Water Filtration Business. Anyone with actual experience.

[Adumbration]

My new house has very good town water.  I comes from a large crystal clear lake nearby that does not have any industrial or agricultural run off.  They have just upgraded the pump house and filtration at the lakeside plant.

 

We get great and consistent water pressure.

 

For our home usage I have installed a three stage filtration system with ST1: ceramic, ST2:Block Carbon, ST3:GAC.  Water quality is great, much better than plastic bottles.  I have tested it and we are good to go.  Luckily I installed just before our first covid lockdown and have had zero problems since then.  I ditched the water delivery in the white bottles.  I also found a supplier on shopee that sells blue PET plastic bottles very cheap.  I have bought several of them to rotate in our kitchen usage.

 

Once my house extensions and renovations are complete I was thinking that I might install a larger industrial size 3 stage filter (same combination of filters as above) but also run the filtered water through UV light as a final stage.  I was then going to offer locals here in the village to fill a big PE bottle (which I will sell at a tiny markup) with the fill just cheaper than the white bottle water price.

 

I fully realize that this will make the barest of margin of profits (if any) but would do it more as a community service to the locals here in my village.

 

What I do not know is will some government inspector show up and try to fine me, or require that I get some licence and pay for some half baked inspection of the system I set up?  I am not worried about work permit issues as my GF will do all of the interaction with any customers.

 

If anyone has any actual experience regarding this matter please let me know.  I would love to hear your story. 

 

 

[CharlieH]

MOVED TO DIY

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, Adumbration said:

Once my house extensions and renovations are complete I was thinking that I might install a larger industrial size 3 stage filter (same combination of filters as above) but also run the filtered water through UV light as a final stage.  I was then going to offer locals here in the village to fill a big PE bottle (which I will sell at a tiny markup) with the fill just cheaper than the white bottle water price.

Can you do better than 10 Baht for 20 litres delivered? That’s the usual price from the local supplier here. If your area has a supplier already, it’s virtually certain that you do, you are very likely to get them very very interested in you. Unless you have some influential family that is probably something to avoid. 
 

Also why would you take away the livelihood of a local business? Just because you can?

 

I don’t think you have really thought through the implications of that idea.

[kiteman9]

Have you thought about the maintenance to keep the system producing perfectly clean water and not having someone complain about getting sick from your great plan. My Thai wife would say keep life simple.

[rwill]

The more water you use the faster you have to replace the filters.  Also UV lights should be replaced about once a year even if they still are working.  They get weaker over time and less effective at killing stuff.

[warrima]

Not sure i would be so casual about the work permit requirement. As sometimewoodworker says you will more than likely be stepping on someone else's  toes doing this business (eating from their rice bowl is it they say here?) If they report you and your watched for a few days - even carrying your own water bottle for personnel use will look like your working in the water business.

[MrJ2U]

Be interesting to see how it goes.

 

I was thinking the same thing.  Not for selling but for having it for our own use. 

 

Pricey buying cases of Crystal every week.

 

Check AliBaba, they have some good prices on automated systems for production and bottling portable water.

 

Nice to see a town taking responsibility and building an adequate and safer water supply instead of pocketing the money like our village.

 

Good luck.

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

15 minutes ago, MrJ2U said:

Be interesting to see how it goes.

 

I was thinking the same thing.  Not for selling but for having it for our own use. 

 

Pricey buying cases of Crystal every week.

Installing for your own use is very different. Nobody will have a problem with that and it’s not uncommon to do just that. 
 

For us the village supply could probably be cleaned enough but the ROI isn’t good enough to bother. SWMBO waves down the village water man once a month or so and he delivers 100L ~ 200L to her kitchen foe 50 ~ 100 Baht, for drinking, coffee etc we have storage for about 360 bottles so every couple of months we top it up, this provides both drinking water for us and  kudos for SWMBO as every friend  in the village gets free clean storage containers. 
 

So for us the expense of a filter system and maintenance needed isn’t enough benefit to mate it a priority 

[Yellowtail]

Is it just me or does this seem like a lot of work and bother for a few baht?

 

OP, do you have insurance?

[xtrnuno41]

Once red water and suppliers in Thailand were/have to be  checked. You ll have to find out about that.

However it is Thailand. Dont know if Thailand has those water inspectors.

Even if you make a well to drain water, it has to be checked first and registered.

My Thai wife had a well made and first didnt know about rules, but her mum did.

You could have fines and of course a shut down. A sample of the water has to be checked in lab. 

Weird, as it is just once.

 

You want to use the lake water, but what filter system then? A RO filter system?

That one also looses a lot of water in regeneration. It cost a lot and also in maintenance.

But then you have really clean water, even all minerals are out and you have to add them again.

Pure water isnt healthy enough for people, you need the right minerals in the water, if you want  to drink.

If you drink pure water, then you can desalt, deminiralize your body, which isnt good.

 

Using UV light to kill germs and bacterie are good. In my country they switched to that instead of using chlorine.

But as said you need to change them some time, as efficiency goes down.

You also have to prevent growing of bacterie and keep the water cool, not warming up in sunlight.

Especially salmonella  Also there could be  a brain eating amoeba in the water, which can cause death.

I red about such cases in the USA, clean clear water but with the amoeba.

Another bad ass bacterie is legeonella, but that one is more effective in waterspray, but can be in water.

So a UV system is a good final cleaning of the water.

However if you treat water not right , you can be back at square one at the end.

 

[Adumbration]

20 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Can you do better than 10 Baht for 20 litres delivered? That’s the usual price from the local supplier here. If your area has a supplier already, it’s virtually certain that you do, you are very likely to get them very very interested in you. Unless you have some influential family that is probably something to avoid. 
 

Also why would you take away the livelihood of a local business? Just because you can?

 

I don’t think you have really thought through the implications of that idea.

White bottles are 14 baht here.  But more importantly company does not deliver to the door.  And the closest shop in my moobarn is a good distance away.  There are a number of elderly in my street.  Without cars nor a motorbike.  They have to walk to the shop and then lug the water bottles back best they can.  I plan to also have a couple of carts that can be borrowed to take water back to house.  It is a very small and very tight knit area where I live.  Neighbors are great, quiet, well kept gardens, no worthless kids racing on motorbikes.  The other issue is that the white bottle water is often not clean, either due to plant failure or bottle hygiene...or both.  Oh, and let's not forget the elephant in the room....the white plastic bottles may cause cancer.

 

And no, I am not worried in the slightest about someone being very interested in me.  Nor am I concerned about putting a Thai out of business.  Especially one that does a half ars*** job.

 

I asked for anyone with actual experience to post.  I did not ask for people to tell me to watch out for the bogeyman.

[Adumbration]

12 hours ago, warrima said:

Not sure i would be so casual about the work permit requirement. As sometimewoodworker says you will more than likely be stepping on someone else's  toes doing this business (eating from their rice bowl is it they say here?) If they report you and your watched for a few days - even carrying your own water bottle for personnel use will look like your working in the water business.

I have my own filtration unit already set up in my new kitchen.  The proposed new system will be out the front of our house...

[Adumbration]

11 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

Be interesting to see how it goes.

 

I was thinking the same thing.  Not for selling but for having it for our own use. 

 

Pricey buying cases of Crystal every week.

 

Check AliBaba, they have some good prices on automated systems for production and bottling portable water.

 

Nice to see a town taking responsibility and building an adequate and safer water supply instead of pocketing the money like our village.

 

Good luck.

 

 

Thanks for the informative post.  There is no need for an elaborate plant like that.  As I stated in my OP I am already using the 10 inch filters: ceramic, Block Carbon, GAC and that is sufficient to produce very good quality water.  I just intend to use the larger filters (are they 20 inches) in the same combination and then just a uv light on the tail end. 

[MrJ2U]

22 minutes ago, Adumbration said:

Thanks for the informative post.  There is no need for an elaborate plant like that.  As I stated in my OP I am already using the 10 inch filters: ceramic, Block Carbon, GAC and that is sufficient to produce very good quality water.  I just intend to use the larger filters (are they 20 inches) in the same combination and then just a uv light on the tail end. 

Good luck.

 

I always go a little overboard on things like that.

 

You sound like you know what your doing!

 

I'll definitely have to read up on it.

[jerrymahoney]

https://www.fda.moph.go.th/sites/fda_en/SitePages/Food.aspx?IDitem=LawsAndRegulations

[unblocktheplanet]

Glad to hear you're not using RO. Lots of wastage but the worst jealth effect is demineralisation. I considered an RO system here in BK when there was saltwater incursion. With climate change & sea rise, we may need RO eventually but likely not in my lifetime.