Just curious what others do for drinking water...
Ive read and been told the tap water is drinkable but just the smell of it is bad enough I'd hate to taste it!
I used to go to the supermarket every few days and carry back 6 x 5L water bottles which was a complete pain. Also the environmental impact of this is terrible, not just the plastic bottles I threw out every day but also the bottles have to be shipped to the supermarket. So I did some research into water filters and found the perfect one which I have had now for about 4 months. It is called a big Berkey, gravity fed through 2 black berkey carbon filters which remove almost all impurities (including chlorine, petrochemicals, bacteria, etc) without removing minerals. The best part is the filters last about 7-10 years before needing changed, they just get cleaned under the tap every month. The initial cost is quite high at around 300eur but at about 1 eur per day for bottled water it will pay for itself in less than a year and replacement filters cost about 100eur. It filters quickly, the water tastes great and it's very simple.
Im happy to answer any questions about it and cannot recommend it enough. I got mine imported from the UK, I can give links to a couple of retailers who send to EU but is easy enough to find from a quick google search. Take a look on youtube of some comparison tests with other filters.
Drinking water in Bucharest
I just drink the tap water, except when they've been working on the system and it runs a bit foul for an hour or two. If you can be bothered, just fill up a bottle and leave it with the lid off for a while and any aromas more or less disappear. Been drinking it for years and never even had any problems.
300 Euro is a bit pricey, especially, I would guess, for those just here on temporary assignments, work secondments or in rented accommodation. There's another filter on the market, I forget the name, which is very cheap and you can attach it in parallel to the usual tap, meaning you only drink from it, and for washing up and so on, you just use the normal tap with the normal flow rate and without wasting filters on washing up, rinsing or cooking/boiling water.
I drink the tap water, both the water from the city and my well are just fine. I don't see any need for costly filters. I have no reservations about buying carbonated mineral water, as the bottles can be recycled easily.
I agree 300EUR is alot but over 7 years it works out pretty cheap. Even if I returned to UK where I always drank the tap water, I would still use this filter.
I dont have alot of confidence in the quality of the tap water here, I would love to see an independent complete water analysis but was unable to find anything online. Also drinking chlorine is not good for your health, and it smells like there is alot added to the water here.
There are many different filters available, the reason I chose this one is it works out one of the cheapest and most effective. There are many filter systems available but most need filters changed regularly (often every month ) which works out costing far more over time. I imagine the one you are thinking of is the Brita faucet filter (£150) and works out around £70/year in filter cost compared to about £10 per year for the Berkey.
Anyway, I highly recommend this filter to anyone considering buying one.
Do others on the forum drink the tap water in Bucharest?
When I was in Romania, I never drank the water from the tap. Not in Bucharest and not in Constanta. The smell is very chlorine-line and I didn't dear to drink it. When showering in Bucharest in a very nice hotel, I didn't seem to need much soap, as I was clean enough with the chlorine.
Especially my friends advised me to not drink it. I ended up at the local Carrefour and used to buy sparkling Aqua Carpatica or Bucovina. Scientifically spoken, Bucovina is the best water you can buy. It has the least residue.
You know, there are these amazingly big bottles in every supermarket? As a foreigner, that really surprised me!
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