The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
In your opinion, which is better, tap water or bottled water? Or, do you think they both taste the same?
Talk about it….
59 comments
At the office we have EBMUD water and drink tap, at home we have CCWD water and won’t drink tap without running it through a filter. Bottled water is no better and such a ripoff.
Exactly right! Our CCWD water goes thru a dual filter under sink, plus the refrigerator filter. It tastes as good as any bottled water at a fraction of the cost. Evian runs about $10 a gallon.
It depends where the tap water is…..San Francisco and East Bay MUD water is great in my opinion. Once I had Contra Costa water I needed to get a water filter. Bottled water is good, but the costs add up quickly.
I think certain brands of bottled water have different tastes. I like Crystal Geyser, while my husband likes Arrowhead. I personally think Arrowhead tastes no different then tap water.
Arrowhead tastes salty and off to me. Crystal Geyser is good but I find some of the store brand cheapo bottled waters taste fine, Lucky’s for instance.
They all taste different. Fire water is very different. So is heavy water.
We have a filtered pitcher we keep in the fridge. I drink a lot of water, but only buy bottled water when the water is really bad in the summer. Bottled water is a rip off, but I understand why people buy it. It’s convenient, and you’ll always pay for convenience. Some people don’t care what it costs. And then they wonder why they’re broke…
I almost always drink tap water as long as it’s COLD.
Bottled:
1st: Fiji – absolute best with no chemical taste
2nd: Ethos
3rd: Smart
All other bottled water has a chemical taste that I can’t stand.
My daughter who lives in Davis said they just recently found arsenic in their local tap water. I looked up CCWD and we don’t have arsenic, but we do have 7 other contaminants detected above health guidelines and 12 other detected contaminants.
Here is EWG’s tap water database:
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/search-results.php?stab=CA&searchtype=largesys
I bought bottled water for years because you don’t know what has gotten into the water by the time it reaches your tap. I don’t like the idea of fluoride either which was a scam by the industry to get rid of waste product. Most of my water was purified by reverse osmosis. But I got tired of the jugs so now use a ZeroWater pitcher. Tests the same as the bottled RO water. There’s a controversy over whether or not we get our minerals from water but you can always add minerals back in if you want.
What did you do with the reject water? Typically high in sodium and heavy minerals so not so good for plants.
@Simonpure, ZeroWater is a filter so there is no reject water. You replace the filter when the water tests too high in particulates.
It’s water. It’s all the same. Filters don’t do anything. Why pay more for bottled?
I guess the folks in Flint Michigan might be able to argue
What people don’t realize is that a lot of bottled water does come from the tap and some of the water companies use misleading labels on their product. The EPA regulates our drinking water and the standards for bottled water are the same standards as for tap water. Natural spring water might be better.
Distilled water is good if you need pure water for something that requires it like a car battery, radiator, or a medical need. Important minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and sodium are lost in distilled water. If a person is worried about impurities in the water, a filter on the tap or a whole house water filter would suffice as they do not remove any of the minerals.
To answer the question, I am not a fan of drinking water. I’ll drink it on a hot day to stay hydrated, but as far as I’m concerned water doesn’t have much of a taste. I’ve been using tap water all my life and haven’t gotten sick from it yet. It also helps keep the immune system in check.
EBMUD water is delicious and I love to drink tap water in WC, but I prefer bottled elsewhere in the county.
Haha. It is ironic that everyone likes the water district with “mud” in its name.
We have CCWD water and it tastes great, no need for a filter. I purchase Crystal Geyser spring water for my sourdough baking. If I use tap water, the chloramine disinfectant (combo of ammonia and chlorine) kills the wild yeast in the sourdough starter. Chloramine is too small to filtered out with a Brita or similar filter.
I had EBMUD in my WC condo I owned before Jim and I married. It was AWFUL. Tasted so bad you had to use a Brita filter all of the time. Jim didn’t once when he poured a glass of water, and actually spit out his first sip into the kitchen sink. Always wondered if it was the EBMUD water, or if the HOA’s plumbing was all mucked up.
Mary,
When I was a kid, we had a 35 and a 150 gal fish tank that needed regular cleaning. Couldn’t use tap water because the chloramine would kill the fish. The pet store (Steffi’s) suggested saving up tap water in large buckets (any container without a lid) for at least 24 hours. They explained that the chemicals in the tap water would evaporate and then be safe for the fish. Either it worked or the fish had strong constitutions because they never had a problems. Give it a shot next time you make sourdough.
And if it works, then you owe me some starter dough!
The Professor,
Interesting, What I’ve read about the 24-hour rule you mention always refers to ‘chlorine’ to evaporate, not ‘chloramine’. I’ve not wanted to risk it. I struggled for 3 years to get a SD starter going, until I checked with CCWD and found out about the chloramine.
I’m feeding starter now to bake dinner/sandwich rolls in a couple of days. Don’t want to try it with that, but I will experiment with the 24-hour rule soon and see if the starter is killed or not. I’ll post back in the Whatever column.
And regardless, I’ll share SD starter with you if you’d like a cup. Mine’s about 7 years old now and very vigorous. Made with King Arthur Flour Unbleached All Purpose Flour and spring water, and PH’s wild yeast that is captured.
I recall when EBMUD switched to chloramine they said to let tap water sit 48 hours before adding fish.
I’m on CCWD.
I buy bottled water in bulk to drink, iron, coffee brewer.
Boil off tap water and you’ll see the residue.
Not only that if you use tap water to make your coffee the coffee maker or espresso machine is going to need a good cleaning every once in a while to get rid of calcium deposits or it stops working.
It all tastes like crap, Ive been spoiled with a RO water filter system with 2 stage prefilter for the last 5 years while living in Concord and Pittsburg and cannot drink anything but that, as all else you can taste the chlorine and other contaminates in it.
First world problems to the max. Humans have been alive for thousands of years and drinking much worse than we receive on the tap currently. Water is water. You divas will be just fine drinking from the hose.
When living in Walnut Creek, I had EBMUD which is exceptional. I could be wrong, but I believe it is Hetch Hetchy water. Great right out of the tap. I came over here and by the end of the summer, CCWD tastes like they got it out of a swamp somewhere in the Delta. It has to be filtered to drink. I prefer Perrier or Pellagrino, but don’t want to spend the money, so rarely buy it. Arrowhead, if I’m buying water is usually my choice.
Sorry Cowboy but you are wrong. SF water comes from Hetch Hetchy reservoir. EBMUD is from Pardee reservoir. Both are excellent water. CCWD gets it’s water from a delta intake east of Antioch. Depending on what time of year it is that water can be pretty rank. I wonder why you never learned any of this. I taught my kids, and showed them where their water come from and where their poop goes. Quite educational for all of us. Next time you are in Tuolumne Meadows you can watch SF water go down the hill to the reservoir. Enjoy.
@Potato Yes. I know where CCWD water comes from. A swamp near Antioch. I’ve been by the intake in a sailboat, as a matter of fact. Area looks just like the water tastes. I thought ENMUD was Hetch Hetchy, but since you mention it, I remember reading it is from Pardee in EBMUDs bill insert.
But it was thirty years ago, and it’s not one of those really important things I need to file away for future reference. Especially when I know someone like you will gladly correct me, and use it as an opportunity to insult my intelligence in the process.
Depends where you are, right? I drink tap water run through a filter at work in SF, and it’s great. I also drink water through the filter on my fridge and it is fine. I also like Smart Water, but don’t really think any other brands are special enough to pay money for.
Here in California we have some of the best water in the nation and there’s no need to spend money on bottled water….although, of course, people still do.
Perrier and Pellegrino are sparkling water. If you find plain water distasteful and just can’t drink it, sparkling water makes a good substitute. It’s preferable to kidney failure.
Which water district services claycord? Is it EBMUD or CCWD?
EBMUD serves a part of Walnut Creek, but CCWD serves most of Claycord.
@concord ygnacio – Both. If you look at the water district service maps, they are crazy in some places, worse than our gerrymandered voting districts.
@ concord ygnacio It’s CCWD.
Thank you everyone for your answers!
Unless you live in Flint, MI. Bottled water is a scam, and the used containers only ends up in the ocean choking sealife. Unfortunately with all the fracking and seasonal droughts, well… you do the math.
Bottled water is a scam. It’s sold by the same companies that sell soda;
I remember a water taste test that was done years ago. Like, 30+ years ago. They had people taste all different bottles waters, along with many different tap waters. The winner was:
New York City Tap!
I drink whatever water is available. I never buy bottled unless I’m going on a road trip or golfing. At home, we keep a Britta pitcher filled and I use that for drinking. I use straight tap when I’m cooking.
I have reverse osmosis filtered water at work and refrigerator filtered water at home. They both taste fine to me.
I would rather have a bottle in front of Me than a frontal Lobotomy!
I think everybody agrees EBMUD is the best water in our valley. CCWater has its faults but it tastes far better than water in some parts of the country. Before the Los Vaqueros Reservoir was built, salt intrusion rose in late summer and made the water nearly undrinkable. A water filter does improve the taste somewhat but still doesn’t match the Diamond Pure water at the Clayton Valley Shopping Center. I still buy water there for coffee, tea and cooking.
Central San used to use chlorine by the tank car but changed to disinfection by ultraviolet light. Unfortunately city water suppliers must use chlorine because they have to disinfect the entire distribution system. There is contamination potential from a well system being illegally tied into a domestic water line.
I’D RATHER DRINK BEER! BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT FISH DO IN
WATER…………..;-)
And, boaters who don’t have onboard toilets.
As someone with a loved one that just fought hard through a breast cancer battle, they were instructed to avoid bottled water at all costs going forward as chemicals leach into the water. Chemicals that may have contributed to breast cancer. Some of these cases of water are stored in warm environments prior to being stocked at the store heating the plastic and leaching the chemicals into the water. I understand that it may be near impossible to avoid it all of the time as some times there is no other options in a pinch but I have taken that advice to heart and I only have it on hand as water for a natural disaster.
I have also noticed in recent days that the CCWD has smelled almost like mildew for lack of a better term. Swampy from the tap, in the washing machine, in the shower. It is quite unpleasant. I am wondering if there is some algae bloom or something and if anyone else has noticed this?
Isn’t most bottled water merely from a municipal water source ?
On side of bottled water at work it says “Source: municipal water”
At home use tap water run thru a pitcher filter for drinking water.
Do not like the taste of water from CCWD and buy drinking water from Water Depot, but we are think about getting a Berkey Water System. If any has tried or is using one, please chime in on what you think of it.
We LOVE our Berkey! I have to admit I was a little deer in the headlights over the price when we purchased it but it has been so worth it! The only advice I can give is factor in the size of your household when purchasing. I wish we would have gotten the larger size as we are always filling water bottles. The water tastes great and we have CCWD which has been In my opinion a little swampy lately. I say it is has been worth every penny!
@ Claire,…Thank You so much for your feed back!
Berkey: The claim is, 3000 gal. per filter or 6000 for the larger size with 2 filters. Pennies per gallon supposely. Sounds too good to be true but I am getting so tired of hauling water after 25+ years.
Does it heat up the room it is in? What I would really like is a filter on the shower. I hate thinking about bathing in that swamp water.
@ Roz You are so welcome. I forgot to mention to keep in mind the height of the Berkley you select and measure the space you have in mind for it. They are tall. As long as it is is placed on a secure level counter it will be great. And be sure not to overfill as if you do it can leak a little at the base (basically read the directions which I don’t always do with everything and that is why I had that issue but has never happened since).
@Justifiable Languor – There is no heating element. It is just a free standing stainless steel reservoir you fill up. The water is usually the temperature of the room it is in. I see that they also have shower filters which we have not tried but may be worth checking out since we are so happy with the drinking water unit.
Thanks Claire. I have a better idea about the unit now.
It amazes me that people who complain about the price of a gallon of gas will pay a lot more for a gallon of bottled water.
A gallon of water is 99 cents.
I won’t drink anything that comes in a plastic bottle. I’ve been ever so spoiled drinking EBMUD most of my life, with a 6 year break in my youth when we moved to Concord. The water was so salty in the 1970s it just made you thirstier. I don’t remember how I even drank it, but water has always been my beverage of choice so I guess I did. I think I remember being dehydrated most of the time. Now, once again I drink Concord water, but charcoal filtered. Nothing beats EBMUD, but Concord water’s not anywhere near as bad as it used to be.
When Newsom’s Tunnel Project is completed you can expect saltier water from CCWD.
Not to mention saltier opinions on claycord dot com
I thought I was going to find some polarized opinions here- to me tap water is very dehydrating because isn’t it so full of chlorine??? I order Alhambra Spring water…I believe Spring water is the cleanest and doesn’t need chlorine to kill the germs of recycled toilet water aka tap water. I like Crystal Geyser too. However, spring water isn’t fluoridated so that can negatively impact teeth. Nursery water is a brand of water that is distilled and has fluoride added but sometimes you can taste the cleaner they use on their machines!!! Perfumey. for now it’s Alhambra spring water delivered and brush with fluoride toothpaste and hope for the best for our teeth.
Bottled water or pay high medical bills later.
Too much viagra, birth control ,psychotic meds, chlorine, fluoride and e- coli flushed into tap water daily.
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