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Bargain Basement

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Pampy » Fri Nov 27, 2020 1:16 am

The water is exceptionally soft where I live and I never even see limescale, let alone be troubled by it.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Badger's Mate » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:32 am

Descaling the kettle is almost a hobby here :roll:

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby aero280 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:21 pm

We use a tea strainer when pouring water out of a kettle into a up.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby WWordsworth » Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:26 pm

Very hard water here too
Need to scrub the shower head occasionally.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Nov 27, 2020 1:11 pm

I used to love visiting DD at uni in Manchester. My hair was always soft and I had to remember not to dispense my normal amount of shampoo!

They do say that drinking hard water can be healthier where it boosts calcium and magnesium levels though.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby scullion » Fri Nov 27, 2020 1:30 pm

hard water usually tastes better, too. we have very soft water, it tasted horrible - until i fitted the water filter.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Pampy » Fri Nov 27, 2020 1:35 pm

I'm just the opposite - love the taste of soft water, hate hard.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby smitch » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:16 pm

I grew up in Hull, which has hard water with a very unpleasant taste. The tap water where I live now is soft and tastes much better.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:19 pm

Hardness is basically lime, calcium carbonate - I think the flavour largely depends on the other minerals present

I grew up near Portsmouth, where the water was filtered through the chalk downs, as hard as possible, but almost no other mineral and little or even no chlorine. Delicious, though relatives from the midlands said the tea was funny

London also has very hard water but I have had it flavoured with ferrous sulphate (which occurs naturally round here, Sadler's Wells was famously a chalybeate - ferrous sulphate - spring) and way too much chlorine at times

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby scullion » Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:10 pm

i grew up on the chalk, too, so possibly my view is skewed!

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby cherrytree » Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:25 pm

When I was a child, we had water from the Sutton Water Board. I went to school where we had London water. I used to complain to my mother about how nasty the school water was. She told me I was talking nonsense. The water in Sutton and Cheam which came through the chalk tasted fine.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby aero280 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:53 pm

Historically public water supply was untreated. It was just pumped from the ground or a local river. After the cholera outbreaks all water was legally required to meet certain quality standards. Most chalk sourced water had no problem meeting the standard, but river sources became uneconomical and were taken into public ownership so that proper treatment works could be built. All of these were undertaken by local authorities.

Moving on to the present day, it's much the same. Chalk water has very little treatment, because the chalk does a very good job of filtering. River sourced water, either pumper or via reservoirs has to have more treatment.

As an aside, the last outbreak caused by poorly treated public water supply was in 1937. Typhoid. And only 8 years before I was born!! :o

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby aero280 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:02 pm

Found a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon_t ... ak_of_1937

It has some parallels with the current virus...

It resulted in an enquiry into water treatment standards which enforced the disbandment of some water boards and companies, and their being absorbed into neighbouring undertakings.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:31 pm

The only thing with chalk nowadays is that nitrates from farming can filter through with the water so in some places the water has to be diluted with water from other sources to meet (our very high) standards. As far as I'm concerned, we have a lot to thank the EU for the standard of our water supplies, I hope it's not a standard that slips.

My mother always said that when she was a small child (in the 20s) she always asked for water when visiting her grandmother because it tasted really nice. It seemed odd in the middle of London but when my job gave me access to plans, I discovered that her grandmother had lived almost next to a natural spring supply which would have been her source in those days!

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby KeenCook2 » Sat Nov 28, 2020 2:39 pm

Earthmaiden wrote:
My mother always said that when she was a small child (in the 20s) she always asked for water when visiting her grandmother because it tasted really nice. It seemed odd in the middle of London but when my job gave me access to plans, I discovered that her grandmother had lived almost next to a natural spring supply which would have been her source in those days!


How fascinating, EM!! Amazing that you found that out so many years later via your job!!

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby aero280 » Sat Nov 28, 2020 4:26 pm

Any tap water is better than the bottled mineral water. That's usually high in all sorts of chemicals. Have a look at the label on the bottle to see what's in it!!

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:17 pm

aero280 wrote:Any tap water is better than the bottled mineral water. That's usually high in all sorts of chemicals. Have a look at the label on the bottle to see what's in it!!


? most of those are surely minerals, which is the point! And which give the distinctive flavour in some like Apolinaris or San Pellegrino

But there may be a risk of other chemicals leaching out of plastic bottles

This is the analysis of Evian - just minerals that you'd expect form the geology, and largely bicarbonate
TDS (total dissolved solute)357 mg/l
ph factor 7.2
Hardness 291 mg/l
Nitrate 3.8 mg/l
Calcium 78 mg/l
Magnesium 24 mg/l
Sodium 5 mg/l
Potassium 1 mg/l
Silica 14 mg/l
Bicarbonate 357 mg/l
Sulphate 10 mg/l
Chloride 5 mg/l

And here's San Pellegrino, which is from a volcanic source, so less bicarbonate and more sulphate
TDS 1,109 mg/l
ph factor 7.7
Hardness 744 mg/l
Nitrate 2.2 mg/l
Calcium 208 mg/l
Magnesium 56 mg/l
Sodium 44 mg/l
Potassium 3 mg/l
Silica 9 mg/l
Bicarbonate 136 mg/l
Sulphate 549 mg/l
Chloride 74 mg/l

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Pampy » Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:23 pm

I rarely drink bottled water but have to admit that I do like St Pellegrino - and it's in a glass bottle.

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:27 pm

Agree Pampy - it's a drink that's tastes different to tap water, and of course carbonated
The fruit drinks are nice too, with the little paper caps so the can is clean when you drink from it

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Re: Bargain Basement

Postby Pampy » Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:32 pm

I've had the citrus tonic water with gin - lovely!

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