Storing Water?

[Drax]

I searched around a bit for this, but it's hard to know what search terms I might be missing!

I was curious if people store water in anything special? Or if they store water at all?

I've taken to using a brita filter to filter my tap water, but then I leave the water in a glass picture (covered lightly) on the counter. I figure, what's the point in cooling it down if I'm going to heat it back up?

In any case, the glass picture is not too big, so I end up doing a lot of pouring, etc, and I'm thinking of getting a bigger container -- thus I'm curious what other people use, or if everybody just thinks I'm crazy here.

[hooksie]

Get most of my water from a Poland Springs tap, then it just tends to sit in my kettle until used. =X


In other words, nothing ultra formal.

[Herb_Master]

Taiwan Tea Guy had a post on his water storage (on his blog)

http://www.taiwanteaguy.com/2008/09/14/water-pot/

and The Mandarin talks about storing it in a Ming Dynasty Barrel ??

http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... water.html

[wyardley]

Ceramic or earthenware jars are the most traditional. I think it should be covered at least loosely, like with a cloth or something, to keep random stuff from getting in. A little information (not much), and some pointers to more links at:
http://www.teadrunk.org/viewtopic.php?pid=486

[Drax]

Very interesting!

Thanks for the links, too, that helps me immensely.

I wondered about the Qing water jug though -- any chance of it having lead in the glaze? I'm not familiar with methods and materials from that era. But that's probably a topic for another thread.

In any case, it definitely looks like there's lot of choices, which is nice. Before posting this, I had been thinking about [urlhttp://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.php?main ... cts_id=137]a jug like this one[/url], but I wasn't sure how a yixing pot would serve as a multi-day water holder.

Anyway, thanks again, and I will be curious if other people chime in on ideas!

[wyardley]

Could work, but I've seen that jar, and I don't think it's big enough for what you want to do with it.

[TIM]

Very interesting!

Thanks for the links, too, that helps me immensely.

I wondered about the Qing water jug though -- any chance of it having lead in the glaze? I'm not familiar with methods and materials from that era. But that's probably a topic for another thread.

In any case, it definitely looks like there's lot of choices, which is nice. Before posting this, I had been thinking about [urlhttp://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.php?main ... cts_id=137]a jug like this one[/url], but I wasn't sure how a yixing pot would serve as a multi-day water holder.

Anyway, thanks again, and I will be curious if other people chime in on ideas!

In Chinese tradition, storing water is a common necessity for mid/noble classes. Water storage vessels have some shared design characters: The rounder and thicker rim. Heavy wall compare to vase or sometimes double walled. No hole for the bottom, of course. No decoration inside, if there are fishes, plants or crest painting inside are for gold fishes or lotus. The Ming dynasty water vessel in the article is Blue and White China. So having lead in the material is lightly, but if it's red, gold or yellow glaze, then it might be possible and will be use as flower vase?

[Deleted User #17777]

I use tap water through a PUR filter, and let my tap run a bit before I fill the kettle. The kettle is never full, so I get a few pots out of it before I need to refill. I have tried various types of bottled water but the cost / benefit does not seem to be there. I do reboil, which does deplete oxegen, which is not optimal.

Thinking about water on the more "micro" level here, I am not sure if it should just sit.

I know carbon dioxide can be absorbed, causing the pH to change. Good ? Bad ? not sure ...

If cholrine evaporates, does any microbacterial matter start to "bloom" ?

Are airborn pathogens more likely to disolve in water sitting ?

What benefit would you expect the vessel or just sitting to bring to the water ?

If you ever want to scare yourself, take a gallon of florida tap water and let it sit for a week.

A snow capped mountain outside my door would make it easier to get nice water for tea......

[scruffmcgruff]

I know carbon dioxide can be absorbed, causing the pH to change. Good ? Bad ? not sure ...

I doubt it would absorb that much carbon dioxide if it were to just sit there, especially if it is in a relatively tall/narrow jar. There's not very much surface area, and the lack of agitation should help too.

If cholrine evaporates, does any microbacterial matter start to "bloom" ?

IIRC there isn't really much in the way of chlorine in your water by the time it gets to your tap. The chlorination step is done at the plant, and then I believe they try to remove as much chlorine as possible. Tap water probably doesn't have enough nutrients to support microbes anyway. If you added some flour though you could make yourself a nice sourdough starter!

Are airborn pathogens more likely to disolve in water sitting ?

Dunno. Like I said before, there isn't that much surface area exposed to the air, so it probably wouldn't be significantly different than fresh tap water unless you had pathogens pumped directly into the water.

What benefit would you expect the vessel or just sitting to bring to the water ?

I'm not sure about that one. For one thing, it would allow particulates to settle.

If you ever want to scare yourself, take a gallon of florida tap water and let it sit for a week.

What happens? I'm actually kind of curious, because that could dash my somewhat-educated guesses to pieces.

[Deleted User #30641]

I've worked for a water and sewer district the past couple of summers, and winters. Chlorine naturally dissipates over time, and as far as I know most places do not try and remove chlorine from the water, they add it at the plant, and adjust it based on water usage. And yes they do still want there to be some in the water when its getting drawn out of the tap. But due to the unpredictability of water usage it will constantly be varying (probably not much).

For Example if you were to make tea before a majority of the people in your area are up, there will probably be very little chlorine, as over night quite a bit of it dissipated while it was sitting in pipes.

Many places also add other chemicals to the water such as fluoride, and even things to adjust the pH of the water to a better tasting level if necessary.

As for microbe growth... I'm almost wondering if that could actually be what makes the biggest effect in the taste of the water.

But then again being a pu-head, I'm all about microbes making tea better.

[Intuit]

"The chlorination step is done at the plant"

Sometimes its also done in stilling wells within the distribution system. You are supposed to have some residual chlorine in your tap water by the time it reaches your end of the distribution network. In practice, however, there maynot be much - depending on the distance traveled and the dosing strength, plus the biofilm within the piping system.

Its always a good idea to run the water just a bit before taking an aliquot for drinking, cooking, even bathing. Dislodged bacteria/particulates are less likely to end up in your cup.

I've been thinking about using a large ceramic jar to store water on my counter top. Filtering pitchers are OK - as long as you don't leave them near a window, because they can grow algae/water molds, especially if the window is opened for ventilation.

The ceramic jar would stop this problem and afford semi-cool water without having to refrigerate. Plenty of these jugs available commercially on line - for lemonaide and iced tea, or drinking water.

I would clean it every few weeks (or sooner if you tap water quality is so-so), just to be on the safe side.

Might not be too shabby an idea to build up a supply of filter pitcher treated water in a ceramic jar that could be topped off daily with another pitcher or two. It would provide a larger working volume of higher quality water.

Maybe rinse with vinegar when cleaning/rinsing the ceramic jar, rather than using detergent.

[scruffmcgruff]

Thank you both for the corrections!

[bsteele]

mine's stored in a giant 500,000 gallon tank

I don't store my water, just get it from the tap. I didn't even know people did that. Good to know

[PolyhymnianMuse]

The only storing that I really do is the water that sits in my Zoji ready to be used

[Herb_Master]

Interesting or confusing, I am not sure which

Browsing around - here and there -
Some say the clay jar should be glazed and some say unglazed.

Perhaps glazed is better if you want to clean from time to time - how would you go about cleaning a 10 litre unglazed jar? Though my mind more readily accepts the probability of unglazed improving the water.

http://www.bottledwater.org/public/faqs.htm#9
discusses bottled water such as

How long can I store bottled water?
FDA has not established a shelf life for bottled water. IBWA advises consumers to store bottled water at room temperature (or cooler), out of direct sunlight and away from solvents and chemicals such as gasoline, paint thinners and dry cleaning chemicals. Bottled water can be used indefinitely if stored properly.

All the talk about microbial growth, or settling of precipitates deflects away from one concern of mine - given that in so many cases we are encouraged to use fresh water and not to keep on re-boiling to get the best out of our leaf.

How is the oxygen level of water affected by long storage?

Is there a maximum time that you would ideally want your water to spend in a container?

If 2-3 days in a Ming Barrel improves the water, would it start going downhill after 5, 10 or 15 days?


By the way has anyone considered using rainwater ?

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-6986.aspx