Pattaya Filthy Municipal Water

[TheSwede99]

I would like to know what you do about it filthy municipal water here in Pattaya?

Cannot be used for other than flushing the toilet.

I have installed a filter that filters the water before it enters the house.

It's a 5 micron filter and I have tried to find better filters for sediment use (maybe 1 micron) but can not find it anywhere.

Do not know if I need better filters, I use the water only to wash up the dishes, washing clothes and showering.

Does anyone have ideas on how to better filter the water without losing too much pressure?

Watch these video clips how the water looks.

[OMGImInPattaya]

Welcome to the Third World...enjoy!

[fforest1]

Well look at the bright side.I do not think they put fluoride and a bunch of other nasty chemicals

in the water in Pattaya like in the west...

I never noticed the water being that bad in central Pattaya...

I guess your only options would be to get a much more expensive water filter or change your

filter more often than once a month or try putting a 2nd water filter like you have behind

the one you have now so you have 2 filters working at the same time...Maybe

this would work maybe not I dont know...

Edited May 1, 2013 by fforest1

[guzzi850m2]

We had a large stainless filter installed next to the water pump, this filter is filled with some special stones that need changing once a year.

It was quite expensive at 13k baht but it seems to do the job.

[BB1950]

Checkout this link in the Thai Visa Do it yourself housing forum:

Water Filters - Stainless Steel Vs Fiberglass

When I used city water, I bought a small stainless steel double tank (sand, charcoal) unit from Tesco/Lotus, that worked well without a loss in pressure. I would periodically do a backwash (one a month). I would replace the sand and charcoal about once a year.

They're available in all the DIY Home Improvement stores. I think Big-C still sells them. Not sure about Tesco/Lotus.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Never found it too bad.. You sure you're on the municipal water supply and not that of a commercial development with their own well?

[pattayadingo]

It can be very bad. In Arunothai I often found white shirts coming out of the washing machine with dark stains on them, yet the water from the tap never looked that dirty, obviously it was - at times.

[brummiebob]

Most of the time the water quality can be blamed on people connecting water pumps directly to the mains and pumping in the water into their tanks, this sucking in of water causes the pressure in the mains pipe to drop, meaning that any leaks in the system, instead of just leaking out water, sucks in contaminants.

You're only supposed to runs the mains into your tanks, and then uses the pumps to pumps from the tank to your house, but once a few of your neighbours start pumping in from the mains, the pressure in the whole areas drops and your supply becomes a trickle, once that happens, you'll need tanks now instead of being able to just connect the mains up to your house. so it's an arms race.

Often the fault is with the water company too, when they were doing works replacing the pipes on Sukhumvit, the water was mucky for weeks, if this were not a third world country, the water company would be announcing what to do, eg. leave your taps running until the water is clear or something, but alas, tiT... they probably have a notice on a board at their office somewhere.

[brummiebob]

As for what to do I have a separate tanks for cooking that gets filled with the big bottles water from the bottled water trucks, the water guys just empty their bottles into my tanks and I gets to save on the deposits for the bottle, but I didn't plumb in this tank so everytime I need water for cooking I have to go outside to the tank, inconvenient but beats brown water.

The water truck I uses that pumps into your tanks is no good, often the water smells of petrol from their pumps, muddy and cloudy, I have seen private water trucks queueing at the water works to buy water from the water company to deliver to their clients, but the one I manage to call seems to pump their water from Mab Prachan reservoir directly by the looks of it. So I only uses them when the supply is really bad. I tried to call a new company but they are all busy and they wont come, old customers only, so I'm stuck with the same guy.

Everywhere I go, water trucks that is doing the job of supplanting the inadequate infrastructure are everywhere, especially big hotels, they must be big business, and improving the water supply would put some of these guys out of a job

[pattayadingo]

Now - for the 3rd day - on the dark side, the water pressure is very low.

Three weeks since we had meters installed from the municipal authority and we have very little water pressure. No obvious sign of any repairs going on, so I'll also blame all those with pumps and tanks for draining our pressure

I'd ask the landlady for a tank and pump but I know what the answer to that would be

[juliusk]

Now - for the 3rd day - on the dark side, the water pressure is very low.

Three weeks since we had meters installed from the municipal authority and we have very little water pressure. No obvious sign of any repairs going on, so I'll also blame all those with pumps and tanks for draining our pressure

I'd ask the landlady for a tank and pump but I know what the answer to that would be

Experience the same problems with the water pressure, luckily we have a back up tank but needs to be topped up as well.

My GF did call to the water company some days ago and it seemed that it gets a bit better actually. So just give it a shot and make the call as well

When i fill up my swimming pool with the big water trucks, the water is just from one of the lakes in Pattaya. Needs to be cleaned and treated with a shitload of chemicals according to my pool guy. I just use the tap water for showering, cleaning the dishes and thats it. Never seen such dirty water as in the video above, i was still waiting for the commercial to come at the end of the video where i could buy this filter

[mogy]

Until last year I had the same issue with changing the inlet filters every few months. I did some googling and found that the problem isnt the water, it was the clear covered filter I had installed. Any minuscule amount of microbes will grow at an incredible rate under natural light so once I changed the filter housing to an opaque one the filters now last many many times longer and the gunk that used to build up is practically nonexistent.

[sometime]

I am on my own deep well 80mt, the water is clear but it
contains iron bacteria once exposed to the air, so my filters look worse than yours but it is totally
harmless and tastes better than any bottled water one it passes through the sediment/carbon/resin filters then the ultraviolet.

So as one poster said you could be on a commercial development with their own well?

[TheSwede99]

Now I have found the filter that has 1 micron density, the filter should clear away most of the crap.

The problem is that the filters are in china and must be ordered in quantities of 500 or 1000.

The price seems more than reasonable about 15 baht each.

Then will probably shipping and customs fees adds on top of it.

Positive side is that it takes about 28 years to use up all those filters so I'll never need to buy a filter again in my lifetime.

[seefah]

Living in the city I've never seen the water so dirty. Is it because of too much rain or maybe a problem has been created with the city putting in new flooding infrastructure, or something else.

Whatever the reason, really not happy with this. The tank is unfortunately all full of dirty water now and the dirty water is still coming through. Is anyone else experiencing dirty water just now?

Edited October 1, 2013 by seefah

[OMGImInPattaya]

Nope...all normal at my house just off NPW.

[craigt3365]

We get dirty water on a regular basis in our village in NaJomtien. We have a very large filter that gets back washed every few weeks. Amazing the dirty water that comes out. Even with this big filter, we still get sediment in our water tank. We have to have a tank as the water only comes on a few times a day...and sometimes not at all for days.

[seefah]

Apparently, it turns out that its an issue in the area with a broken mains pipe. I've seen the hole that's been dug since this issue has been reported, but I'm at a loss as to how damaged to the underground pipe happened in the first place. Can't imagine City Hall will pay for cleaning tank and water pump, so guess that's coming out of my pocket then, even though the fault is not on our property.

Thanks.