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
Last edited 25/08/2024 - 14:20
Last edited 25/08/2024 - 14:20
Poll Options
- 62boil water to kill germs.
- 641there is no need to boil the tap water in Australia
Comments
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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.
Consider Broken Hill's water. I nearly fainted in a closed shower cubicle the fumes were so strong.
Strengthens your immunity.
Lol at the negs.
I've seen people letting their dogs swim in catchment areas and algal blooms the size of several football stadiums.
Factor in whatever lines the decaying, sometimes near 100-year old pipes between your local catchment areas and your house, the inevitable leeching of contaminants into the water supply such as fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, algae, etc and yes, there are plenty of things that water treatment and filtration will never effectively remove such as heavy metals and PFOAs (for which there are no safe levels of exposure despite the fact that Australia allows PFOAs to be present at levels 140 times higher in Australian tap water samples than in the US).
Australian water also tends to be excessively hard and mineral-rich, which does cause health issues with long-term consumption as well as calcify home appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, steam irons and damage car paint when used during washing. There's also the fact that Australian tap water generally tastes like liquified and chlorinated gravel everywhere I've been in Australia and far worse than bottled water. Western European countries have the best tasting tap water in the world from my experience that actually tastes almost or completely indistinguishable from bottled water.
I've seen people letting their dogs swim in catchment areas
The catchment area for Warragamba dam that supplies the majority of Sydney's water is 9,051 square kilometres.
It has Kangaroo, Wombat, horse, cattle, chook, turkey poo in it. Don't forget the dead kangaroos.
@Miami Mall Alien: It's all relative. If you are super selective about the foods you eat, the ingredients used in cooking, and so on, then yes, maybe this is a concern for you.
If not, then it just seems similar to the rather large lady I saw in the supermarket the other day with a trolley full of processed foods and actually proudly displayed a 2 L bottle of mineral water as if she was concerned about the calorie content of her diet.
I filter water purely for coffee, but otherwise, I don't worry about it. I absolutely would not boil water because that justs concentrates minerals and chemicals rather than getting rid of them.
@Miami Mall Alien: The PFOA article linked is usual biased SMH garbage, cherry picked data and much omitted for their benefit.
It was written this way to promote the article author's funded Stan documentary: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/mark-ruffalo-on-the-ev…
The "PFOS in tap water at Footscray" they mention was a reading of 0.00121µg/L, when the guidelines are 0.56µg/L. That would be well under the US limit - a limit only set a few months ago.
PFAS/PFOS are an issue, but your post is misleading and incorrect.
@Miami Mall Alien: If our water quality is so bad then how come our life expectancy is 3rd highest in the world? On Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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…
Imagine how clean the water would be though if it was as cooked as you are
A lot of water authorities nation-wide do that.
It is really neat.
Exactly
Adelaide is the one place I would buy bottled water. Can boiling remove the forever chemicals?
Ac filter 0.5 micron fixes taste
If ‘forever chemicals’ means things like PFAS, no, boiling won’t remove that…
Please everyone go out and buy a $1000 plus RO system and buy excess filters and pay extra electricity and waste water to get rid of pretty small amounts of (harmful in large amounts) PFAS and other harmful chemicals like DANGEROUS Fluoride see:https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Fluoride-HealthProfessional/
Watch out, filtering is not good enough to improve taste and platability…
See this really helpful (expired deal) to waste money on RO…
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/860355@marcozmitch: While you were being sarcastic, your comment did enlighten me. I did not know that there are benchtop reverse osmosis systems that do not require plumbing. I bought one and so far I am very happy with it. Thank you.
Boiling would actually concentrate it more.
Therefore I use a Brita filter to make it taste good.
Just leave it in a jug or cup for 10-15 mins and the taste and smell would be gone. Chlorine evaporates quickly.
Unfortunately a Brita filter won't do very much, a quick Google and you'll find that it doesn't remove the contaminents you'd expect it to.
Had a 3000L kiddy pool. I'd simply use a hose to syphon/ vac the bottom on to the lawn (instead of watering the lawn). Then replace with tap water. I basically added zero chlorine, as it was frequently too high just from the tap water. $2 bottle of Coles bleach got me through 4 months with a crystal clear pool.
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.
People ignore truth when its printed in front of them, and those that call it out are ridiculed. Why are you so scared to see the truth?
People ignore truth when its printed in front of them, and those that call it out are ridiculed. Why are you so scared to see the truth?
Who said it's the truth?
Some people believe in the tooth fairy. My guess you are one of them.
@CurlCurl: Mainstream media reports cancer causing chemicals in our tap water, at levels above american and many European guidelines, but its safe because someone who set the Australian guidline said so?
Stick to your tooth fairy story mate.
Mainstream media reports cancer causing chemicals in our tap water, at levels above american and many European guidelines, but its safe because someone who set the Australian guidline said so?
You can't by any pain killer such as Panadeine or similar over the counter in the USA as it contains a very small amount of codeine. You can only buy Paracetamol (acetaminophen) based pain killers.
Do we blindly follow the USA to ban Panadeine?
BTW. Every time you breath, you are sucking in Cancer causing chemicals. .
@CurlCurl: I suggest you look at how many codeine containing medications, such as Panadeine, we can buy over the counter in Australia before you make claims like that. To save you the effort, it's zero. Six years ago all codeine containing medications were made prescription only. At the same time, GPs started using stricter guidelines for prescribing them.
No, it wasn't a case of "blindly following the USA", it was a decision based on evidence.
@CurlCurl: You should watch dope sick, based on true events, the family behind the pharma still living it up with the billions they hid away. You can understand why they've banned codeine. And we have created significant additional controls to minimise the use of codeine here in the last few years
There can be a happy medium between drinking everything out of a scratched up teflon pan and drinking your own pee after reverse osmosis.
and drinking your own pee after reverse osmosis
checks notes
Hmmm
taps pen on notepad
After reverse osmosis you say?
Erm, not sure if you're winding the guy up, but inverted commas should not be used for emphasis. Try italics or bold. Inverted commas are used to quote or refer to something others have said/written and frequently denote sarcasm or similar disbelief.
Using them for emphasis means you end up with badly written signs saying things like - Safety equipment "must" be used - which comes across as "Pfft, yeah right, wear what you want."
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.
$20k aint worth it when you know there will be unknown long term health effects.
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.
Temperature changes mouthfeel significantly.
Air (including dissolved air) changes perception of flavour significantly.
A lot of what people think of as taste isn't taste at all.
Temperature changes mouthfeel significantly.
Sure, but my understanding of "cooled boiled water" is room temperature water, i.e. the same temperature as the water you would get if you filled up a jug from the tap and let it come up to room temperature, right? So we're talking about water of the same temperature here, just boiled vs. unboiled.
FWIW, you can come up with any number of non-scientific explanations for variations in taste, but ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether there's an actual change in the chemical make-up of the water and if any taste differences are actually discernible in a blind trial (otherwise it's just a placebo effect).
I've not found any scientific studies looking at the impact of boiling water on taste, but have found several scientific studies which look at filtered and unfiltered water (e.g. see https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-70272-y), where the conclusion is that people could not differentiate between filtered and unfiltered water in a blind trial.
Given that filtering water changes its makeup more significantly than boiling does, I would guess that a similar conclusion would hold true for boiled vs. tap water. Any taste difference you're citing is most likely placebo.
@p1 ama: Damn it! Stop bringing your science and evidence and stuff into the argument.
Besides, you know it won't make any difference to the conspiracy theorists. No amount of data or evidence ever does. Sigh.
@p1 ama: If it must be an isolated question of chemistry then boiling is distillation without capturing the fractions. Depending on how much water and how long you boil it you're going to lose stuff that boils below 100C. I don't have a mass spectrometer to hand but I'm willing to bet that boiled water is not 100% chemically identical to stuff out of the tap and potentially a perceivable difference given the fine limits of human taste.
Perception is a lot more complicated than simply reading the ingredients list and ignoring absolutely everything else. You cite placebos like they're meaningless when we have (complicated) experimental data that proves they exist and work. Nocebos exist too and they work as well. Guess what can happen when someone unshakably believes they're drinking contaminated water?
I'm too old, but if I had my time over I'd go into organisational psychology. The idea of analysing, testing, and implementing all these allegedly unscientific factors to modulate decision making is really interesting to me.
You won't taste chlorine in the water, since it's chloramine that's used. Chlorine dissipates too quickly and is too reactive.
Chloramine, unless you're doing it for an insanely long time, won't boil away either.
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
And if you wait for to cool down it's the bestest water.
I likest milk and sweet things in it too.
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 thought there was some link between hard water and kidney stones or bladder stones or something. I could also be completely making that up
You're right, too much calcium can cause kidney stones. That said, 6 million Australians had some level of osteoporosis and generally Australians don't get enough calcium.
As I said, unlikely to be bad unless you consume a pile of dairy as well and your calcium is high.
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'm on edge of metro/rural SA (grew up metro, drank tap water no probs). We harvest rain water into a 90k litre semi submerged concrete tank, but you don't really want to drink that unfiltered (I have fished a rat out of there once).
When we bought our home 12 odd years ago, I installed 'whole of house' filters. When we moved in there was only a single 10" filter for the kitchen tap for drinking water, not even used for the dishwasher. The whole of house is a 3 stage 20"x4.5" big blue setup and a UV lamp. The first stage is a pleated sediment filter which gets rinsed off every month, the second is a finer poly 'spun' filter and then the third is the charcoal stage. water then passes thru a cylinder that houses the UV lamp. Under kitchen sink filter barely requires changing with this setup (has a clear housing so easy to monitor)
."I'm on edge of metro/rural SA (grew up metro, drank tap water no probs). We harvest rain water into a 90k litre semi submerged concrete tank, but you don't really want to drink that unfiltered (I have fished a rat out of there once)."
We lived in ADL in the 70s. In those days rain water was what we drank, wrigglys and all. The mains stuff was untouchable.
We left and returned in 2013. We thought rain water was still the go and drank it. Made ourselves horribly sick.
To give credit where it's due, the mains water supply improved substantially while we were away. The quality of the stuff coming out of Morgan-Whyalla is commendable when we take into consideration the location and circumstances.
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.
Our council has put up the rates to add a dye to comply with first nations requirement.
Selling "white" water would be racist?
better question is how many have filters on their main tap?
It's not. Both pointless questions.
I think you will find people do have them sometimes up to $3000 worth
Lots of people have them. But still not a better question.
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.
Uhhh how long are you boiling water that evaporation is enough to increase concentration of these very low concentration solutes in a meaningful way?
Lol yeah. Boil it for 2 hours reduce volume to 50%. DOUBLE concentration of fluoride you gonna die
Asians tend to do this lol
parents still do although its more because once boiled and cooled they just have a habit of putting it in a jug and filling up the kettle
When we moved to our current place, we filled a 10L spring water bottle from our old place since the tap water tastes "funny". Used to it now
Yes! As migrants from SE asia where tap water isn't potable, I run a triple filter system under the sink and boil the water before drinking.
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.
have family up the coast, their tap water has a lot of chlorine and tastes like shit but now they have filters. Turns out they are in one of nsw worst tap water areas according to something on TV
Turns out they are in one of nsw worst tap water areas according to something on TV
What region/area?
have family up the coast, their tap water has a lot of chlorine and tastes like shit but now they have filters. Turns out they are in one of nsw worst tap water areas according to something on TV
I live in one of the best areas in NSW.
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"?
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.
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It is for a cuppa tea.