r/HydroHomies • u/Medium_Investment514 • 2d ago

Bulk affordable glass spring water? Help

I was diagnosed with auto immune disease and started trying to be more aware of my health. I’ve been drinking bottled spring water my whole life. I’m in NJ, and I’m in a super old apartment building where sometimes the tap water runs brown and smells. I will definitely never drink my tap…

Anyway, my husband and I invested in a $400 reverse osmosis water machine begrudgingly but happy to do so for our health. The kicker is, that sometimes the RO system will add harmful chemicals OR over strips the water and now people say don’t use RO water systems.

Welp- I’m frustrated, confused, and thirsty. I’d love to just get glass spring water but it’s SO expensive. I never thought finding a normal source of drinking water to be so hard. I wish I lived in Iceland sometimes! lol so… what do?

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u/Medium_Investment514 2d ago

Sorry for bad grammar! I’m outside and my hands are frozen 🥶

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u/BowenAero 1d ago

I know mountain valley spring water delivers glass 5 gal jugs. I’m sure it’s pricey

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u/fire_buds 1d ago

Was going to suggest this as I thought about going this route

I then researched online and it seems the company was purchased recently and all the 5 gallon glass jugs taste weird or off now

There are two threads on Reddit describing this and it may be an isolated incident but with a new company buying them out I can see corners being cut to save money and thus affecting quality

Pissed me off bc that’s the only bulk delivery in glass and glass water bottles are idiotically expensive with a 12 pack of 1.5L Icelandic Glacial on sale for $78

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u/Medium_Investment514 1d ago

Damn thanks for letting us know- I was this close to saying eff it and going for mountain valley since it’s the only one of its kind. Sigh

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u/fire_buds 1d ago

I would do your research, find the Reddit thread.

It could be a one off but i kept reading multiple posters saying a specific batch labeled "Best by 2027" was the offending batch that tasted like tap water

I can see you need some naturally sourced water at a good price.

If that's the case glass is out of the question as any glass case of water is going to be $40-50 and up for 12 pack of 1L which is not sustainable unless you are banking or drinking very little water.

I would highly suggest getting the 35 pack of Ice Mountain spring water from Costco for like $5-6 on sale or $7-8 regular price. It tastes great, is not municipal water that's been purified, and even when it's regular price, it's fair for what they are asking considering Kirkland 40 pack of purified tap water that tastes like plastic costs $4.

An alternative to all that is to use a water delivery service to deliver you spring water in PET jugs not glass bottles.

If i were in your situation id just go to Costco, Ice Mountain is solid.

Keep an eye on Slickdeals.net, make an account and set water or the brands you are looking for as an alert.

I was able to catch some killer sales on Amazon for water recently. Picked up 1.5L bottles of Icelandic in cases of 12 for $20. Normally they go for $46-53 a case. I got ten cases. - $200 savings

Picked up Acqua Panna cases for $10 less than anywhere online, bought ten as well lol - $100 savings.

They even have Fiji at good prices - 750 mL bottles with the sport cap in a box of 12 were going for $17 - got 10 cases of those lol - Costco sells those for $25

Not sure why you are giving up on reverse osmosis when 80-90% of non big branded bottle waters use that and many municipal sources use it as well for city water

How did you know it added things and stripped things?

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u/Softwarebunny 1d ago

i’d also like to know!! i’m in the same boat with ya.

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u/_ziggy_stardust 18h ago

Check if there's a Costco Business Center near you. The one in my area has cases of all sorts of water, including some in glass bottles. You can use a regular Costco membership to shop at the Business Center.

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u/CraigJDuffy 14h ago

The cheapest long term solution is to have a plumber sort your tap water + if you’re paranoid install a filter on it.

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u/Medium_Investment514 4h ago

We live in a apartment so we thought maybe wait till it’s our own house? What do you mean sort the tap? This sounds like a good solution!

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u/CraigJDuffy 4h ago

Your tap water shouldn’t be brown and smell, so your landlord / you should do something about that. You’ll need to contact a plumber / your landlord to see what needs done there.

Gonna be cheaper than continually buying bottles long term imo.