Filter Check

In Turkey, the tap water is not safe to drink. Everyone either buys bottled water or uses a high-grade water filter. Since we lived in other peoples' homes for a year, we got to experience both, so when it came time to get our own apartment, we opted for a filter (especially since we bought a used one from someone else leaving the country, so we got a great deal on it).

Having the filter has been great, because it means that we never run out of clean water. We never have to wait on water delivery. I can use filtered water for things like soup or rice (that would be boiled anyways and technically probably ok to drink) without feeling the slightest bit like I was using our clean water unwisely.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to Shannon that I thought our water tasted funny. He didn't think so, so I let it go. Then a few days later, Shannon said that he thought our water tasted funny. So we decided that maybe it was time to change the filters.

Yeah...I think it was time.

See those two clean, white filters? And see the two yucky brown ones in the dish behind the white ones? Yeah...gross.

The one with the blue top is filter number 2 out of a five filter system, and the new one looks about the same as the old one...as far as we can tell. We figured that if numbers 1 and 3 looked as bad as they did, surely number 2 needed to be changed as well!

Our elaborate water filtration system.

The tank on the left is the holding tank for clean water, and it travels through a hose up toward our sink where we can get our clean water out of a spigot. The three filters on the right are the first three filters (the three that you can see in the first photo above), and then there are two smaller filters on top of the three larger filters.

Taking the filter apart...

So Shannon and I spent an hour or so one afternoon with lots of towels, wrenches, our box of new filters, and the instruction manual taking the thing apart and putting it back together, trying not to throw up as we thought about how brown the used filters were.

And you know what? The water tastes normal again.

Maybe Shannon should listen to me the first time when I say stuff like that the water tastes funny!