I am in the process of totally remodeling my kitchen. My family drinks only natural spring water that we bug either in 1 Gal or 2.5 Gal containers. What I don't like is containers themselves.I would like to have another faucet next to regular faucet that would deliver drinking natural spring water from some big container hidden in cabinets or elsewhere. Note, I do not want to use filter.I also do not have space for those bug coolers with 5 Gal jars. Can someone point me to any resources or links with natural spring water delivered via a faucet?
On 08/20/05 05:35 pm Sasha tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:
Oh, you mean that municipal water that they filter and label as "Pure Mountain Spring Water" and sell at x00% profit? There's one born every minute. Do you use Monster cables for your stereo as well?
Excuse the slightly jaded replies, though based in truth, they don't really give you a solution. In reality, I agree that tap water may not be the best thing to drink in some areas. There's actually a little town about 10 miles from me where they actually shut down the public water supply for a few weeks due to contamination. Who knows how long it was going on before discovered. I also agree that bottled spring water is a flat out hoax, having read some revealing reports by reputable firms.
Probably the best thing you can do is install a filteration system in your house. A good one is a couple of grand if they "treat" water along with filtering it, but for what you are now paying for bottled water, it'll pay for itself quick and the water in your tap will be cleaner than the bottled water.
You can run tap water through a coffee filter and fill a bottle in April and call it pure spring water. It really is a scam. You need to take control of your water purity yourself, onsite. That is the only way to be sure. Test kits are also available.
In fact, maybe you should get a test kit or get samples of both your tap water and the bottled water you use and compare. You may be shocked at the results.
Here's a link to get started. I don't personally know anything about this particular model, but it's a good site to get an idea of what the project entails.
There used to be lots of places to get "spring water" in the rural parts of my area. Typically they would be constructed of stone with a pipe sticking out of them that had "natural" water pouring out of it. People would bring jugs and fill them up thinking they were getting good water. A local TV station had the water tested and none of them were found to meet drinking quality standards and then the department of health stepped in and had all of them shut down.
Then there is the nearby spring fed lake that was used as a public water supply. It was taken out of service because of pollution. Now they truck that water to a local bottling plant where it is processed and bottled. There are dozens of Wally tractor trailers going in and out of the plant each day. Its interesting because they can truthfully put "mountain spring water" on the label.
Just as a counterpoint to this, some rural springs (as described: pipe sticking out of the ground, with maybe some stonework or a concrete basin) are actually fine. We have several in our area that historically have been used as "health springs" back in the day, and are now used mainly for local drinking water, especially for those of us who eneded up with sulfer-tasting water (about half the wells around here, it seems). A close friend happens to be a water expert for the nearby city, and as part of her job, she regularly tests several of the springs for bacterial and chemical contamination, and other water quality issues. Seing as our well water was tested exactly once, when we bought the house, I'd say it is a lot safer. And not bad compared to the city water system, which seems to be regularly sending out notices about "above the legal limit" ratings for chemical contamination, choliform bacteria, pesticide contamination, and last year, even a small gas spill related contamination. The notices are worded something like "For the 5th consecutive month we have been at 3x the legal limit for w, x, y, and z pollutants, and are now required by law to inform you again of this fact. This is in addition to the previous notifications concerning other pollutants or contaminantes that you may have recieved recently. Don't worry about it though. Have a nice day."
But Monster Cables are worth every penny because they have no oxygen in them. Maybe he needs some of that no oxygen water too. How about using the Monster Cables to purify the water?
Oh, you mean that municipal water that they filter and label as "Pure Mountain Spring Water" and sell at x00% profit? There's one born every minute. Do you use Monster cables for your stereo as well?
************************************************************************************ To make it compact, I was going to suggest just run his water line to the "Pure Spring Water" faucet.
While I tend to agree with those who feel the designer water craze is a rip off. I do suggest you contact your local supplier(s) of the water you like and see what they might have to offer.
Do a Google search but be warned, these are really pricey. Not very common in the USA. You could find a cheap plastic faucet and arrange to gravity feed.
I've got seriously mineral-laden well water that's unsuitable for drinking and impractical to sufficiently filter (tried one of those under-counter filtration systems -- the water was still a bit salty (with a powdery residue of salt on ice cubes made from it*) and the drain tube through which the filter was back-flushed once a week silted up with iron and calcium residue after about four months; nursed it along for maybe eight months before chucking it).
I've considered cutting down an old water-cooler stand to fit the large cabinet I have above my fridge (so gravity would feed the bottled to both a kitchen sink and to an icemaker in the freezer), but decided hoisting the bottles up there would be a pain.
I also considered, after browsing through a boating supply catalogue, using a pump intended for the potable water on a small boat -- you might try that. The boat supply catalogues have all the parts -- pumps that work with a pressure switch (open the faucet, pressure drops, pump comes on), a device that seemed essentially to serve the same purpose as a pressure tank on a home water well (to "cushion" the water to a more even pressure), tubing and little single-lever faucets that could probably be put through a standard knock-out in a stainless kitchen sink; you might have to but a transformer to supply the 12-volt power elsewhere. Seems to me when I was thinking about it (several years ago) it would've cost around two hundred dollars to do it.
As it was, I just recessed my old bottled water dispenser into a tall cabinet beside my fridge. I raised it up about a foot on a shelf (the coolers are all seem to have the spigots inconveniently low), with a pull-out drawer below to hold extra bottles of water. The part with the taps is open, and the part with the up-ended bottle has a cabinet door across it, with a handy message board mounted on the front of that.
They make lots of attractive stoneware dispensers these days, and I've seen decorative fabric sleeves that slip over the bottles on them (a bit too cutesy for me).
If there is truly a bacterial contamination problem, running water through a coffee maker isn't a bad idea. Though just running through a paper coffee filter is ridiculously stupid for removing anything but undissolved particles.
A caution on water testing. Water samples may not be consistent. Your water supply contents may change from time to time. Some may "burp" salts, then remain clear for long time, then do it again if not procesed by a municipal system.
Am using a whole-house, sediment, oxidizer, carbon filtration staged system. In a rural area without a municipal water supply. Using a one gallon pitcher filtration by Brita for drinking and cooking water. Intially, its a bit costly, but pays off quickly. I keep this transparent pitcher in the kitchen window over the sink. Filters are changed every 3 months for the whole house system, and every 2 months for the pitcher. A air venturi injector is used just before the water reservoir to aid the oxidizer further downline.
I would love to do the same thing. I have looked into a few things and have not settled on exactly what I am going to do yet.
Here is my progression.... Gravity feed - This did not work for me. I could not get enough pressure. I used a barrel on second floor and pex tube to faucet. Barely a trickle of water.
Add a pump - I bought a 120V demand pump from Sureflow. It did as designed - pumped the water when the faucet was open and shut off when closed. The problem was the pump was loud and vibrates too much for me. The advantage though is you could put the pump in a basement or something. I did not have that luxury, my pump was inder the sink. I still have the pump. I will sell it to you for 1/2 price of new plus shipping. I still have the box. Adding an expansion tank would further improve the system and even out the flow of water.
OK - I have now abandoned the pump. I am cyurrently using just a water cooler that I can sit on the counter top.
I may ultimately go for this....
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Good luck and reply here if you want my pump. Here are the specs. (Its the "park" model)
Actually it can be done reasonably cheaply. Any marine supply store will have the necessary components. Essentially what you are looking at is a potable water delivery system for a boat. They are typically operated via a small battery operated pump hidden in the cabinet. They are about the same size as 2 packs of cigarettes.
I might be misreading just what you have sitting in the window -- but a few years ago I had a britta pitcher and also had it near a window, not in direct sunlight, but getting some light from the sky.
One day I looked in the pitcher more carefully than usually and saw this 3/4-inch diameter brown blob (sphere) hovering near the bottom!
And you can bet your sweet A that it's been a *long* time since a drink out of a britta pitcher.
The moral, I think, is "keep it out of (outdoor) light".
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