Sunday, July 27, 2008

Don't sip the tapwater dunce

So this post isn't going to be completely related to the "How to be a Handyman" niche. But then again it will slightly relate to a handyman's knowledge because it has to do with the very same water that some of you might drink, "tap water". Tap water is what you use to bathe in and wash your dishes with, not to drink. The cities of the United States deem water consumable and verify that tap water is safe to drink. Everyone knows that tap water isn't good for you to drink but the cities of the United Stated deem it to be.

Note: If you own a house that has a water supply ran from a well this article does not effect you, but please read on for more information.

I for one would never drink water straight from the tap but I have been a huge fan of refilling my ice trays with tap water, and I have also installed ice makers in a couple of places that I have stayed in the past. Well guess what, the ice in you're ice tray is tap water and more then likely, if your ice maker doesn't have a filter on it then it is also tap water. After seeing these pictures below you will understand why I had made this post about the subject.

Recently around my neck in the woods I had a buddy who is a plumber that had to fix a water leak under the ground for a certain apartment complex. The water leak was pretty bad and it was wasting about 100 gallons of water every ten minutes, that being 5 ft under ground with lots of concrete holding back the full potential of the water leak. My buddy the plumber found the underground leak and dug up the concrete to get to it with the help of some heavy duty machinery. He had found the leak and he removed the 30 year old galvanized pipe and replaced it with a new pipe. The pipe was about 3 foot long that was busted with a hole in it. Here is a couple pictures of the busted ass pipe.

Click any image to enlarge






Now the above images are pictures of what the inside of 30 year old galvanized pipes might look like. Now I am not saying that every city in the United States has potable water piping that looks like this but hey that is for you to critique.

This is what I use at my home now though, I have a shower head that has a purifier on it, my faucets have a purifier on them, and I only buy bagged ice from the store now. So it's your choice, the cities of the United States clean these pipes out and test the water but if you want to trust if this water is potable after looking at these images is up to you. You just read my opinion. To sum up this whole article this Handyman says, don't sip the tap water dunce.



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