Is Orlando water safe to drink?
No question in my mind that it is… since they have the Orange County Water Utilities whose purpose is to deliver safe drinking water to Orlando residents and all of the millions of people that visit Orlando each year and want to drink the water from the tap.
Safe? Oh yes, but taste… ? To us, the Orlando water tastes absolutely terrible. To a local server in an Orlando restaurant – and she lives here – “Orlando water tastes worse than any city water I’ve had anywhere”.
When we had our backyard pool, way back when the kids were growing up, the water in that pool had less chlorine smell in it than has the water coming from some Orlando water taps today, at least according to our taste and sniffers.
Bottled Water?
Like many other visitors, and perhaps residents alike, for a long time we purchased bottled water for drinking. Almost every other day saw us driving to the local store to purchase a couple more gallons and a case or two of bottled water.
Much of the bottled water in the local supermarket was, in itself, at least according to our taste preferences, not terribly good tasting. It was distilled water, “with minerals added to give it flavor”, and frankly, you could have left the minerals out, as the taste was horrible anyway.
Given that we wanted to use chlorine-free water for drinking, in coffee, in tea, when we were cooking, bottled water was purchased anyway, and it quickly became a big expense.
The handling of large jugs or cases of bottled water was a pain, literally, and, in almost all cases, the empty plastic bottles were turfed. Not much recycling of plastic where we were staying, near Orlando, and that is sure an expense to the environment.
Still, we were stuck! As far as we were concerned the water flowing from the tap was undrinkable, it tainted the coffee and made the hot tea miserable and it was full of chlorine. The domestic bottled water was pretty horrid too, but at least we weren’t drinking copious quantities of chlorine along with the water.
You know, chlorine kills bacteria… and what am I but a 6′ 2″, 240+ lb. bacteria! I can’t believe that drinking any chlorine is good for you. So it was bottled water or nothing.
Our Orlando Water solution
Then we visited a friend’s house, and these folks had installed a well known brand of on-tap water filter. I knew of these, but hadn’t really considered them as a solution to enable us to drink Orlando water.
I asked for a drink of water from their tap… and the rest is….. well, you know.
No, I don’t work for any water filter company, and I have no affiliation with any of them. But I do have to tell you that for under $20 in Orlando Florida, we were able to acquire, and install, one of these tap mounted filters in our rental unit. What a difference in water quality!
The one we bought had an assortment of washer-like interfaces that allowed it to be installed on virtually any faucet. It was a small unit (can be transported easily), quite light weight, and it can be taken with you anywhere you travel. I guarantee ours will be with us when we travel anywhere, ever again.
Water Wrapper?
Bread is wrapped in plastic, and when you get it home, you eat the bread not the plastic wrapper.
I believe that chlorine is the “plastic wrapper” for drinking water, ensuring that the water is delivered safely and with bacteria dead, when it gets to your tap. Don’t drink the “water wrapper”. Remove the chlorine and any off taste with an on-tap water filter.
There are now quite a few brands of these devices on the market, and also in the store where we shopped. If fact, as I update this page, the on-tap water purifier we use now is another brand. The older one wore out (couldn’t turn the handle any more) so we went shopping for a replacement and decided to try the competitor. It works fine, installs the same way. Both brands are about the same cost, so you can pick the one that suits you best.
And yes, I sure would like a glass of iced water, please. This Orlando sun is sure hot!