drinking water quality...

[SensoVision]

Officially we have if not clean than acceptable water quality in our taps, although reality seems to be different...
we've conversation about water quality here in the past so as was promised I'm posting few photos to show how clean water we have here, wonder if it similar to dirt found in water system in other parts of the world?

1. This is ceramic filter we're currently using, originally it's was white, after several minutes of use it become brown(on photo it's pretty clean but on the bottom you can see some dark stain which is probably oil or something else which appears sometimes).
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/1.jpg

2. Here you can see how big this stain actually could be:
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/2.jpg

3. This is two mechanical cartridges, I've installed this inbound filter for water this year. One on the right side was white approx 20 days as left one, now you can see the difference...:
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/3.jpg

4. Here is heating element of boiler we're using to get hot water, most cities in our country have central heating system but city I live in doesn't have hot water in tap for about 15 years so many people have such boilers at homes, but some still gas to boil for bathing. As you can see element have a lot of dirt on it, but it's not that much anyway comparing to how it was before I've installed filter on inbound tube, previously this dirt was black.
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/4.jpg

5. this one is probably ugliest one, it's not the water but mud, rust and so on. It was extracted from heating boiler during maintenance cleaning, it's done after mechanical filter was installed, previously things looks more ugly... this time there was only about 2-3 kg of dirt...
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/5.jpg

[TexasLady]

Denis, this is unbelievable.    AND YOU DRINK THIS WATER?   

All I can say is - your systems must be used to it.   Anyone coming in from a cleaner water environment would probably get sick on it.

[Hope]

WOW! That is pretty bad. I lived in Germany for a couple of years and remember how bad the water was there. You would have to fill the basin or tub with water to see what color it was before you decided to use it. Every morning I would fill the tub up about 4 inches and looked to see if it was brown, green or blue. I would only drink the blue water. It was heavily chlorinated at that point.

We have some issues with water here in the states, but nothing compared to what you are experiencing. We have standards that must be met. If they are not met, then there are extremely high fines and a set deadline to get them fixed. This deadline is monitored by the goverment and the local water companies have no choice but to comply.

[12noon]

As far as i know, Yorkshire (where i live) has the cleanest water in England. We do tend to get a bit of lime scale though.

I don't like the look of the water your drinking Denis. It's good that your using a filter though.

BTW in places such as Spain, you can't drink the water at all. You buy bottled water and just use the stuff out of the tap to wash and bath in.

[SensoVision]

Denis, this is unbelievable.    AND YOU DRINK THIS WATER? 

that's right We're buying mineral water as well from time to time but not for cooking, only for drinking.

All I can say is - your systems must be used to it.   Anyone coming in from a cleaner water environment would probably get sick on it.

it seems to be true, as people from other countries are shocked when see pollution levels...

WOW! That is pretty bad. I lived in Germany for a couple of years and remember how bad the water was there. You would have to fill the basin or tub with water to see what color it was before you decided to use it. Every morning I would fill the tub up about 4 inches and looked to see if it was brown, green or blue. I would only drink the blue water. It was heavily chlorinated at that point.

that's sounds a bit scary, do you have idea what determine color of the water? We lucky to have here only brown one which isn't look so dangerous to me, but if it become green I'm not sure if would try to use it

We have some issues with water here in the states, but nothing compared to what you are experiencing. We have standards that must be met. If they are not met, then there are extremely high fines and a set deadline to get them fixed. This deadline is monitored by the goverment and the local water companies have no choice but to comply.

maybe one day we also got some quality level system and penalties for providing poor services...

I don't like the look of the water your drinking Denis. It's good that your using a filter though.

once I start making some money one of my first investment was in water filter and it seems to help a bit.

BTW in places such as Spain, you can't drink the water at all. You buy bottled water and just use the stuff out of the tap to wash and bath in.

can't imagine how people live there, and how much dirty water should be in tap so it couldn't be used for drinking or cooking.

PS when we moved here water tasted awfully with some taste of salt... in place I live before water was much more sweater and have less salts IMHO.

[12noon]

Here in England we have water rates (tax) or water meters. The money made from the meters or rates is supposed to go to help pay for the water.

[SensoVision]

we pay for water here, you can either pay high fixed rate calculated from the number of people living in flat or install water meter, money are also supposed to go for supporting water services but we have sewage running whole summer on almost every street and most of our water system wasn't replaced from USSR times.

I wonder if anyone else using water filters?

[Hope]

that's sounds a bit scary, do you have idea what determine color of the water? We lucky to have here only brown one which isn't look so dangerous to me, but if it become green I'm not sure if would try to use it

Well Blue was chlorinated, green was not enough chlorination. it was kind of scary,.

[Andy]

I used to use a water filter. It had carbon granules in it like you may find in a gas mask. Carbon is very good at removing bad stuff from water as well as air. I guess you could construct your own carbon-based filter if you can get hold of some granulated carbon. Mesh filters like you use for wine-making can remove sediment and particles from water.

[SensoVision]

Well Blue was chlorinated, green was not enough chlorination. it was kind of scary,.

so it's just water blossoming? Than it's not so scary, here we have it as well in summer months but water color is become of greasy color maybe a bit yellow not green(probably we have different cultures growing here).
As for chlorination are you sure blue color was from it, I know that water become blue after ozone treatment, at least if it comes to water pools. Here we don't have ozone treatment at water factory and water doesn't look blue at all IMHO.
I'm considering start using small ozonator for water as well, as it's seems to be very effective in killing bacteria and raising overall water quality, but local shops doesn't sell them as separate devices only as integrated into high end systems.

I used to use a water filter. It had carbon granules in it like you may find in a gas mask. Carbon is very good at removing bad stuff from water as well as air. I guess you could construct your own carbon-based filter if you can get hold of some granulated carbon. Mesh filters like you use for wine-making can remove sediment and particles from water.

this is what we're using at kitchen right now, I'm using Britta brand filter whee cartridge lasts about one month and later need to be replaced, previously I've tried membrane and ceramic filters but carbon one proved to be most effective one in terms of TDS, visual appearance, taste.


BTW When I look travel tv shows I always wonder about how people could use water in poor countries where water are no centralized water intake and it's not even look like a water but like a mud... They should really have stomaches from iron or something like this.

[gelfey]

hi,

I always use a water filter. It had carbon filtration system it like you may find in a gas mask. Carbon is very good at removing bad stuff from water .

thanks
gelfey

[Andy]

I read something like that before somewhere 

[carpmad]

hello Denis
i didnt realise it was quite as bad as that im glad youv got a filter it must clog up quite a lot by the looks of it

i use a 3 stage filter myself but thats more to remove the chlorine smell and lime so it tastes better but it isnt realy needed

[SensoVision]

hello Denis
i didnt realise it was quite as bad as that im glad youv got a filter it must clog up quite a lot by the looks of it

i use a 3 stage filter myself but thats more to remove the chlorine smell and lime so it tastes better but it isnt realy needed

yeah, water could be better IMHO. I dream one day to have own water system from artesian well but to do this I need to find a house in ecology clean space with tasty ground water supply
Wonder if lime taste is so obvious in UK as I've heard it so many times, does it really taste like lime or it's just acid taste?

BTW on my birthday I've met friends from Dnepropetrovsk it's megapolis in central part of our country and it's very close to my birthtown. They told me that carbon cartridges I'm using for one month, getting out of order for about 1-2 weeks with their water(depending from the season), so it seems that there are parts with much more dirty water.

Also air in Crimea seems to be one of the most clean one in the country maybe except mountain and forest regions with no industry at all. At least everyone who come to our city from bigger ones tells that it's very easy to breath here and cloth doesn't become black because of smog

Other day I've read about building sand filters like here http://www.biosandfilter.org and I'm going to try and made one just because I'm curious is it really so effective in cleaning water as some sites claim. I just need to find some clean sand now

[SensoVision]

And this time our water quality beat all my expectations
Last week I was going to check if filter cartridge in my Brita water pitcher need replacement, it's usually last for one month with our water but when water is really bad it could die for two week or so.
I was using TDS meter like this one, which have bought few years ago and really glad that I did it. With new cartridge in filter readings of filtered water shows about 400-500PPM and from the tap 600PPM or so, and after use readings doesn't differ anymore which I use as a sign for replacement.
And I was amazed when saw that water from the tap was 1850PPM, first I've thought that it's water blossoming but it didn't change color like it's used to be previously. So I've warned my friends and family about using water with caution and just two days after water supply were stopped without notification, in evening it was renewed with strongest chlorine smell I've ever experienced, it even irritate eyes if you stay close to open tap...
Next day PPM fall to 500 but water become brown and were awfully smelling like peroxide, you can see how it was looking on picture:
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/brown_water.jpg

And here is two pictures of intake filter:
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/6.jpg
http://forum.weblamp.net/img/photo/water_quality/7.jpg