Water filter

[Pursuivant]

Someplaces the tap water is worse than others, but the only time I've "noticed" is when I moved to a brand new house the water tasted "dusty" for a while... must bee the pipes hadn't corroded enough to produce the acquired taste. And I rather taste chlorine than squirrels... they've had a few contaminations.

[CAD_Guy]

However, for health reasons I'm trying to eliminate heavy metals (copper, lead, aluminium etc) and chlorine from the drinking water.

I did a quick search to see if I could find anything out of what is in Finnish drinking water. I found out there's no fluoride, so that's good. However I wasn't able to determine if there are heavy metals or not. Copper piping will obviously be an issue or if you're in an old building, lead. Also where you live in Finland will determine the quality as well judging by what people have said. Chlorine is in the water regardless as it's needed as it reduces bacteria in the supply.

So I would suggest filter if you wish to. I don't think the silver will cause you any issues. Not to make you paranoid or anything, there's probably worse stuff in the air than the water.

[Pursuivant]

I don't think the silver will cause you any issues.

[Pursuivant]

Copper piping will obviously be an issue or if you're in an old building, lead.

Lead? But we don't have houses from the Roman era?

[CAD_Guy]

Lead? But we don't have houses from the Roman era?

I don't know enough about hosing in Finland to know about the piping situation. However I do know there are many countries that still have lead piping in some places, that's the only reason I stated that. Lead piping was used for a long period of time, to the early 1900s.

I've seen that picture of that guy before that was hysterical! That of course was a high level of silver intake!

[Upphew]

I think the water in Helsinki tastes great but our tap water in Olari doesn't taste so good to me. And the tap water at MIL's in Parainen tastes disgusting (I have drunk the water in Parainen in several different places and it all tastes bad).

No wonder that Helsinki has water that tastes good, as it is filtered through sand, then nasty germs are given unhealthy dose of ozone and then another filtering through active carbon filters and another disinfection with UV light... not to mention that it is brought from lake Päijänne, which has (nowadays) very good waters.

[CAD_Guy]

That's a lot of filtering there! No wonder it's so good!

[randy75]

In the recent years i lived in the US (FL), Poland (Wroclaw) and Finland (Helsinki), i installed water filters everywhere i lived.
My water in FL tasted like ground and just the tought of all the pesticides/fertilizers, i didn't wat to risk it.
Water in Poland was horrible, especially in Wroclaw - it is extreemly chlorinated and i also found out the cancer causing chlorine by-products are not controlled in Poland.
Finland may have state of the art water filtration at their water treatment plants - although the tds was low at my tap, i doubt the water stays clean and healthy as it travels through old pipes.
Like i said, i installed many ro systems where i lived already, i trust no other filter, and to anyone who cares about their health - skip the brita and consider something that really removes toxins from your water.
I am back and forth between Helsinki and Wroclaw now, and while in Poland i found a new type of RO system where i don't have to drill holes in sink for the RO small faucet - it's quite neat - it comes with a ceramic dispenser that fills up when i use the water - the water stays cool and fresh - very nice tasting water.
I think they ship anywhere. It's at a decent price. The name of the filter is vazia, i think the company is called ansa (they are from poland). For me it was a good choice, even when i am away a week or so, the water in the dispencer stays fresh, i dont have to worry about rinsing it, for me this is big - one less thing to worry about.

[Jukka Aho]

Here’s a BBC article mentiong some details about Finnish water management:

• Getting the most out of water (news.bbc.co.uk)

(“In 2003, a UN survey ranked Finland's water first out of 122 countries...”)

And here’s the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY) website where they give an overview about the purification process applied to the drinking water in the capital area (see the subpages for the individual treatment plants on the sidebar as well):

• This is how we purify your drinking water (HSY.fi)