which walmart water to use ?

bluegrizzlies1 · #1 10/29/2007, 05:31 PM

Which water is better the purple lid distilled water or the culligan pure ro water ?

Im not getting an ro di unit yet so wanted to know which water was just as good ?

zack85 · #2 10/29/2007, 05:38 PM

you can get ro/di or premixed saltwater by the gallon at any lfs... Prob be cheaper & better water qual for the tank...

bluegrizzlies1 · #3 10/29/2007, 07:39 PM

I have no LFS anywhere around closes one is 2 hrs away so that is no option.

gsusfreak · #4 10/29/2007, 07:56 PM

they should have those culligan machines...and that should be good enough

bluegrizzlies1 · #5 10/29/2007, 08:12 PM

yes they have the culligen machine there and they also have distilled water wanted to know which one would be better?

m2434 · #6 10/29/2007, 10:18 PM

I would probably trust the distilled better. It is theoretically purer and probably better QC than those RO water machines.

dzones · #7 10/29/2007, 10:29 PM

I personally stay clear away from my local Culligan machine at wally world. I once checked into it as a viable option for water and upon looking at the service tag that gets signed by a "tech" when they inspect the filters and such, it was pre-signed for the fnext 6 months.

My next visit I brought a tds meter with me and it read extremely high as I recall. Enough that I decided to start using the purple lid distilled water instead. tested a LOT better.
Maybe your Culligan machine is better but I would have it checked before I started trusting it as my main water source.

bluegrizzlies1 · #8 10/29/2007, 10:56 PM

pretty much answers my ? I will go with the distilled purple lid water since Im not knowing when the filters get changed on the culligan machine.

Thanks for all the replys

gsusfreak · #9 10/29/2007, 10:57 PM

opps...of course check your TDS...with either the culligan or the bottled up distilled water

121a · #10 10/30/2007, 07:18 AM

why don't you just buy an RO/DI unit? They are like $135 shipped on ebay from i don't remember. I got it and i love mine. I was cheap and didn't get a TDS meter so yea.

lpsluver · #11 10/30/2007, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by m2434
I would probably trust the distilled better. It is theoretically purer and probably better QC than those RO water machines.

Wrong. Theoretically, RO/DI water is far better than distilled. If you're going to test TDS of the water prior to use why not get a gallon of both and test them.

Better yet, why not go to your local grocery store and look for purified wate. Read the labels carefully and look for the water the is processed via Reverse Osmosis. In a pinch this is the best solution, IME. Those suppliers are more likely to maintain there systems to keep a constant water quality than the mahines at your local Wal Mart.

dogstar74 · #12 10/30/2007, 11:09 AM

All I know is that I had the brilliant idea to use the Culligan water machine at wally world, because they didn't have the purple lidded gallons. And I now have the worst outbreak of cyano I can handle. I chalk it up to name selling and bad maintainance. They are only interested in selling the name culligan, and the water won't hurt the public to drink it. But it's given me so much headache, that I'm back to the purple gallons again. I just can't justify running 4x the waters down the drain to get RO/DI water from the house. I even have the RO/DI unit! I guess we'll see in the future.
HTH
Aaron

m2434 · #13 10/30/2007, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lpsluver
Wrong. Theoretically, RO/DI water is far better than distilled. If you're going to test TDS of the water prior to use why not get a gallon of both and test them.

Better yet, why not go to your local grocery store and look for purified wate. Read the labels carefully and look for the water the is processed via Reverse Osmosis. In a pinch this is the best solution, IME. Those suppliers are more likely to maintain there systems to keep a constant water quality than the mahines at your local Wal Mart.

The question was in regards to an RO machine, not an RO/DI machine. A good RO/DI setup could produce water that is purer than single pass distilled water but RO alone is certainly not (actually it's the DI part that gives you the really pure water - the RO just takes some of the load off). Most Distilled water is distilled multiple times however and will certainly be better than RO water, although RO/DI water may still be better (If you are using a very high quality setup). So, again distilled water "is theoretically purer and probably better QC than those RO water machines"- now if the machine was an RO/DI machine that would be another story, but the QC would still be an issue.

InLimbo87 · #14 10/30/2007, 07:10 PM

Is neither an option?

Seriously I wouldn't trust either. Try finding a local LFS that sells RO/DI water. Worth the extra expense...

InsaneClownFish · #15 10/30/2007, 08:23 PM

Wow. Folks. Purple cap Distilled Walmart water for years with zero issues. If you look at the label, it used to be processed through reverse osmosis and ozinated. The newer batches are steam distilled.

From what I understand, there are very few of the old copper steam distillers out there, but this would be something to watch out for. I'm sticking solely to the purple cap Walmart distilled this time around for consitency. I've used supermarket versions and the very high priced Poland Spring in a pinch, but my tank usually looked better after a "purple cap" water change.

Also, keep in mind that an in home R/O unit has it's limitations, and it is MHO that it is much harder to maintain consistency with small in home units than it is with water processed on a mass scale, with quality control factors, and much more state of the art equipment than we will ever be able to touch..