How to filter nasty tasting beach town water?

[Jay Hanig]

I live in a coastal community in North Carolina. While I will use the tap water for cooking and washing, I refuse to drink it because of the taste. The ice cubes made by the automatic ice cube maker in the freezer are similarly afflicted... sulfurous odor and taste. The solution thus far has been to buy bottled water in 1 gallon jugs and bags of ice from the grocery store.

Surely there's a better way.

I've looked at several websites that claim to remove tastes and odors but I'm hoping to hear from someone who lives in a beach community and has found a way to filter the water that works.

The town water will actually etch a line in the porcelain of a toilet over a long period of time. That can't be a good thing.

If you've ever been to Myrtle Beach, SC you know how my water tastes. No, not the ocean water!)

Jay Topsail Beach, NC

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, If you are handy type get a under sink multi stage RO filter system and install it. That'll do it. I installed 6 stage filter/RO/UV light system from eBay and we quit using bottled water. Cost was very reasonable.

[ransley]

There are many different types and costs of filters for different needs. You should find what your locals use that isnt the most expensive, but works. The water dept and restaurants should know what is cheapest to run. If you cant drink it you shouldnt be cooking with it, food will taste better with filtered water.

[LSMFT]

That's what I got, reverse osmosis water tastes great. Except I put it below the floor under the sink in the basement ceiling. Easier to change the filters.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Start with something as simple and cheap as a Brita filter on the counter. Then look at the under sink filters for the cold water line. I don't know what makes "beach" water any worse than our, but a simple carbon filter works for me. If you can install the filter ahead of the tap for the ice maker, that takes care of both.

[ransley]

2 drawbacks to RO and I had one, one, it wastes a gallon for every gallon it makes, 2 it removes minerals you need.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

I'd give that a try first myself. They really work!

I don't know what makes coastal water bad, either- but I knew exactly what he was talking about when he said it. Only lived on the coast for a few months while in the service- [NC & SC & VA-- but we vacation from Cape Cod to Northern New Brunswick-- and I can rarely drink the tap water where we stay- or even the water the eateries serve. [Unless I see a big "We serve bottled water" sign] IMO the water from SC to NB is consistently awful.

Jim

[Caesar Romano]

On Thu, 20 May 2010 06:00:04 -0400, "Ed Pawlowski" wrote Re Re: How to filter nasty tasting beach town water?:

Good advice there.

[HeyBub]

Good points, but:

1. Water for consumption is cheap - you won't even hit the minimum monthly charge.
2. Vitamin/mineral pill supplements are also cheap.
3. There is no "Recommended Minimum Daily Allowance" for Sulfur, Cadmium, Tin, and other assorted minerals.

[tom]

They waste more than that, more like 3 or 4 gallons for every 1 gallon produced, depending on the state of the filters and the raw water quality. I collect my wastewater for the washing machine and sanitary use. With just 2 people drinking, we have more wastewater than we can use. Tom

[tom]

Cheapest method would be to fill a pitcher and let it set for awhile, maybe in the fridge, then decant off the good stuff gently. Tom

[mike]

e quoted text -

I've looked at those to remove the poolwater taste from water, but I can buy a hell of a lot of distilled water jugs for the price to buy and maintain just about any home water treatment system.

[ransley]

With a family I had an RO running all the time just to make enough water, more of a pain in the ass but it was wasting maybe 200 gallons a month constantly dripping, dripping, dripping. It might be deionized water that has everything removed, and ive heard your fillings can fall out from it

[mm]

I was in Mrytle Beach for the first time in March, I think, for almost

4 days. I expected a tropical vacation, but it snowed!

I'm sure I drank the tap water at the hotel.

At our hosts' home and the reception, I might not have.

I thought the tap water at Caribbean Resorts Hotel was fine. Do they filter it? Maybe they'll tell you what they do**.

But don't ever get on their mailing list. They emailed me every four days. How often do they think I want to go to SC anyhow, and do they think I have no memmory?

**If they won't tell you, I'd consider going door to door there, or whereever you live, starting with the neighbors you know, until you find people who have solved your particular problem. Most will be glad to help you. I give you credit for using a good subject line. It will help find people here who know about your problme, IF there are any. (Here people are pretty good, but a windows XP newsgropu, some people just make the subject line "XP problem".

[LSMFT]

I have well water, plenty to waste. What minerals? Get some vitamins. SOme water has too many minerals, some has very little or the wrong amounts. You can't depend on water to get essential minerals. Salt is a mineral, drink ocean water.

[LSMFT]

Water doesn't waste.It recycles. It goes down the drain, out to the ocean, evaporates and rains back down on your then drains into the water source. By the way, evaporated water has NO minerals, they stay in the ocean.

[George]

That is a cute picture but what about places where there is more use/waste than rain?

[LSMFT]

The way it's been done for hundreds of thousands of years. When the water dries up and the food is gone, you move on. People today think everything is going to stay the same forever. The earth don't work that way.

[tom]

Too many people for that type of lifestyle, now. Although the lack of easy access clean water resources will fix that little problem handily. Tom

[Edward Reid]

I'll second that. At least try it. But no need to decant; the idea is the the hydrogen sulfide which causes the bad odor and flavor is a gas, and is released from solution over a few hours.

Edward