After being driven out of my vault and into the atomic wasteland, I was soon starving for some fresh water. Alas, China’s nuclear weaponry had turned every source of water into a puddle of irradiated goo. As luck would have it, though, I found a water purifier at the Jefferson Memorial!
Wait, that’s the beginning of Fallout 3.
Apparently the tap water in my new apartment tastes extremely bad. I knew beforehand that the ground water in my new city has a lot of lime in it, but it was still quite shocking to find out how much. I am however an avid drinker of tap water, but when it tastes this bad even I consider buying bottled water.
Because I’ve never bought a single bottle of water in my entire life I almost had a heart attack when I saw the prices of bottled water: €0.5/l! Considering an average person drinks, or rather should drink, 2 liters of water every day, those prices would run up to €30 every month, which is about 1.5% of my savings rate.
Too much!
When mentioning my dilemma to one of my friends he recommended a water filtration system because it worked wonders for him. An hour later I was the proud owner of a €20 Brita Marella XL, which can filter about 3.5l in one go. Why did I run to the store so fast? Basic math!
Buying bottled water would cost me about €30 every month, whereas the purifier is much, much cheaper. The system itself costs only €20 and uses €3.6 filters that last an entire month. Considering that tap water only costs 0.005 euros – that’s 0.5 cent – per liter, the cost of the water every month is €0.3, a negligible amount. In total, Brita water is just under €4 every month or only €0.065/l, whereas bottled water costs €0.50/l.
Enormous savings!
And the best part is that the tap water now tastes great. Or maybe the best part is I won’t have to haul water bottles around. Or maybe the best part is I share the filtration system with my roommate, which reduces the cost per liter even further. Or maybe the best part is that this solution is a lot more environmentally friendly than buying plastic bottles all the time.
Do you drink plain old tap water or have a cellar full of bottles? If you buy bottled water and don’t like tap water, consider trying a filtration system. It might save you a lot of money.
No Super Mutants were harmed in the process of acquiring the water purifier.
I use a Brita Maxtra, but I found that you can buy third party cartridges for your jug called ‘evolve’ which last for two months instead of one month and are cheaper than the Brita ones.
Awesome! Great tip, thank you! I’ll definitely check them out since I haven’t bought a Maxtra pack yet.
Thanks for stopping by,
NMW
I honestly have that exact Brita filter in the picture above.
I remember when I lived in London how hard the water was and how much lime and calcium built up in the kettle – never have had those kind of issues in Vancouver!
But I must say, Brita filtered water tastes much better than non-filtered.
Lime and calcium are really annoying… After taking a shower you can see them build up against the walls, there’s just so much of them in the water here. I don’t want to know what this will do to my washing machine!
Maybe I should move to Vancouver! 😉
Haha we have very “soft water”
I use the same brand and store it in the fridge. It’s super convenient and so affordable. Bottle water is costly. But I do have a case just in case. Good stuff. You did make a good investment!
Apparently the Brita brand is super popular, I didn’t know that!
You’re right that it’s super convenient! I was kind of surprised at the speed at which the water was filtered. It hardly takes any time at all and the water tastes so much better.
I’ll try storing it in the fridge!
That’s a great way to save money on water and it’s better for the world 🙂 Here in Canada I just drink water straight from the kitchen tap, but I’ll think about getting a filter now. We have so much local fresh water I almost feel guilty considering how little potable water this is in the world. I haven’t played Fallout 3 before, but I put many hours into Skyrim, which is also made by Bethesda! Great developers eh 😀
Saving the world, one glass of tap water at a time! 🙂
Drinking water from the kitchen tap is a no-brainer to me in most places. You’re not the first to tell me Canada has an abundance of fresh water! If Belgium ever runs out of water, I’ll be on my way. You better not drink it all by then…
Definitely give Fallout 3 a try! I prefer it over Skyrim, actually, but mostly for the setting and atmosphere. It’s a lot darker and I find the backstory more compelling. Bethesda is a great developer indeed, I just wish they released the next Fallout installment!
Cheers,
NMW
by the way, the lime and calcium can be aggravating to skin conditions like eczema, so just be careful of that too
Thanks for the advice! Luckily I’m built like a tank (ahem) and don’t suffer from anything like that. 😉
Hah! I guess we both had water on the brain this week! Nasty-tasting tap water is so frustrating–hated dealing with that in DC. Glad you’re able to share the filter with your roommate–every cent counts 🙂
Water on the brain… Sounds like you put your brain in one of those formaldehyde jars! 😀
You said there was lead in the DC tap water. I would never drink that! Seriously poisonous! Although you’ll get blue blood from drinking it. Tempting.
Fallout is a great series of games, I actually started playing them back when the first one came out in the late 90’s. They have obviously gotten better since, but even at the time they were unique and interesting games.
I’ve had a few places that I lived in the past where the tap water didn’t taste quite right. If it didn’t taste bad then I just went with it, but if something wasn’t right then I got a water filter. I guess I just got used to the tap water from my parents house growing up where I could just drink out of the hose in the back yard. Looking back at drinking hose water years later I wonder if that is ever a smart decision, it’s not like the middle of the hose ever gets cleaned. But I lived and I’m guessing my immune system is stronger for it.
Too bad I was too young to enjoy the first two games when they just came out, but I have played them three years ago or so and they provide very enjoyable experiences (free on GOG.com at the time!). They’re also quite hard, so you feel like a champ when finishing them!
Haha, drinking hose water isn’t the best of plans, I imagine, but if it didn’t kill you, it only made you stronger. It probably boosted your immune systeem, like you said.
As kids we used to catch rain and drink that, so hose water isn’t the craziest thing anyone has ever done! 😉
Thanks for stopping by,
NMW
Our tap water here in Nashville, TN, USA tastes like crapwater, so we have a PUR filter, and it’s been amazing. I can’t remember the last time we spent money on bottles or jugs of water. I think my next goal will be to install a home water filter so everything running out of any tap is already filtered from the municipal sourse.
A home filter would be pretty sweet if you own your own home, especially because a lot of appliances running on tap water will last longer.
Pretty sad that a lot of municipalities don’t take the time to offer their citizens proper tap water. A little action on their part would make so much difference financially as well as for the environment!
We have amazing tap water here in Auckland, which I’m so grateful for! Other places I’ve had great tap water are Switzerland and funnily enough from those dodgy looking streetside faucets in Rome.
Switzerland has the best tap water I’ve ever had! I almost completely forgot how good it was, thanks for reminding me! They also had small fountains in the street everywhere which you could drink from, just like in Rome.
It’s weird how the quality of water can vary so much from one place to another. I’ve only moved about 80km and it’s completely different!
Thanks for visiting,
NMW