Bottled water tested, results

[pattjock]

I have tested some sources of drinking water in Pattaya. The test was a TDS test, measuring Total Dissolved Solids. This test basically measures the mineral contents of the water.

To be sold in the US as Mineral Water the TDS level must be over 250ppm. A level of 250-800ppm is considered medium mineral content. For more information search for TDS bottled water.

Pattaya tap water: 310ppm

Home RO filtration system: 28ppm

Bottled water:

Volvic: 205ppm (French natural mineral water, bottled at source)

Aura: 370ppm (Thai natural mineral water, bottled at source in Chiang Mai)

Relax Drinking Water: 385ppm (Made in Pattaya)

Nestle: 435ppm (Made by Nestle, source unknown)

Evian: 600ppm (French natural mineral water, bottled at source)

Minere: 620ppm (Natural mineral water bottled by Nestle, source unknown)

[WitawatWatawit]

My home-delivered water is Amtech brand. Local brew.

[inzman]

So, tap water is better than nestle according to the test. I believe that, I believe bottled water is just made from the tap anyway. The results are similar to a test I read about in the USA.

[JesseFrank]

Bottled water:

Volvic: 205ppm (French natural mineral water, bottled at source)

Aura: 370ppm (Thai natural mineral water, bottled at source in Chiang Mai)

Relax Drinking Water: 385ppm (Made in Pattaya)

Nestle: 435ppm (Made by Nestle, source unknown)

Evian: 600ppm (French natural mineral water, bottled at source)

Minere: 620ppm (Natural mineral water bottled by Nestle, source unknown)

You could correct all those "source unknown" with a tap on the wall.

[pattjock]

So, tap water is better than nestle according to the test. I believe that, I believe bottled water is just made from the tap anyway. The results are similar to a test I read about in the USA.

Tap water is probably not better than Nestle but could be sold as mineral water, and probably is.

To drink a lot of water with low TDS value, destilled or RO, could be bad for you as it could deplete your body of minerals. A high TDS value is better.

The TDS value of RO water increased from 28ppm to 630ppm with the addition of a small pinch of Himalayan table salt, no noticable change of taste.

[ozsamurai]

Can you verify other leading brands such as the home brands in most 7/11's, Tesco's namtip etc.. This would be great to see. A shelf price for a 6lt Nestle is almost double Tesco brand water, I often wondered if there was anything in it.

Oz

[KittenKong]

To drink a lot of water with low TDS value, destilled or RO, could be bad for you as it could deplete your body of minerals. A high TDS value is better.

The TDS value of RO water increased from 28ppm to 630ppm with the addition of a small pinch of Himalayan table salt, no noticable change of taste.

The value of having minerals in water all depends on which minerals they are and whether you, in particular, need more of them or not.

For example, if you eat shellfish, oily fish, green vegetables, soy beans and dairy products regularly then you are unlikely to need any extra calcium magnesium or zinc from any source.

And no one who regularly eats Thai food or processed Western food requires any extra sodium (salt) at all. In fact they are probably getting far too much already and should be looking to reduce it for health reasons.

And of course some other solids present in water (heavy metals etc) can be positively harmful.

So I think the answer is to eat a sensible and varied diet, and drink plenty of low mineral content water. YMMV

[innerspace]

And what about the big 20l bottles brought round by trucks? Guess they will be similar to the ro.

Confirms what I have always believed about minere being the best of the mineral waters.

And while tap water here may have reasonable mineral levels, its also likely to have more of the bad stuff than most bottles.

[Basil B]

And what about the big 20l bottles brought round by trucks? Guess they will be similar to the ro.

Confirms what I have always believed about minere being the best of the mineral waters.

And while tap water here may have reasonable mineral levels, its also likely to have more of the bad stuff than most bottles.

Bottled drinking water and mineral water are two different things.

Mineral water is sold because it has natural minerals from it source or added minerals, or both.

No surprise the French stuff is lacking in substance...

Or maybe it has been watered down?

Edited August 17, 2014 by Basil B

[paddyjenkins]

Can you also measure the IQ levels of the people buying the water? I'm pretty sure that the more expensive the water the dumber the buyer....Evian buyers must be borderline brain dead....it's water....H2O....they are paying almost as much as good wine....and something like 10 times the price of the more normal brands....all for H2O....and as one poster pointed out, if your diet is balanced you don't need whatever the tiny quantities of minerals these so called mineral waters contain anyway....and even if your diet wasn't balanced, the quantities in mineral water would be too small anyway.

[doggie888888]

OP: where did you get the water tested?

[Tony Aparichio]

Can you also measure the IQ levels of the people buying the water? I'm pretty sure that the more expensive the water the dumber the buyer....Evian buyers must be borderline brain dead....it's water....H2O....they are paying almost as much as good wine....and something like 10 times the price of the more normal brands....all for H2O....and as one poster pointed out, if your diet is balanced you don't need whatever the tiny quantities of minerals these so called mineral waters contain anyway....and even if your diet wasn't balanced, the quantities in mineral water would be too small anyway.

No the braindead are drinking soda pops. Coke, Pepsie, fanta, etc or even worse diet version of the foregoing. All of which have disasterous consequences after becoming habit forming. Most water is almost harmless to the health and in fact a neccesary thing for life itself. Anything from Nestle is permanently of my list for political reasons. I cannot condone giving any of my money to a company employing a C.E.O. who can state Water should not be a right for individuals it should be given to corporations to become a product for profit, or something to that effect. (I don't have the time & energy to look up the exact Quote now). Don't "need" the so called minerals. Sounds like you consider "wine" a need... HHmmm. I do drink wine. I do drink Mineral water, Soda water, Some Drinking water. Tap water??? Perhaps in Canada's Rocky mountains in the national parks. I.Q. test??? I can tell I would feel like a real bully in that one. Have another glass of wine & let others choose the water they will. The Constructive descriptions of analysis the other poster provided are useful, broken down into what minerals were in each product way better but not so easy to aquire.

Bad Tony

[Mojomor]

Thank you OP for reminding me to take more electrolytes. My diet of RO water is not good in the long term. The RO process removes most of the minerals and we lose more through perspiration.

[JSixpack]

The crying need for our Pattaya dwellers is a test of Beer Chang.

Edited August 17, 2014 by JSixpack

[Forkinhades]

it would be good to test the amtech water that comes around in them big bottles on the trucks

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

it would be good to test the amtech water that comes around in them big bottles on the trucks

Yes, as well as the water from the other 20L bottle suppliers. That might be educational.

OP, thanks for the info and was pleased to see the Minere I drink every day has good mineral content. However, I too would like to know the source of their water -- although I assume a Nestle-owned company would maintain good standards.

[thairastawoman]

Thank you, very useful, but how could we also make the test ? What do you use to test ?

So it seems that Minere is the best as I always thought and said to everybody I know.

[rhythmworx]

No results of Singha water?

That nestle stuff is like drinking liquid plastic reverse osmosis I guess, might be better if you do a little wee in the bottle after the 1st swig.

[SantiSuk]

Interesting. I use my pool salt tester (which actually measures all solids concentration, not specifically salt) occasionally on the bottled water that gets delivered to the door or on the big 20L bottles bought in Mom & Pop stores. I'm actually looking for low solids reading (and nearly always get close to 0) - don't want/need extra minerals and who knows what's in those higher solid readings. The fact that I get zero or close readings on the Mom&Pop flagons at least dispenses with that expat urban myth that shark operators have been seen filling up the bottles at local lakes!*

Of course, ideally we all want to know if our water is safe to drink and we would need e-coli/bacterial/chemical tests for that. If this was the UK or Europe the press would have done exposes by now. Thais would not want to know .

*Edit: But I've only tested Isaan water, not Pattaya.

*Editted again: me and Pattjock posted coterminously and with similar intent!

Edited August 18, 2014 by SantiSuk

[pattjock]

I borrowed a temperature compensated TDS probe from a friend to check my RO system. A functioning RO system should lower the TDS value to one 10th of the tap water value, if not it's time to change the RO membrane.

As some posters say it would be more interesting to know the composition of the minerals. Not sure if this really makes a difference as most of your mineral intake comes from other sources.

The only time it is really important with a high mineral content is probably if you need to drink a lot to rehydrate after excessive perspiration/urination as this will deplete your mineral level. A bag of electrolyte in a glass of water will increase the TDS level by about 450ppm.

A more important test is to check for bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, fertilizers, chlorine and pH. There are home testing kits available for this on internet for about $25. I did this a year ago on Pattaya tap water and it passed all tests as good drinking water without any problems.

Big companies like Nestle, like them or not, probably have the resources to have ongoing testing of all their products. Not to sure if this is the case with local bottling companies. The local water works probably have good testing but you never know the status of the filtration system and bottle cleaning procedure at the local bottler.

[Loptr]

The crying need for our Pattaya dwellers is a test of Beer Chang.

For what, to test for formaldehyde?

[tropo]

A more important test is to check for bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, fertilizers, chlorine and pH. There are home testing kits available for this on internet for about $25. I did this a year ago on Pattaya tap water and it passed all tests as good drinking water without any problems.

Let me get this straight. You tested town supply Pattaya tap water with a $25 kit you bought onlinet and it's perfectly healthy to drink? No bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides or fertilizers?

Why are we wasting our money on bottled drinking water then? I do drink it after passing it through a 3 stage filtration system. The filters get very dirty. What is that dirt?

[pattjock]

Correct, the substances tested for was well within normal standards. It was a limited number of substances tested; there are an infinite number of substances you could check for.

Obviously the quality of the tap water could depend on your location. If the pipes in your area are bad there could be leakage into the pipes during flooding. If your water tanks are not cleaned correctly at correct intervals there may be problems.

The dirt you see in you filters are probably rust and sand, should be safe to drink. The problem is that in Thailand they still use galvanized steel pipes, this was stopped many years ago in most western countries.

I guess most people use bottled water out of habit or for peace of mind. Recently the water supply in a US city was poisoned by algae bloom, a few years ago Perrier had to recall their production as benzene was found in their bottles, so nothing is safe.

Safest way to get drinking water is probably to have your own 5 filter RO system and make sure it is well maintained.

[KittenKong]

Why are we wasting our money on bottled drinking water then?

Good question. I've never understood why people do that, especially here where some of the bottled water is just filtered tap water (and clearly says so on the label), and where the controls and requirements applicable to "mineral" water are probably not applied anyway.

I'm not aware that being "mineral" prevents water from being contaminated with fertilisers and chemicals etc.

Personally I drink water that has come out of a well-maintained filter machine that is supplied direct from the mains, but I would avoid anything that has been in any sort of tank like the plague (which it probably contains).

[pattjock]

I don't think you can avoid using water from a tank. All condos and most houses have tanks. Even if there is no tank at your premises I'm sure the water works have storage tanks as a buffer and for over production. After the water leaves the water works you have an immense pipe system that for all practical purposes is a tank. It could take days for the water to travel from the water works to your tap.

A tank is probably a good thing. You can switch of the input from the mains if there is a quality problem reported from the water works, you can switch of the mains input if there is flooding that could contaminate the pipe system and you have a buffer if the mains supply is interrupted.

The main things with a tank is that it is made of a material suited for drinking water, that it is sealed to prevent access to birds, rats, snakes and other critters that could contaminate the tank. The tank also needs to be maintained using the correct procedures and intervals.

[KittenKong]

I don't think you can avoid using water from a tank. All condos and most houses have tanks. Even if there is no tank at your premises I'm sure the water works have storage tanks as a buffer and for over production. After the water leaves the water works you have an immense pipe system that for all practical purposes is a tank. It could take days for the water to travel from the water works to your tap.

Yes, there is a tank in my building and it supplies all the taps in all the units. But I dont drink that.

I drink water from the filter machine which is supplied direct from the mains. In my building the water main is flowing constantly and comes directly off a very large main pipe in the street. The water in that hasnt stopped moving since it left the treatment plant.