# Kroger purified bottled water goes downhill bigtime



## slackercruster (Oct 9, 2017)

I've been drinking this stuff regularly. Getting hard to find clean water nowadays.

https://danieldteolijrarchivalcolle...one-from-one-of-the-best-to-one-of-the-worst/


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## StarHalo (Oct 9, 2017)

The cheap stuff is usually municipal water that's been filtered but then has minerals added, which may be what you're seeing. I'd wager that boiling off any mineral-heavy/hard water (like Evian) will give you similar results.

If you just want filtered-as-possible water at a reasonable price, go with a Pur brand water pitcher. At any price, look into Berkey systems.


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## markr6 (Oct 9, 2017)

I've been filtering my own for at least 10 years now. At about $65/year for all the filters on a 3-stage system, I'm happy. My local tap water if fine as is, but I like the peace of mind going an extra step. I'll buy a case of bottled water now and then just for convenience when I need to just toss the bottle afterwards, but most of them are so damn cheap and "green" now you can hardly pick up the bottle without crushing it.


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## nbp (Oct 9, 2017)

The fact that there are minerals left behind doesn't necessarily make it "not clean". As "purified" is a pretty ambiguous term, I would say any water that has had toxic and/or unpleasant tasting compounds removed from it would qualify. As Halo pointed out, many drinking waters have minerals added back in for taste. Distilled water doesn't taste particularly yummy. Many homes have wells and the water is extremely hard. At my parents' house its something like 600 ppm, and will leave scale behind. But it's safe and delicious. Unless you find evidence to the contrary no harm will come to you from drinking that water.


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## StarHalo (Oct 9, 2017)

nbp said:


> At my parents' house its something like 600 ppm, and will leave scale behind.



Pellegrino is 1000 ppm, popular stuff.

You want some hardness to the water for making coffee, the coffee particulates bind to the minerals so softer water actually makes weaker coffee. That's why people who have softer water will sometimes add a pinch of salt to their brew water.


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## Crazyeddiethefirst (Oct 9, 2017)

The water in our new community is not safe to drink without a high level of filtering. In addition to the Zero filter, I also drink bottled water-it is an easy way to ensure my intake is adequate to prevent kidney stones. Ralph's grocery (Kroger) had the best tasting water of anyone else(including a lot of waters extremely more expensive). Then around a year ago, it went from best to awful...


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## moldyoldy (Oct 9, 2017)

StarHalo said:


> <snip>
> 
> If you just want filtered-as-possible water at a reasonable price, go with a Pur brand water pitcher. <snip>.



I concur with StarHalo about the Pur-brand water filter, either the pitcher or the larger container. I use the larger container.
The filter cost is reasonable, the filtration seems to be good. Admittedly I have not tested the water in my apt location before or after filtration.

I filtered water in a house for some 40 years, first from a camping filter rigged to a faucet to use the city water pressure. 
That camping filter was an activated carbon matrix block. evidently no longer sold.
I tried a 'Zero' <solids> filter. good, but expensive since the filter element clogged quickly.
Eventually I settled on the Pur filtration system for the last 5+ years. no regrets.

while camping, I tried a Katadyn all ceramic filter (no carbon) - excellent filtration down to less than 0.2 micron, but it clogged easily, as expected for that filtration level. 
My daughter/family tried a Brita filter in Germany for a while, but they realized that it was not filtering much and stopped.


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## ssanasisredna (Oct 18, 2017)

Before modern city living and city water supplies, we got much of the minerals, those things people spend so much on in the way of supplements, from ground water (or rivers, small lakes). You didn't need to drink milk \ take calcium when your water source provided enough calcium (and others minerals).

There are any number of under-counter water filtration systems, some that use multiple stages, some that are single stage (but use multi-stage filters). Many of the filters are interchangeable (not all of course). Most will filter out the majority of heavy metals, organic contaminants, chlorine, flourine, etc. Most will filter out bacteria and other "large" organisms. Some will help to remove calcium, however, as minerals are usually fully dissolved, they will simply pass through the filter. That is actually a good thing.


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## markr6 (Oct 18, 2017)

ssanasisredna said:


> There are any number of under-counter water filtration systems, some that use multiple stages, some that are single stage (but use multi-stage filters). Many of the filters are interchangeable (not all of course). Most will filter out the majority of heavy metals, organic contaminants, chlorine, flourine, etc. Most will filter out bacteria and other "large" organisms. Some will help to remove calcium, however, as minerals are usually fully dissolved, they will simply pass through the filter. That is actually a good thing.



I noticed the faucet on my under sink filter seems to get a little crust on the spout. I assume that is calcium?


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## martinaee (Oct 18, 2017)

In terms of just "taste" as long as your municipal water source is pretty good and clean to begin with something like a Brita pitcher filter with activated carbon goes a long way. Of course a basic one won't get rid of serious heavy metal problems, but if that's an issue then you've got bigger problems to take care of beyond the taste. No matter where you live definitely always have decent water supply that you rotate out every once in a while.

Not gonna lie, my wife and I have become "La Croix" snobs. Don't even drink the flavored ones much anymore, but just love having carbonated/sparkling water cans. Doesn't even need to be that brand though since it's basically just carbonated water. Not sure if that water has minerals added to it before carbonating. It's so refreshing and is such a good alternative for people who drink Soda. Haven't had any soda in years and it's great. It's amazing how bad soda is for you.

Anyone have a carbonating machine? We've thought about getting one, but don't want one that will break or not work as well as the convenience of cans of the stuff. If it works well though and is a lot cheaper it might be worth it.


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## Crazyeddiethefirst (Oct 18, 2017)

The water in the city I live in in Southern Cal has 10 times the acceptable level of Chromium 6(think "Erin Brockovich"). We use a combination of bottled and filtered(Zero) water for us, and a Brita for our zoo...


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## StarHalo (Oct 18, 2017)

martinaee said:


> Anyone have a carbonating machine? We've thought about getting one, but don't want one that will break or not work as well as the convenience of cans of the stuff. If it works well though and is a lot cheaper it might be worth it.



Gave up soda in ~2015, now prefer these little squirt Splenda bottles, no sugar, no calories, no work:


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## martinaee (Oct 18, 2017)

Crazyeddiethefirst said:


> The water in the city I live in in Southern Cal has 10 times the acceptable level of Chromium 6(think "Erin Brockovich"). We use a combination of bottled and filtered(Zero) water for us, and a Brita for our zoo...



Ugh... geeze. Is your city getting on that? As a side note I feel so bad for the residents of Flint, MI who have been so screwed over by their local government with no apparent real fixes coming.


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## martinaee (Oct 18, 2017)

StarHalo said:


> Gave up soda in ~2015, now prefer these little squirt Splenda bottles, no sugar, no calories, no work:




Interesting. I personally can't do any non-natural sugars or sugar substitutes. So many of the give me headaches. Our "soda" is basically taking carbonated water and adding a splash of something like orange juice or grape fruit juice to it. And for actual caffeine I'm a total coffee junkie. 

Mmmm.... coffee.....


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## StarHalo (Oct 19, 2017)

Aspartame gives me issues, but I lost 60 lbs on Splenda, no complaints. You'll need another thread to get onto the coffee topic, speaking as the resident former barista I can completely sidetrack everything going on about brewing. I will note, regarding coffee and water, you can get better coffee if you use bottled water; I recommend Volvic for this application as it's basically the dead center neutral of waters (Fiji being the second, more common but more expensive, choice.) If you like a stouter coffee, you can actually give your brew a thicker mouthfeel by using a more strongly oxygenated water - some stores sell these, or you can supposedly put your water in a blender for ~4 minutes and then brew with it.


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## martinaee (Oct 21, 2017)

I will have to try that blender "trick" lol. I love coffee.... gotta have it. Do pour-overs. But I need to get an actual burr grinder because the people on r/coffee on Reddit won't shut up about it and tell me it's going to blow my mind so when I have a bit o' extra dough I'll try to get one and see if it's really that much better.

I wonder what would happen if you boil carbonated water and use that... the carbonation would probably come out mostly before actually doing a pour-over I'm assuming? I might have to try that too lol. Maybe with a can of plain carbonated La Croix. Like I said I don't know if those have any added minerals.


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## StarHalo (Oct 21, 2017)

I have and have used a Kalita Wave, which is considered the best of the pour-overs, but I figure that if I'm only going to have the one coffee for the day it'd better get every last nuance out of the beans, so my main "machine" is the french press. If you just want to try a conical burr grinder on the cheap, Amazon has hand-cranked models for ~$17, but be aware we're talking about roughly ten minutes of grinding for a serving, you'd have to be pretty dedicated. Short of that, I use and can recommend the Capresso Infinity model.

You can use your LaCroix to make carbonated coffee, just do a pour-over over a glass of it, but you'll want something sweet and smooth in there as carbonation makes coffee taste very sharp; simple syrup or similar. Straight Coca-Cola or creme soda works wonderfully (and you're technically making a Coke Blak,) but that obviously violates the no soda rule..


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## martinaee (Oct 21, 2017)

Yeah, I'll probably try to get one of those under-20-dollar burr grinders on Amazon. I can't really justify a big expensive one. I use one of the plastic Melitta pour over filter holders.


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## StarHalo (Oct 21, 2017)

If you’re trying to go the minimum-cost route, do look into a French press; ~$15 with no filters, nothing else to buy ever.


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## nbp (Oct 21, 2017)

Hmmm, where's that thread about coffee??


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## martinaee (Oct 22, 2017)

StarHalo said:


> If you’re trying to go the minimum-cost route, do look into a French press; ~$15 with no filters, nothing else to buy ever.



I have a French Press. Don't use it much though since it's kind of a hassle to clean in my opinion. At least more so than just rinsing the little pour over holder and cleaning up a paper filter. I use the press when I need to make more coffee at once and use it for guests. Don't have a drip maker anymore.

I'll look at the burr grinder though even if it's a cheap one. What do you use for grinding StarHalo? And did you notice a big improvement in taste if you upgraded to a burr grinder that gave you more consistent grinds? I use a blade grinder now with good results, but some absolute coffee nuts swear that it will be the second coming of [insert preferred chosen one] when one changes to a decent burr grinder.


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## StarHalo (Oct 23, 2017)

nbp said:


> Hmmm, where's that thread about coffee??



It seems like we revisit the coffee thread idea every couple of years; I don't mind having the relevant posts moved into an old/new thread as needed, but at some point I'm going to start the grand unified coffee thread..



martinaee said:


> I have a French Press. Don't use it much though since it's kind of a hassle to clean in my opinion.
> 
> I'll look at the burr grinder though even if it's a cheap one. What do you use for grinding StarHalo? And did you notice a big improvement in taste if you upgraded to a burr grinder that gave you more consistent grinds? I use a blade grinder now with good results, but some absolute coffee nuts swear that it will be the second coming of [insert preferred chosen one] when one changes to a decent burr grinder.



Just gotta drop the individual parts into the dishwashing machine overnight, your clean field-stripped press is ready in the morning.

I use the ~$90 Capresso Infinity, works just fine for everything except an espresso machine, which I don't have. If you're doing store shelf coffee/not fresh roast, I wouldn't worry about the grinder, in fact I don't know that I've ever tasted any difference in grinding beans vs the bagged stuff when it comes to store-bought.


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## nbp (Oct 23, 2017)

Find one or start one; either way this thread isn't about coffee. It was a hint to get back on topic.


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## scout24 (Oct 23, 2017)

If coffee is 98% + water, this thread is more on track than many others. Just kidding, I'll start one now.


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## Capolini (Oct 23, 2017)

StarHalo said:


> Gave up soda in ~2015, now prefer these little squirt Splenda bottles, no sugar, no calories, no work:



May be a slight improvement over soda but still has one of the dreaded artificial sweeteners,SUCRALOSE!!

That is in the same category as Aspartame and other unhealthy artificial sweeteners. May even rank up there with High Fructose corn syrup. I remember my doctor telling me [~10 years ago] that our body does not know how/can not process HFCS and it caramelizes our brain!!

If you notice these drinks that boast about NO SUGAR/NO CALORIES Ect,,,they are bound to have artificial ingredients/sweeteners that are not healthy 

I googled some of them[Aspartame/Sucralose and many others] in a Monster energy drink[~ 8 years ago!] and have not had one since once I read what they can do to you and what they Have done to some people.

I drink spring water/mineral water[German and Italian] and some natural fruit juices. that is it.


NO COFFEE/ALCOHOL/SODA[POP] or these no calorie drinks w/ artificial sweeteners!


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## StarHalo (Oct 23, 2017)

I've heard the Splenda stories before, but remember that this is the sweetener used in Diet Pepsi; there's a significant portion of the population of planet Earth on Splenda at any given time, all you have to do is isolate any one prevalent issue/diagnosis among them. What you'll end up with is a handful of personal antecdoes basically on par with people complaining of ill effects from Wifi. There's always going to be unique reactions to some variable in a broad enough sample group, and you shouldn't take anything you feel gives you problems, but we're talking about a drug that's objectively safer than aspirin, there are much bigger food/water additives to worry about..


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## Capolini (Oct 23, 2017)

the freedom of choice is wonderful. I choose the natural way and prefer to listen to my doctor. We can all justify and rationalize things to our own needs. 

I think that's a splenda idea!


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## Capolini (Oct 23, 2017)

*Q:**What are the dangers of sucralose?*
​

*A:**QUICK ANSWER*

*Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that is made using a variety of unnatural additives, the most dangerous being chlorine, reports MedicineNet.com.* Chlorine is a carcinogen found in poisonous gas and pesticides. More testing of humans is required to determine the safety of ingesting sucralose.



*FULL ANSWER*

Since sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar, it's typically ingested in very small quantities. That makes it difficult to determine the impact it has on caloric intake, medical side effects and even the absorption of prescription medications, MedicineNet.com adds. There are many alleged symptoms associated with its ingestion, including gastrointestinal problems, skin rash, chest pains, coughing and mood swings. Additionally, although it's leading product Splenda claims to be calorie-free, it actually contains the carbohydrates dextrose and maltodextrin, which have calories.

Early research on sucralose suggests it passes through the body undigested, points out Prevention. Current studies show that it is metabolized and linked to the following problems: reduction of the good bacteria in the gut by 50 percent or more; limited absorption of medications; release of a potentially toxic compound called chloropropanols when used in baking; and altered insulin response, blood sugar levels and possibly genes.
A reduction in insulin response is of particular concern for those at risk for Type 2 diabetes, notes the Huffington Post. People at risk for diabetes or obesity are more likely to be users of artificial sweeteners in an attempt to cut calories.





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## Chauncey Gardiner (Oct 24, 2017)

....... Perhaps it's time to start another new thread. 

~ Cg


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## nbp (Oct 24, 2017)

No kidding. This thread is about purified drinking water, not the hazards of artificial sweeteners. It may be an interesting discussion though if someone would like to start the thread. Thanks.


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