Bottled Water! How safe is this!

I was told by a water engineer a few years ago that if you are sensitive to smell or feel you can "taste" water you should fill a large bottle from tap and place in fridge for a couple of hours. All will disappear.

I use tap water in the kettle and it’s fine, but if I drink water from the tap that hasn’t been boiled I get minor stomach symptoms. Also it tastes like chlorine.

Always drink tap water unless I'm abroad. No point paying for it unless you can't obtain it when travelling.

theworriedwell

Redhead56

I actually can’t drink our house water it’s like drinking bleach even though it’s been tested it’s horrid. I don’t like still bottled water but to stay hydrated I drink carbonated water mixed with ginger lemon or lime juice. It’s not something I drink everyday just when I am thirsty so I feel I should.

Where I live the water is vile. Ruins a cup of tea. We had a water filter fitted, it is under the sink and every six months I put a new cartridge in. Makes the water lovely and it costs about £40 a year for the cartridges.

I used to work in Turkey where bottles water is ubiquitous, but we had a fountain in our village where we used to refill our bottles. There was also a supplier of stands and bottles, like they have in offices, and a replacement cost about £1.

The water where I live is totally undrinkable, bleach and tcp taste, can't even use it to cook veg. I had a water jug where the filter that should last 1-2 months depending on usage used to last me 3-4 days so very expensive. So I ended up buying a Zero Water filter jug which though expensive (a replacement filter is around £10) actually lasts about 6 weeks.

I used to drink bottled water and use it in the kettle and drinking appliances. The water where I lived then was so hard, and our house was at the end of a spur off the water mains. It tasted awful and we had to complain regularly and the water company used to come and scour out the pipes,
Now I live somewhere else and the water is fine. I use a filter jug and filter kettle and use that water in my steam cleaner and iron. I am glad not to see the plastic bottles in the recycling any more. They would stir my conscience. Have weaned myself off fizzy water too.

When I first moved here the water tasted so bad I called the water board because it tasted so bad even in the tea. It was heavily chlorinated and left a black deposit. was told it was OK. So bought a water filter which I have used ever since.
Years ago in Spain the water was so bad we went up the mountain to a spring and filled our containers rather than buy water.

We buy bottled water the water is mineral or spring water and tastes better than tap water which has chlorine in it.

The bottles are recyclable we recycle them.

Tap water every day for my family. We are so lucky here in the UK, having clean & uncontaminated water on tap. Millions of people across the world would love to have the clean water on tap, which we take for granted.

Grany

We buy bottled water the water is mineral or spring water and tastes better than tap water which has chlorine in it.

The bottles are recyclable we recycle them.

We recycle the few we use, too, but I worry about whether they're actually reused in some way or just shipped off to another country where heaven knows what happens to them.

We really have to stop using plastic.

Newquay
Dreadful waste of what.The container or the water?
It is ideal to keep a bottle or two unopened keeping an eye on the use by date as you never know when your domestic supply is like mine was recently interrupted.
Fortunately only a matter of hours.

I'm really fortunate being from Birmingham where our tap water is the most palatable in the whole country (although I personally have to have something in it as I don't like plain water, from the tap or a bottle).
I've just spent the weekend in Hull and omg, the water there is disgusting, it was even horrible boiled to make coffee or tea. My son works there and fills a bottle to drink from at his desk but if he's not drunk it within just over an hour he says it seems to stagnate.
Whilst I was there, I noticed a couple of my fellow b&b guests drinking water from tetrapak containers, just like longlife milk or fruit juice.
I don't know where they bought them because I never saw them in any of the shops. The guys were Scottish so they may have brought them down with them.
I'm thinking these tetrapaks could probably be the first step in moving away from all the nasty plastic bottles for those who choose not to drink tap water.

the question was is it safe? and the answer is yes.
the other issues are surely not relevant to the question?

I read, on social media, something along the lines of ‘The manufacturers don’t make water , they make plastic bottles’.
I wish I could find the quote to credit the person, because it certainly stopped me in my tracks!

We buy ours from M&S and it’s a glass bottle. which can be washed out. We then use tap water.

Well I'm not ruining good Scotch by using tap water, it deserves a few drops of spring water so bottled it is! Other times I happily drink filtered tap water from my sports flask when out or a glass when indoors.

We used to buy around 100 bottles per month and then suddenly I felt guilty about all that plastic, so we changed back to tap water. We get our water from a lake in North Wales which is soft water and nice to drink .
I bought a Chilli bottle which keeps to cold for up to 24 hours .
The worry the OP had about the water going stale in the plastic bottles that are bought , like most packaged goods they have a use by date .

We're really lucky in that we have our own water supply from a bore hole and it's lovely. It does tend to spoil us when drinking tap water elsewhere. We do always ask for a jug of tap water when dining out, we object to paying the inflated prices for bottled water which tastes like what we have at home!

There are idiots everywhere…… even idiots that put bananas and oranges in plastic bags in supermarkets.So are we surprised that , no doubt, the same idiots are buying water in bottles that costs more than petrol. Folk will buy anything if it’s marketed well!

How does water go stale? What does 'stale' mean when applied to bottled water?

If you leave a glass or plastic bottle of Scottish tap water (which is lovely to drink) in a place where it gets sunlight, some greenness (algae) will appear in the bottle.

I've been drinking much more bottled water than before recently due to going back to work 3 days a week and covid. I take everything with me water, lunch, my own glass because some of my colleagues aren't as diligent at cleaning as I would like eg the microwave is pretty disgusting. I do so because my son has long covid and has gone from a fit healthy man to being registered disabled and I want to minimise whatever risk there is in going back to work so bottled water it is. At home I drink tap water.

I occasionally but a half litre bottle of water if I'm out, thirsty and don't have any, but I then re-use the bottle umpty-ump times by refilling it with tap water.

Tap water use a filter jug if it tastes funny and my own refillable bottle.

I also have a separate filter tap with cartridges that last about six months. Our water is vile, although I’m aware it wouldn’t make you ill, it just a horrible taste. I avoid plastic bottles unless I get caught out. In Mexico Coca Cola is cheaper than water and they have a massive diabetes problem, so even if our water is unpalatable it is safe. Mostly.

?

It's utter madness. In the UK we are lucky that we can safely drink our tap water.

I work in a supermarket and it constantly shocks me that people buy so much bottled water. I'm always wanting to point out that they're not buying water, they're buying plastic. Perhaps more understandable if they buy sparkling water, but I don't understand them filling trollies with 8x packs of 6x 2 litre bottles - or sending children to school with a 500ml plastic bottle of mineral water instead of filling a resusable bottle from the tap. Look at the sodium content in some brands, it's not surprising they actually make you more thirsty, not less!