# Bottled water- Is it really worth it? (Scam or not) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327 "2016-08-19T18:19:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/121 "2016-08-25T02:45:44Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Assuming I’m not being whooshed, that’s fucking disgusting. It’s weird, but true: a sulfur odor to water is something you can not only get used to, but come to enjoy and admire. Sulfur hot springs are fun places for natural hot baths. Meanwhile, absolutely pure water – perfectly distilled water – tastes boring! Like…paper. Spring water and well water and creek water are (in my opinion) the best. Some of the best water I’e ever tasted was in Fresno, as it came right down off the Sierras. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/122 "2016-08-25T02:46:06Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Mire. Grimpen _Mire_. Not according to Mad Magazine. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/123 "2016-08-25T04:57:21Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Assuming I’m not being whooshed, that’s fucking disgusting. Thank you so much for declaring a rather fond memory of my childhood to be disgusting. I look forward to the day when I can return the favor to you. > [@Trinopus](#): > > It’s weird, but true: a sulfur odor to water is something you can not only get used to, but come to enjoy and admire. Sulfur hot springs are fun places for natural hot baths. > > Meanwhile, absolutely pure water – perfectly distilled water – tastes boring! Like…paper. Spring water and well water and creek water are (in my opinion) the best. Some of the best water I’e ever tasted was in Fresno, as it came right down off the Sierras. Extremely boring. Not really worth the effort it takes to drink it. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/124 "2016-08-25T05:18:58Z")
> [@bump](#): > > In the US or most of Europe, I’d say it’s a scam. It’s all safe to drink, and any issues with taste, turbidity, etc… can be easily rectified with a Brita-style filter, which costs much less than its equivalent in bottled water. Flint is in the US, there was a big problem with their water. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other shittier cities in the US had similar problems that just haven’t been caught yet. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/125 "2016-08-25T12:43:51Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Scam? Hell no. My aunt has hard water and it smells and tastes like _sulfur_. If you want to drink water that tastes like rotten eggs, be my guest. (And trust me, it’s extremely strong. Even with a water softener)1 “Hard” and “sulfur” are unrelated issues. “Hard” means it’s got a high content in Ca[sup]2+[/sup] and Mg[sup]2+[/sup], two cations which are present pretty much in any drinkable water. The sulfur isn’t even on that side of the chemical equation: if you can smell it, either you have H[sub]2[/sub]S (which is actually among the mildest of the sulfurated compounds that smell like rotten eggs) or an organic compound containing sulfur. The substance that’s added to propane and methane (which have no detectable smells) to make them “smell like gas” is one of these organic compounds. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/126 "2016-08-25T12:44:06Z")
This really should have been linked in much earlier in the thread. It says, in detail, many of the reasons bottled water is a bad idea and why it’s become so universal. **[The Story of Bottled Water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0)** (4M views since 2010). ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/127 "2016-08-25T13:02:02Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > This really should have been linked in much earlier in the thread. It says, in detail, many of the reasons bottled water is a bad idea and why it’s become so universal. > > **[The Story of Bottled Water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0)** (4M views since 2010). 1. I don’t do YouTube for arguing factual matters, so I didn’t bother enabling my Flash blocker. 2. I did happen to notice one of the first comments proclaiming that fluoride in tap water causes cancer. I am no fan of tap water in my particular locality, but I’m also no fan of the kind of conspiracy-theory idiots that seem to infest those sorts of sites. There’s probably a further comment that fluoride is a mind-control agent being planted by the CIA. 3. The tap water in my area tastes like shit, and bottled water from a nearby natural spring tastes great, and I keep cases of it in my cool basement. The plastic bottles are made from recycled plastic and are recycled again when I’m done. Sorry, but a YouTube video isn’t going to change anything even if I wanted to watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/128 "2016-08-25T13:05:39Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > This is total nonsense. I’m certain that I’ve never seen an ad for the store-brand bottled water I buy, and I’m pretty sure that it’s never been advertised at all. I buy it on the basis of its good taste, it being local spring water, low price, and its mineral analysis. Marketing does not devolve to specific ads you’ve seen for a specific product. The argument “I bought X and never saw an ad for it” and the converse, “I just saw an ad for X and didn’t run out to buy it” - so nyah nyah - just mean the proponent doesn’t really know how marketing and advertising work. You’ve likely never seen an ad that says BUY A CAR - but that’s the cumulative effect of a hundred years of aggressively marketing cars. Bottled water went from a back-shelf, emergency-supplies item to a designer darling on a tsunami of intense, competitive marketing (billlllions and billllllions of dollars’ worth)… and took sales of those pale blue labeled store-brand bottles with them. There may not have been any ad that said BUY BOTTLED WATER that made you run out for a Safeway flat, but unless you’ve been serving in an underground bunker in Antarctica you’ve spent the last 25-30 years being exposed to the idea that bottled water is something wonderful and desirable and brings the good times and girls and health and pure mountain air… so yes, some part of why you toss that flat in your cart does come from the generalized conditioning of the marketing efforts. > [@](#): > > It’s impossible to have a generic conversation about “bottled water” because it means so many different things and there are so many different reasons for using it. This suggests you haven’t actually read the thread, because I and others have broken the discussion out between things like generic store water, brand name tap wter and designer-name branded water… and the several reasons people buy each one. (I even pointed out that this is like arguing “television” when TV long ago ceased being four realtime channels on a viewing appliance.) So yes, you do have to specify the differences in the discussion (either one) - and we have. > [@](#): > > It’s also a bit deceptive to claim, as you later did, that water is just water and trivially easy to purify. I think not. Simple distillation produces water that can be parts per billion away from chemically pure. Multiple distillation repeats the level of purification. You can distill sewage into drinking water with scraps of plastic and sticks - or with semi-trailer sized steam distillers, as bottling plants often do. There are few chemical/physical processes easier to do. Osmotic filtration as used by most home-sized units is almost as good, especially if the osmotic filter is combined with other filter types. (Mine has 5 in all and is only a midrange unit.) Don’t like heavily filtered or distilled water? Some units add back in a trace of the groundwater minerals that give tap water a unique flavor. That you have exceptionally cheap bottled water produced so locally it has no carbon footprint is not a common situation. Most of the argument is about water shipped _literally_ halfway around the world - and water is _heavy_. And it’s still just… water. > [@](#): > > So while some of your comments may be valid in some circumstances, they are over-broad generalizations and in many cases they are misdirected judgmental pontifications. Again, it looks as if you haven’t even skimmed the thread. A much more complex argument has been made than “all bottled water is the same, and bad.” Take a few minutes for the video link just above, too. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/129 "2016-08-25T13:09:51Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > 1. I don’t do YouTube for arguing factual matters… Ah. Well, I guess there’s always Wikipedia, right? I very rarely reference things like YT, but this happens to be a first-rate production done by a very experienced presentation team, not the usual POS shot by a monkey in his basement. It says more, more clearly, in 8 minutes than some books I have on the subject by respected authors. But you can skip it. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/130 "2016-08-25T17:27:29Z")
Wow, it seems **AB** hates bottled water almost as much as the TV he watches. ---
**Author:** ![onething](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/df788c/32.png) [@onething](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/onething)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/131 "2016-08-25T22:22:30Z")
So far I’m still leaning towards not a scam. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/132 "2016-08-25T23:15:51Z")
People who are being scammed always lean towards “not scam”. To do otherwise is to admit they have been owned. People don’t like to admit that. Same for every scam. And the worse people have been scammed, the more invested they are in not admitting it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/133 "2016-08-25T23:22:25Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > People who are being scammed always lean towards “not scam”. To do otherwise is to admit they have been owned. People don’t like to admit that. Same for every scam. And the worse people have been scammed, the more invested they are in not admitting it. OK…so…I don’t drink bottled water and I don’t think it’s a scam…where does that leave me? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/134 "2016-08-26T01:13:23Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > People who are being scammed always lean towards “not scam”. To do otherwise is to admit they have been owned. People don’t like to admit that. Same for every scam. And the worse people have been scammed, the more invested they are in not admitting it. That’s like the “Denying you’re an alcoholic is an indication that you’re an alcoholic” claim. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/135 "2016-08-26T03:39:05Z")
Nah, I think it’s a scam because of the reasons it’s a scam as discussed above. All I’m saying is that the fact that **onething** doesn’t think it’s a scam impresses me not at all. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/136 "2016-08-26T19:19:16Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Nah, I think it’s a scam because of the reasons it’s a scam as discussed above. > > All I’m saying is that the fact that **onething** doesn’t think it’s a scam impresses me not at all. Yeah, I feel the same way about **AB** thinking it is. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/137 "2016-08-26T19:27:31Z")
> [@onething](#): > > So far I’m still leaning towards not a scam. Okay. So your developmentally-disabled sister just came into my store and I sold her a candy bar for the $100 bill she had. She was absolutely thrilled, and so was I. No scam there, either? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/138 "2016-08-27T02:30:36Z")
So you are saying that the bottled water buying public is developmentally-disabled? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/139 "2016-08-27T03:01:56Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Okay. > > So your developmentally-disabled sister just came into my store and I sold her a candy bar for the $100 bill she had. She was absolutely thrilled, and so was I. > > No scam there, either? I’m mostly on your side…but, dude, you’re pushing it way farther than it needs to go. > [@madsircool](#): > > So you are saying that the bottled water buying public is developmentally-disabled? …And that isn’t valid either! He isn’t saying any such thing! He’s asking if developmentally disabled people are being “scammed” when they exhibit complete satisfaction with the outcome of a transaction, when any one of us (putatively fully developed) would consider ourselves to be scammed. i.e., if the scammer succeeds, and the victim is perfectly happy, is it a scam or not? **Amateur Barbarian** is making a reasonable point, that a scam is still a scam, even if the customer is completely satisfied. That’s how the very best scams work. (e.g., not the “magic pill” that turns water into gasoline, but, instead, the “oil treatment additive” that “extends the lifetime of your engine” but actually doesn’t do anything at all, but the customer keeps using it because his Pa used it.) (Is Laetrile a scam if the patient spontaneously remits from his cancer?) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2016, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327/140 "2016-08-27T03:22:39Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > …And that isn’t valid either! He isn’t saying any such thing! That’s essentially what I got out of it. It’s a piss poor analogy. As is the oil additive one. If you’re of sound mind and want to spend two bucks on water that advertised itself to be water (and it’s not promising to be a cure-all or anything), how is that a scam? I’d say it’s a scam if it purports to be water taken from artesian springs in Iceland (or wherever) and it turns out to be filtered water from Lake Erie. But water that’s just advertised as water? Where’s the scam in that? Like I said, I don’t buy the stuff myself, I think it’s a waste of money, but I just don’t see any scammery in it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bottled-water-is-it-really-worth-it-scam-or-not/763327.md?page=8)