Tap Water - Beware of Expensive Imitations!

Earlier this year, a case came to court regarding the Bleinheim Palace mineral water identity crisis in 2007. A large number of complaints were made about the quality of the water and investigations discovered that a bottling plant in Wales was using tap water or its local spring water to fill the bottles. With fines of £3,000 and court costs of ~£100,000, the bottling company and owner have paid a hefty price for their activities and the water industry practises are again called into question.

Is this an isolated case? Definitely not, some companies including hotels and restaurants do decant their own tap water into labelled bottles - and I don't mean their own labels! It's a cheaper, more ascetic option, but its not right and it's not in the best interests of their customers and staff.

Is that glass of tap water becoming more attractive again? It's always FREE...

Out tap water is among the safest in the world - the chlorine in it helps make it so, it just doesn't taste great and we've been persuaded that 'bottled is best'. There is less legislation covering the bottling of water, and precious little regarding storage and safe usage, compared to the preparation and distribution of our mains water. Bottled mineral water and spring water tastes better because there's no chlorine - but it doesn't mean it is safer to drink and improper distribution/storage can seriously compromise its suitability for our consumption.

Bottled water is at least 1000x more expensive than what we pay for our tap water. A recent survey of supermarket prices of bottles of still water from single buys to multi-buys of 330ml to 10L sizes revealed that the average cost is 58p per Litre (13May 2009, Sainsbury's and Ocado on-line shopping).

58p per Litre for bottled water is not bad on the face of it - cheaper than wine, beer and many soft drinks - but it's water, that most essential requirement for life that we are buying. The 14-Day Volvic Challenge has the right idea that we should drink more plain water, but costs are going to mount up if its done with bottles...

The recommended daily allowance is 1.5L drinking water per person (540L per year). So this accumulates to £313 per year (87p per day).

But how to cut costs and make tap water taste better?
Filtration is the answer...

Filter jugs may only cost £19.95 to buy, but filter capacities of 100L and replacement filters costing £3.99 mean that 540L costs £107 to produce (29p per day).

Filter kettles cost £59.95 to buy, filter capacities of only 50L at £4.99 per filter, mean that 540L costs £113 per year (30p per day).

The Just Water Now Unit Filter costs just £75.00 to purchase, with filters lasting 6000L and replaced every 6 months at £7.50, so in year 1 it costs £82.50 (22p per day). After the first year, it costs only 2 filters: so year 2 onwards £15.00 per year (4p per day). No mess, no fuss, no remembering to get new filters - Just Water Now sends out email reminders so you don't have to.

So looking at it per person, there's not a lot between the differing filtration methods. However families of 4 or more the costs mount up as they require over 2000L per year:



The JWN Unit Filter will provide enough drinking water for a family of 22 each year and certainly enough drinking, cooking and washing-up water for a family of 8.

Looking to make savings on your shoppong bill, but not compromise your lifestyle? The Just Water Now Unit Filter is the easiest, most eco-friendly and safest method of achieving this when it comes to water.