1 baht street water machines - do they have filters?

[steven100]

cheap charlie ....    you go to Tesco for discounts ....     you are a penny pincher ....    

[Jerzy Swirski]

We are in the process of changing our water supply so I have been doing as many purity teats as possible.

We have three of those 1baht machines near us and all three are giving water that is clean enough to drink.

However the taste of Reverse Osmosis water is horrible and makes my coffee taste undrinkable.

 

I will be buying Nestle drinking water from Makro

[FlorC]

2 hours ago, FlorC said:

The 2 filter tubes are usually on the outside.

 

I use that water only for cooking .

Or rinsing rice or veggies.

I don't drink it , not even for my pets.

They get Purra mineral water.

Why the yellow emojii's ?

These water automats are from many different manufacturers .

The filters are on the outside were I full up , and yes like the pictures show 

some have them on the inside , or maybe on the outside and inside, depending on what kind of filter .

UV filter probably on inside.

[FlorC]

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

Maintenance is not high on the list of things to do with Thai's, the chances of them street machines getting clean are slim to none, along my usual route around my area there is a few, I have never seen a one of them being cleaned, plus they are connected to the city water from what I can see, if not then they would be connected to a well pump, god forbid if they are some of the ground water here is terrible, 

We now have 2 Makro's in the area I buy their brand of bottle water, I don't even know how much is it's that cheap, 

I stopped those from Makro's Aro a few years ago , they had a chemical taste .

Not even good enough for cooking.

[quake]

7 minutes ago, FlorC said:

I stopped those from Makro's Aro a few years ago , they had a chemical taste .

Not even good enough for cooking.

 

BS.

They are fine.

Water snobs, what a laugh. 

[scubascuba3]

2 hours ago, FlorC said:

The 2 filter tubes are usually on the outside.

 

I use that water only for cooking .

Or rinsing rice or veggies.

I don't drink it , not even for my pets.

They get Purra mineral water.

I use the 1 baht water for cooking and tea/coffee, but I'd still like to know which ones have filters.

 

To the experts out there, does the speed of water out the machine tap indicate whether it's filtered or not? sometimes slow, sometimes superfast as if straight from the mains

[ChipButty]

26 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I use the 1 baht water for cooking and tea/coffee, but I'd still like to know which ones have filters.

 

To the experts out there, does the speed of water out the machine tap indicate whether it's filtered or not? sometimes slow, sometimes superfast as if straight from the mains

Personally having lived here for many years I wouldn't used them, 

[FlorC]

I've never had a slow one in the 17 + years I used them.

[SingAPorn]

No way I am going to trust the thais to do proper cleaning and maintenance or such apparatus. Even when you hire them to do a simple job like to clean and refil an aircon, you'd better know a bit what needs to be done and closely watch if they do it or not.

[Paul45]

8 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I just tried another new machine, water flies out fast and at the back no visible filter

Reverse osmosis filters are usually slow.  I would be very skeptical of one where the water comes out fast.  I would bet the filter was removed.

 

Bottled water or boiled tap water is much safer.

[sungod]

15 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

They are as unreliable as the 1 baht machines

 

More reliable than a filter system that doesn't get changed. Save your money and drink from the tap

[henryford1958]

17 hours ago, sungod said:

20L from the water factory is 40 baht. I'm just living it up

 

Except those things give me a hernia lifting them. I've been using the 1 baht machines for years no problems.

[Gsxrnz]

The machine in my building has a sticky label saying when the filter was last changed.  It's regularly updated and always displays a fairly recent date.

 

Of course, the date may just be a change of label, not necessarily a change of filters.  I don't use it anyway, got my own 4-cartridge filter system under the sink - and the water from it is just glorious. 

[tomazbodner]

15 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

I use the 1 baht water for cooking and tea/coffee, but I'd still like to know which ones have filters.

 

To the experts out there, does the speed of water out the machine tap indicate whether it's filtered or not? sometimes slow, sometimes superfast as if straight from the mains

No. RO machines are very slow to produce water. So they have large storage tanks from were they pump water from as you can see on the photo up the thread.

With full tank you could not tell whether water in it is filtered or not, speed of pumping would be the same.

 

Note though that there are 4-5 steps of filtration in the machine, starting with larger particles, then progressively smaller particles until finally RO filter. Blockage of any of these filters would slow down the water filtration. But as said, with collection tank, that would not be visible from the outside.

[Expat68]

I have used this type of machine for 8 months, never checked, never had any issues 

[Snackbar]

On 4/2/2025 at 2:01 PM, sungod said:

20L from the water factory is 40 baht. I'm just living it up

B13.00 HKT town

[Blueman1]

On 4/2/2025 at 1:52 PM, Don Giovanni said:

Christ.

 

Times must be hard, eh scuba??

 

The Don.

They Might very well be, You don't know !!

[Blueman1]

4 minutes ago, Snackbar said:

B13.00 HKT town

12 Baht in NK....

[Surasak]

I used to use one of those 1b M/C, but have gone all posh now. I now have an Amway water filter, which last about 12 months on average. Not cheap, but well worth the outlay for peace of mind.

[BangkokHank]

I used to use one of those one-baht-per-liter water machines. And while I can't prove it, I think they were the cause of the bladder stones that I developed 10 years ago when I used to use those machines. Now I have bottled water delivered to my home by Sprinkle.

 

https://sprinkle-th.com/en/

[black tabby12345]

On 4/2/2025 at 2:32 PM, BangkokReady said:

In my experience, give them a try, then see if you get sick.  If you don't get sick, it's probably alright.

 

Yes, you are right.

I have bought water from such machines for ages.

And have never fallen ill, from it.

I always boil it(to make my tea).

So no hygienical problems.

The only issue is, they sometimes eat coins for nothing; not dispensing any water while taking money.

And it happened yesterday...

[sungod]

1 hour ago, Snackbar said:

B13.00 HKT town

  Mine tastes nicer 🙂

[Freddy42OZ]

On 4/2/2025 at 1:38 PM, CharlieH said:

Based on my experience and previous topics over the years, its's pretty hit and miss. At 1bt  or whatever, other than when installed, why would they bother with the expense of changing filters? That money is dead. The user has no idea if it is done or not, so why should they pay for a filter for no gain?

Not saying they are all like that, but personally for small money involved, I'd stick to bottled water.

 

 

I've been using a machine like this every day for the past 13 years.  It's on the same floor as my condo unit, about 20 feet from my condo unit's front door.
They regularly service it and the filters are inside the unit. 
 

[DD86]

On 4/2/2025 at 2:01 PM, sungod said:

20L from the water factory is 40 baht. I'm just living it up

What about their filtering?

[scubascuba3]

9 hours ago, henryford1958 said:

 

Except those things give me a hernia lifting them. I've been using the 1 baht machines for years no problems.

Works out expensive when @sungod has to pay for a hernia op

[BangkokReady]

1 hour ago, black tabby12345 said:

Yes, you are right.

I have bought water from such machines for ages.

And have never fallen ill, from it.

I always boil it(to make my tea).

So no hygienical problems.

The only issue is, they sometimes eat coins for nothing; not dispensing any water while taking money.

And it happened yesterday...

 

They've been hit and miss for me. One is always good. One gave me the sh*ts. Another was somewhere in the middle.

 

I'd love to test the water, just to see if my stomach is correct. 😅

[black tabby12345]

10 minutes ago, BangkokReady said:

 

They've been hit and miss for me. One is always good. One gave me the sh*ts. Another was somewhere in the middle.

 

I'd love to test the water, just to see if my stomach is correct. 😅

 

There are 2 of them in my neighborhood.

The one that ate my money was closer to home.

And it already did it twice in the past month.

Another(right and square, never took any coins for no water) is bit further away.

I thinks I better go to the latter, from now on.

 

And have you had any problems with your stomach with the water from these machines?

About a decade ago, I have read some report about the quality of the bottled water.

It said no real difference from the coin fountain...

 

[Kinok Farang]

Been using them ever since they came out.Never ever been sick but saying that in perhaps 15-18 years i've never ever seen anyone change a filter.Wonder if we become immune?