For those whose apartments don't have a water dispenser, how do you get your drinking water?

Life Health & Fitness
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I just got a two-room apartment with my friend, it’s pretty good for its price, albeit a bit too tiny for my liking. But it doesn’t have a water dispenser.

How do you get your drinking water?

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I use a Grayl filter (GRAYL | OnePress® Global Protection - Purify water. Anywhere on earth. – GRAYL®). It basically filters out everything you can imagine, which its really important to me, considering how easily contaminated water sources are here. You can order them from REI w/free shipping on orders over US$150 (plus import taxes)

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from my avatar

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I just use a Brita filter – Taipei tapwater is theoretically drinkable, although who knows what’s in the pipes in my old neighborhood.

If you don’t want to mess with tap water at all, there are companies that provide an office-style water machine and just charge you for the big bottles. It’s pretty cheap, but you end up with a room full of water bottles.

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Or in the tanks directly connected to your building. Like dead birds. Brita doesn’t filter out much more than chlorine (and, more relevant to my concerns, does not filter out lead or heavy metals). I know a lot of people do use Brita, but in terms of long term health effects, I’d do RO if installation is possible or something designed for backcountry camping of not

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Just get a RO machine and it doesn’t matter

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Filter it as it comes out, then boil it over the stove

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I rented an apartment with a filter system under the sink and a potable tap. Have to change the filter once a year

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I boil it. First world issues much?

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I’m too broke to rent an apartment with a kitchen haha

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You have a bathroom. You just need a kettle. Also free drinking water in parks and MRT stations.

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We boil the water from the Tap, let it cool to Room Temperature, some of which goes into the Refrigerator if we want cold water.

As a kid, and up to age 16, most of the water that I drank came from a Rainwater Tank in our backyard (the town water supply was not filtered). We didn’t get sick from it. As long as you could see the bottom of the glass it was all ok.

Of course we didn’t think about what may have been lining those roof gutters, or the bottom of the tank, though the outlet was a couple of inches above the bottom, and I learned why when the Tank was replaced one day!!

In fact, when we visited places with filtered (and either Chlorinated or Fluoride added), the water tasted horrible!!

Tank Water these days seems to be considered “Non-Potable”.

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I don’t know the specifics since my wife coordinated setting it up, but when we lived in an apartment building in Kaohsiung we had someone deliver ~8 five-gallon water jugs to our door for around $500NTD. When we ran out, we’d give them a call and exchange the jugs for new ones and I thought it worked out pretty slick.

  • We did buy a dispenser to hold the jugs for $500NTD I wanna say from Shopie
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…looking at the glass as half-full vs half-empty…

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Note your buildings water source. Boiling doesnt eliminate metals etc. A problem with wells in some areas.

I dont drink tap water here either. Brita isnt good enough. You can buy RO UV sterilized water everywhere for 20nt/20L. More expensive areas might be 30nt. Check their posts about recent inspections to at least get peace of mind. An area i used to live in always had dead rats in the tanks. After 4 years they were shut down. Worth travelling to one with a good reputation.

If you have a car, quite a few people go into the mountains and fill their trunk. Again, note the source. Make sure there are no farms, housing etc above the source. Still filtering and boiling is needed for both heavy metals and whatever is living in there.

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Making sure you don’t drink heavy metals is not a first world problem. There’s a lot of research that shows that areas with heavy metals in the water (like lead) have higher school drop out rates and crime than areas that actively filter them out. The US ban on lead in paint and gasoline in the 70s correlated with a rapid drop on juvenile crime in the 90s. For anyone who says “that’s just causation”, look at the IQs of families that remained where hurricane Katrina flooded. Massive spike in lead levels in the soil and also a massive spike in behavior and cognitive problems in children. I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the reason every school I’ve ever set foot in in Taiwan has such massively out of control children is a direct result of the drinking water.

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In my neck of the woods water stations are common.

They vary slightly in appearance, but look like petrol/gas pumps… but for water. They have some pretty impressive looking filtration systems and have a signing sheet to prove that they are serviced regularly. They usually have a few options, where you pay a little bit more depending on the level of filtration.

It can be a bit of a pain having to go get a refill, but I’ve got a 20L water cooler style container with a tap. You can usually see when your running low and refill it when your heading out anyway. Lasts me for about a week easily. Costs pennies.

I’m kinda surprised no one has mentioned this yet.

EDIT: I think Explant is talking about the same thing.

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Ya, same ones. @KHHville also mentions these. Its the standard in taiwan. Just try your best to find clean ones. There are horror stories haha.

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General diet and parenting i would bet have more to do with those hyper little boogers than water. But your point is very valid! Heavy metals are quite prevalent in taiwan. Nevermind man made pollutants, taiwan has a LOT of natural occurring ones that are “liberated” via mining, soil erosion etc. Real filtration is best. God help us if TTL cheaps out on their water filters…

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