What Kind Of Water Do You People Have Out There?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support AutomaticWasher.org:

What's said to be the best water in the world & what everyone leaving Detroit wishes they could get piped over to their whereabouts where they've moved to, just because they  think they have a good everything else!

 

Heck, just pipe it (most easily, cheaply & realistically) over to a place like Flint...

 

On the contrary, the place where I seem to be going every year, Israel has, or just tastes  the worst... And you NEED to drink water there!

 

I'm glad to have a water dispenser only fridge that actually, perfectly works! Just wish the filters did not go from a reasonably-priced $30-range to a very well-over $40, and not too many stores carry the kind form refrigerator, either...

 

What's more my daughter even says the water tastes a bit different, as in not GOOD, to the point of wanting me to replace the filter AGAIN, or even putting in a new reservoir (which is why my mom avoided those kinds of refrigerators with dispensers) neither of which, me insisting that the water & ice (the latter, which she is not as fussy about--and I wish the dispenser didn't get jammed) still tastes the same...

 

So it's bottled water (putting one occasional vessel of what we already can get better of in the fridge) or water from the sink, for her...

 

 

 

-- Dave

daveamkrayoguy-2018061807331608761_1.jpg

daveamkrayoguy-2018061807331608761_2.jpg
 
I'm on city water that comes from deep groundwater wells in a "Central Groundwater Basin". Hardness in the area was moderate, but has increased in the last 5-8 years. I was just looking at my cities water quality report and it shows zero iron (undetectable) and hardness is listed at 98 parts per million. But I'm not exactly sure what that means. It seems really high from numbers I vaguely remember.

Growing up my parents always a water softener in the house, so we were used to soft water. After living in a couple places without softened water, I installed a water softener myself after buying a house. It was really nice having soft water again.

Time is not the softeners friend it would seem, a few years ago some little part in the bottom of the brine tank failed and my salt storage tank stayed full of water. Then last year the plastic manifold for the connections cracked and I had a leak. Fortunately when I made the plumbing connections for it, I included bypass valves.

I want to replace my softener, as I've been noticing the "signs of hard water", but buying a new softener just isn't in the budget.
 
Dave my fridge has that pop out filter in the bottom too.  I found them pretty cheap on ebay...much cheaper than from WP/MT/KA.  My fridge water line comes off the under sink water filter so it actually gets filtered twice from the fridge spout. 
 
Water is from Edwards Aquafer down here close to San Antonio Texas, very hard water. In 19 years I've gone through 2 refrigerators, 3 dishwashers, 2 washers, and numerous shower heads. Always use Glacer water from a vendor filling station for drinking and cooking.

Barry
 
Those of us in the village get water from municipal wells. The water is moderately hard, so many have softeners. Culligan changes a softener tank weekly, to the tune of $39 per month. I am currently the only apartment (of eight) that chooses to pay for tank exchange. The water isn't brutally hard, but hard enough to affect results in automatic dishwashing and laundry. I don't like the feel of hard water in the shower, either. Having said that, if that $39/month became critical to one's personal finances, I would have to adjust to hard water. Others have, obviously.
 
Lake St. Clair

and or Detroit river. I use a Brita.
My grandmothers water was from the Ohio river, and I thought it tasted terrible.
Every municipality along the river had it's own treatment plant back in those days.
It all tasted funny to me. They all claimed they had the best drinking water in the valley. I got my grand parents a Water Pick filter for Christmas one year, after they could no longer get to the basement where they used to store the bottled spring water they ordered.
Taxes pay for water treatment and sewage treatment.
So whats in the water these days? Seems now we also have plenty of tax revenue for a "space force" military branch. If they build a star ship, I guess that's ok, but I think it's just for anti missile stuff.
Anyway, half a nice day!
Enjoy the sun, cooler, drier weather, or rain if so, and you need it.
 
We here in Missouri and many other parts of the US are cursed with varying degrees of hard water because of porous limestone and sandstone that release calcium, magnesium and chalk. In mountainous parts of the country sometimes the water flows directly over some of these types of rocks and picks up the minerals along the way. Example-Grand Canyon.

On the other hand, there's the parts of the country with granite bedrock, like in the northeast. Water trickles down through organic material, hits granite, moves horizontally from the Adirondacks toward a low spots and makes a lake/reservoir, we connect them up and New York gets that lovely water. :)

Municipalities soften water to a usable level if necessary. Really hard water won't clean anything. It's just grey. To make the water completely soft would be extremely expensive, so if home owners want completely soft water, they have to invest in a water softener themselves. They have improved in the last few years. Ours constantly monitors the softness of the water and only regenerates when it's call for, saving on salt and water. Ours is set at zero grains of hardness (no minerals). I love it. Clothes come out cleaner without so much laundry additives, it tastes better and it's nicer on skin. No tacky feeling.

I found out the hard way a few years ago that softened water shortens the life of the anode rod in the water heater.

https://water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alkalinity.html
http://https//www.como.gov/utilities/water-and-light/water/
 
I just looked up the town where my sister used to live - Durango Colorado, and their water hardness is between 3.74-6.94 gpg. They get it from the Animas River, Florida River, and two different reservoirs.
All their water is from snow melt and rain runoff so starts off very soft and picks up minerals from the rocky rivers etc. I always expected it to be a lot harder than that but knew something was up when I never saw any real deposit buildup around faucets and shower heads.
 
Typos-: "Only", should read, "on my"...

Also: "They ALL think they have a good everything else..." (Ex-Detroiters, Former Michiganders) 

 

VACERATOR: Yes, I looked at the eBay postings on your recommendations, so it's nice to see the inflated listings at Walmart, Meijer and BestBuy, Lowe's and Home Depot, back to what I used to buy my 'Pur'-brand for, and see that there, as the one with the TWO LEADS which mine MUST have, there area plenty, however, I don't know how long a shelf-life is good for, so I'm not inclined to any buying-out & hoarding...

 

I'll be glad to get as needed, so thank you, then, MIKE...

Just a shame to be at the mercy of those alarms at the exit doors going off for a neglected or failed product de-activation, (or compensating for the reason those products need mohave security anti-theft detectors on them--and I once was unaware a purchased filter bought at Meijer even had, though as a former-Walmart associate made the effort to deactivate, (listen to the "creepy sound") as I normally do self-checking out at the scanners) to a place like Home Depot not/never to ever have been carrying anything Whirlpool brand, Walmart no longer carrying, BestBuy only caring about what NEW, IMPROVED Whirlpool lines use, Lowe's failing to offer assistance to me searching all over the plumbing to appliance dept. for something for them to sell that one moment, to me on the brink of never offering them any return business to them, (but long ago, I DID buy it from 'that' Lowe's, back when it was a bit easier to find) and just being glad I made the last ditch at a Meijer, though the one closer to where I now work, than what was a short trip around a few blocks, down the way from Best Buy & Lowe's that didn't have...

 

And last, I believe the water line just runs from the general 'cold' pipe below on its way the kitchen sink, through the copper leading a still-relatively short distance to the fridge, so still deemed 'good enough, fresh enough'...

 

 

 

-- Dave

daveamkrayoguy-2018061912054606086_1.jpg

daveamkrayoguy-2018061912054606086_2.jpg
 
Yeah Dave,

I think next fridge will be a Whirlpool. Generic filters don't fit most fridges.
In fact, a GE water cooler doesn't even use the same one as their fridges.
They've had tow styles, one shorter and wider, one thinner and taller.
Alas GE is no longer even on the Dow Jones industrial trading list.
Been there before myself, bought the book, and almost the farm.
Then my spouse would be singing that old Bobby Godsboro song "Honey" I miss you, and I'm bein' good.
So no, I couldn't buy the farm before my time comes. I don't know if I was even depressed. When Kroger, Meijer, Walmart,etc. didn't hire me I was bummed, but I hit the bricks and got a job as soon as I could. Not much of one, but I gave it a couple of years. Still wasn't much of one, and was making me sick. I was on auto pilot.
Then my folks got older, sick, and needed some help. I miss them dearly.
Otherwise, life is pretty good. Just waiting a few more years to collect my retirement. I'll draw a bit less, so my spouse can have at least half, if I pass on first. I think I likely will. My family has more health problems more serious than arthritis, and bad backs.
 
Fridge

I have the exact same refrigerator. I actually ordered a Whirlpool direct replacement and they sent the wrong size. It didn't appear any different until I tried to put the filter in. Now, it is stuck in the fridge until I need a replacement. This has happened twice. Im not sure why it is so hard to send the correct one!
 
 Wausau’s water is moderately soft.  Typical testing results: 80 to 100 mg/l or 4-1/2 to 6 grains/gallon.

 

Wausau’s drinking water comes from six municipal wells, all of which are located near the Wisconsin River. These wells range in depth of 95 feet to 160 feet and pump anywhere from 900 to 3000 gallons per minute.
 
 
Cape May around 20 years ago had a major water crisis on the July 4 holiday. We were rapidly running out of high quality water. Cape May is surrounded by salt water and that salt water intruded into four of our five wells. A commission was formed by the city. I was a member of that commission. We looked at the problem and over 16 possible solutions to the water supply issues.

The end result is Cape May has the first desal plant in the North East. The capacity of the plant is around 2 million gallons a day. This meets our current summer (tourist season) demands. The feed for the plant is not sea water, it is brackish water from an aquifer know as the Atlantic City Sands. This reduces energy cost and gives a higher yield than sea water.

The water from the desal (reverse osmosis) is excellent. The link is to an article about the plant and the quality of Cape May water. It is interesting to watch our visitors (AKA tourist) loading up with bottled water when better quality water comes right out of the tap.

Harry

http://www.ocsentinel.com/oc_suregu...cle_01852164-020c-11e4-a61d-001a4bcf6878.html
 
I've extremely soft water. The only slight issue is it contains a trace of iron from ferrous rock in the area.
It can leave a very slight trace of It on the kettle but it is very, very minor stuff. I only need to descale the kettle and the coffee machine maybe once a year.

The washing machine and dishwasher never have had any issue with anything..
 
So earlier,

I was casting a few lines at the park in the local river. No nibbles, so I went walking. I pass a bridge where kids paint grafiti.A boy and girl left their names above this little ditty; "river poopers forever".
Oh, it will be gone soon, the city is adimate about a family friendly park.
Another hundred yards ahead what do I observe? Teens swimming. Yuck! I figure if the bicycle police man who passed me a minute sooner didn't make them get out, it's not my place to tell them to either.
Whats in your water?
 
Fade of hard water!

I live in Cleveland Ohio area and in here you will find about 10 grains per gallon hardness in the water. MY family uses 500 gallons of water per day.

So, I need a system capable of providing a minimum 5,000 grains removal capacity per day. Just a rule of thumb, the typical 8" diameter home water softener will usually provided 1 cubic foot of softening resin, which gives you 30,000 grains removal capacity when regenerated with 15 lb. of salt per cubic ft.

This means that the typical home, single tank system would need you to regenerate it once every 6 days.

There are some systems, known as duplex, or twin alternating, which get away with using smaller tanks that just regenerate more often and flip back and forth automatically as you use water.

The most efficient, green and reliable system on the market is manufactured by Kinetico, in Newbury Ohio. The patented control is the only self-regenerating, non-electric controller on the market. It is an engineering wonder.

I hope this helps.

Oh yea, as far as size of your softener, always remember this, you will lose some pressure across the softener, so always purchase a softener that has slightly larger connections than your household plumbing. As an example, if your home plumbing is 3/4 inch, purchase a 1# softening valve.

https://homescute.com/how-to-size-a-water-softener/
 
LADWP manages to deliver tyhe super modern powdered water!

It's basically vitamin water, full of vitamins and minerals, but in a modern dehydration technique (same as used for astronaut food) where all the water is removed and only the vitamins and minerals are left. You just need to mix that powedered water with some water to have water.

Jokes apart, sometimes our water is so hard that I seriously think it's milk instead of water. I can literally fill the kitchen sink and not see the disposer plug.

I got so tired of soaking my shower head in vinegar because it sprays everywhere like a lawn sprinkler that now I keep a spray bottle with vinegar in the shower and spray it after every single shower. (2-3 times per day in the winter)

My bathtub spout had an interesting stalactite, but a few days ago i hit it with my foot and it broke (I kept it as a souvenir).

The bathroom sink has a very nice stalagmite growing next to the drain.
 
From our city's water treatment plant manager January 23

the Finished water leaving the water treatment plant has a harness between 200-215 mg/L.
 
OuchC that’s some harshly hard water!! Without calling and asking the most recent information I have is from a 2014 report, 3.3 gpg hard. Seems a little on the light side compared to what the water leaves on things, but I still feel we need a softener.

*UPDATE* Just found a more recent sampling that puts my part of town right in the 10-14gpg (173-242mg/L) range, which is where I'd have guessed based on the deposits we get on things.[this post was last edited: 2/6/2020-12:10]
 
Moderately hard water. All of the faucets have encrusted minerals on the end of them. It doesn't help that the water travels through pipes over 100 years old. The few times I have seen the insides of them for minor repairs, they are more than 70% filled with minerals and rust. Call me crazy, but I have drank Indianapolis tap water for so many years that bottled water tastes wrong and I am not a fan.
 
I just checked ours with Irish Water's website and it comes up as having conductivity of 178 µS/cm which rates as pretty soft.
 
Ours is rather

wet, and some even green, as of late, when an abandoned electroplating shop leeched Hexavalent chromium six onto the freeway below it. It was left in vats and ate through the ground, infiltrating a storm drain. The owner of the formershop is in jail serving a one year sentence for polluting, not just there, but on his property up north in Sanilac county where he diposed of drums of chemicals on his site. He was said to have immersed his arm into the liquid poison inf ront of the judge to prove it safe. Nice eh? If you've heard of Errin Brochovich, you know HXC6 is not safe. PGE&E lost a class action law suit won by Brochovich, her boss, and team. Also brown sludge washing up onto peoples lake front lots on Lake St. Clair this month.
Integrity is nill these days. Do we still have an EPA? Talk about preventing permanent damage by congress? A wake up call for them is on the way as young poeple will be voting for the first time soon.
 
Would a whole house RO system take all that crap out of the water?

And I agree, this is the kind of thing the EPA was meant to deal with, and yet it seems they're always the last to do anything when it happens!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top