Fridge water?

[theowlman16]

Anyone patient enough to do a 10 gallon batch with water from the fridge dispenser. It might be my best (cheapest) option for quality brewing water.

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

Nope, I just put a filter on water hose.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006IX87S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ME11FS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I just found these looking g for solutions to crappy city water at a reasonable price...I'm a little pissed at myself that it took me this long to find this incredibly simple solution!

 

[IslandLizard]

If your tap water is crappy, filtering really won't make it much better.

The typical charcoal filters can remove most of the chlorine and some of the bad taste if trickled through slowly enough. It won't remove minerals, iron, manganese, etc. Chlorine and chloramines (added by your municipality for sanitation) can be easily removed with 1/4 Campden tablet per 5 gallons of water.

To filter everything, buy an RO setup (~$200) or buy RO water from your supermarket/Walmart. Those will give you 99.99% pure water, with very low mineral content.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

If your tap water is crappy, filtering really won't make it much better.

The typical charcoal filters can remove most of the chlorine and some of the bad taste if trickled through slowly enough. It won't remove minerals, iron, manganese, etc. Chlorine and chloramines (added by your municipality for sanitation) can be easily removed with 1/4 Campden tablet per 5 gallons of water.

To filter everything, buy an RO setup (~$200) or buy RO water from your supermarket/Walmart. Those will give you 99.99% pure water, with very low mineral content.

So, just to ask those of you that bought RO systems - At $350 for a good system, I don't brew enough to make it pay off for at least 10 years. If I remember you need to brew on an almost weekly basis for it to pay for itself in any reasonable amount of time. That being said, was it just a convenience factor for those that have bought one? Or was it more than that?

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

Anyone patient enough to do a 10 gallon batch with water from the fridge dispenser. It might be my best (cheapest) option for quality brewing water.

I use to do it for 5 gallon batches untill I got a whole house filter. It took 10 minutes to get enough water.

Also, if you have a water softener you will need to bypass it. Soft water is not good for brewing. If you bypass the softener you will need to run water for a bit to get regular water out of your faucet. Most softeners have a bypass on them so you can get not-softened water. I have the whole house filter in-between the street and the softener so I can get regular water out of the faucet in my brewery. I also have a filter from an ice/water dispenser I run it through too.

 

[NSMikeD]

I have a RO/DI unit for my small reef tank that screws right into my faucet that I got for $80. Takes about 75 minutes to fill a 5 gallon water jug, but I know I am starting with 99.99% pure water. There are things that RO will not remove that DI will. Given that the life of my corals depend on pure water, I can attest that an $80 tap connecting RO/DI unit will more than serve a home brewers needs. I calculate that the cartridges will last about 18 months doing 5 gallon weekly water changes for my fish tank before needing to be replaced (some much longer).

Local fish stores will also sell RO/DI water in 5 gal jugs for less than $5.


note: for brewing, my tap water is pretty acceptable so I don't use the RO/DI for homebrewing.

 

[IslandLizard]

So, just to ask those of you that bought RO systems - At $350 for a good system, I don't brew enough to make it pay off for at least 10 years. If I remember you need to brew on an almost weekly basis for it to pay for itself in any reasonable amount of time. That being said, was it just a convenience factor for those that have bought one? Or was it more than that?

I've seen 1-2 gallon an hour RO units for quite a bit under $200. These things have come way down (Amazon, NewEgg). For brewing, you'll need to start collecting water the day before to get your volume. You may want to use that water for cooking and drinking too, if your tap water is crappy.

There are certain ions that cannot be filtered out or are harmful to the RO membrane, so you may need a prefilter to get most of those out before it hits the membrane.

We stayed on the Eastern Shore here in MD for a vacation, and the well water was putrid. Even taking a shower was icky. If we were going to live there, obviously a good (selective) house filter would be needed in my opinion, plus on RO unit for consumption. We just "lived" on RO water from the Walmart for that time, 10-15 gallons at $0.39/gal for the week. Oh, and lots of beer, great breweries there!

 

[foam_top]

So, naive question: If one were to buy RO water from the aforementioned walmart/grocers market is it bottled and stocked on shelves or do you ask a clerk to bottle it for you? Also, what makes this better than buying bottled drinking water like I usually do?

 

[alexnova]

So, naive question: If one were to buy RO water from the aforementioned walmart/grocers market is it bottled and stocked on shelves or do you ask a clerk to bottle it for you? Also, what makes this better than buying bottled drinking water like I usually do?

Most stores will have 1gal jugs of spring, purified, DI or all three on the shelf. I don't think I've ever seen RO in gallon jugs, but tht doesn't mean its not out there.

"Drinking" water could be anything - more than likely its gussied-up tap water.

A few stores near me have a self-service RO machine up by the registers. Sometimes there are 5gal bottles ready to go for folks who are buying in to the exchange.

 

[JimRausch]

My local grocery has a RO machine. 50 cents per gallon. I never use more than 4G, diluting my well water. I bring my own empties. My well water tested pretty good but a little hard for light colored beers.

 

[TX_Brewing]

So, naive question: If one were to buy RO water from the aforementioned walmart/grocers market is it bottled and stocked on shelves or do you ask a clerk to bottle it for you? Also, what makes this better than buying bottled drinking water like I usually do?

The stores around here have water bottles (empty) for sale by the machines in one, and in the kitchen wares section in another. The ones I bought were about $5 each. You then take those to the machine, put it under the spout and hit the on button. They usually fill 1 gallon then shut off, so you have to sit there and push the button a few times.

 

[IslandLizard]

I've seen 1-2 gallon an hour RO units for quite a bit under $200. These things have come way down (Amazon, NewEgg). For brewing, you'll need to start collecting water the day before to get your volume. You may want to use that water for cooking and drinking too, if your tap water is crappy. [...]

Quoting myself...

The units sold on Amazon and Newegg may not be up to snuff, or expensive to operate and service. There's a good rebuttal in that thread by one of our sponsors, knowledgeable on this topic.

Check them out!