Ben

Bottled water is a scam – you can buy the same type of Reverse Osmosis/Deionizing (RO/DI) equipment and install it in your kitchen for about $250 + roughly $40/year (or 5000 gallons) for filters. So, if the system (very conservatively) lasts you 5 years and if you use all of that capacity you’re paying less than $0.02 per gallon.

But lets be realistic knowing that you’re willing to pay $0.58/gallon for the water. The annualized cost of water treatment is $90, dividing by $0.58, and then by 52 weeks is 3 gallons per week. So, if you’re buying at least that, you could have filtered for the same price and not have to lug 24 pounds of water home from the store.

Add to that the benefit of all the extra capacity to use for drinking yourself, cooking, watering your plants, whatever… and filtration systems are a huge bargain.

Ben

I’m not suggesting that anyone buy bottled water – but there are any number of reasons to justify using purified water. Drinking water quality varies widely from city to city – and is affected further by the miles of pipes between the source and your faucet. Chlorine tastes bad – high concentrations of dissolved minerals and metals taste even worse. Sure, it’s all potable – but paying a few cents a gallon to make it taste better is obviously worth it to a lot of people.

As for plants… (unpolluted) rain is basically pure and it’s the natural source of water for most plants.. so I would say that if you had access to filtered water that was effectively free that you may as well use it since it’s (probably) better for your plants.

Anyway.. Judy was saying that her water was so terrible that it was detrimental to her dog’s health. I was just providing an alternative.

Me… I drink tap water most of time.

John

Bottled water for a pet!? That’s ridiculous! How can people spend so much money on a stupid animal when there are people dying in Africa? Americans waste more than $300M on pets a year. Imagine what that can do for poverty…

klauss

Well said Ben. I would not rely to much on filtered/bottled water. The only way to get pure water the way nature intended is by getting a water distiller. The initial purchase is well worth it in the long run.

Kay

Ramit, I always carry a bottle of water, that I filtered at home. And I will never hesitate to buy a bottle of water from a store when I’m out of my home and my bottle of water has run out.

Unfiltered water might have many impurities in it and I think by using a filter, you are saving plenty of money because you wont fall sick because of impure water.

I’ve read/heard many horror stones of kidney stones that were produced by drinking tap water, unfiltered.

Greg

While tap water is certainly bacteria free, despite what anyone tries to say, it is still not as healthy as bottled. Tap water goes through many miles of old pipes and is treated with chlorine and flouride. A lot of places have a hard water as well, which contributes to your kidney stones. People claiming tap water is just fine and people drinking bottled water are stupid are just trying to sound smart. If you don’t want to spend your money on bottled water then don’t. But don’t tell me what to drink or not to drink.

Lelouche

If you live on the pacific north west you can drink from your tap ^^ we have the best water supply in the country. Taste just like bottled water vs like New York where you can taste the crap in the tap. But regardless i still buy bottled water just because it saves me some time and its more convenient. And brands like aquafina do taste even more pure. And seriously people who detest bottled water need to open their mind more. It taste good (and your regularly drink different kinds of water you can differentiate water, convenient and pure) who cares even if they are ripping us off, people must have their reasons for buying. I have mine and dont care to spend some extra money.

Abby

Ben’s suggestion of purifying your own water is possibly the best one here. Bottled water is expensive, creates unnecessary waste, and is potentially not as good for you as the companies make it out to be. Most of the water in those bottles is really just tap water with a nice label, and a lot of the bottles themselves leach chemicals into the water. Even the plastic water bottles many eco-conscious people (myself included) carry around and re-fill may not be all that great. I recently bought a stainless steel water bottle, which, combined with a filtering system in my kitchen, is the safest, cheapest, and least wasteful way of having clean water wherever I am.