Drinking water vending machine, What water supply is needed

[canuckamuck]

We are thinking of buying a water vending machine. We are quite remote and our drinking water supplier has become undependable. Leaving us without any drinking water for whole weekends in the hot season (3 times last month alone). It's hot and we need water. I find myself getting dehydrated, preferring to leave the remaining water for the kids. or boiling water.

The rest of the people in our village are in the same situation and we feel they wouldn't mind an alternate source of drinking water. So it is likely that the machine will actually generate a small profit eventually. The cost is about 25k baht.

Anyhow, I do not know what are the supply requirements for such as machine. We have town water, which is fresh but untreated (spring water) and this we run through a sand filter before it get's to the house supply. We have a pump for pressure and it is possibly potable already, but we have not tested it. Some of the townsfolk drink the town water without any filtration. They have been doing so for decades. So it must be reasonable quality already.

So I am wondering if this is good enough to connect to a machine, which obviously has a pretty good RO filter and I think also UV. I haven't seen the specs yet, so that is my guess.

Can this work?

Edited July 6, 2015 by canuckamuck

[KittenKong]

Not all machines have the same filtration equipment inside, so you should check the spec thoroughly. Also check the cost of parts before purchasing. Either way you will need to ensure regular maintenance and regular filter changes. The problem in my condo building is that this maintenance does not get done regularly or correctly, due to the usual crass incompetence of the management. If you are taking care of it yourself then I don't suppose you will have this problem.

Your supply sounds fine, though you might like to get a proper analysis done of the water. As far as I know our machines are fed from the roof tank (which itself is fed from a feeder tank at ground level) rather than directly from the main town water supply, which also gives me grave doubts about the water quality. I have stopped using the machines as a result and I now get my water delivered.

Our machines get a lot of use and turn a very good profit. They paid for themselves in just a few months (at least they did once the takings were put through the accounts correctly rather than just disappearing).

[peter267]

Not all machines have the same filtration equipment inside, so you should check the spec thoroughly. Also check the cost of parts before purchasing. Either way you will need to ensure regular maintenance and regular filter changes. The problem in my condo building is that this maintenance does not get done regularly or correctly, due to the usual crass incompetence of the management. If you are taking care of it yourself then I don't suppose you will have this problem.

Your supply sounds fine, though you might like to get a proper analysis done of the water. As far as I know our machines are fed from the roof tank (which itself is fed from a feeder tank at ground level) rather than directly from the main town water supply, which also gives me grave doubts about the water quality. I have stopped using the machines as a result and I now get my water delivered.

Our machines get a lot of use and turn a very good profit. They paid for themselves in just a few months (at least they did once the takings were put through the accounts correctly rather than just disappearing).

Thing about any water source for drinking is knowing just what it has in it that needs to be removed so that means testing first then seeing what filtration method is required to do the job. If your water happens to have a high volume of a mineral like say iron this might choke the standard filters in a standard vending machine and these elements will need regular changing and will not be cheap.

The other issue is knowing what comes out is indeed clean good enough to drink. Who is in charge of quality control

On the principle of keeping things simple in life have a look here http://www.laowater.com. They do supply across border to Thailand when last asked at about 2,500 baht. At their heart they have what looks like a 'flower pot' - red fired ceramic clay - what they do is add a touch of sawdust (I think) and this burns and disappears during the firing process and by careful recipe creates a pot that is just porous so water drips through what are very very fine pores that remove microbes and other small stuff. You sort of know they are working if they are dripping slowly. The model they make is very robust and if you get the model with a hole in the lid you can get a long neck 20 litres plastic water bottle as a header tank feeding into the 'flower pot' so its set to filter 20 litres into the underneath tank that can store up to 20 litres. This ceramic flower pot design is not new it is copied in Cambodia & Myanmar and has been well researched and tested to see that what comes out the bottom is drinkable.

To service just scrub clean the 'flower pot'. Yes I have one of these in my 1st floor house in Rayong as I find it soul destroying and pointless to carry water bottles up stairs for a product that is already upstairs available from a tap.

[canuckamuck]

Thanks for that Peter. it is an alternative I will consider. But first I am going to look more closely at the vending machine because it will likely pay for itself

[JLCrab]

Maybe you might look at one of these:

Skywater® machines make drinking water from humidity in the air. Island Sky®’s patented adiabatic distillation technology, leads the industry in air to water technology. Skywater® atmospheric water generators, or AWG's can extract more water vapor in varied climates than most air to water devices worldwide. As water shortages persist around the world, Skywater® products provide effective emergency water solutions.

http://www.islandsky.com

[siamcrut]

http://www.purefilter.com

[KittenKong]

To service just scrub clean the 'flower pot'. Yes I have one of these in my 1st floor house in Rayong as I find it soul destroying and pointless to carry water bottles up stairs for a product that is already upstairs available from a tap.

A very interesting and apparently "green" product that is probably perfectly adequate if your water comes from a reasonably unpolluted source. Not sure how good it would be at filtering out heavy metals or pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers, but who can be really sure how good any of these filtering devices are for that without testing every day?

More suitable for home use than for eventual vending though.

[SiSePuede419]

That's an interesting idea. But at 25,000B, how many liters (@ 1B) would you have to sell to break even?

Every two-stage RO filter has a carbon and a membrane filter. How many liters do you change the carbon filter? How many liters for the membrane?

Probably depends on the PPM of your source water. The higher the PPM, the more often you would have to change the filters.

What's the PPM of your water source?

Also, if I remember correctly, these machines also have a UV light to scramble the DNA of bacteria in the source water. After how many hours of operation do you have to change the bulb?

Also, have you tried the (5-stage) Zero water pitcher?

It comes with a PPM meter and does filter water down to 0 PPM.

And that's "out West" in America where water has a higher PPM because it's rocky out here.

Also...security? I'd imagine some "kids" who want to get some coin for "yaa baa" would see your machine as a target.

You're going to install CCTV, right?

Edited July 6, 2015 by SiSePuede419

[thailand49]

I do not know the exact science to this stuff. But I do have a machine for a number of years now here in Pattaya in what they call the Darkside. It sounds like where you are it might be worth the trouble to obtain one. In the beginning I was bringing in around 4,000 baht in my village area now there are a number in my neighborhood like 3 or 4, and my take each month is not even worth running.

After the warranty on the machine.. kiss the service goodbye.. whenever I called the guy have no idea when they are going to show up. I ended up running around town looking for alternative service people and whenever there is a problem I go down the list and see who shows up first. After a while I started to do some research after reading in the Bangkok post that they wanted the local health department? to make sure that these machines filters are service every two months. As we know about Thailand.. that does not ever happen.

I found out from some sellers they had no idea when it should be serviced. Depending on the machines it could be every two months, six to a year! What I found out is I was pretty much on my own and what I was paying for filters was too much especially from the large vendors. I decided to check the filters ever month and the lines. In the end, I did a full change every six month and cleaned out the tanks and lines I went from 3,000 baht for all the filters down to 2,000 every six month. Right now I'm just at a break even point for me it is just a waste of time especially when something breaks like a pump unit etc.. something I can't do myself. What I'm doing I do not believe my neighbor machines get serviced until the water comes out brown. Parts are not cheap either from the vendor like a new coin slot etc..

For me and my family I do not drink the water from the pipes and never well. What I do know without a proof of science the machine is hook up to my house water line to the machine and I drank from the machine many times and never gotten sick so I guess I'm doing something right? I've had service people come and responded that my machine is really clean and the flow is strong.

Personally you do not need any camera system etc.. most if not all machines come with a dual locking system never had a problem. Once in a while you might find someone using a slug or something that clots the coin box. Learning how to remove and clear the jam is easy and will save you a 300 baht service charge. On your spare time shop around and compare prices be a good consumer and that will save you a bundle.

If you do not have lots of competition it might be worth it. it sounds like in your situation it might be worth it. Normally 1 baht for a litre, 10 baht for a large bottle like the one you are ordering that doesn't come.

Good luck

Edited July 7, 2015 by thailand49

[canuckamuck]

Thanks for that 49. I was hoping to hear from the voice of experience.

We are going to have a talk with the supplier tomorrow if our plans don't get changed.

[SiSePuede419]

Thanks for that 49. I was hoping to hear from the voice of experience.

We are going to have a talk with the supplier tomorrow if our plans don't get changed.

Important questions to ask:

1. If owning a water machine is so profitable, why do you want to sell the machine to me? Why not keep the machine and keep all that profit for yourself?

The correct answer is: Because we make more money selling these machines to clueless "investors".

2. What is your profit for selling a water machine?

If they refuse to answer, walk away.

Have your gf/wife tell them in Thai you're going to make your own water machine and sell them for less.

As P.T. Barnum once said, your market for your water machines will always go up, because there's a sucker born every minute, 555

[ToYoungToRetire]

http://www.buylifestraw.com/en/

[blackcab]

You've had the voice of experience tell you that they have only broken even, partly due to copy cat competition.

Consider putting in 3 or 4 machines at the very beginning.

Saturate the market.

[BillSteptowe]

We are thinking of buying a water vending machine. We are quite remote and our drinking water supplier has become undependable. Leaving us without any drinking water for whole weekends in the hot season (3 times last month alone). It's hot and we need water. I find myself getting dehydrated, preferring to leave the remaining water for the kids. or boiling water.

The rest of the people in our village are in the same situation and we feel they wouldn't mind an alternate source of drinking water. So it is likely that the machine will actually generate a small profit eventually. The cost is about 25k baht.

Anyhow, I do not know what are the supply requirements for such as machine. We have town water, which is fresh but untreated (spring water) and this we run through a sand filter before it get's to the house supply. We have a pump for pressure and it is possibly potable already, but we have not tested it. Some of the townsfolk drink the town water without any filtration. They have been doing so for decades. So it must be reasonable quality already.

So I am wondering if this is good enough to connect to a machine, which obviously has a pretty good RO filter and I think also UV. I haven't seen the specs yet, so that is my guess.

Can this work?