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Please continue this discussion here. Thank you.
I understand that the water coming from the plant is free of biological contaminants but full of the chemicals used to kill those contaminants. Along with this there may also be some possible heavy metals that may have been picked on the way from the plant.
So why not just use a water filter? I’ve filtered my tap water through a Brita water filter for the last three years and never bothered to boil it. The filter says it removes chlorine and some heavy metals from the water. It certainly makes it taste a whole lot better, and I feel fine drinking it. Should I be boiling my water as well? What difference would boiling the water make to filtered Taipei tap water?
I’m under the impression that there is basically no difference, boiling only kills bacteria, and as they are the largest particles in your water those are the the things most easily filtered out by a filter. am i right?
I once accidentally boiled a full pan of water dry and I was shocked to find brown crystals in the bottom of my pan when I returned. I don’t know if anyone has tried this recently, it happened to me a few years ago now. They may have come from pipes, but never the less told me not to drink straight from the tap any longer. Brown crystals of unknown origin are bad in my book.
Since first coming to Taiwan in 2000, I have heard / read numerous debates and conflicting reports regarding what is actually in the water supply. How can you trust anyone on this?
Where I lived in the south, a couple of teachers I know who drank filtered water (in one of those water cooler thingies) always had problems with canker sores in their mouth. I used a Britta my first year, and my teeth always hurt. I know this sounds strange, but I eventually started drinking and cooking only with bottled water from Costcos and the pain stopped.
We bought one of those RO filters for the kitchen sink and used it for cooking water (always boiled) and drank imported bottled water. I am sure most of you have seen the fllters on RO systems after a month…Jesus…how could anyone contemplate drinking tap water?? Or even brushing your teeth in it? Even the thought of bathing in it bothered me. :tic:
What I’d really like is a guide to both the quality of the water and how to best prepare it for drinking: Boiling, filtering etc with some comparison of the various filtering systems and methods available.
There must be a consumer institute/government report along these lines?
I want to add, I’ve read all 18 pages of the previous thread and it seemed fairly inconclusive apart from the fact that most boiled the tap water if they drank it at all.
What I want to know is if my Brita water filter makes any useful difference at all, apart from the taste.
According to the guff on the side it removes various bad things but is not recommended in the case of biological contamination. So… if the government claim the water is ok once it leaves the plant then why isn’t a once through my Brita to remove the remaining impurities, enough.
As to getting sore teeth, that’s interesting. I’d guess there was something in the water that the Brita wasn’t dealing with and/or you were above average sensitive to. The trouble is we’re all in the dark in the absence of solid information on both the tap water make-up and the performance of the various commercially available filters. Crap all around, you might say. 
The problem is what happens to the water on the way to your tap. Given that Taiwan still uses open sewers and most of the infrastructure here wouldn’t remotely pass a 1st-world safety inspection, there’s a lot of stuff that can go wrong. Remember the whole Hong Kong apartment block that got SARS from the plumbing system?
Most municpal water systems have leaks. They depend on massive positive pressure to make sure that the leaks go outwards and not inwards (bringing in all sorts of nasties). Remember, the water is leaving the plant with disenfectants in it. They know there are leaks and that’s why they leave the chemicals in (and flouride for teeth). What you get in your tap depends a lot on the path the water took to get to your location.
The thing that scares me is the water in restaurants. Do they filter that stuff or are you just drinking iced tap water?
[quote=“hippo”][quote=“Dial”]
According to the guff on the side it removes various bad things but is not recommended in the case of biological contamination. So… if the government claim the water is ok once it leaves the plant then why isn’t a once through my Brita to remove the remaining impurities, enough.
[/quote]
The problem is what happens to the water on the way to your tap. Given that Taiwan still uses open sewers and most of the infrastructure here wouldn’t remotely pass a 1st-world safety inspection, there’s a lot of stuff that can go wrong. Remember the whole Hong Kong apartment block that got SARS from the plumbing system?
Most municpal water systems have leaks. They depend on massive positive pressure to make sure that the leaks go outwards and not inwards (bringing in all sorts of nasties). Remember, the water is leaving the plant with disenfectants in it. They know there are leaks and that’s why they leave the chemicals in (and flouride for teeth). What you get in your tap depends a lot on the path the water took to get to your location.
The thing that scares me is the water in restaurants. Do they filter that stuff or are you just drinking iced tap water?[/quote]
The water that comes out of my tap doesn’t taste bad in the sense of nasty biological contaminants, but it does have a bad chemical taste. My Brita filter takes away that nasty taste and gives a result that - in taste terms - is as good as, or better than any bottled water I’ve tried.
I’ve been in the same place, using the same water, and only filtering for the past three years; so far I’ve never felt bad drinking the water. From what I understand the biological contaminants will get you fairly soon while the chemical contaminants will build up over time and cause harm. The Brita will deal to the chemical contaminants you’re likely to find in the water - lead, chlorine etc. I figure that if I’m not getting sick at all, what I really need to watch out for are the chemicals. And I’ve got my Brita so I’m covered. (so I believe) And don’t forget there are some out there who’ve been drinking the tap water straight since they got here and say they feel fine. I would never do that, but it does throw into question the whole boiling the water game. Not to mention that if you do boil the water you meant to keep it at a rolling boil for several minutes. Who does that?
I hear what you say about the restaurants. Relax, I think that you can be confident that the Taipei city health and safety inspectors are working tirelessly on our behalf. Ha.
Best would be to brita your water , then boil it for a minute or two at least and then cool. That should be fine then.
The filters do NOT REMOVE viruses but boiling will kill those. 7/11 have huge water filters that supposedly (if replaced in a timely fashion) preclude the need to boil tap water. But you would have to have those same filters in order to NOT boil your water.
I always drank boiled water. Restaurants on the whole provide boiled water to my understanding in Taiwan.
But you are right, whos to say? Have you watched them boiling water?
[quote=“tommy525”]Best would be to brita your water , then boil it for a minute or two at least and then cool. That should be fine then.
The filters do NOT REMOVE viruses but boiling will kill those. 7/11 have huge water filters that supposedly (if replaced in a timely fashion) preclude the need to boil tap water. But you would have to have those same filters in order to NOT boil your water.
[/quote]
Ok, but what are these viruses? How come I haven’t succumbed to them yet? What about those who don’t even bother to filter and say they feel fine. (There’s a couple of posters in the earlier thread who claim this). Boiling the water and letting it cool is a pain in the butt, frankly. I live in a two person household and we go through quite a lot of water. I’d like to find out for sure if I really need to do it.
What kicked all this off for me was a couple of articles in the Tapei Times last week which recommended boiling the water without much explanation. Or maybe there was more explanation: I only glanced quickly at the report What I did notice was that there was no mention of the place of water filters which got me a little concerned. I’ll have to go back and look again.
TAiwan tap water is safe when it leaves the treatment plant. But on its way to your tap, it could pick up some nasties. Its just way safer to boil it before drinking. Get yourself one of those huge aluminum or stainless steel pots that a lot of Taiwanese homes have? Boil one pot and within an hour its cool enough to drink. That pot should be good for a day? You could transfer water from that pot to other containers to put in fridge. This way you free up the pot for more boiling water ?
I grew up in TAiwan and we always boiled our water. Its real hard for me to just fill up a glass here in the bay area and just drink the water. I do it, but I still feel uneasy bout doing that.
RE: long term effects.
Remember, people here die of cancer (usually mouth or gut) like Americans die of cardiovascular disease. Maybe it’s the MSG in everything, maybe it’s the lack of fiber, maybe it’s the soy sauce, maybe it’s the water. Who knows?
I drink bottled water, but being Taiwan, it’s probably just bottled tap water.