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Glacier Water . . .

  • Thread starter BigBella
  • Start date
Glacier Water is the primary vendor of RO water machines outside or inside of supermarkets in Northern California; and I had the chance to test a few of the machines over the course of ten, long, dry days while I replaced my RO set-up.

Machines all within minutes of one another varied a good deal in terms of "purity" and ranged in number from 5.5, 6.9, 12.4, and 18.4 ppm, to well over 60 ppm at others.

An inexpensive TDS meter seems like a good idea . . .
 
Last edited:
uhhh english please:confused: hahaha
 
I don't have any RO vending machines near me, but 60 PPM seems like a complete machine error. You should report that to the company.
 
uhhh english please:confused: hahaha

A safe reading for carnivorous plants is approximately 50 ppm (parts per million of total dissolved solutes -- TDS) and below. An inexpensive meter simply measures that . . .



I don't have any RO vending machines near me, but 60 PPM seems like a complete machine error. You should report that to the company.

I did report it -- and the machines were serviced within a week . . .
 
I did report it -- and the machines were serviced within a week . . .

Guess they don't want to be sued by those with kidney problems. I know a person who has to use RO machines for that, and it's literally a medical requirement.
 
Guess they don't want to be sued by those with kidney problems. I know a person who has to use RO machines for that, and it's literally a medical requirement.

That high number was more an aberration than anything else. My last reading on a local machine was 4.7 ppm . . .
 
I have a 5-gallon jug and about a dozen 1-gallon jugs. I always try to schedule my going to the Glacier dispenser the day after the machine has had its weekly service, which is usually Thursday. I've used the same machine for years and never had any problems.

25 cents per gallons is an excellent price given I don't have a large collection, and my water use is not that large.
 
  • #10
What device do you guys use to test the purity of water? A sale link is better.
 
  • #11
I had good, steady results with the glacier dispenser 'round here. It helps that they are serviced weekly.

However, I had all over the map results with Culligan dispensers. They would jump all over the place within weeks. Literally, I had the same dispenser go from 10 to over 300 in one week. Turns out they are serviced once per month, obviously not enough.
 
  • #12
What device do you guys use to test the purity of water? A sale link is better.

An inexpensive TDS meter, available at larger aquarium stores or online will do the trick. They range from 20-50.00, depending upon whether you want the meter to walk the dog and cook you dinner . . .
 
  • #13
Thank you. I am going to buy one.

An inexpensive TDS meter, available at larger aquarium stores or online will do the trick. They range from 20-50.00, depending upon whether you want the meter to walk the dog and cook you dinner . . .
 
  • #16
One of the Ralph's near me recently replaced the Glacier machine with one from Aqua Fill. Pretty much the same filtration and TDS consistently below 5ppm, usually between 1 and 2 ppm. The price is the same ($0.30 per gallon in my neck of the woods). What is nice is the machine has two bays so I can fill two 5 gallon bottles at the same time. The machine will also accept plastic for payment. Not that I would use plastic as the potential for a card scanner hack is too great - even though the machine is serviced daily. Daily service seems to be mainly sanitizing the bays. No more worries of homeless peeing in the machine.

http://aquafill.net/index.html
 
  • #17
There is also a Glacier R.O. machine and a Aqua Fill R.O. machine near the Ralph in my place. I just tested the purity of the water from Galcier RO machine. Unfortunately, the reading is 35ppm :( I will try the Aqua machine soon.
 
  • #18
35 ppm is definitely not great but far better than most tap water; and, as mentioned before, the machines vary a bit and are usually much better after their weekly maintenance. One machine went from around 26.4 ppm to 3.2 ppm after servicing . . .
 
  • #20
No problem! Glad to be of service.
 
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