjay wrote:Does anyone have any experience of using water filter equipment as sold in the side shops in the Tesco complexes and such like? I note on their leaflets they have a website (Thai language only): http://www.watermachinethailand.com

As I stated in another post, I bought a expensive system from this company that stopped working (pump) within 7 months. The company refused to honor the one year guarantee.
Don't buy from this company!

I'll go with the "Pure" system next.

We've had a "Pure" system going on 12 years. Bought it for about 1800 baht in 1999....change the solid carbon block and ceramic filters once a year and check them every 6 months without any problem. The individual filters cost about 500 baht each. I notice that Pure has some fancy filter systems (available in Robinson's and Lotus) that are in the 9000+ baht range.....and that doesn't include reverse osmosis. I doubt a gnat's ass could squeeze through that 0.3micron ceramic filter.......and that's good enough for me.

Is the "Pure" water system good enough for making 'deep well' water drinkable? I was in Global the other day and they were trying to sell me this huge black filter (similar to the attached) which they say is the first step for cleaning 'well'' or 'government' water. The water passes through this into a holding tank and then to a filter system similar to 'pure'. The well water looks pretty clean to me so I'm not sure if this large filter would be necessary.