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curiousaboutkorea
Joined: 21 Jan 2009
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 Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:42 am Post subject: |
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| canactuary wrote: |
| Water in Seoul is safe to drink. It's unfortunate that it still has a bad rep. As Koreans are very health conscious, most Koreans I know use large electric water purifiers. Just google it and you'll find recent supportable facts. Save money, the environment and your teeth by drinking tap/purifier vs. bottled. |
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teacherk
Joined: 19 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:27 am Post subject: water |
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| I brought two Nalgene bottles with me to Korea. I fill them up at school and keep them in the fridge. If I run out on the weekend, I just refill somewhere. Any restaurant, Emart or PC room has a filter. For tea, I boil tap water and think it is fine even though my kettle does not boil for 10 min. I have never once bought bottled water here because I also agree that it is a waste of money and plastic. |
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withgusto
Joined: 11 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:56 am Post subject: |
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| This is interesting. I have been drinking tap water my whole life, and I would really have to compromise to drink bottled water. I may dodge the OIL MACHINE yet again. |
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Gaber
Joined: 23 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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| I spent the last 2 years drinking filtered and this year changed to an apartment without a filter. After about a month of drinking bottled I got sick of the waste and just started drinking from the tap. So far so good! |
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talltony4
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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wow, attitudes sure are changing.
When this topic came up a couple of years ago, I think I was the only person who said they drunk tap water. Now there's lots of us!
but in between there has been a big information campaign by Seoul city to say that tap water is safe to drink. So Korean's don't look at tap water drinkers quite so strangely now. |
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Tavisd
Joined: 03 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 6:32 am Post subject: |
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| If I bring a britta filter from the US will it fit the faucet out there or are they different? |
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Hunnie705
Joined: 06 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| We were sick of buying bottled water so someone at school hooked us up with a water delivery service. For $5 for an 18L jug a guy would deliver it and pick it up the next week. The big jugs were refilled and delivered to the next person. You just buy a pump to go on top of it for $15. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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The tap water is supposed to be OK. I know U.S. FDA experts used to come, maybe still do, to advise and test it.
I boil the water and use the barley tea to absorb the heavy metals, etc.
If you're really committed, hike up the nearest mountain and get all the yak su you can carry for free. |
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goniff
Joined: 31 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 3:55 am Post subject: |
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"heard" undrinkable from who? what is your source?
More misinformation crap yet again!
Now hear this!
The tap water in Korea is Ok to drink and probably tastes/is better than most western countries
ok? |
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eljuero
Joined: 11 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 4:22 am Post subject: Call me stupid but..... |
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| I guess coming from Latin America this water seemed safe enough to drink. The topic came up the other day and no one could explain why it wasn't safe.....I've been drinking it without problems and believe me I've experienced some 3rd world water problems..... |
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amcnutt
Joined: 22 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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| goniff wrote: |
"heard" undrinkable from who? what is your source?
More misinformation crap yet again!
Now hear this!
The tap water in Korea is Ok to drink and probably tastes/is better than most western countries
ok? |
I had read in on one of these forums and wasn't sure if it was true or not. Plus I have been watching several videos of ESL teachers showing their apartments on youtube and ALL of them have tons of bottles of water in their apts.
Plus there was apparently a campaign (above) which stated that Korean water was safe to drink, which I am sure it is now. But that goes to show this isn't a crazy made-up statement. Lots of people must have thought that to make a campaign against it....
I in general am not a huge fan of unfiltered water because tap water has fluoride and other chemicals in it. |
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darkjedidave
Joined: 19 Aug 2009
Location: Shanghai/Seoul
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| Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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| johnyv40 wrote: |
So what makes bottled water safer than boiled tap water?
Isn't most bottled water just tap water anyway? |
I live in an older part of Seoul (Yonhi-dong area) where the water pipes are haven't been replaced for decades, therefore the water here tests with higher than normal amounts of lead. No amount of boiling will help with that and supposedly it leaks through fliters. |
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recklesscognition1
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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Update. My wife and I fight about this a lot, she's Korean, and doesn't trust the tap. She goes through 12 2 liter bottles of water a week! Ruining the environment. Anyway, this morning the government showed up at my door to do a live test of the water. Here are the results from Jamsil:
Chlorine: 0.13 NTU (Max 0.5 allowed)
effluents?: 0.26mg/L (Max 4.0 mg allowed)
pH: 7.39 (Range 5.8-8.5 allowed)
Iron: 0.01mg/L (0.3mg allowed)
Copper: 0.02mg/L (1.0 mg/L allowed)
Drink up! |
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akcrono
Joined: 11 Mar 2010
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| Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:58 pm Post subject: Re: Water in Seoul |
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| kyopoopa wrote: |
| amcnutt wrote: |
Is there any alternative to buying bottled water in Seoul? I heard the tap water is undrinkable, but I don't want to keep buying bottled water all the time. It's a waste of plastic etc, although recycling in the city I heard is pretty good.
If I boil the tap water for tea is that safe?
Also, wasn't sure if a Brita filter would purify it or not. |
Amcnutt,
I don't know how healthy piped water is in Korea, but until I can get it checked out (will be sending back samples to my uni in the States), I'll be treating the water before I consume it.
Boiling for a sufficient time will kill most of the bio stuff, but may intensify the chemical stuff.
Chlorine doesn't just taste bad, it scars your vessels, increasing plaque buildup.
You can set up a good system at your place for about 200 USD. You'll also need to spend about 5 mintues a day making clean water, but I'd rather do that than carry bottled water and pay for it daily. A good system should filter out all bio and inorganic (protozoa and bacteria) matter to .2 micron or lower, most chemicals and pesticides, followed by an activated charcoal filter. You can skip the first part if you do a UV treatment, then do the other steps.
Hope this helps. |
This seems highly paranoid. Get it tested if you're really worried, but i've rarely heard of anyone in the developed world dying of tap water. Health officials are REALLY good at getting contamination notices out.
| Pangit wrote: |
| Brita filters still use plastic housing - much less likely to be recycled. Get the bottled water delivered, they take back the empties. |
Still better for the environment than the energy required to melt down all those plastic bottles.
For those of you worried about the Britta plastic leaching into the water, the plastic in the pitchers don't leach.
| johnyv40 wrote: |
So what makes bottled water safer than boiled tap water?
Isn't most bottled water just tap water anyway? |
Nothing actually. There are more rigorous standards for tap water than bottled water. Not that there aren't finantial incentives to keep bottled water safe...
My father has been water commissioner for over 10 years, if you're wondering about my information source. |
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sugarloaf82
Joined: 21 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Does anybody know how to go about getting a small water dispenser hooked up in your apartment? I've heard that it's possible to have one installed (like what most schools have, just a smaller version with just cold water or both hot and cold water) and then just pay a monthly rental fee, does anyone know about this? Also, what companies provide this service? |
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