Best way to get water

[dragonwalker]

I live in a household with my fiancée and her mother and I was thinking about the best way to obtain drinking water. We live in a HCOL area in the suburbs near Los Angeles. In theory, the tap water is safe to drink however my fiancée doesn’t want to do that and I’m a little hesitant.
At the moment we get bottled water and the plastic bottles are given to a family relative who recycles them (in theory I could retain the bottles and recycle them ourselves). The other options I can think of that are available are:
1)   Buy and install a water filtration system
2)   Refill water in the large plastic jugs at a store
3)   Have water delivered
4)   Use the water filter inside fridge (unlikely because the fridge is very full)
I personally am not the most keen on bottled water because it seems more expensive and I have heard bad things about the plastics in bottled water that might be harmful. I’m looking for thoughts on the most cost effective way to get the best quality water for a household that drinks slightly above average for 3 adults. 

[HPstache]

Is a fridge water filtration system (pretty common on every new refrigerator these days) sufficient for her?  That seems like easily the best solution.

[RWD]

Bottled water is extremely wasteful.

I don't understand why how full the fridge is affects your ability to use filtered water from it. I've never seen a fridge water dispenser that would be unusable due to how much stuff is inside.

Another option is a stand-alone filtered water pitcher (e.g. Brita).

[nereo]

I’m looking for thoughts on the most cost effective way to get the best quality water for a household that drinks slightly above average for 3 adults.

Municipal (tap) water is of course the most economical and overall incredibly safe large US cities (though sometimes with off flavors).

Second most economical is to install an under sink filter. Filters are under $10 and last 10x longer than Brita type filters with much, much fast flow rates. Setup is under $100 for a two stage, which is overkill for most municipal water (a sediment filter before a carbon block)

[NV Teacher]

I’ve heard a lot about a Berkeley water filter system.  Maybe check that out.

[uniwelder]

I'd suggest bringing a water sample to get tested.  Then you'll know whether there's any reason to be filtering or buying water.  OP hasn't mentioned any actual reason for concern--- stories of lead, any smells, news reports, etc--- only that his fiancé doesn't want to use tap water.  From a different thread, OP mentioned his fiancé is a medical doctor, so I would hope there's a good reason why she doesn't use the tap water.

[crocheted_stache]

Is there a particular concern? For any city in California, you should be able to search "water quality report [city name]" and at least know what's coming into your taps. A lot of California's water is hard, which means lots of dissolved minerals that are annoying to get off your faucets, but they're not harmful.

Especially if you live in an older building, you could also get your water tested to rule out lead from old pipes.

There are an assortment of filtration options. The one in your fridge is probably pretty similar to the pitcher kind (Brita, etc.), so you could use something like that if you're just trying to remove chlorine or mild off tastes. It's certainly the least expensive option and a good one to try first. Costco offers own-brand filter cartridges that fit Brita, in case you don't want to be stuck buying those forever.

[lucenzo11]

What is the concern with tap water? If you are buying the cheaper brands of bottled water at a store, it's most likely city treated water that is sometimes put through a filter and then bottled by a company and sold for a profit. You are going to pay way more to do this then if you just got it out of your faucet and filtered it on your own.

If you are worried about safety of the water, know that city water is tested multiple times every single day. Bottled water has very limited sampling requirements so if something goes wrong they might not even know about. For example, back in May of this year, Fiji had to recall a crap down of its water due to manganese and bacteria contamination. And that's a premium water brand too.

The two headline concerns for tap water right now are lead and PFAS. For lead, cities are scared after Detroit and they are actively working on identifying and fixing issues so something like Detroit doesn't happen to them too. If you are worried about lead, get your water tested and if it's a problem, you can get a lead specific filter. PFAS are a newer concern and will likely keep growing as a problem over the next decade plus. It's likely in almost all water supplies to some small degree and we are still trying to figure out how big of an issue it is. It could very likely be bottled water too, but since they aren't going to share their test results, it's not like you are going to make an easy comparison between tap and bottled. If you are concerned about this, a reverse osmosis system will remove PFAS pretty well.

I'll also mention fluoride which some people take issue with. If you have it added in your water and don't want it there, reverse osmosis will also remove this.

If it's more aesthetic problems (smell, taste, appearance), then a simple filter should take care of this and there are more advanced filters for really bad situations.

Regardless, any in home water filter is likely to be more cost efficient than bottled water.

[couponvan]

We have an under the sink filtration system, and it is SOO much better than the fridge version because of the cleaning factors. Our fridge version would make a mess everywhere and also got mold in the ice dispenser portion.

[dragonwalker]

The main issue for my fiancée with using tap is that she doesn't like the taste. The issue with under sink water filtration is the potential for mold to build up in the filter and where the water leaves the spigot.

For me, I've been hearing a lot about micro plastics in the water especially from bottled. I'm thinking one possible solution to all of this is getting water from a dispenser or shop and using a glass 3 or 5 gallon bottom feed water dispensing unit. That way it should be cheaper than bottled, little to no contact with plastic and no mold issue. Bottom feed so there is no chance of the glass container falling over and smashing something since it's going to be heavy. 

[Radagast]

Tap water is quite safe and healthy in essentially all water systems, and unless the place you are looking at 5-gallon jugs publishes detailed water quality data there's no reason to think it's safer. It's probably if anything just repackaged local tap water with no chlorine residual. I know WA, OR, NV, and CA publish water quality data online for all public water systems, and you are required to receive a result of testing results of concern in any case. Anything built after 1994 in the US has gold standard water quality, and anything since 1964 is almost certainly good. A suburb of LA is likely recent construction in a new neighborhood with new pipes and modern water treatment (not like some water systems back east where components can be over 100 years old and who knows what is actually in them).

I share your concern for under sink RO. RO is really over kill, often something totally different marketed falsely, high tech and easy to screw up if its real, and in any case susceptible to biological growth. It's hard to add something downstream of your water system that will meaningfully improve water quality for the simple fact that you are unlikely to do the necessary testing and maintenance, and your public water system does both of those things.

For taste, activated carbon filtration is cheap and will strip chlorine. It will also clean up PFAS, and actually a pretty remarkable number of other compounds for something so cheap and simple especially after their exposure to the public system's chlorine (I can't remember them all, you'd have to look them up.) I'd suggest activated carbon, either in a standard Brita pitcher as the most transparent method or else whatever comes out of your fridge.

[MrGreen]

You should look up how your municipality filters their water. Our county already uses a double filtration basin system that reduces the amount of PFAS in the water. They're about to build an even better plant over the next couple years as there is big growth here and water demand is soaring. The new system will easily be the best water we can buy. In home filtration systems can help with taste. Bottled water is terrible if you're concerned about microplastics. That's literally the worst option. Big jugs arent any better. As the plastic ages, the bottles shed microplastics into the water.

[Sanitary Stache]

I'm a drinking water engineer. I used to regulate municipal drinking water systems.  The water you get from the tap is going to be the most reliably safe because it is the most tested water available for drinking. 

That said, there are contaminants allowed in drinking water that are still considered safe, most of these contribute to taste and odor complaints.  The two most significant contaminants which are allowed at safe concentrations are Arsenic (not taste its just a high risk) and Disinfection By Products refered to as DBPs or trihalomethanes (TTHM) or Halo Acetic Acid (HAA).  Both of these are allowed at levels that come with much higher levels of cancer and organ damage risk than any other allowable level of contaminant.  Your water system, State and EPA will all say your water is safe and it could have levels of these contaminants that are known to be a greater risk to you and your family than the relatively unknown risks from low levels of PFAS or microplastics.  I can smell DBPs in my water.

The most mustachian option to address taste from DBPs and disinfection (either chlorine or monochloramine) is to fill a pitcher and let the water sit for a few minutes, the longer the better up to a few days.  The aeration of the water as it leaves the tap and then as it off gasses out the top of the pitcher volatilizes the Chlorine and removes DBPs and some of the taste.

Most likely you aren't going to want a whole house filter capable of removing arsenic.  So, hopefully your municipal water system doesn't have arsenic.  I am also going to assume that you will recognize how wasteful and unessary an RO filter is.  The best (most expensive) RO filter wastes half of the water used. The worst RO filters waste twice as much water, just directly down the drain, as you get to use.  Stores that sell RO filters in Southern California should be fined becuase they waste so much water.

A carbon filter like your fridge or a Brita or a relatively less expensive pretty version with stainless steel (a Berkey lookalike with a basic filter), is more than enough for DPBs, will likley remove some PFAS, and will address the worst taste and odor complaints.  You can also get a filter that inlcudes anion exchange media that does better at removing all PFAS.  Berkey claims to remove PFAS but hasn't been tested, it probably does.  There are gravity filters that have been certified to remove PFAS by NSF.

Bottled water isn't going to have less levels of either of these contaminants.  You are unlikley to ever know the actual source of the bottled water and more likely than not, the source is a municipal treatment facility.

I am going to buy a gravity carbon filter and keep it in my fridge.  I want to get something that looks acceptable to DW.  We were keeping a pitcher of water, but the pitcher broke and I never tested the water so wasn't sure how much DBPs were being removed.  There was a noticable difference in taste though.  (I don't really mind the chlorine/DBP taste except when I fill a water bottle directly from the tap and get a nose full of sweet toxins every time I open the water bottle).

[BECABECA]

I wouldn’t worry at all about the levels of PFAS in drinking water. That is such a minimal source of your lifetime exposure. We all have higher concentrations of PFAS in our blood than the levels we are talking about regulating in our drinking water. The vast majority of your lifetime PFAS exposure is from your food, where it’s concentrated in orders of magnitude higher levels: fast food wrappers, pizza boxes, non stick pans. Any product that is repelling both oil and water is likely PFAS coated. And even if a company says they have replaced their products with a PFAS-free design, they’ve typically changed one element so it’s no longer the exact chemical compound that has been researched and shown to be a carcinogen, but it still has all of the same water and oil repelling properties (which go hand in hand with the carcinogenic properties), but because it’s a newly engineered chemical it’ll take another 20 years before that particular chemical gets researched by public funds and shown to also be a carcinogen. The environmental engineering research community calls this “chemical whack-a-mole” and unfortunately it is very effective for businesses to skirt around health regulations. Because in the US we allow businesses to use chemicals until they’re shown that they’re dangerous (whereas in many other developed countries you have to prove the chemical is safe before you can use it).

[Radagast]

^ I'm a drinking water engineer too (1/3 of the time I am 100% of the time), probably why we both ended up with activated carbon recommendations :)

[mistymoney]

I like the zero filtration.

https://www.zerowater.com/collections/water-filter-pitchers-dispensers

[Sibley]

Try putting a pitcher of water in the fridge and drinking from that. That allows the chlorine to dissipate and for some people that fixes the taste issue.

[GuitarStv]

Tap water has historically been shown to be safer than bottled stuff (and sidesteps a lot of the environmental waste and cost).  If I was concerned about the quality of water I'm drinking I'd switch immediately to tap.

[Sibley]

https://www.ladwp.com/residential-services/water-quality/water-quality-faqs

You said LA yes?

[FLBiker]

I drink tap.  When we lived in Tampa, we used a Brita pitcher, but we moved 4 years ago and haven't taken that out of the box.  We live in semi-rural Nova Scotia.  We do have a filter in our fridge, and I occasionally get water from there, but we haven't ever changed the filter.  It's a relatively new fridge (~1 year) but I have no plan to change the filter.  I'm not particularly sensitive to smell and taste.

[Dicey]

We're lucky enough to live within an excellent water district*, but during the drought, they had to buy water elsewhere and it was gross. I researched the Berkey water system and it was eye-wateringly expensive. I bought a Britta at Costco and now use the Kirkland replacement filters. It did the trick. Now, I use one in the RV because water quality is variable when you're on the road. Britta has a ton of different styles. Surely you can find a shape that fits your needs without breaking the bank.

As for filtration systems, we bought a rental house that had a very expensive system installed. It was such a PITA, we reluctantly removed it.

As to microplastics, you can purchase filters for your faucets fairly inexpensively. If you buy water, how do you even know if they screen for them?

*@Sanitary Stache - Thanks for that detailed explanation. DH worked for a water district, which is why we chose to live within it, but he was in a different capacity.

[simonsez]

I've heard about stuff leaching from plastic water bottles in temps as low as 120 (but more common 135-140 and up).  If you buy water in plastic water bottles, how do you know that crates of bottles weren't sitting in the heat on a ship, train, or truck?  Sure, you can avoid leaving a plastic water bottle in your car during the hot months but you have no control over where it was prior to buying it in the store.

Seems like water locally treated and flowed to your house in relatively cool pipes that you then filter to your satisfaction would mitigate leaching and also reduce plastic usage.  win-win

[innkeeper77]

Bottled water is usually held to much lower standards than tap water. What in particular are you worried about in your water supply? Does you home itself have some plumbing you are worried about?

[Cranky]

If you are concerned about the safety of your tap water, get it tested. If you don’t like the taste, run it through a Brita filter and then chill it.

Bottled water is basically someone else’s tap water, and if you’re worried about microplastics, plastic bottles aren’t great.

If you really want purified water I’d get a countertop distiller.

[uniwelder]

There's a lot of mention of microplastics in bottled water.  I should try looking for info online, but for now, I have nothing to back this claim up. 

From what I understand, the microplastics are not due to the plastic bottle, but the filtering.  Same as your home water filter, large industrial water filters are made of very small plastic fibers.  Supposedly, the fibers break off with time and turbulence and end up in the final product.  If someone has definitive information about this, I'd be interested to learn more.

[TexTexTex]

This is actually a topic of interest to me recently. The house I'm moving into is equipped with an under-sink reverse osmosis system. For years I've been consuming bottled water, which I'm now experiencing feelings of regret.

What's the easy answer, pitcher filters or RO systems? I've given up all other beverages other than water these days, so I'm willing to pay some money for it to be good quality.

[Cannot Wait!]

If it's the taste she doesn't like, just put a jug in the fridge with cut up cucumbers, mint and/or citrus.

[Glenstache]

Listen to @Radagast  and @Sanitary Stache as people who actually have technical knowledge. I am a hydrogeologist who has spent almost 20 years thinking about water quality. The taste issues are easily solved by carbon filters and letting it stand to off gass volatiles.

Note that particulate filters can grow a bacteria, which is usually some sort of metal-reducing bacteria rather than a mold like you get on bread. These are usually not harmful and can be remedied by routine filter changes. Also, most of what you see is on the upstream side of the filter, not the filtered outflow. Biofilms are everywhere to varying degrees in water systems. Going to a bottled source will not get you away from them and backflushing and media replacement are routine maintenance for industrial water treatment.

Just as a side note, if you have not run your own carbon filter before, the first flush out on a new filter (and infrequently after that) you will sometimes see black flecks coming out in the water. These are the carbon media, not mold.

I live in a town that has a PFAS cleanup site that is impacting our drinking supply. After reviewing the treatment effectiveness data (really big carbon filters), I drink our tap water straight every day without hesitation.

Here is a link to the water quality for the LADWP 2023 year. The water quality is fine.
https://www.ladwp.com/sites/default/files/2024-07/2024_DIGITAL_PUBLICATION_2023_Drinking_Water_Quality_Report_03_Print.pdf

[Radagast]

I've already said I recommend activated carbon, and not RO. What do I do personally? Water from the fridge filter, or straight from the tap (at current location they taste the same to me, and pretty good too)

I don't like RO because RO strips too many, basically all, dissolved substances and ions and everything from the water. Water with nothing in it is chemically out of balance with every environment, and it really wants ions back. It will corrode high grade stainless steel pipes in a few years in its desperation to get back ions. Your body doesn't need just water, it needs water with a very specific balance of minerals. Suffice to say RO water would be very detrimental to that balance. There are three ways to get around this 1) not really use RO but imply it's RO 2) reintroduce a portion of the RO reject stream to the treated water (hey 90% treatment is better than none) 3) introduce a mineral pack that must be regularly replenished. For a good system you get 3). But your body is biologically compatible with minerals in water from springs, streams, and rivers, why assume that the random engineered mineral pack is better than the naturally occurring minerals? Sort of like never exposing yourself to bacteria is counter productive and unnatural, only drinking artificial water seems short sighted. Plus you are taking something out just to pay to put something else of unknown quality back in on a regular basis.

Next RO wastes a lot of water, as previously. Plus, the RO membrane is very easy to damage or foul, and will need other filters in front, some of which could be substituted by industrial chemicals but not in a household RO. Even then, it will foul pretty fast and if you can't chemically clean it (household filters I assume are not designed to) then you have to throw it and the other filters away regularly despite being in otherwise good condition, just plugged. Very wasteful and expensive to maintain, and if not maintained could even develop biological growth and make things worse.

GAC is also somewhat wasteful and expensive, but not nearly so much. It is good for tertiary (taste/odor) treatment of many compounds. While YMMV may very depending on water chemistry, temperature, media, etc. (I'm not stamping this advice) it also can serve as primary treatment for a pretty impressive range of things including VOCs, DBPs, and even heavy metals. It's used to remove gold from cyanide (and gold is really attracted to cyanide), so I assume it catches gold silver and copper. It catches mercury, so I assume cadmium as well, and I assume some others. None of these should be significant in your water, but it won't hurt if an insignificant amount is significantly removed. Importantly though vs RO, it also leaves all the good ions intact. So default to doing nothing, but if your water tastes bad then GAC.

Note, I'm a nuts and bolts engineer not a chemist or anything like it. I've just worked on a number of water treatment projects.

[Telecaster]

The main issue for my fiancée with using tap is that she doesn't like the taste. The issue with under sink water filtration is the potential for mold to build up in the filter and where the water leaves the spigot.

For me, I've been hearing a lot about micro plastics in the water especially from bottled. I'm thinking one possible solution to all of this is getting water from a dispenser or shop and using a glass 3 or 5 gallon bottom feed water dispensing unit. That way it should be cheaper than bottled, little to no contact with plastic and no mold issue. Bottom feed so there is no chance of the glass container falling over and smashing something since it's going to be heavy.

I get the part about your fiancée not liking the taste, but dealing glass bottles sounds like fantastically more effort and cost than simply cleaning the filter on a regular basis. 

There are whole house inline filters which work great and are not very expensive.   My mom's house has one.  Changing the filter occasionally is easy, cheap, and has to be less effort than dealing with bottles.