20L Water container delivery

Andy Passenger wrote:

Hi.
I am new in Ho Chi Minh City and would ask about a drinking water delivery service in Ho Chi Minh City.
Are there difference in water quality (microbes) and quality of delivery service and prices?

Thank you.

I take La Vie (from Nestle) .
I think, that's the best you can get in VN. Costs 55K per bottle. We order four bottles (19ltr * 4) at a time. Minimum three bottles per order.
First time you'll have to pay the same amount (depends on how many bottles you order) as  deposit (refundable).

If you go for La Vie, check if they have any special offer. 
We got a ceramic water dispenser for free when we ordered four bottles the first time back in 2016.

Better to avoid local cheaper ones for drinking purpose.
Second best is Aquafina but they don't have 20ltr bottles. Aquafina VN

Thank you senwl

I will try these 2 suppliers.

Well, I googled "vietnam bottled water quality report" and top link is this report.

Executive summary (below) says all the brands are lacking. The full report is only $990. Someone on the forum long ago sent samples to a local testing lab, can't remember the results. Maybe I'll do that someday, cheaper than $990. But even then, a sample is not a guarantee that future manufacturing processes won't change.

We always get the cheapest available, it was 18000 in D5, 23000 in D7.
In fact it kills my Vietnamese wife to spend that much, her family always boils. But boiling only kills living things, it doesn't remove trace chemicals and metals.

philosophy: Adjusting one's Westerner mindset to accept lower quality but hopefully good-enough sources of water and food (and etc) are trials for expats who choose to live in the 3rd world. It is a population filter that keeps millions of people from moving here - a good thing! Just think if Vietnam was as clean and regulated and 'litigated' as Hawaii, but with Vietnamese cost of living.

During the review period [2013-2016], due to large profit margins and rising consumer demand, bottled water in Vietnam exploded, with large numbers of small producers trying to compete with the larger players. However, the fiercer competition among manufacturers did not result in higher quality products. Indeed, with simple procedures and old fashioned equipment, these private businesses cannot make purified water and hence their products are certain to fail the required standards for bottled water regarding hygiene and safety. Actually, to appeal to customers, they mostly use brand names similar to the well-known brands such as Vinh Huong, Aquataly or Lavita. In short, these producers with their supply of poor quality products pose a big challenge to more trusted businesses in Vietnam.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd maintained its lead in bottled water with an off-trade value share of 29% in 2016. Following closely behind was La Vie JV Co which was ranked second with an off-trade value share of 26%. Accordingly, thanks to their good reputations and frequent advertisements on television to promote their respective Aquafina and La Vie brands, as well as their expanding distribution networks, these two companies continued to dominate the category in 2016.

Going to play the idiot here; the cooler is self explanatory but what is the iron stander that LaVie have got on their site for 127,000?

1312j wrote:

Going to play the idiot here; the cooler is self explanatory but what is the iron stander that LaVie have got on their site for 127,000?

That stand is for a  ceramic water dispenser.
This picture says it all.

I just found a helpfull webside regarding drinking water in Vietnam  (http://www.atexpats.com/magazine/756-bottled-water.html).
According this webside only LaVie, Vinh Hao (Vietnamese mineral water brand) and Sapuwa (Vietnamese Purified Water) offers 20L container for water dispenser.
The two Vietnamese brands seems to supply also good quality drinking water.

Andy Passenger wrote:

I just found a helpfull webside regarding drinking water in Vietnam  (http://www.atexpats.com/magazine/756-bottled-water.html).
According this webside only LaVie, Vinh Hao (Vietnamese mineral water brand) and Sapuwa (Vietnamese Purified Water) offers 20L container for water dispenser.....

Dead link for me now, maybe later.

I've seen a lot more than three brands.
Google "Nước 20 lít" for images.

gobot wrote:

In fact it kills my Vietnamese wife to spend that much

Your wife and I can absolutely be BFF.

Ciambella wrote:

gobot wrote:

In fact it kills my Vietnamese wife to spend that much

Your wife and I can absolutely be BFF.

I worry about the tap water for both of us, so I made a rule that we will just use bottled water for drinking and cooking. I am not a bossy person, and my wife expects me to assume the lead in many family decisions (unlike American women but that is another story), so I attempted to lead. One day soon after, I caught her red handed making her coffee with boiled tap water.

This time I got angry. I said "A whole giant bottle of water costs only 23000d, why are you so cheap?" and with that I grabbed our stash of spare change for the water man, and from our 9th floor window I tossed out 23000d in 1000d and 2000d bills. I said, "I just threw away a whole bottle of water, that is how meaningless the money is compared to your health!"

Math exercise:
20 liters = 676 oz = 84 8-oz glasses.
23000d / 84 glasses = 1.2 US pennies / glass

Well I gave up with the grand gestures. I haven't seen her boil for awhile, I think just out of guilt of making me upset, but I know she hasn't stopped. I don't get angry anymore. I learned she can't help herself, saving money is instinctual for her, and growing up poor, managing even tiny finances gives her comfort.

Now if only I could make her stop fiddling with the refrigerator temperature.

She seems to be a very sweet person, Gobot, and I'm glad you take good care of her.

"My wife *expects* me to assume the lead so I *attempted* to lead": a simple sentence that conveys a wealth of harmony in a good marriage.

Even with the safe water in the States, we always used bottled water for tea, coffee, rice, and pasta. In Saigon, we use bottled water for just about everything -- drinking, cooking, washing vegetables/fruits (with a very dilute solution of KMnO4), teeth brushing/rinse off tooth brushes, and my facial care.  If I could find a convenient way to shampoo my hair with bottled water, I would have used it too.  (FYI to the men on this forum: soft water is hair and skin's best friend, and with the pollution in the air here, you need bottled water more than in anywhere else you call home.)

I do not see this quite as badly as written here in part.
For example the Life Expectancy of American and Vietnamese women is almost equal (Only the men have a much worse life expectancy in Vietnam. This is probably due to the fact that almost all men in Vietnam are chain-smoker).
I will for sure use good quality bottled water like La Vie for drinking water and maybe also for boiled coffee water, but for washing fruites and vegetables or for teeth brushing I will use taped water.

I have to laugh at all this angst over drinking water. I was a waterworks operator for several years and in fact operated the largest water treatment facility in the Southern Hemisphere for awhile. I also spent 6 months in Toronto being trained on the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water.

In any case, the name on the bottle means absolutely nothing. You would be surprised and disheartened just what goes on in a bottling plant. I drink only bottled water but in some areas tap water is safe. Drinking a name brand is good if it gives you psychological comfort. The same people who are so concerned about drinking water have no qualms about eating out or eating street food. It surely is a tempest in a teapot. One thing - if you buy the large jugs of water don't keep it for more than a few days; all you are doing is letting the little guys grow.