Distilled water opinions

[nicki]

I know c-n-q had tons of threads asking about what water to give chins. I'm sure I missed a few but it seemed most people leaned towards using filters that remove giardia. There were other suggestions as well. I choose to go with distilled water from what I read. Since pellets and hay offer all the nutrients a chin needs going distilled seemed best for me to get. Now I see some opinions say the opposite. So I guess I'm looking for more info on using distilled water.

Also thoughts on spring water?

 

[iayla]

I remember from high school science class that distilled water actually isnt good for you, but its completely sterile. Its actually just condensed steam, so its pure water with no minerals in it. Distilled water also tastes horrible.

In my own opinion, reverse osmosis filtered water is the best choice for my pets. Its filtered to remove any impurities & harmful things like giardia, but it still leaves the minerals found naturally.
~Barb~

 

[jmdebb]

I use tap water, but where I get tap water from is a good source. I know alot of people discourgage that, but like I said, i get it from a great sources unlike other cities, towns...etc.

Jean

 

[tunes]

I use either filtered water or reverse osmosis. It's my understanding that distilled water is pretty much dead. It takes everything out of it, good and bad.

 

[greychins]

I use tap water filtered by a Pur3 filter (which is supposed to remove giardia and all those other harmful things). So far no problems.

 

[shuboyje]

Reverse Osmosis and Distillation are essentially different routes to the same result, the water resulting from both is devoid of minerals and nutrients, just pure H2O. I personally use tap water as I was always taught by the old timers the minerals in it were good for the animals. We have our own water system here with good fresh water straight out of the great lakes on which I live, so maybe everywhere this isn't an option, but here it is a good one.

 

[Spoof]

If you have good water, use it. I used well/city water in WA, ID and OR.

LA is a different story. Will be filtering it until I get it tested. Then may or may not use it, I hear the wells get infected with crap easily down here. ~sigh.

 

[seachin]

Distilled water is just condensed steam and thus does not have minerals and whatnot that would be found naturally in freshwater. This is considered NOT drinkable for humans and so obviously not for chins. This is because of the concept of diffusion from biology class. The idea being that if the mineral balance is so off between the distilled water and the organism consuming the distilled water, the minerals would actually leave the cells of the organism to balance out the minerals in the distilled water. So, sodium, potassium, etc, needed for proper cellular function would be flushed out of the cells and those functions would not occur correctly. Personally I use a countertop solid block water filter which excludes 99.9% of giardia and cryptosporidium along with removing many VOCs and chlorine.

 

[nicki]

Thanks for all the replies, a lot of good info. I'll look into switching water. I used to use tap filtered by Brita. Then read about giardia and how tap was a big no no. So I switched to spring then distilled. This was over a span of 8ish years. Now I will look into going back to tap and possibly using the Pur2 pitcher. Or try to check the quality of our water.

 

[greychins]

nicki - I could be wrong, but I think only the pur3 (not the pur2 or pur filters) filters out giardia. I'm not absolutely positive, but I remember thinking (when I bought mine) that it had to be a pur3...

 

[Sesame]

Greychins-- I heard the same about pur3 filters being able to filter out giardia. I'll have to double check my pur3/step3 replacement filter boxes when I get home.

 

[greychins]

Well I know the pur3 filters out the giardia. On my box of replacement filters (which I actually have in front of me, it says, "Removes 99.9% of microbial cysts (cryptosporidium and giardia)." And on the other side it shows it's NSF certified.

The point of my other post was that while the pur3 filters this stuff out, I'm not sure the other pur filters (pur and pur2) filter it out. I could be wrong, I'm not sure exactly what's different between the pur2 and pur3, I just know that for me, the pur3 was the one I heard to get, and that's the one I checked, and it filters out giardia and the other crypto-thing. I'm just saying if someone wants to get the pur or pur2, they should check to see if those filters also filter out this stuff, or if maybe those filter out less.... just to err on the side of caution.

 

[nicki]

I did look it up I think all the Pur3 are for the faucet. And the Pur2 or table top. On their website the one model of Pur2 said it filtered giardia. Maybe there is a difference in how much it is able to filter. I didn't check the NSF though. I'll do more research before I pick one.

Well I know the pur3 filters out the giardia. On my box of replacement filters (which I actually have in front of me, it says, "Removes 99.9% of microbial cysts (cryptosporidium and giardia)." And on the other side it shows it's NSF certified.

The point of my other post was that while the pur3 filters this stuff out, I'm not sure the other pur filters (pur and pur2) filter it out. I could be wrong, I'm not sure exactly what's different between the pur2 and pur3, I just know that for me, the pur3 was the one I heard to get, and that's the one I checked, and it filters out giardia and the other crypto-thing. I'm just saying if someone wants to get the pur or pur2, they should check to see if those filters also filter out this stuff, or if maybe those filter out less.... just to err on the side of caution.

 

[tunes]

Nicki - Just wanted to point out, since you mentioned it, the problem with spring water. I was told there is no regulation at this point. So basically if someone goes out, dips a bottle in their backyard well and slaps it on a shelf - it's spring water. It doesn't have to be purified or anything else, just "come from a spring." Obviously, it can't come from a toxic source or anything like that, but the wording is pretty vague as to what exactly spring water has to go through to be labelled spring water.