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> My thinking is that treating water at home is not that hard. You can easily have one filtered tap at home. It's cheap and easy to retrofit.

I mean, define 'filtered'. A brita-type filter will do precisely nothing for most things that require a boil notice (nor will it do anything for most heavy metal contaminants etc).

In general, "filtered" taps primarily remove chlorine and calcium carbonate, mostly for taste reasons.

Doing actual water treatment at home is not going to be particularly economic or safe.



Water treatment at home isn’t difficult as long as it isn’t polluted with something bad like hydrocarbons. A distiller can be purchased for less than $100. There are many homes in Texas that are using heaters that aren’t heat pumps, so in the winter, it probably is economical if excluding the original purchase price. A reverse osmosis system can also be purchased for less than $500, but requires more maintenance.


> A brita-type filter will do precisely nothing for most things that require a boil notice

Well, it might do something, give a nice warm and humid substrate for bacterias to develop


What about the reverse osmosis filters many homes have?


I wouldn't say "many". RO is expensive and energy-intensive.


Not really. They aren't common in the US, but outside the US you can buy a $200 unit that will produce RO water a few gallons an hour.


The under sink filters I'm aware of cost ~$200 and run passively off water pressure


Under sink filter != reverse-osmosis


Not all under sink filters are RO but some are. There are a variety of options on the market and the prices are much cheaper than bottled water over a year.


Right, but that doesn't mean all under sink filtration systems are RO. RO is a very specific method of filtration


We were talking specifically about RO filters. The one I have in my espresso setup cost a couple hundred and runs on water pressure, undercutting the claim that it’s expensive or energy intensive.

(They are water intensive - I would reconsider that if I still lived in California)




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