Shipping water to college dorm?

[wishesuponastar]

We went touring colleges this summer so it's on my mind. I just didn't know what people do about having water at their disposal at college. I did like the suggestion of the Brita.

 

[Eastern]

Another thing you don't realize is that when kids come over to visit (very common in a college dorm) they feel entitled to share the water in the fridge. So I was buying case after case of water for my son and lugging it up 2 flights of stairs before I asked him: how are you drinking all this water? Then he told me that his roommate and various friends would just help themselves. That's when I went to the Brita pitcher.

 

[Arielle22]

Both DDs have a brita water bottle. I sent them with spare refills and they are good for the year.

The school water fountains are new and have a higher spigot for water bottle refills.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Arielle22 - Thank you for posting about the Brita Water Bottle! That answers my question. Sorry if someone else has posted about that bottle upthread, I might have missed it. Here is a link about it https://www.brita.com/products/water-bottles/

Now I will search a retailer to buy it and the filters.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Another thing you don't realize is that when kids come over to visit (very common in a college dorm) they feel entitled to share the water in the fridge. So I was buying case after case of water for my son and lugging it up 2 flights of stairs before I asked him: how are you drinking all this water? Then he told me that his roommate and various friends would just help themselves. That's when I went to the Brita pitcher.

Oh dear that was a lot of lugging of water for you to do. Glad the pitcher is working out better.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Hey I can understand it. My mom asked all sorts of weird questions. (Can security patrol my daughters' off campus neighborhood? Was the best one... I was 22 at the time.)

Thank you for understanding.

 

[wishesuponastar]

Also, if she is on a meal plan, the soda fountain dispenser usually has a "water" lever/button to dispense water for free. Ditto in fast food courts, etc.

A solution for nasty tasting water from fountains:

http://www.thegrayl.com/

Filter and bottle in one. They sell two filters, one suitable for most domestic water and one suitable for international travel to places with dubious water.

I bought mine from REI and highly recommend it. Many retailers sell them.

Brita, Camelback and others make water bottles with bilters built in as well, though their filters are not as powerful as the Grayl. But for man situations (especially if it is just taste one is concerned with) they would work well.

A caution: the Brita soft-side filter bottles we got all leaked. The hardside ones apparently are much less likely to leak, though I have not tried one myself.

-SW

SW - thanks for the heads up about the soft-side Brita bottles leaking.

 

[zoemurr]

Arielle22 - Thank you for posting about the Brita Water Bottle! That answers my question. Sorry if someone else has posted about that bottle upthread, I might have missed it. Here is a link about it https://www.brita.com/products/water-bottles/

Now I will search a retailer to buy it and the filters.

Those look neat, but do they keep the water cold for a long time? You might want to consider a pitcher instead.
https://www.brita.com/products/water-pitchers/ Then when she is in her room she only needs to use a cup.

The hydroflask stays cold for 24 hours. We fill it with water from our Brita pitchers. We gave up all types of standard water bottles because they get warm so quickly.

 

[mechteach]

I'm surprised at some of the comments posted here concerning tap water vs. bottled water.

<snip>

And I would hate to see any college 'banning' anything as innocent as bottle water … really?

My college-age daughter uses a brita and that works very well for her. But if she wanted bottled water I'd tell her to go to the nearest Walmart and buy it.

I don't think that many colleges have an outright ban on bottled water, just that there is very strong social pressure against using disposable bottles.

And, unfortunately, bottled water is far from "innocent." Not to proselytize too much, but there are huge energy and water costs in the manufacturing, distribution, and disposal of those bottles. There are lots of good articles about that, but here is one interesting one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norm-schriever/post_5218_b_3613577.html

Some of the more interesting facts are that the US consumes 30 billion water bottles per year, which is 60% of the world total, and that the amount of oil that goes into making, transporting, etc., those bottles is enough to fill each bottle 1/4 full of that oil. Yuck!

 

[manning]

My DS used a brits water bottle. It worked well, the only thing he didn't like was that the way the bathroom sink faucet was, it was hard to wash dishes and they wound up washing things in the shower. He wasn't fond of washing dishes in a bathroom. All rooms had bathrooms, no communal bathrooms.

Hmm multitasking at its best LOL