Anybody have some info or personal experience on the various water treatment(cleaning) machines that you hook up to your faucet so that you can drink the tap water without boiling it?
We are thinking of buying one now and dont know very much about them.
The aparment I moved into had a reverse osmosis system already there. I went to B&Q to buy new filters and they have a bunch of diffrent brands that you could check out.
I haven’t drank any water from it yet, but from what the guy at B&Q said and from what I’ve found on the internet it should be “all good”. I don’t remember it being very expensive either.
Maybe I’ll sample some of the water tonight and give you a full report.
I use to take for granted opening the tap to get a glass of water. The most I ever did was fill up a Brita water filter pitcher to filter off a little bit of the tap water taste. In the Washington DC suburbs the water was fine for drinking.
Before I moved to Taiwan, I had a Taiwanese friend that lived in the mountains of Viriginia. Crystal clear wonderful tap water there, however they did something I thought was strange. They boiled their water.
After living in HongKong, Bangkok and now Taipei, I find that it is kind of mafan to get a drink of water in Asia. Of course convience stores are everywhere selling a liter for 50 cents USD, but before I moved to Asia I use to think it was a waste of money when someone bought a bottle of Evian. Why buy water, just open the tap, fill up a plastic bottle and take it with you when outside. I still think that 50 cents for a liter would add up.
I use to have a magic water pitcher at my place in Taipei. Whenever I wanted water I would open the fridge and there would be a full pitcher there. One night I saw the elf that boiled the water in one of those water boiling thermoses, cooled it down, filled up the pitcher and put it into the refrigerator. Later, I decided to help my wife by getting one of those water coolers like you have in the office. Big huge water jugs delivered to your home 5 at a time whenever you called the number. Pretty convienent and cheap. Forgot how many liters each jug is, but I remember there were about 70NT and I could barely carry one in each hand from the garage to my kitchen. Signed up for 70 of those jugs to get the super cold warm and hot water dispenser. Took me a year and half to finish the 70, delivered 5 at a time.
I recently moved and now, I felt that the big water jug and dispenser was unsightly in my home, so my wife thought we should buy an RO water filtration system. She said they use this method of filtration in the medical labs in Taiwan and the US. I was skeptical about the effectiveness and the taste. Today we had one installed. Works like a charm. No more jugs to deliver and the water tastes great. Actually it has no taste at all. Kind of strange. Will post here if I fall ill tonight. I think the average high-end one costs about NT$6000 plus another NT$1,000 for installation. You can see them in B&Q for sale. We ordered ours online from the following company http://www.pure-pro.com/ Take a look and read about it.
So far I would highly reccommend people to use this sytem. Should save you money if you run to the store to buy a few liters from 7-11 and it definitely tastes better and is lot more convienient than boiling the water. It goes under your kitchen sink and you can move it when you move to a new place too or sell it on Segue when you move away.
Can you get Brita water filter jugs in Taiwan ? I bought one a couple of months ago and think they’re a great job. Mine was eleven quid. That’s about NT$580 or 3 million Euros.
Wouldn’t be quite as good as the one you described though.
We’ve been using an EVERPURE(R) filter for the past 4 years. Change it once a year. I am fine, haven’t had any problems. But my wife still boils the water :?
I have seen brita filter jugs in tesco or carrefour, I think.
[quote=“hexuan”]Can you get Brita water filter jugs in Taiwan ? I bought one a couple of months ago and think they’re a great job. Mine was eleven quid. That’s about NT$580 or 3 million Euros.
Wouldn’t be quite as good as the one you described though.[/quote]
You can buy a Brita at B&Q, but I do not think it is safe to only use a Brita filtering tap water without processing. Back home that is alright, but not here.
[quote=“tigerman”]
We’ve been using an EVERPURE® filter for the past 4 years. Change it once a year. I am fine, haven’t had any problems. But my wife still boils the water :?[/quote]
Oh my…so funny. My wife has all of the typical phobias thqat Taiwan ladies have, however she happily drinks the water straight from the water filtration system.
No need to boil the water. Drink it straight from the water filter for a week to show her that you won’t get ill. So funny really, reminds me of the Taiwanese families in the USA living in areas with wonderful water that still boil it.
My wife is one of those people who refuse to believe some things even if shown proof of the same.
I’ve been dirinking the water strait from the filter for 4 years, haven’t got sick once yet, probably keep us both alive… (sorry for the Wooden Ships diversion there)
Anyway, my wife is a funny girl. She believes in Feng Shui and when we were trying to get her pregnant (yes, I was involved in the effort), she had me rearrange the furniture every month that we failed, until 9 months after beginning our efforts, when she finally got pregnant, she declared that the furniture arrangement current then was the reason for our success. 
Of course, when I started job hunting, we had to rearrange furniture again, because obviously the arrangement that got her pregnant would be of no help to me in finding a job. :shock:
But what can I do when the girl I married is seemingly intent on breaking my back? I say just go with the flow or roll with the punches, whichever applies to the situation.
what’s so bad about the water anyway?
I drank straight from the tap in my carefree bachelor days and don’t remember being ill. Surely boiling just increases the concentration of the heavy metals. What good could it do?
We bought the RO water system from Pure-Pro about a month ago and enjoy it too. Much cheaper in the long run but tastes not as good as the bottled water in my opinion. Its a little bit more sour without the minerals but you get used to it.
So far, I haven’t found it sour or bad tasting at all, just tasteless, but then I suppose water is supposed to be tasteless.
I will only ever drink bottled water as long as I live in Taiwan – and only those brands that have been tested and declared safe by the Consumer Protection Foundation or a similarly credible organization. Currently, I believe that “More” (Duo He Shui) and “Yes” fall into that category, but am suspicious about most of the other local brands.
However, I’m also looking for a suitable water filtration system for my new flat, so I can use the water to wash my fruit and veggies. I find that the prices vary enormously, from a few thousand to several tens of thousands. In addition, changing the filters can run to a major expense in some of the more complicated models. And one doesn’t want something that looks too unsightly or fills up acres of space in the not-so-large kitchen. It’s bloody hard to choose the right one, so I’ll be following this thread very closely for helpful pointers.
We’ve used RO for over a year and find it great. The water is pretty tasteless but a drop of whisky usually helps that.
Hobybabe,
Did they give you the little testing device to show the PPM reading from the water. Without using RO, our water tested at 155. The reading after going thru RO water fell to 3. I tested some other bottled waters. 0 - 10 is acceptable for drinking water.
Carrefour water - 4
YES brand - 125
Cleanfield - 6
Panda,
That’s interesting info. I’d like to get one of those PPM testing devices. Did you mean that it came with the RO water filtration system? Then how much did you pay for the whole RO deal?
Yes the tester came with the machine. The whole package included a 2 yr supply of filters, water tester, and RO system for around NT8-9000. Not sure on the price as my wife took care of it.
The tester is a small little handheld electronic thingy that you just put into the water and immediately flashes a number on the LCD. I was surprised about the high rating from YES water cos I had always heard that it was a good safe brand.
If I wanted to have someone come to my home to test the quality of the water, what steps would I need to take? Has anyone done this before? Is there a department I should contact? Do they charge?
As per above, any good contacts to recommend? Just learnt that boiled tap water consumption is “not that advisable”…after like 4 mths here…prob that explains my stomachache from time to time…
You probably should get a water fountain. You know, the type with a 25-30 liter bottle that sits inverted on the top, and comes with hot, cold and room-temperature water options, or with only hot and cold, or with whatever combination you require. There are lots of water companies around and the companies differ from area to area. Just walk into the businesses near your house until you find one with a water fountain, get the number off it and call em up. Or get someone at your place of work to do it for you. We paid about 4,500NT for our first 75 (25-30 liter) bottles of water and 3,000 for each subsequent 50 bottles we ordered. The use of the machine is free. You give it back to them when you leave and they can deliver the water in whatever quantity you desire. We get it delivered 5 bottles a time. It sure beats carting water from the stores. Hope this helps.