Water, water everywhere (but I guess a Brita filter isn't good enough)

December 21, 2011 8:05 AM

Do you have a *residential* water dispenser in your kitchen or similar? I need some advice on picking and servicing.

My husband is picky about the taste of his water (he prefers factory runoff -- no, seriously), so we've been buying water by the gallon. It's annoying to lug and we have gallon jugs everywhere, so we've been thinking about a cooler/dispenser for months.

However, I'm not clear on the logistics. I used to coordinate water service at the office, but I don't think a cooler rental/delivery setup would work for us because we aren't at home during their normal business hours.

We've been getting water at the co-op nearby, which can fill jugs up to (I think) three gallons. They sell ceramic crocks, but those make me a bit nervous (we have been known to break stuff) and I would prefer something that can handle 5-gallon jugs.

1. Do you have a particular dispenser in your home that works for you? I was thinking of just heading out to Home Depot and picking out one of those. Water temperature isn't a big deal either way.

2. Where do you get your filled jugs? I'd prefer to avoid Wal-Mart and Whole Foods, but we have any number of other large stores. Can we also go pick them up at, say, the Culligan place or some such? Do they deliver on weekends?

3. Any other pitfalls to watch out for? I've seen this one and this one, among others.

posted by Madamina to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

I live in a house that does not have potable tap water so we rely on buying water for all of our drinking and cooking needs. We got the standard GE water cooler that they've sold at Home Depot for years (it's actually our second of this exact same cooler, we had one before for ~ 7 years before we stopped using it and sold it on Craigslist, so we know it lasts) and we bought refillable 5-gallon bottles at the grocery store (with screwtop lids, I've seen them at Safeway and at Fred Meyer/Kroger). We fill them at Glacier self-serve stations (our local grocery store has one at the entrance) for $1.50. We have two bottles, so one is in use and the other is either empty and in the car to be filled the next time we're at the store, or filled and waiting to be put into service.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:22 AM on December 21, 2011

We have them delivered - Poland Springs. You don't need to be home. We leave the empties on the porch and they deliver full five gallon bottles. It works just like the milkman used to.
posted by caddis at 8:43 AM on December 21, 2011

What city are you in? And how does the tap water taste there generally?

I ask this because sometimes tap water has a poor taste because of chlorination or other water treatments, and sometimes it has a poor taste because it's got a lot of dissolved minerals.

If the tap water tastes poor to your husband because it has a chlorine flavor, then you might consider installing an under-sink water filtration system. I live in NYC, which has some of the softest water in the country, so I don't have much to complain about. But when I installed a two-stage sediment/GAC under-sink unit from Pure Earth, it made a noticeable improvement and I had on-tap water that was better than any non-mineral bottled water. A lot cheaper than getting delivery.

If you're living someplace with gypsum in the water or whatever, then I suppose bottled is really the only way to go.
posted by slkinsey at 9:01 AM on December 21, 2011

Like @odinsdream, I suggest looking at in-line filters. My wife hated the taste of the water in our house in California, so we got an in-line filter. Works great for us.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:05 AM on December 21, 2011

I've got an Everpure H-300 installed feeding the fridge and a spigot on the sink. The picky water drinkers in the house are very happy with it.

Looks like you can get them as low as $160.
posted by chazlarson at 9:16 AM on December 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: We live in a four-unit apartment building -- no porch, and I'm not sure if we can set up a filter in our sink. Can we uninstall it from a standard sink setup if we move?

I think one of the most frustrating things is not knowing what water will taste like until we get something installed -- or if he knows what he likes or dislikes. He's from Cedar Rapids, home of many cereal plants and "the Slew" (read: giant runoff reservoir and hangout for teen hoodlums), but has now lived in Madison for 2.5 years. Madison water is pretty hard, but I've never found it that awful, so it's really just a matter of personal preference. So I'm not sure what minerals could get filtered out and leave us with the kind of water he likes.

(This is pretty much the worst example of a First World Problem I've ever had. He's very easy going with everything else! It's not actually a big issue! I just want to make it nice!)
posted by Madamina at 9:56 AM on December 21, 2011

FWIW, I'm pretty sure the Glacier self-fill stations are also triple filtered reverse osmosis if you're at all interested in that route, and you can fill one of your gallon bottles there to test the taste (assuming of course that you have one near you).
posted by rabbitrabbit at 11:26 AM on December 21, 2011

I now live in my hometown again, and apparently the water here has levels of uranium and arsenic that cause a fair bit of concern.

So filtering and osmosis it is.

I rent as well, and I have an in-sink reverse osmosis thing that the previous renter had installed by Culligan. They offered to take it out if I didn't want it, but I kept it and chose to continue renting it month-by-month, though I could have just bought it outright. They can remove the system if you move.

My parents have a standalone dispenser instead of an in-sink system. Dad drops by the Culligan office and picks up new jugs every other week or so; they keep a few bottles in the garage so there's always one on-hand when the one in use runs out. I don't know if they deliver, but then, this is a super-tiny town (1.7k people) and options probably differ in places with a larger population.
posted by rewil at 12:30 PM on December 21, 2011

I loved the taste of the water in Madison, but to each his own. It also makes really good beer if you are into brewing.

If you want to improve the flavor a charcoal filter will do it. They can be installed and removed easily without a trace. It just plumbs into the water line under your sink. The hard water may create an issue, but that probably just means more frequent filter changes. If you are not sure whether it is worth the investment try a Britta pitcher filter first. It achieves the same effect.
posted by caddis at 12:40 PM on December 21, 2011

This Culligan filter made incredibly hard, minerally, dirty boot tasting water a lot better. It takes no time to install and the filters are relatively inexpensive. You can get them on Amazon Subscribe and Save, so you don't even have to remember when to change them.

Look at the reviews. This seems a lot less likely to break than its Brita alternatives. We've had it for 6 months, and the spring mechanism that shuts off the filter doesn't work (you have to pull and push it manually) but that reall isn't a big deal.
posted by cnc at 2:57 PM on December 21, 2011

I'll note that I received my Everpure as a gift from a friend in the coffee business. If you see a La Cimbali coffee machine in the upper midwest, chances are it came from Pete. The Everpures are what he installs in the coffeeshops he outfits. THis is all a long-winded way of seconding odinsdream. Go to coffeeshops and ask for a glass of filtered water. If the husband likes it, see if the manager will tell or show you what he's using for filtration. There's probably a lower-level model of that filtration system available to you.

On the filter install; I can't speak to the larger reverse osmosis filtration systems, but that Everpure of mine took a few minutes to install and it's easily reversible so you can take it with you. It's in the back corner of the undersink cabinet taking up virtually no room. This is assuming your sink has a hole already available for the required separate faucet.

I promise I don't own Everpure stock. ;)
posted by chazlarson at 9:08 AM on December 22, 2011