# dodgy garrafón



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

So I went into an OXXO the other day with an empty garafone. .

There was an OXXO guy in the store part (not behind the counter) running around and he took my empty while I waited in line to pay and when I paid and got back to the back he'd already gotten a new one down off the rack. I took it and went home with one empty, one full.

When I got home I looked at the top and realized it wasn't in pristine unmodified condition. In fact, although the tear strip hadn't been torn away, it was disconnected part way around, not at the start, but in the middle, and I was able to unscrew it without tearing it further.

OXXO's use garafones for their coffee and slurpee machines (or they used to, before covid, the slurpees seem to all be gone). So what I'm afraid has happened is they themselves very carefully opened one, used the water, charged oxxo corp for it, then refilled it with tap water and sold it to me, pocketing the 35 pesos for the second sale.

It seems like a pretty minor hustle, barely worth their time, but who knows.

So, what do do? Test the water and see if I get sick? Or just write off 35 pesos, dump it down the drain and go back to a different oxxo to refill it? What's the consensus here?

edit: cut down some excess "story"


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

I recently had something similar happen with a quart of milk from Soriana/Mega. When I got home I realized the 'tab' was missing. I used it anyway.

We had those jugs of water delivered the first year here. Ciel I believe. They even brought the jugs into the kitchen for a tip. One time we were not home and left the pesos and the empty jug at the front gate (in a private gated community). When we returned the money and the jug were gone. But - since we moved into our own house we invested something like $250 US and purchased a Rotoplas reverse osmosis system and have been using that for drinking water for the last 9 years. (I change the filters maybe once a year). 

In your case I would probably use it. The cap probably just got snagged on something. I doubt the jug is filled with tap water.


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## timmy45 (Mar 22, 2021)

MangoTango said:


> I recently had something similar happen with a quart of milk from Soriana/Mega. When I got home I realized the 'tab' was missing. I used it anyway.
> 
> We had those jugs of water delivered the first year here. Ciel I believe. They even brought the jugs into the kitchen for a tip. One time we were not home and left the pesos and the empty jug at the front gate (in a private gated community). When we returned the money and the jug were gone. But - since we moved into our own house we invested something like $250 US and purchased a Rotoplas reverse osmosis system and have been using that for drinking water for the last 9 years. (I change the filters maybe once a year).
> 
> In your case I would probably use it. The cap probably just got snagged on something. I doubt the jug is filled with tap water.


My opinion is not to use the water, I would doubt that it was refilled with "tap" water but it might not be worth the $1.25 US to find out......I tend to be trusting. Our problem is that about `10-20% of Cristal jugs leak. When the lid id tight, no leak, when removed it makes a mess on cabinets and floors. We do have a scenario where we pump from the leaky one to a good one but it is a pain. I understand that one occasionally can be expected, but usually one out of four leaks. Same experience whether OXXO or Cristal delivery. In Merida we have pretty good city water, with measurable chlorine but I would not drink it.....


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

One vote each way, need more!

I have one of the stands with a tap, you have to turn the thing upside down after opening it and put it in the stand, it's a real trick to not make a splash, and heavy, but I can do it. Because once I had one leak around the edge between the garafone and the stand, and another time I had ants get into the stood-up garafone .. somehow (they were swimming!) what I do now is as soon as I have it stood up I run the water into 4 of the 5L water bottles that I have saved. Then I store 3 of those and put one in the fridge, and take the stand and the empty garafone off the counter and put them away until next time. Every now and then I buy another 5L bottle and use it and use one of the old 5L bottles for something else (they make great throw-away bowls if you cut them in half)

Here they charge 35 pesos for the garafones (with turn-in), so it's $1.75 that I'm probably going to put down the drain.

It would be nice if the distributors would put a pull-off inner seal on top under the cap. Wishful thinking there....


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

Sounds like quite the rigamarole you go through with putting the garrafon on top of the container only to use it to fill bottles and then put it away.

I also have a drinking water container with a spigot. Because I hate the look of the ugly garafon, and it's too heavy for me to turn upside down anyway, I put the garafon on a high kitchen stool, and just tip it to fill a liter jug, which I then use to fill the large water container, which has a lid, as most of them do.
Maybe you should try that to fill your jugs or the container itself, instead of going through all that work with turning the jug upside down on the stand, then putting everything away.

I have also been amazed at how people will simply flip the garafon over into the container, without sterilizing the outside of it near the top. They are concerned about drinking safe water, yet the outside of the garafon, which is now sitting in your water container, is teeming with bacteria, having been touched by who knows how many hands.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

A few years ago I bought a Nikken PI Water filter system from a friend who sells and services them as a side business. It's wonderful. I pour in some tap water at the top of the unit and in a minute or two, I have clean, ready-to-drink water. My friend comes by once a year to service the unit. Much better than shlepping 5-liter garrafones several blocks from a nearby convenience store and then up three flights of stairs to my apartment. I'm getting too old to deal with that!


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

There are also pump gizmos which you can simply insert into the jug.


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## mr_manny (Nov 22, 2013)

MangoTango said:


> since we moved into our own house we invested something like $250 US and purchased a Rotoplas reverse osmosis system and have been using that for drinking water for the last 9 years. (I change the filters maybe once a year).


I thought about a water purification system, but in my neighborhood garafones are only 15 pesos (w/turn in).

Filters also seem pricey, $1000 pesos for 3 filters.
Water needs to get *a lot more* expensive, and more affordable purification systems for it to make sense.

This reminds me of a town (don't remember the name) outside of Auytla, Jalisco.
They have natural springs and fill garafones for sale in surrounding towns.
You could dring straight from the tap...thought it was kinda


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

The local water purification plant charges much less for water than if I buy Ciel or another big name brand. 
I used to buy the local water, but I have a clear glass water container and saw that their water turned green within a few days in the hot season, which tells me their water is not okay. Nor do they get health inspections.

My stomach always was a little off when I bought that water. I switched to Ciel, and my stomach issues cleared up. It's about 40 pesos per garafon. Ciel is owned by Coca Cola, which I hate to support.
I may order a Berkey water filtration container- like Isla's system, you just fill it with tap water, and it runs through filters.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Right now I have a van, so I've been buying the garafones at an OXXO in town, rather than the one closest to my place, which has no parking. I just wait until I'm making the trip anyway. Then I only have to carry the water a few yards to my van. When I get it home we have grocery carts for tenants use and I get one, take it to my van, load the garafone in, and roll it into the elevator, up to my apartment, in the door and to the kitchen where I unload it onto the counter. So only a few yards of schlepping, and very little hoisting. But if I was older or less strong or had to walk up 3 flights of stairs, I'd certainly do differently.

I've seen the pumps that you stick down in the garafones like a big straw, but that seems like a lot of pumping to empty it into my 5L jugs and more trouble than turning it over and splashing a little. 

I will wipe off the top next time first.

I will probably dump the water in the questionable one. 35 pesos is definitely not worth getting sick over, even a little bit. 

It's interesting that the price varies so much. I have been getting crystal, also owned by Coke. My doctor recommended it, he said it had less salt in it than Epura. 

By the way, surabi, did you know OXXO is owned by the same company that owns Coca-cola bottling & distribution in Mexico?


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

No, I didn't know that. Not surprised, though. 
It's like all the stuff that's owned by Carlos Slim, beyond Telcel and Telmex. 
There's been a major highway bypass construction going on in my area for 3 years now (and at the rate they're going it looks like it's going to take years longer to complete). The construction company that got the contract belongs to Carlos Slim.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

I would throw it out (actually I’d use it to water plants) and get a properly sealed one. Not worth the risk. We recently stayed at an Air BNB in Puerto Vallarta. There was an unsealed garrafon with the pump mechanism in it. I took one sip and it didn’t taste right. We weren’t staying long, so I just boiled the water before making coffee and bought a smaller bottle of water for drinking. Even that one sip of water threw my stomach off for the day (I thought maybe it was psychological until the proof came out in the “end” 😉). Some Mexican friends were buying the refillable supposedly purified water, until one day they didn’t boil it before giving it to their little one and she got really sick. They went back to commercial garrafones. In our town of Tepoztlán, Morelos there are several public taps with natural spring water from the surrounding mountains. Supposedly it is tested regularly. We used to drink this as is (taking our own garrafones to fill at these street side taps), but since the earthquake of 2017 the aquifers got shaken up and there was visible sediment in the water, so we stopped that. We now use a Big Berkey filter and love it. Not only does it filter microorganisms down to the viral level (which are many times smaller than bacteria and protozoa), we have added the additional optional filters for heavy metals. We run the spring water from the public taps through the filter and it’s fantastic. My son wants me to get one for our home in Toronto (where the tap water is just fine) because it tastes so much purer.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Did you get the Berkey filter here or did you bring it with you..? In the Chiapas house I buy bottle water because the water is very bad in SAn Cristobal so I am curious about the type of filter you use..


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## mr_manny (Nov 22, 2013)

Is this the Berkey you guys are using?
amazon link

Looks like it's $7,400 pesos shipped to Mexico (includes 4 filters).
The description mentions that the filters can be cleaned for extended use.
How long do the filters last on average?

thanks

edit:
Looks like a Berkey clone for less then half as much...still stainless steel.
aliexpress link


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

mr_manny said:


> How long do the filters last on average?


There's lots of info available online about that. It apparently varies depending on what is in your water that needs to be filtered out and how much drinking water you go through.
They also have various types of filters. For instance, there is one that filters out fluoride, but that one would be unnecessary if you live in a non-fluoridated water area.

I would be cautious about cheap look-alikes, especially the one you linked to made in China. You'd have to research studies on whether they achieved the same results, if there indeed are any.
It's all about the filters, not the stainless steel housing. The housing could be glass or ceramic, rather than stainless, as those materials are also non-toxic, that's just the cosmetic part.


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## Stevenjb (Dec 10, 2017)

I use a Berkey that has 2 filters - 3,000 gallons each. At a gallon a day, by my calculations - filters would last 16 years. Of course you would want to change them out earlier than that. The filters are easily cleanable with a dish washing scrubby sponge.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

You're definitely not supposed to use the same filters for 16 years, not nearly that long.









When to Replace Your Berkey Filter: Lifespan & Replacement Details


How long do the filters last in a Berkey? We recommend replacing a pair of the Black Berkey Filters after 6,000 gallons which is about every 2-5 years. Lifespan depends on the quality of influent water.




www.berkeyfilters.com


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## MarkPAtoo (8 mo ago)

eastwind said:


> So I went into an OXXO the other day with an empty garafone. .
> 
> There was an OXXO guy in the store part (not behind the counter) running around and he took my empty while I waited in line to pay and when I paid and got back to the back he'd already gotten a new one down off the rack. I took it and went home with one empty, one full.
> 
> ...


I wouldn't take the chance for 35 pesos. Why not use your own tap water? You are getting agua de garafon because you don't trust your own tap water. Why should you trust OXXO's tap water.

I bought a reverse osmosis water filter with a pressure pump to boost the water line pressure reliably to 60 psi. So, I have 1 gallon of purified water available just about all the time. If I use that gallon then I'll have to wait an hour or two for the tank to fill. 

I don't worry about the quality of my water. It's all entirely within my own control assuming I can rely upon the manufacturer of the filter machine and its filter cartridges to do a good job. Since they would go out of business if there were ever any published evidence of QC problems, I'm going to rely on them.

I don't haul water. I don't wait for trucks. I don't lift heavy garafones. I just have pure water on-tap all the time. I advise you to consider getting one of these filters from Amazon.com.mx if you are permanently installed in Mexico. If you move once in a while from one Mexican location to another, just move the filter system with you.


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## alan-in-mesicali (Apr 26, 2018)

I hate to say this to so many distinguished Expats... those are NOT 5 LITER garafone..they are 5 gallon or 20 liters! What happened... you all sleep through math class 60 years ago in school?????


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I think Isla had a typo, other than that, I don't see any mistakes. I empty a 20L garaphone into four plastic bottles that hold 5L each. Every now and then I rotate one of the four plastic bottles out in favor of a new one, so they aren't reused for years and years.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

eastwind said:


> I think Isla had a typo, other than that, I don't see any mistakes. I empty a 20L garaphone into four plastic bottles that hold 5L each. Every now and then I rotate one of the four plastic bottles out in favor of a new one, so they aren't reused for years and years.


No typos on my part. I was talking about a 5-liter garrafón of water that I had to carry several blocks from a local store to my building and up three flights of a winding staircase to my apartment.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Before when I traded in the Crystal garafone for the one that I eventually poured down the drain, I also had an old E-Pura one that I was bringing out of dis-use. My thought was to do a tiny amount of "prepping" and keep a bit more drinking water in stock than I'd been doing. But OXXO refused the e-pura garafone, because it had gotten some wallboard mud dripped on it during the remodel, and was a bit dusty. I'd made an effort to clean it up, but they refused it. The annoyance over that was part of why I didn't notice the Crystal one looked partly opened.

So last evening I went back with an even-more clean e-Pura garafone and the crystal one, and they took both this time. I noted happily that the e-pura comes with a plastic shrink-wrap around the cap, so no shenanigans. But it's also more expensive, 39 pesos! The crystal is 35 here. And can you believe it, I forgot to check at the OXXO that the top on the crystal was secure. Doh! Anyway, when I looked later it was solid, so no trouble there. Now I have two full garafones and a couple 5L plastic bottles full and my plan is to alternate use of the big garafones and refill them immediately when I run out of the plastic jugs and transfer the water from one of the garafones, so I'll always have more than 40L of drinking water on hand. That will last me longer than my food if the SHTF.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

mr_manny said:


> Is this the Berkey you guys are using?
> amazon link
> 
> Looks like it's $7,400 pesos shipped to Mexico (includes 4 filters).
> ...


No, that’s a different brand. This is the place I bought it in Canada last fall - the Big Berkey Bundle (which was CDN$100+ cheaper when I bought it - the price has shot up!) 




__





Berkey Water Filter Canada - Your Berkey For Less -> FREE Shipping


Berkey Water Canada, Selling Big Berkey, Royal Berkey, Imperial Berkey, Crown Berkey, Travel Berkey, Berkey Light, Go Berkey Kit & All Other Items For Less!




www.berkeywater.ca





It’s actually made in the US so a little cheaper there - but the bundle I bought included the heavy metal filters.








Big Berkey & Stainless Steel Spigot Bundle Sale


The Discounted Big Berkey & Stainless Steel Spigot Bundle is our most popular and versatile model. It is ideal for home use and medium-sized families.




www.berkeyfilters.com





I wouldn’t buy the knock offs because I wouldn’t trust the filters which are way more important than if it’s stainless steel. The website discusses how long filters should last. It partly depends on how contaminated the water is, which is why I use the spring water from the public taps in our town to run through the filter, rather than the water in our cistern brought in by a”pipa”. The cleaner the water you are filtering, the longer the filters last.


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