Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

i am not entirely sure of the mechanical principles of a drip coffee maker. do they boil the water and then drip it onto the coffee grounds or do they simply heat the water... suck it up and then drip it onto the coffee grounds... ?

so far i've been using bottled water to make my coffee but if i could save a bit of cash and still be safe from the dreaded heavy metals in Korean tap water i figure why not...

[the eye]

Boiling does not 'kill' heavy metals.

[ruffie]

You can't boil out mercury or cadmium, and the heat of the coffee maker isn't enough to kill the other nasties. Keep using bottled water.

[polonius]

Coffee makers do not boil water.

[pkang0202]

I'm thinking he means, does the coffee maker boil the water, and collect the water vapor (via condensation) to use in the coffee, or is it just heated and sucked up in a straw?

OP: Keep using spring water.

Technically, wouldn't boiling water get rid of heavy metals? If you setup a system that would collect the water vapors and condense them down, the resulting water would be heavy metal free. Its a little fuzzy, but I seem to remember in chemistry class things like Metals, Salts, etc... are too heavy to be carried in water vapor.

[chaz47]

[dogshed]

Making steam and condensing it is distillation. That does involve boiling but when people say they are boiling the water they usually mean they are going to use the water that does not turn into steam.

Distillation can still retain some contaminants because a certain amount of the contaminants will themselves evaporate and condense. You also have to think about contaminants that can be introduced during condensation. There are lots of places for nasty bugs to grow.

[chris_J2]

The only way to get rid of heavy metals & other water contaminants is reverse osmosis. Much cheaper to use bottled water.

[mindmetoo]

I don't think there are particularly toxic levels of heavy metals in Seoul's tap water. Anyone have any stats? Koreans seem no worse for wear.

[princess]

Keep using bottled water. It gets aggravating having to buy so much bottled water, but it's better than nasty tap water. The husband/wife that run the little mart close to my apartment tease me about always coming in their shop and buying 4 bottles of water at a time. The lady asked me if I liked water. I told her I cook with it, etc.

[Harpeau]

Very funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkUbW15ty70

[mindmetoo]

[chris_J2]

I've read in Lonely Planet Korea, that there are minute traces of heavy metals in the tap water. They said it's okay to brush your teeth in, but ingesting large quantities of water over a long period of time is not good for your health. Plus I wonder how much of those fumigation sprays for mosquitoes, find their way into local reservoirs? Someone answered a question for me last year on exactly what was in the sprays, & it was a pretty lethal c0cktail of chemicals from memory, albeit in small doses. I'll be sticking to bottled water.

[mindmetoo]

[crazy_arcade]

tap water is fine.