Re: -I- humidifier smell

>From: Ken Tough [EMAIL PROTECTED]

>Does your tap water taste that bad?  

It really does, but that is not the point at all. I made two different points,
about the humi and the water I drink. Sorry if I did not make sense. But you
see, (and as I re-read all of this, hopefully this will help you to undwerstand
my point) I have many  "environmental allergies". I can  smell perfume a mile
away, we have to use all sorts of green products when cleaning our house, etc.
So taste-wise, it could have to do with that. I hate giving tap to my cats
(Animal Love House) because it smells like it was dipped out of a newly
chlorinated pool to me :-( But I do because we have nothing else to do.

Generally the only reason to 
>filter tap water is to get rid of taste and odour, which is done 
>with activated charcoal only.  Nothing else gets rid of taste or 
>odour.  

Really? So the PUR water thing is just for taste? That is disapointing, but it
is helpful information for my Mom. She can't figure why we still have so much
of a mess in the warm mist - the mineral "deposits" I guess is the right word.


Anything else you do to tap water is likely to increase 
>the amount of bugs in it, rather than decrease it. 

So do you think the PUR thing (it is just sort of hung on the kitchen faucet -
it does not affect the water in the showers or anywhere else in the house) is
maybe doing more harm than good? Again, disappointing but helpful.

 but aside from
>looking crap it won't hurt you).

Wel, that is part of the problem of my illness. I have a crappy immune system
and I am just super (physically) sensitive to just about everything around me.
It's hard. 

>>So look carefully at how water is purified. I have to drink "reverse
>>osmosis" water. Not sure any more what it does, but it makes tap taste like
>>swimming pool water!
>
>Why do you have to drink it? (I don't understand what you're saying)

Because of my illness. (wait. Why am I telling a perfect stranger this?)

[snipped some here just so it would not get overly lengthy]

 Water softened by water softeners tend 
>to replace the calcium and magnesium ions with sodium, and so 
>make the water both taste  less good, and be far less healthy.

Yuck. Well, I don't have a water softener. 


>
>Summary: use a charcoal-based jug in the fridge if your tap water 
>tastes bad. 

It's not about taste, at the end of the day. We do not have money to blow just
because I don't like the way something tastes, to be frank. It's about health.
I eat all manner of disgusting things, that oother peopel insist be, you know,
diped in chocolate :-) Healthy and yummy don't often come in the same package
as I am sure we all know :-)

 Otherwise, drink tap water.  The cost of making
>every drop that comes out your pipe perfect for human consumption,
>and then only going into washing shit out of your toilet or 
>watering your lawn, is a crying shame.

Ken, I am not wasting money on doing crazy stuff to my water. Like I said, we
have a PUR deal in the kitchen, and it is ONLY used to fill my humidifiers.
Otherwise, the PUR deal is swiveled and the regular water comes out. A) I am
allergic to just about anything you can name, and B) my Mom has to work hard
and scraping my humidifiers should not be a deal that wastes hours of her time
and her energy.  I drink bottled and my Dad bought the PUR deal because he
wanted to make life easier on all of us. I wasn't in on that decision. But Dad
is a pretty smart guy, he's an engineer and has  been on the planet for 64
years as well. To reiterate, we are not involved in "making every drop that
comes out of [our] pipe[s] perfect for human consumption...". I am also told by
my docs to shower with cleaner water but we just can't afford to do anything to
it so I just put up with sneezing a lot and showering a lot less than most
people in this country. Which makes some people say "eww gross", but it turns
out to be a lot better for the hair (to not be washed every day)! There is
always a silver lining somewhere!

I'm different from you, but I have been for a long time. I am used to people
thinking "weird" or whatever. It's OK.  
>
>-- 
>Ken Tough
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That got confusing! I was just trying to offer what I know about humidifier
health. We all do the best we can here.

kat