@futurebird
Maybe your local water supply is naturally slightly carbonated and keeping it in the fridge allows it to “outgas” and become flat.
@datarama @FediThing

@Flo_Rian

Or, more likely, chlorinated.

@futurebird @datarama @FediThing

@vivtek
True! Forgot they do this in the US.
@futurebird @datarama @FediThing

@futurebird I don't have a microwave and many people seem to think this is an essential appliance. I just don't like the texture of food cooked in it and I really dislike when people heat water in it for things like tea because it tastes like the ghost of every microwave meal you've ever cooked and a kettle is much better for heating water, so I've lived without a microwave for over 2 years now and never going back.

@pawpower

"I really dislike when people heat water in it for things like tea because it tastes like the ghost of every microwave meal you've ever cooked"

I had people argue with me about this "not if you have a clean microwave" etc. etc. I must say this happens even with my mom's microwave which is spotless always.

The water tastes wrong. It has a smell.

@futurebird Well, no TV for well over a decade - but I don't feel like that's much of an accomplishment

@jwcph

I've never purchased a TV. But I feel like I watch so much video on my computer it doesn't count?

I used to not have a TV and not watch much of anything.

@futurebird

I have given up pants.

@Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @datarama @FediThing

There are frequent times when tap water has a distinct unpleasant taste & smell of chloramine.

Refrigerating a jug of tap water let's the chloramine dissipate.

(I found out that public water systems are regularly "shocked" as part of maintenance.)
https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/health-and-safety/chloramines-understanding-pool-smell/

@Npars01 @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing Right. I live in Denmark, where tap water has been chlorine-free since 2009.

@futurebird Not usually on purpose, but I won't spend money on something that I've spent my life doing without.

Example: my wife loves her robot vacuum for her hardwood floors. It only takes her about twenty minutes to find it, empty it, and put it on the charger. Even if the floor still looks like shit.

Meanwhile, I appreciate spending fifteen minutes using a broom to do the same job, more effectively.

I can buy a nail gun, but a hammer does a fine job. Etc.

@futurebird

I'm off grid in the country and minimized modern conveniences. I have a refrigerator, but it's not always used. I usually pick up fresh fruits and vegetables before work and use the refrigerator in the office. Washing clothes or taking a shower, I can do that when it's raining.

I do have a massive surplus of solar power for heating and air conditioning, because I didn't do this to suffer, but to relax.

@roknrol if I lived in the kind of space where a robot vacuum made even the least bit of sense I would absolutely have one NOT because it’s effective or efficient, but because *I want to play with a robot.* Please consider this regarding your wife. A girl needs her robots.

@datarama @Npars01 @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing Here in the Netherlands it hasn't been allowed since 2005, but I think even before that it wasn't used everywhere. I can't remember ever tasting chlorine here, whereas I definitely do in other countries.
We pay €1,22 for 1m³ (1000 litres) of water, with the cheapest bottled water that same money gets me about 3 litres 🫣

@bumblebeedc @datarama @Npars01 @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing

When I visited the US and Canada, I learned the hard way that they chlorinated tap water there. I cursed a lot when I received my first glass of tap water there...

@ainmosni @datarama @Npars01 @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing I had the same in the UK And then they air programs where they let people drink tapwater on the high street pretending to be bottled water and people don't notice? How?!

@bumblebeedc @ainmosni @datarama @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing

Chloramine evaporates quickly.

If the water has been sampled a few hours beforehand, the amount left is undetectable to humans.

You'd need a spectrometer to detect it after a few days.

@Npars01 @ainmosni @datarama @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing Didn't know that, thanks! So the solution is to just air your water, saves me buying bottled water next time I'm in the UK (or another country with chlorinated water)

@bumblebeedc @Npars01 @ainmosni @Flo_Rian @vivtek @futurebird @FediThing Quasi-related little observation:

I visited Iceland back in 2008, and two things struck me about the tap water there.

One was that it tasted *marvelous*. Almost all of it is spring water that's spent a few decades filtering through lava rock. There's nearly no calcium or magnesium in it (which also means that when you shower, the water won't rinse soap off your body). Seriously, I've never tasted water that pure and fresh anywhere else in my life; even when I've been served fancy bottled water in mainland Europe it's not been anywhere near as good as Icelandic tap water.

The other was that when you open the tap, it stinks like rotten eggs - the stench quickly subsides for cold water, but persists for hot water. This is because the hot water is also natural hot spring water, pumped from geothermal sources which happen to be full of foul-smelling sulfur compounds. The water itself is completely clean, it's just that some bubbles of hydrogen sulfide gas will emit from the tap when opened.

@HumanServitor @futurebird

Hero of the thread