How much of the water you drink is boiled?

I’ve noticed that boiling the water with the bag and sugar mixed in improves the flavor of tea. Worth the wait for me. Besides, what’s in the tea bag ideally should be boiled for food safety (not by law, except for Murphy’s law… yeah I do things in the spirit of this law, and that improves quality most often, in my opinion).

When I lived in the Himalayas I had a filter for my drinking water but didn’t boil everything. I think it must have been well water but not sure.

In Seattle, city water is treated with chlorine, ozone, and more to ensure safety. Not exactly “raw”. Other places vary, obviously.

Cedar River water is:

Screened to remove debris
Chlorinated to remove microbial contaminants, such as bacteria and viruses
Fluoridated for dental health protection
Ozonated for odor and taste improvements and Giardia control
Disinfected with ultraviolet light to disable microbial contaminants such as chlorine-resistant Cryptosporidium
Supplemented with lime for pH adjusted corrosion control to minimize lead leaching in older plumbing systems.

Cedar River water meets or exceeds all federal standards for drinking water. Daily, more than 50 samples are tested before and after treatment at Seattle Public Utilities Water Quality Lab for a variety of waterborne disease indicators, minerals, chemicals, and contaminants.

http://www.seattle.gov/util/EnvironmentConservation/OurWatersheds/CedarRiverWatershed/WaterSupplyTreatment/index.htm

1 Like

On the other end of the spectrum, people are paying a premium for “raw water” - $16.49 for 2.5 gallons. There was a discussion here a while back. :smile:

2 Likes

I guess it depends, this is what the CDC says:

“Ultraviolet light treatment of water is not effective against Cryptosporidium at normally-used levels”

“Except for boiling, few of the water treatment methods are 100% effective in removing all pathogens Boiling can be used as a pathogen reduction method that should kill all pathogens. Water should be brought to a rolling boil for 1 minute. At altitudes greater than 6,562 feet (greater than 2000 meters), you should boil water for 3 minutes”.

That’s for water from “wild” sources, not from a tap.

When I look at the number of people worldwide who fall ill after drinking municipal water versus those who are sickened from wells, lakes, etc, I’m really not convinced that you’re barking up the tree that you should be.

3 Likes

It’s a statement about water treatment in general. Boiling is most effective at removing pathogens, period. This is why they recommend boiling tap water when anything might be wrong with the system. That takes its place. The point was, we wouldn’t necessarily know when exactly to do this before drinking some of the water they recommended boiling (and the other point was that they said it was too expensive to test it thoroughly in the first place, so they’re guessing too). Currently there are over 40 alerts to boil or not drink water in my state

What state is this? Somewhere hit by recent hurricanes that caused flooding, I assume? Maybe boiling might not be such a bad idea in that case, and as you say, not that daunting a task.

It is worth remembering OTH that boiling only takes care of biological toxins. If you’ve got lead in your water, for example, (as in Flint), boiling it isn’t going to help. Not even to mention nuclear waste contaminating the rain and groundwater as happened after Chernobyl and Fukushima. Not saying this to throw out a scare but just saying you can’t protect yourself against every danger.

3 Likes

I’m just looking at it as another aspect of food safety for how I prepare things. The more uncooked food one eats the more pathogens would be involved from time to time. So if I bother cooking other food for that reason in particular, I’ll probably bother cooking water too. That’s all. It works for me in general. Avoiding more people during flu season kept me from getting sick, and the same goes for avoiding more raw food or fluids. I don’t get sick that way as often since I’ve been avoiding the pathogens in my diet. I don’t have a phobia about this, in my opinion, because it is cause and effect (I actually get sick more often when I’m not careful). It is a rational choice to include the kill step in preparing water methinks. I can’t always be that careful, but prefer to when possible.

By the way, a story in the news mentioned that more people than ever prefer to eat fast food, and not for lack of other choices (based on income). So I can understand that if they’re perfectly fine with eating poop in their food (as depicted in the movie Fast Food Nation) that they wouldn’t give a shit about some poop in their water either. There was a recent story about some kind of viral crap in the salads at fast food places too, so life still imitates art I guess. To each their own.

Anyway, I’m not trying to lecture anyone. That’s in the news enough as it is. I’ll share a couple tips though for some things that have made it more convenient for me so far. When I boil water in a large stock pot, I use a large quart-sized ladle with a two handed grip to pour the water into glass caraffes or pitchers, once it has cooled off some. I also got some smaller two- and one-cup ladles to pour the hot water in mugs easily from the pot (they were pretty cheap to buy at an Asian shop). The plastic ball jar lids can be used for caraffes as well, they don’t screw on, but are good dust covers that fit pretty well, while being easy to get on and off one-handed. Using pitchers without dust covers can make a difference in its quality after sitting there, where I am at least (in my little soup kitchen as it were).

Another tip is that when the pot is larger, water can boil faster when the lid is on. Maybe that’s obvious but I hadn’t noticed much of a difference with smaller pots, so it didn’t occur to me until the large one took forever without a lid.

Since you’re committed to this lifestyle, you might find a stockpot with a spigot useful. You can drain water from near the bottom of the pot instead of ladling it out.

2 Likes

The OP’s handle translates to: humid

1 Like

Have you considered having a hot water dispenser? It will boil your water and keep it warm (if you want to) and then dispenser the water in a convenient manner. Minimal work for you.

image

Or an inexpensive electric kettle:

image

4 Likes

Thanks for the ideas. For now I think the ladles will be fast enough, and I have more than one use for them. But I like knowing of various ways to do things also.

The potential contamination from the kettles and ladles exposed to the air, and of the water left susceptible to airborne contaminants is mindboggling.

1 Like

Sarcasm? Funny, that’s probably why there’s no cure for the common cold, because people would have to care to cure it. With an ounce of prevention I’m cured though, thanks. As long as those things aren’t in a public place, like olive bars for example, where people can’t resist sticking their hands in anything not child proof, I don’t have to worry about fool proofing so much (but I could easily stick the ladles or containers in the boiling water for a minute, or heat them gradually, if I thought they needed a bath).

Besides, the water tastes better, or actually has no flavor (like it’s supposed to) after I give it the special treatment. So I’m liking that, and don’t even have to prepare it every day, so it isn’t too much to keep up with. Well, maybe arguing about it is, so I’ll leave it at that.

The only time I had to boil water was when visiting family in Mexico City. There it’s a daily routine

1 Like

I boil all my water. It’s a Chinese thing. :sweat_smile:
I have a hot water dispenser so it’s easy, but I also prefer hot water for my sinuses. It helps with constant stuffy noses.

2 Likes