Any people in Australia think it's actually necessary have your water boiled to drink. After it's cool down to room temperature of course???
Boiling Australia's tap water before consuming
ilove on 24/08/2024 - 18:02
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It may depend where you are, but generally speaking tap water in Australia is safe to drink. I have never boiled tap water before drinking and never had a problem.
I do however live in Adelaide, where the water authority adds quite a bit of chlorine to the water. Therefore I use a Brita filter to make it taste good.
where the water authority adds quite a bit of chlorine to the water.
Likely it's that you're close to the water treatment plant or a re-chlorination point, as the residual disinfection rate needs to ensure that even the furtherst reticulation customer is receiving water with sufficient disinfection safety margin.
(And would also depend on the water source being used at the time)And it's most likely chloramine instead of chlorine.
No. It's because Adelaide is at the arse end of the Murray-Darling basin. Yes, they have desal, but you're still getting all that goodness of industrial run-off, dead animals and who knows what from the more than half that isn't.
SA Water has a cool feature on its website that tells you about the water in your area
https://www.sawater.com.au/water-and-the-environment/safe-an…
I drink tap water but having cooled boiled water helps take the edge off the chemical aftertaste which is noticeable if you drink non tap water.
Absolutely not necessary to book as Australia has the cleanest tap water in the world, bar the forever chemicals they just found in Sydney, which is really unfortunate
forever chemicals
Boiling ain’t gonna fix that…
Yeah i know
Absolutely not necessary to book as Australia has the cleanest tap water in the world, bar the forever chemicals they just found in Sydney, which is really unfortunate
What they found is just the tip of the iceberg. The truth is that the water has been contaminated for a long time, it's just at a low chronic level so most people don't realise it.
What they found is just the tip of the iceberg. The truth is that the water has been contaminated for a long time, it's just at a low chronic level so most people don't realise it.
Oh dear. Mr Doomsday prepper is back on the prowl again.
Absolutely not necessary to book as Australia has the cleanest tap water in the world, bar the forever chemicals they just found in Sydney, which is really unfortunate
Don't knock PFAS. Trace PFAS contamination - which is only suspected of causing ill effects not proven - in our groundwater just got me and 5,000 neighbors $20,000 compensation each. Paid for by taxpayers. Thank you. I'll enjoy spending your money. Given that its in Sydney's tap water, I don't think they're going to compensate all 5 million of you.
which is only suspected of causing ill effects not proven
The corporations responsible for the contamination are the ones influencing the "science" that convinces you the ill effects are "suspected". Doubt is their product.
It's a lovely game they're playing.
The corporations responsible for the contamination
The manufacturers aren't the ones paying the compensation. It is being paid by the users … like the military who used most of what they did for fire fighting training. That is by taxpayers. In all the cases in Australia the compensation hasn't been paid on the basis of how convincing the evidence was or wasn't, the government has settled out of court. But hey, its not their money, it doesn't come out of their pockets, so why not.
The manufacturers aren't the ones paying the compensation. It is being paid by the users
Yes, the corporations get away scot free as usual, passing on the costs to the people. Exactly like the various vaccine/countermeasures compensation schemes are paid for by the people. It's a total rort. We are literally paying to be poisoned.
@mrdean: Privatise the profits and socialise the losses. It is the great capitalist way, hey Clive? Don't mind me. Maybe I need to readjust my nickel foil hat.
@Daabido: I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have an issue with Clive or a random farmer poisoning him. But as soon as it's a "corporation", it's times to raise the pitchfork.
having cooled boiled water helps take the edge off the chemical aftertaste
Can you help me understand the chemistry of this?
The "chemical aftertastes" are usually from ionic compounds deposited in the water (e.g. chlorine, flouride, some heavy metals…etc.). Boiling water does nothing to reduce the concentration of these ions.
Depends on where in the country you are?
For the vast majority of areas of the country ,where treated water is supplied by municipal or similar water bodies, you're likely just wasting electricity.
A filter may be beneficial to improve taste or remove some sediment (depending on your local water supply infrastructure)
Hot water is best water
I recently discovered a life hack - if you put some dried tea leaves into it for a few minutes, it's an even bester water
No
We have a filter with cartridges inline for dedicated drinking water, I do notice less build up in the kettle with the scale…but taste wise when your thirsty anything is fine imo. Got no problem with drinking water straight out of tap.
Hard water is probably better for you, the minerals in it are beneficial as it's calcium and magnesium. Whether there's enough to make any kind of health impact is questionable, but it's unlikely to be bad unless you drink 18 litres of milk a day already or asking for a dozen extra slices of cheese on your zinger burger.
I use Philips filter on the kitchen tap, much cheaper than Brita for filtered drinking.
I'm in rural SA. We harvest rain water into a 40k litres underground tank, but you don't really want to drink that. Instead, our potable water comes from the Morgan-Whyalla Pipeline, which pumps from the Murray River. Lots of additives, I reckon.
When we bought our home eleven years ago, during the renovations the plumber recommended we install filters for drinking water. These are usually two stage, under sink. The first stage is a sediment filter, the second is a finer one that includes an activated charcoal stage. I said "do it!".
When he finishes he fills a glass with water from a low flow tap that is connected to the under sink filter unit. He hands it to me and asks "waddayareckon?"
I drink, say yeah, ok, not bad.Twelve months later I remove the under sink canister containers to change the filters.
No Filters!? The canisters are empty. The plumber had forgotten to fit the actual filters.
I put in the new filters. This time I could tell the difference.
There are a couple of lessons in that experience.
There are a couple of lessons in that experience
Peer pressure? On the spot pressure? Apparent expert bias?
It's amazing how much of our taste is situational. I bought a box of wine I hadn't tried before. Had a BYO dinner with a dozen people, so I took a bottle. It was fantastic! Rave reviews from around the table, really thought I had a winner. Night was a blast too, great food, great company, had a lot of fun.
Had another bottle last weekend at home with dinner. It's ok. Not really worth what I spent on it, definitely not worth RRP. Lesson learned. Hopefully no one else went out and bought any as a result.
i cant taste shit, i just drink tap water lol
Nope and there's a huge difference between potable and unpalatable.
Plenty of places in Australia have salty and brown water but they're all potable.
better question is how many have filters on their main tap?
Keep in mind, boiling the water increases the concentration of fluoride and heavy metals in your water, because only the water boils away, so you end up with less water but the same amount of fluoride and heavy metals.
I don’t boil mine, although I know boiling improves the taste because it removes some of the chlorine. Leaving water in a container uncovered also removes the chlorine.
Asians tend to do this lol
Are you new to Australia or have you lived here for yonks?
If you've lived here for yonks, what is your current set up? E.g. not boiled - have you grown an extra arm?
I've never boiled tap water.
In some areas where I've lived where I've thought the tap water hasn't tasted nice, I've used a filter jug.
It is absolutely not necessary and it is a waste of electricity. Having said that, I filter and boil all my drinking water.
Boiling gets rid of micro plastics ;)
But it's just easier to reverse osmosis filter to get rid of almost everything (micro plastics, PFAS, Chlorine, Fluorine) :P
Boiling gets rid of micro plastics ;)
What's the chemistry behind this?
Plastics have higher melting points than water, so you will never be able to get rid of it by boiling.
so you will never be able to get rid of it by boiling.
If a know it all say so, but the science says otherwise: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00081
a know it all
I studied chemistry at university, so not sure why you're getting uppity behind it.
FWIW, I skimmed the article you've linked, which is that the chemistry is about plastics reacting with CaCO3 (which makes sense, and wasn't something I thought about, as I had assumed that the mechanism of action was just "boiling off" the plastics, which obviously won't work).
the science says otherwise
Did you actually read the article? It doesn't actually support what you initially said. As started in this article, this technique only works for "hard" water with [CaCO3] > 120 mg/L, as the the microplastics essentially become entrapped in to the solidified CaCO3.
The article states that to get to the 90% reduction in microplastics, the water needs to have [CaCO3] of 300 mg/L, which is an incredibly high figure - you would not find tap water anywhere in Australia which gets even remotely close to this. The article also states that with a 60 mg/L concentration of CaCO3, you would only get a 25% reduction in microplastics, which is still relatively hard-ish water.
Tap water in Melbourne would have [CaCO3] of like 20mg/L, and in Sydney would have like maybe 40-50mg/L (e.g. see https://www.wfa.com.au/hard-soft-water/).
In other words, your initial statement of "Boiling water gets rid of micro plastics ;)" is wrong for the vast majority of the Australian population.
So who is the "know it all"?
[CaCO3] of 300 mg/L, which is an incredibly high figure - you would not find tap water anywhere in Australia which gets even remotely close to this.
Quick comment (strict scope wrt hardness and alkalinity) on CaCO3: you can definitely see values ~300mg/L in limestone geology GW sources, and then in the supply network where the treatment process doesn't mitigate it. Not widespread, but not uncommon in some parts of WA.
I usually only drink warm water that's cool down from hot water in the office, keeps body warm during winter, would also ask for warm / room temp water in restaurants, unless it's a super hot summer day.
I usually only drink warm water that's cool down from hot water in the office, keeps body warm during winter, would also ask for warm / room temp water in restaurants, unless it's a super hot summer day.
distill it, drink fluoride free water (Pureau is my pick) Notice more energy with even supermarket bottled water. Lived in Brisbane before fluoridation came and remember having more energy. Our drinking water was also delivered for $30 a month, reverse osmosis 25l. We used to make fun of our dad getting his car boot wet hauling the jugs but maybe something to it…
How do you add the fluoride back? It's the best part!
When I got my RO filter I was very worried about how my body would handle more natural amounts of dietary fluoride, so i've been supplementing by eating a couple healthy squeezes of colgate after each meal.
I had more energy 16 years ago too. Flouride or not.
Not against using fluoride for teeth. Neutrafluor 5000 is my pick and makes your teeth noticeably stronger after a few days. Not 100% about bioaccumulation which is why I prefer non fluoride water.
It is for a cuppa tea.