Hey, Scottsdale water really is better! (Phoenix, Tempe: home, live, storage)

[Voebe]

For quite a while now I've been thinking that Scottsdale water, which used to be just awful, was now tasting much better. But I thought it could be my imagination. So I called and found out I was right: in the last several years, Scottsdale has been using charcoal in some capacity that acts as a filter. And I'm mentioning it in case there are people who have been using bottled water for years and years, but might want to consider whether they want to keep spending all that money.

I wonder if Tempe - which also had vile-tasting water - initiated the same improvement.

[veritased]

I have installed an in-line water filter for my cold tapwater... and I actually drink that about half the time, trying to cut down on the plastic usage. It really doesn't taste bad.

[kytoaz]

I was amazed when I moved from central Phoenix to south Phoenix. South Phoenix water is much better. Who would have thought?

[SnappleApple]

When I lived in Tempe, the water tasted awful. I bought a 5 gallon water jug and got my drinking water from the filtered dispenser at the grocery store. Later, I bought a Brita filtered pitcher. The grocery store water tasted better.

Be careful drinking the tap water where there is lots of farming. I watched this show that depicted blue baby syndrome in west Phoenix (Goodyear area). It turned out the baby was drinking tap water high in nitrates. All that fertilizer was seeping into the ground water.

[Voebe]

Originally Posted by veritased

I have installed an in-line water filter for my cold tapwater... and I actually drink that about half the time, trying to cut down on the plastic usage. It really doesn't taste bad.

What does in-line mean? Is it installed in the pipes?

I mostly refill jugs, which is annoying, to say the least.

[DetroitN8V]

Hauling water jugs around? Just get an RO system.

[veritased]

Voebe, it's a cylindrical device that inserts between the cold water supply line to your kitchen sink faucet (for example), and the faucet fixture. Takes like 5 minutes to install. Claims to reduce chlorine and other tastes. I think it does do that job, at least mostly. It's very highly rated on Amazon. However, the filter does not reduce much the TDS of the water. The vendor disclaims that, too, saying the objective was to reduce chemicals/tastes, but not necessarily mineral content of the water.

If one wants truly as pure H2O as one can get, then a triple RO system is really the best way I've seen to date. But they are bulky, not only because of the 3 stages of RO, but then there is a water storage tank between the RO filters and your sink tap, and you can easily run through that filling up several water bottles. Not to mention you have to drill a hole in your counter top for this dedicated water tap.

Or go with a whole home RO system, which are becoming more available.