Is Bottled Water a con?

yes. tastes the same as water out of the tap, ie, of nothing.

Yes dear, it does taste of nothing - that's why we buy it! It has none of the chemicals that the water board add to make it, err, cleaner ;)

Originally posted by Abby
Yes dear, it does taste of nothing - that's why we buy it! It has none of the chemicals that the water board add to make it, err, cleaner ;)

Totally agree and if the teeth fascists get their way then we'll all be drinking even more bottled water to avoid flouridation.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Huwj, you should ask them to install a water cooler for the reasons you cited above.

The tap water in sheffield is the best I have ever tasted in this country.

If it's the chlorine and other additives that bother you then you can get a water filter plumbed in, which will happily produce endless amounts of 'mineral water' for about .02p a liter. In taste tests filtered tap water is indistinguishable from still mineral water.

Waters like San Pelligrino and Ramlösa are famous for their taste, which in both cases is quite strong (for water) and are of course carbonated too. You won't ever get these out of a tap.

And have you ever noticed that Evian is Naive backwards?

Of course it is a con! £1 for a liter of water, that someone has taken the trouble to transport in a lorry all the way from france - preposterous.

No need to get a water filter plumbed in. Just buy one of those Britta (sp?) filter jugs. That way you can still enjoy Sheffield's water, but hopefully remove any of the chemicals you are worried about. In my opinion filtered water tastes exactly the same as bottled water - but is far, far cheaper! One filter costs about £1.50 and lasts a month, compared to about the same price for a single bottle of Vittel etc.

The nice thing about having one plumbed in ( i don't, but used to sell them (NSA)) is you get an extra tap for filtered water, so you have mineral water literally 'On Tap'. the nice thing about keeping a filter jug in the fridge is that it's nice and cold.

Why does bottled water have a best before date? How would it go off?

I bought a filter jug to take the chemicals out of tap water and it is excellent, the taste is so much better, fresher and more pleasant to drink. Also, I am much happier knowing that it is virtually free of cancer causing chemicals.

Filter jugs seem like a good (and cheap) compromise for people who don't like tap water and don't want to splash (no pun intended!) for bottled water. Maybe I should become a salesman for Britta... :lol:

Originally posted by Classic Rock
Why does bottled water have a best before date? How would it go off?

It's not the water that goes off, it's the plastic bottle it comes in. As time goes on dioxins are released from the plastic bottle and these are nasty beasties.

Why does bottled water have a best before date? How would it go off?
It's not that the water goes off, it's more that their share price drops over time unless they continue to sell vasts amounts of "fresh" water...

The cynical Geoff returns :P

All water tastes of nothing whether its got limescale in or its out of a bottle claiming to be from some posh spring in derbyshire. Id say the only difference in taste is a placebo effect from having to pay so much.

I buy bottled water when I'm on the go. It's either that or fizzy, sticky pop which'll rot my teeth. Bottled water is also best for re-hydrating yourself, pop is no good.

Also, bottled water has become quite fashionable! So thats another reason to be seen with a bottle lol!

Originally posted by geoffbowen
Filter jugs seem like a good (and cheap) compromise for people who don't like tap water and don't want to splash (no pun intended!) for bottled water. Maybe I should become a salesman for Britta... :lol:

Hey, I've been using a Britta filter for years and I love it. I hate the taste of chlorine. The jug has a dial on the top which tells me when to change the filter too. You can even buy the attachments to screw onto your kitchen tap and filter the water coming out. I don't like that as they are bulky and the water isn't chilled.
Why buy bottled spring water? You don't know how many cows have peed into the river upstream. I drank the water from the spring in Buxton and it was wierd. Warm too. Not very refreshing.

Waters foul as it is, without having to pay for it being bottled, supposedly from some natural spring. The thing that makes me laugh is those that buy it to avoid the chemicals and because its a 'healthier' option, and then drink it with their bag of crisps or greasy chips. Ridiculous. People seem to lose all logic when it comes to a fad created by a clever marketing team.

Talking of water can anyone recall the scare a few years back
about the perils of lead pipes.
I checked this out with the Sheffield medical records and discovered that not one person had ever died in the city as a result of drinking lead-piped water.
There woulkd seem to be a bigger risk in swigging from beer bottles that rats and cats have peed on.

i agree with T020. Bottled water. How stupid!! Take a bottle with you and find a tap you fools! Water snobbery - what next!
*posh accent* miiiiiiines a brita filtered whats yours? Vittel! obviously! Vittel?? oh thats sooooo last month dont you know EVIAN is in!

Its all from the same place! rivers, seas, our own urine.

Originally posted by Funke88
Why buy bottled spring water? You don't know how many cows have peed into the river upstream. I drank the water from the spring in Buxton and it was wierd. Warm too. Not very refreshing.

Water that comes through your water pipe has been through, on average, nine people before you drink it (said my science teacher).

Does Britta whatchamacallit filter that out too ;)

All water has been through people thousands of times. Its called the water cycle, and whether its been bottled by some money grabbing company or straight out from the tap, it has still been through the water cycle many, many times. Did you not do geography at school?

No mate. Bunked off that lesson. But surely water cycle is science?

Originally posted by t020
All water has been through people thousands of times. Its called the water cycle, and whether its been bottled by some money grabbing company or straight out from the tap, it has still been through the water cycle many, many times. Did you not do geography at school?
I wouldn't say thousands of times.
A survey was taken and apparently the water in London has passed through an average 200 people by the time it reaches your glass.

Still not a nice thought though!

Originally posted by Abby
No mate. Bunked off that lesson. But surely water cycle is science?

Nah its both actually

Well, I did GCSE Geography and precipitation was covered in much more depth than in Science. Also, remember that humans are relatively 'new' to the planet, and that water we drink has probably even been through a Dinosaur! When I think about it, I'd rather the water was treated and not that natural. I never drink water on its own though because its repulsive. Sometimes I add orange to it, but mostly I prefer Coke or Pepsi. Unhealthy I know, but I don't pretend otherwise, and I certainly don't sit with a bottle of 'Healthy' mineral water in one hand and a pack of high fat crisps in the other.

Diet Coke: Full of poisons, toxins and synthetic flavour...
Tastes great.

If you get water from a spring then at least you know its not passed through other peoples bodies as it comes direct from the hills.
Mind you we have a large bottle at work and take turns in filling it up with tap water for the kettle.
The tea point is up a floor so one idol work colleague dicides to fill the bottle by the water cooler to save him walking upstairs.
When the water from the cooler is boiled it leaves a fatty substance in the kettle almost immediately which tells me that spring water is actually full of fat.

Originally posted by The Cycleracer
If you get water from a spring then at least you know its not passed through other peoples bodies as it comes direct from the hills.Erm, correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think we had an infinite supply of water on Earth, so finding some water that's not already passed through someone at some point in its lifetime is highly unlikely, isn't it?

I remember reading a story many years ago about some water being found in Africa which had been stored in barrels and left over from WWII. It seems this water was the purest in the world as it had no radiation in it at all. Every other source of water on the planet has traces of radiation due to our playing around with nuclear power and bombs. This includes water drawn from ice from the Arctic and Antarctic, don't ask me how, maybe it's an apocryphal story.

The water in springs has fallen as rain at some point in the near past so it too is contaminated not so much with urine but with whatever we dump in the atmosphere/oceans.

Stick to red wine.

Originally posted by Tony Ruscoe
Erm, correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think we had an infinite supply of water on Earth, so finding some water that's not already passed through someone at some point in its lifetime is highly unlikely, isn't it? You stand corrected.
If rain falls directly on to the top of a hill, filters through some underground natural draining system and renters out of a natural spring flow then that water has never touched human organs.

Originally posted by The Cycleracer
You stand corrected.
If rain falls directly on to the top of a hill, filters through some underground natural draining system and re-enters out of a natural spring flow then that water has never touched human organs.

Originally posted by Tony Ruscoe
Erm, correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think we had an infinite supply of water on Earth, so finding some water that's not already passed through someone at some point in its lifetime is highly unlikely, isn't it?
Tony, what do you mean by its lifetime when you are referring to water?

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Tony, what do you mean by its lifetime when you are referring to water? I mean "as long as the water is around" - which to all intents and purposes, water's "lifetime" is infinite, isn't it? Or is new water created all the time? I dunno :?

Originally posted by The Cycleracer
You stand corrected.
If rain falls directly on to the top of a hill, filters through some underground natural draining system and renters out of a natural spring flow then that water has never touched human organs. OK - where did the water come from? Or where will it go? In your example, someone may well drink that water which will then eventually end up getting evaporated and then rain back down on a hill. (I didn't there was an endless supply of water on Earth, which means that the water (rain) that falls on top of a hill could have once been contained in the the sea, urine, sweat... or anything really that contains water.)

Can anyone who knows about this please explain?

Far as I remember, rain is moisture which is sucked up (technical term that) from any open water, the sea, lakes, puddles, etc. So yes, it can have come from anywhere and is a brilliant method of re-cycling.

Originally posted by The Cycleracer
If you get water from a spring then at least you know its not passed through other peoples bodies as it comes direct from the hills.
Mind you we have a large bottle at work and take turns in filling it up with tap water for the kettle.
The tea point is up a floor so one idol work colleague dicides to fill the bottle by the water cooler to save him walking upstairs.
When the water from the cooler is boiled it leaves a fatty substance in the kettle almost immediately which tells me that spring water is actually full of fat.

LOL! I highly doubt that there is water that has never EVER, in millions of years of existance, passed through a humans body. You don't seem to understand the basic concepts of the water cycle. To put it simply, I could go to the toilet and urinate, which would then go through the sewerage system and back into the water supply, sometimes in the sea. The water can then evaporate from the sea into clouds. On a windy day, clouds move several miles, and yes, that includes over 'natural' springs. When the cloud starts to pour rain, it will of course go into the springs water supply, which you will then drink. Imagine this but on the huge scale of the Earth and over millions of years. All the times that its rained. I highly doubt any water on the planet has not been through a human or animal body at all. Do you understand now??

Get sum council pop daan thee neck oil!

There was a time, last year, when i had money, when i'd buy about 12L of the stuff a week... Than i figured out how much id save a year getting it out of the tap :) There are always filters but im dubious on how much they actually filter. Surely they don't reduce of the fluorine levels?