Why do you drink bottled water and not tap?

[Elouera]

Since being inside, I've noticed a man carrying large water containers every 2 days from the shops. He might have done this before lockdown, but I'm interested why people use bottled water and not the tap? Taste? Health concerns? Something else?

I used to use bottled water at home as my tap water tasted disgusting. Since moved areas and it’s fine. Think I just don’t like the taste of hard water.

I love the taste of the tap water here it's all I drink(pembrokeshire) I prefer it to bottled. But anywhere else I can't drink tap the taste is awful.

I used to drink bottled water when I was better off and didn't understand the environmental impact.

Now I bung our (disgusting tasting) tap water through a Brita filter. No need for bumping bulky bottles back from the shop.

I drink sparkling water so buy cheap supermarket brand large bottles.

The only time I buy bottled water is if I get caught out without any on a warm day, there's a limit to how much you can carry and it's still not always easy to find somewhere to fill bottles.

If I do have to buy it, it causes me actual pain, both the cost and the unnecessary plastic.

I only drink bottled water when I'm staying in Spain as the tap water in our area has more cal in it than is safe. We even use bottled water for cooking and hot drinks as the kettle just goes white inside after a couple of goes otherwise.

Tap water tastes of chlorine.
I drink it but I prefer bottled.

My husband insists on buying it. He thinks the tap water where we live is unsafe (not UK). Actually he knows it's safe but he says it's just habit as it wasn't safe when he was growing up. It's perfectly fine and tastes of nothing.

It drives me mad, all that extra waste.

Fizzy water because it's significantly cheaper to buy it bottled than to csrbonate it myself.

Still water because I love the taste of Volvic. I'm not that fussed about other mineral waters. And when I was oregnant with DC2 I found tap water so repellent that I couldn't bring myself to drink it, and that lasted for several for about 5 years after he was born, although it's worn off now.

I can’t drink tap water here as it tastes vile to me. We live in a very hard water area where the kettle will scale up after just 2 days of using it with tap water. I’ve tried filtering it with a Brita filter but they’re too expensive to keep buying when they only last a week because the water is so hard! I wish we lived in a soft water area - we’ve stayed in places with soft water and my hair was so much nicer after washing it! 😩

We drink tap. We are in Scotland and I’m told our water is much nicer

I buy sparkling water in glass bottles because it's delicious. I also have a Brita filter but I dont like the way it tastes but I need it for the coffee machine and the kettle because our water is so mineralised. I like drinking tap water too, ours isn't flouridised and although it's very hard, it's still quite nice.

I really like water and it's nice to have different kinds. I'd never buy still though, and never anything in plastic as it tastes like plastic.

@FatherWindyShepherdHenderson yes, if I were rich I'd wash my hair in bottled water.

I can barely break a lather with shampoo or soap here! It's so hard. Cleaning the bathroom is hard labour.

I don't like the taste of tap water, plus I prefer sparkling

My tap water is horrible but I have a filter tap. When I go “home” (The North) I drink normal tap water. Possibly buying bottled is cheaper/less hassle than a filter tap or jug (not sure how much the filter jugs are these days but I remember the filters were expensive and I was always washing it when we had one)

I live in a really hard water area and never put tap water in my kettle or coffee machine, I only use bottled water.
The taste of the hard water isn't very nice and the limescale in the kettle etc is ridiculous.
I also like to drink bottled water but do try and cut back on this because the plastic use is excessive

Taste

No filters, soft water machine, etc make enough difference. The water here (SE ENG) is horrible.

I miss being able to drink tap water and hate the plastic waste, but I only really drink water (coffee & wine) so I need to buy it 🤷🏻‍♀️

I only buy bottled water if I'm out, I'm thirsty and I wasn't organised enough to bring a water bottle with me.

I'm old enough to remember when everyone drank tap water and supermarkets selling bottled water was unheard of. When they first started to sell bottled water, everyone I knew thought it was ridiculous and couldn't believe that people would actually pay for something that they could get for free by turning their tap on.

It's funny how things change in a couple of decades. I still couldn't bring myself to buy bottled water to drink at home (even without the awareness that we have now of the need to avoid single use plastic).

I have a Brita jug & buy any cheap filters that fit it.

I keep it in the fridge, the cost is approx £1.75 a month.

I used to love the tap water in my area (north west) but I can't stand it now I'm pregnant. It tastes like someone's put a spoon of sugar in it. I'd never heard of anyone else with this so thanks @BroomstickOfLove - I thought I was the only one with this weird pregnancy aversion!

I now only drink sparkling which pre-pregnancy I hated but hoping my aversion goes once baby's here as I hate the plastic waste of sparkling water. We do recycle but I'd rather just drink the water from the tap.

If I lived down south, I could not cope with the water at all. Can't even make a decent cup of tea with water anywhere near London.

When I was little, mums used to call tap water 'council pop'

As in they'd run out of limeade or rolla cola from the pop van so there was only water until the pop van came round again.

Or squash! Can you remember lemon barley water and vimto? I'm old

Our tap water is disgusting, even after filtering. It turns brown on the draining board which isn't very encouraging.

I drink tap water. DP uses a Britta filter jug as he dislikes the taste of the water straight from the tap. We do live in an insanely hard water area but I guess because I’ve lived in the area all my life I’m used to it?

It’s insane the amount of waste that comes from bottled water - though I do admit to having a few bottles stored at home just in case the water goes off in the middle of something inconvenient.

I live in Glasgow and the water is very soft but pretty heavily chlorinated so I have bottles for the days it’s just a bit too chlorinated for me

@whenitisover do you live near the moors? My mum's water is brownish from the peat moors where the reservoirs are, but it tastes really good and it's lovely to wash hair with, it's so soft.
I just ignore the brown, I never even noticed it when I lived there tbf.