Photo by: shaymus022
We’ve been buying bottled water now for more than 10 years. Call me spoiled if you will, but I just can’t stand the taste of tap water. We’ve tried the Brita pitcher, the Pur 3 faucet mount filters, and many others. None of them tasted as clean as bottled water.
We generally try to purchase our bottled water when it’s on sale, but it’s not nearly on sale as much as we would like it to be. We drink roughly 120 bottles of water a month. A 24-pack of Dannon water runs $3.99 - $4.99 depending on where we buy it. That’s 5 packs per month at the cost of $19.95 - 24.95 per month, or $239.40 - $299.40 per year.
Enter the RO/DI Filter
I’ve written before about my saltwater aquarium hobby and how particular saltwater fish are about their water. Saltwater aquariums require pristine water conditions, and as a result I ended up having to purchase an RO/DI filter to create 99% pure water for my tank. RO/DI stands for Reverse-Osmosis/Di-ionizing. While both of these processes are required for maintaining a healthy saltwater aquarium, only the reverse osmosis filter is required for creating excellent quality drinking water. Actually, drinking water that has been through the DI process can be unhealthy, not to mention it tastes funny.
Many of the bottled waters being sold in stores contain nothing more than standard tap water that has been run through the reverse osmosis process. RO water is generally 99% pure and tastes as good as most bottled waters. Here’s the best part, it’s significantly cheaper. I purchased my RO/DI filter on eBay from from a company called purewaterclub*com for $100.50 including shipping, the cost of 4 months of bottled water. The filter cartridges in the RO filter, given normal usage, will last about a year before you have to replace them.
Many stores have machines that dispense pure drinking water. Our local Wal-Mart has one of these. If you read about the water the machine is dispensing, it’s RO water. That machine basically has a high volume RO filter in it. Chances are though, the RO filters cartridges aren’t changed as often as the should, and the water isn’t near as pure as you would get at home.
The money you can save by purchasing your own filter is tremendous. Just in a year the savings would be almost $200.00! That would take a nice chunk out of your debt snowball.
Benefit your plants too
One of the downsides of the RO filters is they only make about 1 gallon of pure water for every 5 gallons of input water. So for each gallon that goes into the filter, you get 1 gallon of filtered water, and 4 gallons of “waste water”. Many people just send the waste water down the drain. Instead, I have the waste water running into a cheap trashcan. Turns out, plants thrive on the waste water. We’ve been using the waste water to water our flowers and shrubs for about 2 months now and they look great. We also use it to top off our garden pond, since there are no fish in it. The waste water has really made a big difference in our plants. This is particularly true for our roses, as they seem to really like whatever is in that waste water.
Tired of spending your hard earned money on bottles of water? Tired of throwing away all of those plastic water bottles? Purchase your own water filter and make your own bottled water. They are easy to install and it literally took me all of 15 minutes to mount it and have it up and running. The water tastes just as good as bottled water and is far cheaper.
Do you have an RO filter or other type of water filter? How does yours work? Are you loyal to bottled water? If so why? Share your thoughts, add a comment!
译文:
自己制造瓶装水省钱
Photo by: shaymus022
10多年来，我们一直在购买瓶装水。你可能会说我挑剔，但是我真的不能忍受自来水的味道。我们试过用Brita pitcher（一种可以净化自来水的水壶），有三个出水口的过滤器，和很多的其他过滤器。没有一种能让水喝起来感觉像瓶装水那样干净。
我们通常在瓶装水打折的时候购买，但不是每次我们需要买水都会有打折的水买。我们一个月大概喝120瓶水。24瓶装的Dannon水售价因我们购买的地方不同而从3.99美元到4.99美元不等。每个月需要5份，也就是花费19.95美元到24.95美元不等，或者说是239.40美元到299.40美元一年。
购入RO/DI过滤器
我以前写过我对咸水鱼缸的爱好以及咸水鱼对它们的水是如何挑剔。咸水鱼缸对水的原始环境有一定的要求，因此我最后不得不购买了一台RO/DI过滤器为我的鱼缸制造99%的纯水。RO/DI是Reverse-Osmosis/Di-ionizing（反渗透/双电离）的缩写。这两个过程都是用来保证咸水鱼缸不受损的，仅仅只有反渗透过滤器是用来制造高品质的饮用水的。事实上，饮用水如果经过DI过程会变得有害健康，值得一提的是它的味道也会变得很奇怪。
大多数在商店销售的瓶装水都是经过反渗透过滤的达标自来水。RO水一半达到99%的纯净度，合起来和大多数瓶装水一样好喝。其最大的优点是，比瓶装水便宜多了。我在eBay上一个叫purewaterclub*com的公司买的RO/DI过滤器，100.50美元（包括运费），相当于买4个月瓶装水的钱。这个过滤器的滤筒是RO过滤，正常使用，可以使用大约一年后才需要更换滤筒。
很多商店有提供纯净水的机器。我们当地的沃尔玛就有一台。如果你看看那台机器，你会发现那是RO水。那台机器里主要是大量的RO过滤器。虽然如此，但如果RO过滤器滤筒没有按时更换，过滤出来的水会比自来水脏得多。
你自己买太过滤器会帮你省下很多钱。仅一年就可以节省200美元！那将会在你的债务雪球中拿走一大块。
对你的植物也有好处
RO过滤器的唯一缺点是每加入5加仑水它只能制出1加仑纯水。所以每加入过滤器1加仑水，你只能获得1份纯水，其他四份是“废水”。很多人就把废水倒掉了。而我把废水废物利用，用来给植物浇水。我们用废水浇灌我们的花草树木2个月了，它们长得非常好。我们也用它来补充花园池塘的水，因为里面没有鱼。这些废水确实使我们的植物茁壮不少。我们的玫瑰花看来很喜欢废水中所含的物质。
对你辛勤劳动所得的钱用在瓶装水上心疼吗？购买一台你自己的过滤器，自己制作瓶装水。它的安装很方便，我只用了15分钟就搞定能用了。它生产的水口味和瓶装水一样好，还比瓶装水便宜多了。
你有RO过滤器或其他的过滤器吗？你是怎么做的？你是瓶装水的忠实粉丝吗？如果是，为什么？分享你的感受，添加评论吧！