Rain water anyone drink it?

[swift1894]

anyone?

[harve90]

If there were any doubt i would boil it then drink it once it had cooled down. In survival teaching rain water is gathered for drinking.

[b0atman]

If using rainwater to fill my tropical fish tank I was always told wait until 5 minutes of rain has cleared the airborne pollution before collecting it.

[Neil Smith]

Bear Grills drinks loads.

 

Neil.

[Naughty Cal]

No.

[Paul C]

My dog drinks it, loads, and its never seemed to harm her. I'd be happy to drink it if there was an efficient way to collect it, but pragmatically I don't have the setup to collect decent quantities. We seem to cope fine with the water tank on the boat, hose, and water points which we pass. One would need to be in a situation where one either moors in an unserviced location, and/or doesn't cruise past working water points frequently enough, to justify moving away from the "normal" setup.

[Woodstock]

Collect it in a butt to top up the wildlife pond in the garden and for watering plants but quite often see some sort of larvae in it -guessing mozzies so no wouldn't drink it

Just out of interest-why do you ask?

Edited March 8, 2015 by Woodstock

[Athy]

Surely most of us drink rain water at home (if we live on land, I mean) as that's what the reservoirs collect and then deliver to our taps.

[Machpoint005]

Our chickens do.

[forsberg]

I sometimes drink river water when down at the jetty doing strenuous work and forgotten to bring beer. :s

[b0atman]

if your out in the rain then if its running down your face then you will drink some .

[BruceinSanity]

My dog drinks it, loads, and its never seemed to harm her. I'd be happy to drink it if there was an efficient way to collect it, but pragmatically I don't have the setup to collect decent quantities. We seem to cope fine with the water tank on the boat, hose, and water points which we pass. One would need to be in a situation where one either moors in an unserviced location, and/or doesn't cruise past working water points frequently enough, to justify moving away from the "normal" setup.

I wouldn't rely on your dog as a guide to palatability. The canine motto is "when in doubt, neck it down. If it's bad, you can always honk it back up again!"

[Peter X]

If using rainwater to fill my tropical fish tank I was always told wait until 5 minutes of rain has cleared the airborne pollution before collecting it.

When I kept tropical fish I normally used a mix of half London tapwater (rather hard and alkaline) and half rainwater from a water butt (a little on the acid side and often including some random tiny creatures). This worked well for most tropical species (some need a different pH), who eat the creatures and thrive on them. Most water butts in summer will acquire mosquito larvae, but once they go in a fish tank they'll soon get eaten. I once netted a huge quantity out of my brother's new fishpond (before he'd put any fish in), and my tropical fish gobbled many of them in a few days, but some survived long enough that I had a few mozzies flying around the living room.

 

I would feel safe drinking rainwater if it had been collected as described by boatman, provided that it was collected on a clean surface and went straight into a clean vessel. Once it's been across the average house roof, along a gutter and sat in a water butt, it could have picked up all sorts of organisms e.g. from bird droppings, but there are ways of filtering it on a small scale (involving moss I think?) which I'm sure Mr Grylls would know. My tapwater, as for much of South London, comes out of the Thames at Kingston, at which point it'll have various (heavily diluted) nasties in it, but I'm happy drinking it because Thames Water have a lot of technology at their treatment works to clean it up.

[onionbargee]

Why would you want to ?

[Paul C]

I wouldn't rely on your dog as a guide to palatability. The canine motto is "when in doubt, neck it down. If it's bad, you can always honk it back up again!"

 

You're right, I'm not going to put into my mouth, a lot of what she puts in her mouth!!!

[mark99]

Surely most of us drink rain water at home (if we live on land, I mean) as that's what the reservoirs collect and then deliver to our taps.

Not so dear Athy. They process the water.

Edited March 8, 2015 by mark99

[BlueStringPudding]

I wouldn't rely on your dog as a guide to palatability. The canine motto is "when in doubt, neck it down. If it's bad, you can always honk it back up again!"

 

[SamKingfisher]

It is often collected for drinking in Australia I believe. I've been told that once you've tried rainwater you won't like to go back to corporation water. Good for the skin too.

[tree monkey]

It is often collected for drinking in Australia I believe. I've been told that once you've tried rainwater you won't like to go back to corporation water. Good for the skin too.

Same in New Zealand too and I don't think it did me any damage

[Sea Dog]

I wouldn't rely on your dog as a guide to palatability. The canine motto is "when in doubt, neck it down. If it's bad, you can always honk it back up again!"

Sound advice. Our Jess barfed a good pint of goose-poo a couple of days ago. I used that as a guide and stayed well clear.

[zildjian]

Quite a lot under a search for 'boric acid in rain'

its the same element that erodes limestone in aquifers I believe so might be as well to collect>boil>consume

also quite rightly mentioned earlier,

water from reservoirs is treated before it reaches your tap,

and in my case interestingly

if my hands become wet working outside, fencing or something else on the field, the next few days my fingertips will split and make it difficult to type for example,

 

but I can take any amount of showers/baths/washing & buckets of tap water and wash the car with out effect,

so something is evidently different

Edited March 8, 2015 by zildjian

[harleyj]

Apart from a couple of years we have always had rainwater as drinking water. Once you have had rainwater for both drinking straight or when making tea you would always prefer rainwater once you have tasted it.

You do have a bit more pollution in Britain but I would still recommend a rainwater tank to any home owner. A bit harder to collect on a narrowboat.

[kazbluesky]

The worry isn't rainwater as such. It is what it rains on and then how you collect it. I've set up a system here at the house so that we automatically collect all our rainwater and bathwater which is then used to flush the toilets and water the garden (our water bills have gone down from 40 pounds a month to 16!). I've noticed that the roof gets really, really filthy, then the rain falls on this and even though I have a little filter system the amount of black crud that gets caught in the filter really would put you off drinking the stuff (bird pooh, dust, dirt and stuff). If you could sort that out though I don't see why not.

Edited March 9, 2015 by kazbluesky

[roland elsdon]

Most of rural and semi rural Australia, including myself when I'm not drinking out of the horrible stored water on the boat.

It's collected off steel roofs into tanks and not treated. There's a divert valve to stop the first rain and pollutants from entering the tank.

It makes you drive badly , enjoy country and western and say good'ay a lot. Hasn't harmed the population in any other way. ( mind you not that you'd notice with the rural drug use)

[Athy]

Not so dear Athy. They process the water.

I'm aware of that. It still started as rainwater. Therefore you're drinking (processed) rainwater. So, in answer to the thread title, yes.