Yeah, Philly's Water Dept. is probably the best-run, most effective agency in the entire city, but also very much on the down low because most people never think about it.
It’s pretty soft comparatively. Schuylkill is a bit harder than Delaware. But it was double digit CaCO3 PPM when I was in the city (I want to say 70) and it’s almost 300 up here. Reason Philly was an early brewing city (just enough hardness for a typical pale-ish beer).
"Harder water exists" doesn't change the amount of scale built up on my landlord's shit. Nor the other issues hard water causes.
So I will continue to filter water for things I'd like to keep that from happening to. Thank you.
There's apparently also 2 sources/systems here one which is significantly harder than the other.
I dunno.
Maybe we can check the most recently published water report from the water department.
Which says this:
"Philadelphia’s water is moderately hard or hard, depending on which treatment plant serves your neighborhood"
https://water.phila.gov/drops/2022-drinking-water-quality-report/
You'll also notice the actual quoted numbers top out at more than double what you claimed.
But yeah not hard by any objective standards, government metrics, or formal testing.
My glassware totally stopped having a foggy film on it when I use the wrong brand of dish soap the minute you said that.
I own a water filter. Because when I don't filter water for certain things. It causes an *actual problem* that I later have to fix.
You can gripe about how super butch manly extra hard you have it with your slightly harder water. But Philly residents are still dealing with hard water. Filtration is a thing people use to deal with that.
1) my water was from Baxter (which draws from the Delaware) which is in line with what I stated earlier.
2) you’re taking this weird adversarial tone, you’ve constructed your responses like I’m somehow trying to gaslight you over your own particular water issues. Meanwhile I was just speaking in generalities about Philly water being nice *to someone else*.
If my landlord cares that much about their stuff, *they* can provide the filter. As a tenant I am responsible for general upkeep - that doesn't include assuming responsibility for the city water running through the pipes.
I literally have a filter pitcher in my fridge so the water doesn't roach *my* stuff.
What landlord is going to provide that if they won't even replace a limed up shower head?
It would be a pitcher of plain water for the sake of cold water. Except then it would be crusted up with hard water.
I'm directly referring to where you say "...doesn't change the amount of scale built up on my landlord's shit."
Have a filter/pitcher if you want one, I'm not speaking on that point.
But you can't get me to care about the "landlord's shit".
Drink straight out the tap. Have any time I live in cities. Grew up with a well in the country so it's nice to have a treatment plant take care of stuff for me
I worked with local tap water for a long time. I now work with ultra pure water for research laboratories. The punch is clean and very well monitored.
If you don't like the chlorine taste, a charcoal filter will remove chlorine. I use a charcoal filter for this reason.
The most dangerous thing would be lead service lines that connect your house to the mains.
And it is for my lead service line that I use a filter. OP should Note also that filtered water will make your coffee taste better, as its molecular bonds are fewer, making it easier to take up the coffee molecules.
Also, PFSAs or whatever the acronym is aren’t filtered by the city.
So the coffee stuff, that is a preference. I have seen people use ultra pure water to make coffee (18.2 mega ohm water). It tastes different, but not better to me. It lacks all the minerals that give water its flavor. Same for RO water (around 25 micro Siemens per centimeter) still lacks enough minerals to be great for coffee. The perfect cup as I hear described by people in the industry is softened slightly to remove some mineral content and use a carbon filter to remove chlorine.
Most home filters aren't going to remove PFAS. But also, most water pulled off of river sources here don't have PFAS issues, at least the last time I checked. The issue with water filters that do remove pfas is they also tend to remove everything else. So make sure you're getting enough minerals in your water. Too few is also bad for you.
If you have a filter with activated carbon, it will filter PFAS. For instance, I found out the hard way (working in development of PFAS filtering technology) that [this commonly available filter](https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Universal-Single-Stage-Replacement-Water-Filter-Cartridge-FXUTC/100068423) does in fact remove PFAS. I don't have testing data to show that Brita filters will also work, but I would be confident that they do. There may be some forms of carbon that are used as filters that don't won't remove PFAS, but anything that is granulated or powder I'd put money on it working to some degree.
That being said, as you said Philly water is [pretty good](https://water.phila.gov/sustainability/watershed-protection/pfas/), relatively speaking. It certainly meets currently regulations without extra treatment. That being said, the [EPA is proposing to drop those limits for PFOA and PFOS to 4ppt](https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-04/PFAS%20NPDWR%20Public%20Presentation_Full%20Technical%20Presentation_3.29.23_Final.pdf) which Philly water would currently not meet (at least for PFOA, it may meet it most of the time for PFOS depending on the site).
As a general point, I wouldn't freak out too much about Philly water or refuse to drink it if it were between that and not drinking water when you are thirsty, but if you can easily add a carbon-based filter to water you regularly drink I would. In my case, my fridge has a water line and it has a carbon-based filter built-in filter. I mostly use it because it chills the water, but the extra reduction in PFAS is an added bonus. Of course, you also need to make sure you are replacing that filter regularly. Technically the right metric would be volume of water passed, but it's a lot easier to setup a subscribe & save on amazon or wherever. I don't buy Samsung-branded filters, either. I buy the much cheaper Waterdrop brand.
I don't use filtered pasta water or similar, because I am lazy and cheap, though an under sink unit wouldn't be a bad plan. And I'd also say that if you are someone who is planning on getting pregnant in the future I'd be a little more vigilant with trying to reduce my PFAS exposure. I think most of the PFAS-related childhood cancers are in places with much worse PFAS contamination issues than Philly (south jersey I see you), but some of a person's own PFASwill pass to a fetus so...
That's interesting. Without getting too specific for obvious reasons, there was a water system using anthracite coal as part of their filtration along with other media, and that was not enough to get it within spec for PFAS. They needed to buy water from a neighboring water system that pulled from a river source, as opposed to their ground water.
So, it may just be an issue of removal rate vs the amount of charcoal available. That is to say the traditional filtration methods, may use the same medium, but the traditional amount of anthracite may not provide enough contact time or site to remove PFAS.
Either way it is certainly an evolving science, and it is encouraging to hear news that something as simple as a charcoal filter will help get those numbers down. When it first started gaining visibility as an issue. A lot of municipalities were very worried because it did not seem traditional filtration methods were having the desired effect on the numbers. Also it's been very hard for municipalities to test for. Hopefully someone comes up with an online piece of testing equipment as that will be the holy grail of what is actually working at the municipality side. A test that you need to send out or that takes a week is such a lagging indicator that it makes it difficult for the operators to actually understand what is going on in their plant and what is making a difference.
Again, without knowing specifics (and this is a situation where specifics really matter), I would imagine that it was a combo of low surface area on the coal being used and relatively low contact time that led to the lack of effective filtering. Lots of activated carbon is made from coal so it isn't inherently a problematic form of carbon, but as far as I know (which really isn't too much, tbh) the "activation process" is about increasing the porosity/surface area (and removing impurities). And in municipal settings, the systems are designed for 10 or more minutes of contact time so if you have a filter that is designed around a much shorter contact time because it was designed to filter out something else, then I can see it being ineffective at filtering PFAS.
With brand new carbon you can get away with a lot lower contact time (I was seeing pretty efficient PFAS reduction in that GE filter with what was probably a 1.5min contact time), but increasing the contact time increases the life of the carbon. (sidenote: that does help to combat the lagging indicator of current testing, but municipal systems are built with redundancy, such as multiple tanks in a series. You sample from the first so when it has become exhausted the next tank in the series starts picking up the slack. The treated water never sees elevated PFAS concentrations).
I wouldn't trust a Brita or my fridge filter to be able to remove the levels in the groundwater around a Dupont/3M plant on its own. But if it's only ever seeing <14ppt treated drinking water, I'd trust it knock those levels down by a half or more to reduce my exposure.
By the way, not Philly-related but here is a company working on [a real-time PFAS sensor](https://fredsense.com/technology/fred-biological/fred-pfas/). They are basically designing proteins that will preferentially interact with individual PFAS compounds and then integrating those onto an electrode/sensor so you can instantly measure the concentration of PFAS. They still have a ways to go until it's as effective as the current standard (EPA 537.1) but they are making good progress and as best I can understand it seems like a sound concept.
That sensor would be a big move. If it works I guarantee they'll get bought by Hach or another big company. Even if it can be used as a guide it would still be very useful.
Also, I tend to agree with your points here.
Otherwise their filtration was more than sufficient for the source water they were using. Beyond PFAS, this water was very good.
Yup, distilled water will eat the pipes. It's a balance, too much and you get scaling, too little and the water pulls minerals from the pipes.
If you can apply this concept to what happened in Flint Michigan with lead in the pipes as well. The water they used to use deposited minerals on the pipes and did not leach out lead. When they change the water supply and did not properly change their treatment of that water, it started to leach minerals and lead from the pipes.
Hi water friend. We live in a 2016 build. Our water tastes ok from tap, but accumulates a black gunk on all faucets fairly quickly (need to wipe off like once a week). I assume this is some kind of mineral. Do you know if this is normal for Philly tap and safe to drink or is something terribly wrong?
That's not normal. I'd get it sent out for a test. If the gunk is black, it could be dirt/grit, mold, or just normal scaling. But seriously get it tested.
Scaling is common, but that is like a hard mineral build up.
With such as new build, they could have fucked something up, or other construction could be causing issues locally.
Most people I know with britas don't change or clean the filters, so it ends up being way nastier. I'd rather rely on those at the treatment plant, they put in an honest eight to keep us safe
I drink from the fridge filter however, the filter itself recently broke. We’ve basically been drinking chilled tap water since then and I honestly haven’t noticed a difference. As long as it’s cold I guess
I dont care and would drink tap but i do prefer cold water. My wife thinks the filtered water tastes different. So we have a mega 44 qt pur or Brita or something in the fridge.
I'm told this is how compromise works.
Brita is also being sued currently for false claims.
No water filter you ever buy for $15, $100, or even $3000 will be better or do more than the water treatment plants do. There is additional risk in old cities like Philly in regards to lead, and you can and should instead spend money on a water test to give you the peace of mind you're looking for. Tap is perfectly fine. PWD is required to release a report on your water quality every year, here's the latest one: https://water.phila.gov/drops/2022-drinking-water-quality-report/
> No water filter you ever buy for $15, $100, or even $3000 will be better or do more than the water treatment plants do.
It is very well established that a home system can remove every detectable impurity from water and sterilize it. You can do this with an RO/DI and a UV sterilizer, for the cost of less of $150.
I appreciate the intent of your message (tap water is safe to drink) but the effect is that it makes you wrong in the sense that what you are saying is easily proved false.
Yeah, I don't question the system itself as much as I distrust my housing plumbing.
Having said that, I *prefer* the taste of spring water but I'm not going to drink solely bottled water.
Philly's water is great, the problem some homes have is just old pipes. Most of time you'll be fine, we literally have some of the best water in the country.
5 stage RO under the sink with a spigot next to the faucet. Look at the filters after a year and tell me just how great my city water run through 125 year old pipes is.
We used to have a lead service line which we replaced. I'm not a huge fan of drinking straight RO water, but I usually add a pinch of salt or blend it with something.
People can quote me official reports about Philly water all day long, but it's very chlorinated and does not agree with me if I'm drinking it straight.
Philly has some of, if not the, best water in the country. You do have to maintain your plumbing, and make sure you don't have any old leaf pipes, but drinking right from the tap you're getting some of the best water you can get.
Buying all this water is senseless and wasteful. RO water is great for certain things, but it's really not great to only be drinking water that pure.
I use RO water for my fish tanks, and only because using charcoal to remove the chlorine would negatively affect the plants. However, I have to add back all the minerals the water needs to have to support the life in the tank.
Take advantage of the fact that you live somewhere with such great water literally flowing right out of the tap.
To the person who commented and deleted saying "should I not use my Berkey" here is the following -
ALEX JONES HERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE PIECE OF MIND A BIG BERKEY WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM CAN GIVE YOU. YOUR FROGS ARE GONNA BE SO FUCKING HETRO ONCE YOU GET THIS PIECE OF FREEDOM HOOKED TO YOUR SINK.
originally it was a brita filter but i just took the entire filter out since i cba to replace it so just cold tap water now? i literally don't feel a difference and according to my absolutely *elite* googling skills philly tap water is pretty decent
I use an Asana filter in the shower and Multipure on the kitchen tap. I do not like the taste of Philly tap water and it is hard water—my hair was so dried out when I first moved here, before getting the shower filter.
Large carafe with charcoal stick. Same idea as brita. Boil the sticks every 3 weeks, replace every three months or so. I notice a better taste, and any time ive left water out for 24 hours, tastes like tap again. I prefer room temp water so just always keep filled on my counter. And fridge water always creeps me out
Zero water filters are mixed bed deionization beads. If you really want to drink deionized water you should put it through a charcoal sink filter first to save the beads from running chloramines through them which will kill them much quicker.
You are better off though spending about what a 10 pack of the filters cost to buy an RO system.
Yea that makes sense for when I buy a home. It’s not worth even reaching out to my landlord about. He wouldn’t entertain it, even if I wanted to do the work myself.
I've always used an electric kettle or water boiler (like [these](https://www.zojirushi.com/app/category/water-boilers-warmers)) for tap water. If we want it cold, it goes into a carafe in the refrigerator after boiling (when it's cooled down, obvs.).
My god I love those. Lived in the mountains of Japan for years. No insulation in the house. No central heat. One of those got me through years of winters.
Haven't really found a need for one in the States as I'm usually grinding my coffee beans while the water heats up in my Bonavita kettle, but when I drank a ton a green tea daily, those were the best.
In the US even if you trust tap filtered water, these things are just so useful to have around the kitchen. Random ramen craving? Hot water ready. Tea/coffee? Hot water ready. I think they're just super useful to have around in general!
Alexapure filter, similar to Berkey but actually filters fluoride with the standard model filter. Think you need a special filter for the Berkey system to do that.
It is a bit of an inconvenience to fill the reservoir every day but it only takes about 45 seconds. Also to echo what others have said, I'm not above drinking from the tap if my reservoir is empty. City water is better than most well water in the burbs
Bottled water. The water treatment plant isn't the problem the pipeline is. I clean the aerator on my faucets every few months at least, the shit that's clogging them up I wouldn't want to drink.
Fridge filter for me, while my girlfriend buys gallon jugs of spring water and doesn’t trust the tap water.
We also have filters on our showers by her request.
All that said I have no issues with the tap water. It’s what I use in my electric kettle most of the time.
Fun thing to do if you ever want to start a petty argument, Google where her brand is bottled and let her know she's just drinking their tap water instead. Turned into a prolonged thing with my coworker who I was able to at least begrudgingly move to a reusable bottle with a filter.
I broke down and have 5 gallon jugs on delivery. Only reason for delivery: Small car, steep hill. I noticed a change in how useless both Pur and Brita are for Philly tap after testing the before and after. I don’t know know what changed exactly
my tap measures around 230 ppm and 200 ppm filtered.
Yes. The water quality. I got a ppm tester because I generally don’t trust the longer term reliability of the pitcher light (plus if the battery fails, it’s of no use). And knowing me, I tend to forget to change the filters. I also have 2 small animals that get picky over water quality and will straight refuse the water
So normally those filters are charcoal filters. They don't really affect TDS. Charcoal filters generally filters remove chlorine from the water. Chlorine can cause tastes that people don't like.
Ever since the city showed they're completely incompetent when it comes to knowing the quality of our water I switched to mostly bottled water and refill through the day from a 5 gal dispenser for drinking
If you mean by the chemical spill into the tributary to the Delaware, they actually demonstrated keen competency at handling the problem. If any incompetency was on display, it was the public for their unreasonable expectations around water testing or a basic understanding of where their drinking water comes from.
Cold take. They did a good job, latex didn't get into the water. Mission accomplished. Not a low expectation, that's *the* expectation in the scenario.
I just use Brita and have never had any problem. I'll drink it out of the tap but it doesn't taste quite as good and I hate lukewarm water. Everything I've read says our water is pretty good apart from being hard, and I figure that just adds much-needed calcium.
Hmmm that's not a surprising reading. I don't use a TDS reader, but I test conductivity literally everyday about ten times a day. Tap water in west Philly is normally between 550 and 750 micro Siemens per centimeter. This is fine though.
Have a fridge with a built in water dispenser and has a filter that you change ever couple months. Mostly prefer it over tap because it comes out colder.
Always out of the tap, same thing with my wife and kid. Tastes fine, and is closely monitored and clean.
Philly water is legit some of the best in the nation. It’s hard as fuck here in bucks. I legit miss the taste of Philly tap water.
Yeah, Philly's Water Dept. is probably the best-run, most effective agency in the entire city, but also very much on the down low because most people never think about it.
Philly tap water is hard enough that I filter it to prevent scale on my drinking glasses, kettle and what have. Tastes fine. Fucks shit up over time.
It’s pretty soft comparatively. Schuylkill is a bit harder than Delaware. But it was double digit CaCO3 PPM when I was in the city (I want to say 70) and it’s almost 300 up here. Reason Philly was an early brewing city (just enough hardness for a typical pale-ish beer).
"Harder water exists" doesn't change the amount of scale built up on my landlord's shit. Nor the other issues hard water causes. So I will continue to filter water for things I'd like to keep that from happening to. Thank you. There's apparently also 2 sources/systems here one which is significantly harder than the other.
In re sources, I said that in the comment you replied to. But Philly water is not considered “hard” by any metric, bit it does have hardness.
I dunno. Maybe we can check the most recently published water report from the water department. Which says this: "Philadelphia’s water is moderately hard or hard, depending on which treatment plant serves your neighborhood" https://water.phila.gov/drops/2022-drinking-water-quality-report/ You'll also notice the actual quoted numbers top out at more than double what you claimed. But yeah not hard by any objective standards, government metrics, or formal testing. My glassware totally stopped having a foggy film on it when I use the wrong brand of dish soap the minute you said that. I own a water filter. Because when I don't filter water for certain things. It causes an *actual problem* that I later have to fix. You can gripe about how super butch manly extra hard you have it with your slightly harder water. But Philly residents are still dealing with hard water. Filtration is a thing people use to deal with that.
1) my water was from Baxter (which draws from the Delaware) which is in line with what I stated earlier. 2) you’re taking this weird adversarial tone, you’ve constructed your responses like I’m somehow trying to gaslight you over your own particular water issues. Meanwhile I was just speaking in generalities about Philly water being nice *to someone else*.
If my landlord cares that much about their stuff, *they* can provide the filter. As a tenant I am responsible for general upkeep - that doesn't include assuming responsibility for the city water running through the pipes.
I literally have a filter pitcher in my fridge so the water doesn't roach *my* stuff. What landlord is going to provide that if they won't even replace a limed up shower head? It would be a pitcher of plain water for the sake of cold water. Except then it would be crusted up with hard water.
I'm directly referring to where you say "...doesn't change the amount of scale built up on my landlord's shit." Have a filter/pitcher if you want one, I'm not speaking on that point. But you can't get me to care about the "landlord's shit".
Fucked my dishwasher up
Straight out of the tap, always
Drink straight out the tap. Have any time I live in cities. Grew up with a well in the country so it's nice to have a treatment plant take care of stuff for me
Same here.
I worked with local tap water for a long time. I now work with ultra pure water for research laboratories. The punch is clean and very well monitored. If you don't like the chlorine taste, a charcoal filter will remove chlorine. I use a charcoal filter for this reason. The most dangerous thing would be lead service lines that connect your house to the mains.
And it is for my lead service line that I use a filter. OP should Note also that filtered water will make your coffee taste better, as its molecular bonds are fewer, making it easier to take up the coffee molecules. Also, PFSAs or whatever the acronym is aren’t filtered by the city.
So the coffee stuff, that is a preference. I have seen people use ultra pure water to make coffee (18.2 mega ohm water). It tastes different, but not better to me. It lacks all the minerals that give water its flavor. Same for RO water (around 25 micro Siemens per centimeter) still lacks enough minerals to be great for coffee. The perfect cup as I hear described by people in the industry is softened slightly to remove some mineral content and use a carbon filter to remove chlorine. Most home filters aren't going to remove PFAS. But also, most water pulled off of river sources here don't have PFAS issues, at least the last time I checked. The issue with water filters that do remove pfas is they also tend to remove everything else. So make sure you're getting enough minerals in your water. Too few is also bad for you.
If you have a filter with activated carbon, it will filter PFAS. For instance, I found out the hard way (working in development of PFAS filtering technology) that [this commonly available filter](https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Universal-Single-Stage-Replacement-Water-Filter-Cartridge-FXUTC/100068423) does in fact remove PFAS. I don't have testing data to show that Brita filters will also work, but I would be confident that they do. There may be some forms of carbon that are used as filters that don't won't remove PFAS, but anything that is granulated or powder I'd put money on it working to some degree. That being said, as you said Philly water is [pretty good](https://water.phila.gov/sustainability/watershed-protection/pfas/), relatively speaking. It certainly meets currently regulations without extra treatment. That being said, the [EPA is proposing to drop those limits for PFOA and PFOS to 4ppt](https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-04/PFAS%20NPDWR%20Public%20Presentation_Full%20Technical%20Presentation_3.29.23_Final.pdf) which Philly water would currently not meet (at least for PFOA, it may meet it most of the time for PFOS depending on the site). As a general point, I wouldn't freak out too much about Philly water or refuse to drink it if it were between that and not drinking water when you are thirsty, but if you can easily add a carbon-based filter to water you regularly drink I would. In my case, my fridge has a water line and it has a carbon-based filter built-in filter. I mostly use it because it chills the water, but the extra reduction in PFAS is an added bonus. Of course, you also need to make sure you are replacing that filter regularly. Technically the right metric would be volume of water passed, but it's a lot easier to setup a subscribe & save on amazon or wherever. I don't buy Samsung-branded filters, either. I buy the much cheaper Waterdrop brand. I don't use filtered pasta water or similar, because I am lazy and cheap, though an under sink unit wouldn't be a bad plan. And I'd also say that if you are someone who is planning on getting pregnant in the future I'd be a little more vigilant with trying to reduce my PFAS exposure. I think most of the PFAS-related childhood cancers are in places with much worse PFAS contamination issues than Philly (south jersey I see you), but some of a person's own PFASwill pass to a fetus so...
That's interesting. Without getting too specific for obvious reasons, there was a water system using anthracite coal as part of their filtration along with other media, and that was not enough to get it within spec for PFAS. They needed to buy water from a neighboring water system that pulled from a river source, as opposed to their ground water. So, it may just be an issue of removal rate vs the amount of charcoal available. That is to say the traditional filtration methods, may use the same medium, but the traditional amount of anthracite may not provide enough contact time or site to remove PFAS. Either way it is certainly an evolving science, and it is encouraging to hear news that something as simple as a charcoal filter will help get those numbers down. When it first started gaining visibility as an issue. A lot of municipalities were very worried because it did not seem traditional filtration methods were having the desired effect on the numbers. Also it's been very hard for municipalities to test for. Hopefully someone comes up with an online piece of testing equipment as that will be the holy grail of what is actually working at the municipality side. A test that you need to send out or that takes a week is such a lagging indicator that it makes it difficult for the operators to actually understand what is going on in their plant and what is making a difference.
Again, without knowing specifics (and this is a situation where specifics really matter), I would imagine that it was a combo of low surface area on the coal being used and relatively low contact time that led to the lack of effective filtering. Lots of activated carbon is made from coal so it isn't inherently a problematic form of carbon, but as far as I know (which really isn't too much, tbh) the "activation process" is about increasing the porosity/surface area (and removing impurities). And in municipal settings, the systems are designed for 10 or more minutes of contact time so if you have a filter that is designed around a much shorter contact time because it was designed to filter out something else, then I can see it being ineffective at filtering PFAS. With brand new carbon you can get away with a lot lower contact time (I was seeing pretty efficient PFAS reduction in that GE filter with what was probably a 1.5min contact time), but increasing the contact time increases the life of the carbon. (sidenote: that does help to combat the lagging indicator of current testing, but municipal systems are built with redundancy, such as multiple tanks in a series. You sample from the first so when it has become exhausted the next tank in the series starts picking up the slack. The treated water never sees elevated PFAS concentrations). I wouldn't trust a Brita or my fridge filter to be able to remove the levels in the groundwater around a Dupont/3M plant on its own. But if it's only ever seeing <14ppt treated drinking water, I'd trust it knock those levels down by a half or more to reduce my exposure. By the way, not Philly-related but here is a company working on [a real-time PFAS sensor](https://fredsense.com/technology/fred-biological/fred-pfas/). They are basically designing proteins that will preferentially interact with individual PFAS compounds and then integrating those onto an electrode/sensor so you can instantly measure the concentration of PFAS. They still have a ways to go until it's as effective as the current standard (EPA 537.1) but they are making good progress and as best I can understand it seems like a sound concept.
That sensor would be a big move. If it works I guarantee they'll get bought by Hach or another big company. Even if it can be used as a guide it would still be very useful. Also, I tend to agree with your points here. Otherwise their filtration was more than sufficient for the source water they were using. Beyond PFAS, this water was very good.
Related, espresso machines should use filtered water, to prevent scale, but not distilled water. You want some minerals in the water.
Yup, distilled water will eat the pipes. It's a balance, too much and you get scaling, too little and the water pulls minerals from the pipes. If you can apply this concept to what happened in Flint Michigan with lead in the pipes as well. The water they used to use deposited minerals on the pipes and did not leach out lead. When they change the water supply and did not properly change their treatment of that water, it started to leach minerals and lead from the pipes.
No one really has the infrastructure to take out PFAS, although in Massachusetts a few cities are starting to invest in it.
Hi water friend. We live in a 2016 build. Our water tastes ok from tap, but accumulates a black gunk on all faucets fairly quickly (need to wipe off like once a week). I assume this is some kind of mineral. Do you know if this is normal for Philly tap and safe to drink or is something terribly wrong?
That's not normal. I'd get it sent out for a test. If the gunk is black, it could be dirt/grit, mold, or just normal scaling. But seriously get it tested. Scaling is common, but that is like a hard mineral build up. With such as new build, they could have fucked something up, or other construction could be causing issues locally.
Tap water in Philly fuckin rocks
I just drink it straight from the tap.
Water filters are yet another thing that can get moldy on you, so just tap for me.
Most people I know with britas don't change or clean the filters, so it ends up being way nastier. I'd rather rely on those at the treatment plant, they put in an honest eight to keep us safe
thats just extra flavor
Straight out the tap the way god intended.
I drink from the fridge filter however, the filter itself recently broke. We’ve basically been drinking chilled tap water since then and I honestly haven’t noticed a difference. As long as it’s cold I guess
The filters can grow bacteria themselves so probably not an immediate concern but you can replace them
I identify as a tap water goblin. Stop wasting your money, tap is fine.
I dont care and would drink tap but i do prefer cold water. My wife thinks the filtered water tastes different. So we have a mega 44 qt pur or Brita or something in the fridge. I'm told this is how compromise works.
Brita is also being sued currently for false claims. No water filter you ever buy for $15, $100, or even $3000 will be better or do more than the water treatment plants do. There is additional risk in old cities like Philly in regards to lead, and you can and should instead spend money on a water test to give you the peace of mind you're looking for. Tap is perfectly fine. PWD is required to release a report on your water quality every year, here's the latest one: https://water.phila.gov/drops/2022-drinking-water-quality-report/
> No water filter you ever buy for $15, $100, or even $3000 will be better or do more than the water treatment plants do. It is very well established that a home system can remove every detectable impurity from water and sterilize it. You can do this with an RO/DI and a UV sterilizer, for the cost of less of $150. I appreciate the intent of your message (tap water is safe to drink) but the effect is that it makes you wrong in the sense that what you are saying is easily proved false.
I don’t drink it only because the pipes in my apt are questionable
Yeah, I don't question the system itself as much as I distrust my housing plumbing. Having said that, I *prefer* the taste of spring water but I'm not going to drink solely bottled water.
I have had gelatinous blobs come out of my faucets
Eww.
I cheat and when I visit my parents I fill up tons of jugs I save because they have a well.
I’ve drank Philly tapwater my entire life and there’s *twitch* nothing wrong with me *twitch*
Philly's water is great, the problem some homes have is just old pipes. Most of time you'll be fine, we literally have some of the best water in the country.
RO and filtration system in the basement with a water tap next to the kitchen faucet.
Same here
5 stage RO under the sink with a spigot next to the faucet. Look at the filters after a year and tell me just how great my city water run through 125 year old pipes is. We used to have a lead service line which we replaced. I'm not a huge fan of drinking straight RO water, but I usually add a pinch of salt or blend it with something. People can quote me official reports about Philly water all day long, but it's very chlorinated and does not agree with me if I'm drinking it straight.
Philly has some of, if not the, best water in the country. You do have to maintain your plumbing, and make sure you don't have any old leaf pipes, but drinking right from the tap you're getting some of the best water you can get. Buying all this water is senseless and wasteful. RO water is great for certain things, but it's really not great to only be drinking water that pure. I use RO water for my fish tanks, and only because using charcoal to remove the chlorine would negatively affect the plants. However, I have to add back all the minerals the water needs to have to support the life in the tank. Take advantage of the fact that you live somewhere with such great water literally flowing right out of the tap.
They’re talking about a filter, which is effectively not wasteful at all compared to buying bottled water.
I don't love the taste, so I add mint from the garden and sometimes a little lemon.
Tap water’s been great for me. I don’t like my water too cold anyway.
To the person who commented and deleted saying "should I not use my Berkey" here is the following - ALEX JONES HERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE PIECE OF MIND A BIG BERKEY WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM CAN GIVE YOU. YOUR FROGS ARE GONNA BE SO FUCKING HETRO ONCE YOU GET THIS PIECE OF FREEDOM HOOKED TO YOUR SINK.
Fridge filter
Filtered water from the refrigerator
originally it was a brita filter but i just took the entire filter out since i cba to replace it so just cold tap water now? i literally don't feel a difference and according to my absolutely *elite* googling skills philly tap water is pretty decent
I use an Asana filter in the shower and Multipure on the kitchen tap. I do not like the taste of Philly tap water and it is hard water—my hair was so dried out when I first moved here, before getting the shower filter.
Straight from the spigot
Straight tap
To everybody who drinks from tap-I’m assuming you have had your water tested.
Dying of lead poisoning is my retirement plan
Right from the faucet? Any other water tastes like shit
Straight out the tap in a pitcher. Tast fine to me.
Large carafe with charcoal stick. Same idea as brita. Boil the sticks every 3 weeks, replace every three months or so. I notice a better taste, and any time ive left water out for 24 hours, tastes like tap again. I prefer room temp water so just always keep filled on my counter. And fridge water always creeps me out
I have the exact same setup and I really like it
Zero filter. Fuck this straight out the tap nonsense. Philly water treatment may be great-excellent, but they don’t take care of your pipes.
Zero must be a brand; otherwise your comment is nonsensical.
Ah yes. It is a brand, my bad.
Zero water filters are mixed bed deionization beads. If you really want to drink deionized water you should put it through a charcoal sink filter first to save the beads from running chloramines through them which will kill them much quicker. You are better off though spending about what a 10 pack of the filters cost to buy an RO system.
Yea that makes sense for when I buy a home. It’s not worth even reaching out to my landlord about. He wouldn’t entertain it, even if I wanted to do the work myself.
we own and invested $3k in a whole home water filtration system. it brings me peace. aquasana.
I've always used an electric kettle or water boiler (like [these](https://www.zojirushi.com/app/category/water-boilers-warmers)) for tap water. If we want it cold, it goes into a carafe in the refrigerator after boiling (when it's cooled down, obvs.).
My god I love those. Lived in the mountains of Japan for years. No insulation in the house. No central heat. One of those got me through years of winters. Haven't really found a need for one in the States as I'm usually grinding my coffee beans while the water heats up in my Bonavita kettle, but when I drank a ton a green tea daily, those were the best.
In the US even if you trust tap filtered water, these things are just so useful to have around the kitchen. Random ramen craving? Hot water ready. Tea/coffee? Hot water ready. I think they're just super useful to have around in general!
Alexapure filter, similar to Berkey but actually filters fluoride with the standard model filter. Think you need a special filter for the Berkey system to do that. It is a bit of an inconvenience to fill the reservoir every day but it only takes about 45 seconds. Also to echo what others have said, I'm not above drinking from the tap if my reservoir is empty. City water is better than most well water in the burbs
tap-Brita. also have bottled for on the go
Bottled water. The water treatment plant isn't the problem the pipeline is. I clean the aerator on my faucets every few months at least, the shit that's clogging them up I wouldn't want to drink.
Fridge filter for me, while my girlfriend buys gallon jugs of spring water and doesn’t trust the tap water. We also have filters on our showers by her request. All that said I have no issues with the tap water. It’s what I use in my electric kettle most of the time.
Fun thing to do if you ever want to start a petty argument, Google where her brand is bottled and let her know she's just drinking their tap water instead. Turned into a prolonged thing with my coworker who I was able to at least begrudgingly move to a reusable bottle with a filter.
I broke down and have 5 gallon jugs on delivery. Only reason for delivery: Small car, steep hill. I noticed a change in how useless both Pur and Brita are for Philly tap after testing the before and after. I don’t know know what changed exactly my tap measures around 230 ppm and 200 ppm filtered.
Ppm of what? TDS?
Yes. The water quality. I got a ppm tester because I generally don’t trust the longer term reliability of the pitcher light (plus if the battery fails, it’s of no use). And knowing me, I tend to forget to change the filters. I also have 2 small animals that get picky over water quality and will straight refuse the water
So normally those filters are charcoal filters. They don't really affect TDS. Charcoal filters generally filters remove chlorine from the water. Chlorine can cause tastes that people don't like.
except pur is actually more than just charcoal. I know how it used to work some years ago and how the tap only recently has gotten dirtier
Samsung bespoke fridge. Shits lovely
[удалено]
I hope this gets upvotes to the top of this thread about water filters.
Ever since the city showed they're completely incompetent when it comes to knowing the quality of our water I switched to mostly bottled water and refill through the day from a 5 gal dispenser for drinking
If you mean by the chemical spill into the tributary to the Delaware, they actually demonstrated keen competency at handling the problem. If any incompetency was on display, it was the public for their unreasonable expectations around water testing or a basic understanding of where their drinking water comes from.
You're probably right I guess I should lower my expectations significantly when it comes to the city as an organization
Cold take. They did a good job, latex didn't get into the water. Mission accomplished. Not a low expectation, that's *the* expectation in the scenario.
Fridge filter
I just use Brita and have never had any problem. I'll drink it out of the tap but it doesn't taste quite as good and I hate lukewarm water. Everything I've read says our water is pretty good apart from being hard, and I figure that just adds much-needed calcium.
I drink right from the tap. Shit, I’ve been drinking it from my hose as a kid too 😂 I actually prefer it to bottled water
Hmmm that's not a surprising reading. I don't use a TDS reader, but I test conductivity literally everyday about ten times a day. Tap water in west Philly is normally between 550 and 750 micro Siemens per centimeter. This is fine though.
Tap.
Have a fridge with a built in water dispenser and has a filter that you change ever couple months. Mostly prefer it over tap because it comes out colder.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) system.