8 minutes ago, KhaoHom said:

 

Not toxic, but bc it strips out minerals you cannot live on the stuff...I had read

I agree it is not ideal, but claiming it is toxic is just wrong. 

 

You could certainty live on it, but you would likely develop some mineral deficiencies over time, unless you took supplements. And it is much healthier than drinking contaminated water. 

16 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I agree it is not ideal, but claiming it is toxic is just wrong. 

 

You could certainty live on it, but you would likely develop some mineral deficiencies over time, unless you took supplements. And it is much healthier than drinking contaminated water. 

 

It's not even easy to get in States and especially here and guaranteed wherever it's sold one could buy all sorts of waters so the point is moot really 

2 minutes ago, KhaoHom said:

 

It's not even easy to get in States and especially here and guaranteed wherever it's sold one could buy all sorts of waters so the point is moot really 

It is easy to get in the US, and it is required for any number of things.

 

I am not promoting it, but to claim it is toxic is just a lie. 

Amazing you could name so many brands.  I’ve never witnessed anyone get “worked up over which brand of bottled water everyone should be drinking because it’s “the best of the bunch,””   Your post did bring out some great advise though.  

1 hour ago, Jabberwocky said:

I understand but it's healthier to not drink the water cold. There is a huge difference between some brands, as only the more expensive ones have all the minerals including magnesium which we should really watch. The cheaper waters as well as those from the machines are usually filtered. My doc wouldn't drink from the machines, he has issues with the bacterial safety, so I would only use the refill stations for the water I cook or make tea with.

The cold water myth is something my wife swears by. I think it is a Thai thing. I don't and always have plenty of cold water in the fridge.

21 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

The cold water myth is something my wife swears by. I think it is a Thai thing. I don't and always have plenty of cold water in the fridge.

 

 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), cold drinks are thought to disrupt the body's internal balance by weakening key organs like the spleen, kidney, and liver.

On 10/2/2025 at 10:25 PM, Harry Tuchas said:

The big packs of Singha used to have an onboard carry strap, which was useful,

Singha large bottle 6 packages still have the strap in my local shop.  Just bought 2 today.   Maybe your local shopkeeper doesn't want to pay the premium and blames Singha

as long as i get a lemon to squeeze into it, im good  

40 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

It is easy to get in the US, and it is required for any number of things.

 

I am not promoting it, but to claim it is toxic is just a lie. 

 

It's easy if you know where. In Thailand and utter mystery 

 

I've not bought distilled water in US in ?? 40 years. If I couldn't find it in the laundry section or water section of a larger, metro supermarket I'd be totally lost where to buy it 

1 hour ago, daejung said:

Partl'y true, natural spring waters may have a different taste depending on their mineral composition.

Even though I drink tap water when I am in a country like mine where it is possible

Bottled "Spring Water", or any water  was really a small, niche market in the USA until the late 70s, when for some reason, it suddenly boomed and became  huge.   

Poland Springs spring water company in rural Maine  had been around since the 19th century selling just enough to keep it going, then it got bought by a subsidiary of Nestle and soon was shipping millions of bottles all over the US. 

An expose by a local Boston Newspaper revealed that the original spring had long ago tapped-out and that Poland Spring's actual source was the local municipal water supply.  Oh course they mounted a PR onslaught stressing their special filtration, blah, blah but I always chuckled after that when I saw people paying $3 a bottle for what was essentially,  town water.

11 minutes ago, dddave said:

Bottled "Spring Water", or any water  was really a small, niche market in the USA until the late 70s, when for some reason, it suddenly boomed and became  huge.   

Poland Springs spring water company in rural Maine  had been around since the 19th century selling just enough to keep it going, then it got bought by a subsidiary of Nestle and soon was shipping millions of bottles all over the US. 

An expose by a local Boston Newspaper revealed that the original spring had long ago tapped-out and that Poland Spring's actual source was the local municipal water supply.  Oh course they mounted a PR onslaught stressing their special filtration, blah, blah but I always chuckled after that when I saw people paying $3 a bottle for what was essentially,  town water.

Yeah, when I was a kid, almost no one in the US drank bottled water.

 

On a vacation to Montana, we stayed near what was billed as the "World's Largest Natual Warm Spring". In downtown Lewistown, they had a coke machine repainted and filled with bottles of spring water. It was something of a joke, and everyone thought it was hilarious that people would buy a bottle of water to drink. 

21 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

What is toxic in distilled water?

 

It doesn't take much to kill you in the manner Khao Hom says. So technically not toxic of itself but quite deadly.

Just now, BusyB said:

 

It doesn't take much to kill you in the manner Khao Hom says. So technically not toxic of itself but quite deadly.

It would take years of drinking only distilled water to have any significant negative effect.

 

Rainwater is pretty much just distilled water with a bit of dust and whatnot in it.

16 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

It would take years of drinking only distilled water to have any significant negative effect.

 

Rainwater is pretty much just distilled water with a bit of dust and whatnot in it.

 

It only takes 3-4 liters of normal water drunk quickly to cause what's technically called 'water intoxication'.

 

Distilled water dissolves and drains all the minerals, nutrients and, importantly for brain function  electrolytes in the body immediately and far more rapidly than normal water. It doesn't take much. Although I suppose theoretically you could drink a glass a day as long as you were getting all those bits and bobs elsewhere.

 

You definitely shouldn't be drinking it at the rates you take in water in Thailand to stay hydrated.

2 hours ago, BusyB said:

 

It only takes 3-4 liters of normal water drunk quickly to cause what's technically called 'water intoxication'.

 

Distilled water dissolves and drains all the minerals, nutrients and, importantly for brain function  electrolytes in the body immediately and far more rapidly than normal water. It doesn't take much. Although I suppose theoretically you could drink a glass a day as long as you were getting all those bits and bobs elsewhere.

 

You definitely shouldn't be drinking it at the rates you take in water in Thailand to stay hydrated.

I've been drinking rainwater for forty years. No harm apparent so far.

People worry about water but ultimately it will be the other food and drink that will kill them

5 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

I've been drinking rainwater for forty years. No harm apparent so far.

No filtration or no boiling ? 

 

It is a gamble with your health considering birds, bugs, and reptiles contamination as well chemical from roofs and tanks.

 

Would be interested to how you sample your water, and maintenance as well do you test your water? 

1 minute ago, scubascuba3 said:

People worry about water but ultimately it will be the other food and drink that will kill them

I would be concerned if I had kids especially about plastic contamination. Clean food from clean sources is still available if you cooking yourself 

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

No filtration or no boiling ? 

 

It is a gamble with your health considering birds, bugs, and reptiles contamination as well chemical from roofs and tanks.

 

Would be interested to how you sample your water, and maintenance as well do you test your water? 

No testing.

Use a first flush diverter system that drains away all the crud etc from the first rainfall then allows the clean water into the tanks. Some settling will take place in the tanks but I've never needed to empty the tanks for cleaning to date. I inspect them yearly. Always quite clean.

Bear in mind each tank is 22,000 litres and I've got two so there is plenty of capacity and time for anything making it past the inlet screens to settle out.

Don't use any filters,UV, RO or whatever. I know some people throw a bottle of bleach in their tanks from time to time but I've never bothered.

The tanks are built for purpose and there are no entry points for birds, bugs or reptiles etc. the inlet and overflows are screened. Mosquitoes can't get in.

Most of my neighbours have the same setup.

The only neighbour I know that used bore water for drinking

put in rainwater tanks after his wife developed kidney stones.

 

Bear in mind this setup is not in Thailand.

When in Thailand we buy bottled water for cooking and drinking and bore water for the toilet, shower and gardens.

 

Wife's mum collects rainwater in ongs. She lets the first rain go the ground then puts the Flexi pipe into the tanks. She covers them  with lids with very fine netting underneath.

In effect she is doing what I do manually.

Ok, that’s it, I’m done with Tops water. Finished! They’ve changed their bottle design and they’re just not what they used to be. Sure, the label still boasts about their fancy micro filter system that purifies down to 0.0001 microns, but honestly, that’s where the good news ends.

 

The bottles themselves are a mess now. They don’t keep their shape anymore, they crumple and warp like they’ve been through a wrestling match before they even get to me. Some of them arrived looking like they’d survived a mild car crash and now refuse to stand up straight on the counter. This never happened with the old design.

 

And the caps?. Don’t even get me started. They’re barely half a centimeter tall, that's half the standard height (or less) and when you screw them on, it feels like they’re just pretending to close the bottle. Then when you try to open a new bottle, the cap doesn’t even come all the way off. It stays awkwardly attached to that little plastic band around the neck like it’s hanging on for dear life. You have to yank it to separate them, which usually ends up tearing the cap (because they are too thin) and leaving it looking like it’s been chewed on. After that, good luck getting it to close properly again because it barely has any threading on it to begin with.

 

How do you mess up something as simple as a water bottle? It wouldn’t be such a big deal if these were the small half-liter bottles you drink in one go, but these are one and a half liter bottles. You open and close them multiple times before they are empty, and now every single one is a small exercise in frustration.

 

I hadn’t ordered Tops in a while, so I had no idea things had gone downhill like this. But after this last delivery, I’m out. I’m switching to Arow water from Makro next time and hoping for a better bottling experience. Because at this point, it’s not even about the water anymore, it’s about the bottle surviving the day.

On 10/3/2025 at 4:39 AM, blaze master said:

There is a difference between water that comes in plastic bottles vs the ones in glass. Especially in a hot country like thailand where the water is often left outside in the heat and direct sunlight. 

 

Other than that ya its all the same. 

Well, the heat over 60deg C kills all bacteria. And direct sunlight here has a high level of UV, which also sterilizes the water.

22 minutes ago, SpaceKadet said:

Well, the heat over 60deg C kills all bacteria. And direct sunlight here has a high level of UV, which also sterilizes the water.

 

And the damage said heat does to the plastic bottles that the water is kept in ?  The heat and sunlight degrade the plastic which releases harmful chemicals into the water. 

9 hours ago, emptypockets said:

I've been drinking rainwater for forty years. No harm apparent so far.

 

Good for you.

 

I was quoting a pharmacist whom I bought distilled water from once for my electric iron, in an earlier life where I ironed my shirts. So no, directly toxic it's not. However as this article shows I wasn't far off the mark, and I certainly wouldn't drink it the way I hydrate in Thailand even if I do eat healthily.

 

https://www.verywellhealth.com/can-you-drink-distilled-water-8415864#toc-risks-of-drinking-distilled-water-regularly

 

Harry was right insofar as this he's now got a 6 page thread (so far) going on water, if not all about  brands.

 

Where can you get Brita filter jugs and filters in Bangkok?

 

I favour Aura water. It's not about the taste, but the minerals and electrolytes.

 

Aura is more expensive than many other local brands, but not by a lot....a few baht per bottle. As spring water, Aura has minerals and electrolytes which you need to replenish if you spend a lot of time outside / sweat a lot. There are other brands of spring or mineral water which I imagine are just as good.

It seems the only people getting ‘worked up’ about bottled water are people on this thread.  

Bought crystal before but noticed any time I put it in kettle I was having to clean the kettle every couple of weeks due to calcium or whatever it is that was coming from the water . Changed to Tesco own water and no residue in kettle.

Let's do the old Pepsi taste taste at a mall?   Smell it, Swish it, Taste it, Swallow it.....and pick your favorite in a blind taste test.

 

I've been drinking Thai tap water since the 1960s. Now 84 years old. So far so good.

On 10/2/2025 at 10:25 PM, Harry Tuchas said:

I see people, both locals and foreigners in Thailand, get so worked up over which brand of bottled water everyone should be drinking because it’s “the best of the bunch,” and it’s exhausting. Honestly, I can’t tell the difference between Singha, Crystal, Nestle, Minere, Pura, Namthip, Mont Fleur, Chang, Aura, et al., nor could I give a toss. As long as it’s cold, that’s all that matters.

 

When I first came here, it was mainly Polaris delivery in glass bottles and various brands of 5 Baht water in those big, squishy, frosted, plastic bottles. Now Thailand has moved on from that, and suddenly everyone thinks brand matters.

 

The big packs of Singha used to have an onboard carry strap, which was useful, but that’s gone, so they’ve fallen out of favor. If anything, I just go for Tops house brand. Easier on the wallet and the big bottles are a little thicker and don’t collapse in your hand like some of the others. That’s my only “preference.”

 

Sometimes I wonder if the whole thing is just a bunch of petty snobbery over something as common as H2O.

 

Simples.

 

Aro, from Makro, each hold six litres, around 30 baht each.

 

Car load of 30, job done for the month.

 

For cooking, the very large thick plastic bottles delivered, probably 30 litres each. Cost 20 baht.

 

I laugh at water snobs in restaurants having owned a large Thai restaurant in the UK for twenty plus years (sold a few years ago), but I liked it when they paid a few quid for bottles water, a very good profit margin, it is water pure and simple. 

 

The adverts go on about minerals etc but we get those from food anyway if we eat sensibly.

20 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

I've been drinking Thai tap water since the 1960s. Now 84 years old. So far so good.

 

In England yes, in Thailand no.

 

I don't know any Thais who drink Thai tap water in Thailand.