1 baht street water machines - do they have filters?

[Mentors65]

In 15 Years living here i didnt use them once.

Some people use the water for cooking. 

[Jim Blue]

So no one actually got sick ?

Perhaps  best to go the cheapie route ?

[saakura]

We used the big RO water dispensing machine fitted in our condo public space for over 10yrs without any problems. Now using a Neo Plus fitted inside our unit.

[bunnydrops]

On 4/2/2025 at 5:49 PM, 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

That depends, because the reverse osmosis filter needs a lot of pressure to push the water through, some systems store a few liters to dispense.

[bunnydrops]

It reminds me of when a few years ago I took a shortcut that led me behind a store in Mexico where I saw these kids filling old water bottles with a hose. They would then put a touch of super glue on the cap I guess to make the bottle feel like it hadn't been opened.

[actonion]

You would not want to drink water from the machine near my house, the old bird who takes care of it  doesnt know it has a filter i think

[Ctkong]

Invest in a good water filter system. They don’t cost much and water is the lowest denominator of good health. I read the RO water is acidic after filtration and cancer thrives in an acidic environment. 

[ronnie50]

Have four filters under the sink - and new - bought the new filters last year. Cooking with it is ok. But I tried washing fresh peeled fruit with it and had a weird stomach afterwards. So I'm only drinking store-purchased bottled water. As the tree huggers say, I'm paying mpre for the bottle than the water. So be it. My stomach thanks me for it.

[Rob Browder]

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

Get yourself a T-D-S meter (total dissolved solids), looks like a large digital thermometer with a removable cap.

 

Fill cup with water from the filter and put in the T-D-S meter. The reading should be below 50, best below 20. If it shows 200-300 reading, then it's not filtering anything.

Additional thing, which is also important is whether you're planning on directly drinking this water or boil it/cook with it. That's bacteria which a removed RO filter obviously would not remove either, but even if it did, RO filters are slow, so to fill your bottle, it would have a tank somewhere in the box. If that tank isn't cleaned, bacteria could grow in it, and make you sick even if <removed> reading comes back in teens.

Good tip on the dissolved-solids meter.  But, RO doesn't have to be slow; that noise the machines make (in my experience) is a pump which is forcing the water through the filters.  I have a multi-filter system at home, including RO, and it is slow w/o the pump running.