Charge for distilled water

[Craigrlewis]

Currently on QV and asked for distilled water for my CPAP machine from the butler.

 

Was advised its now obtained from the medical centre.  Called them and was told could go down and collect it

Went down and the man presented with me with what i think was either 500ml or 1 litre bottle and said “that will be $22”.  It was no large than a litre and pretty sure it was 1/2 litre.
 

I was a bit shocked as its always been provided free of charge either in a bottle or jug.

 

The manufacturers web site will sell you 5 litres  for £9.49 - so a hefty mark up there for Cunard.

 

Spoke to the pursers desk (& they must have been briefed about the change) as she explained it is no longer free and guests will be charged and this had been the case for at least 2 months.

She took my negative feedback and said she would pass it on but admitted she doesnt think it will change the new policy.

 

I did say how can I bring bottles of water on board when your own web site has a case weight limit of 20kg and water ways a lot.

 

 I added I was happy to pay for it (as transporting water wasn’t practical) but the mark up they have chosen to apply smacks of price gouging.

 

 I also added it would be cheaper per litre to buy some wine from the bar and use instead.

 

So next time I cruise from Southampton will be checking a carry on case with water in it!

Just thought I would mention this in case anyone else os expecting them to still provide free distilled water.

 

Respectfully ask that we please don't turn this into a “….well they don't provide this or that prescription drug free of charge or aspirin etc etc so why should they give you free water…”

Im just flagging it up and like I said I would pay for it if it were a reasonable mark up or cost price.

 

 

[Pushpit]

The two reasons for using distilled water in CPAP machines are

- the risk of airborne pathogens not killed by water treatment processes

- the risk of limescale build up.

 

You can get away with tap water for a while, but if you simply boil clean water then you are 90% of the way there, and you could do a double boil.  I see that some of our NHS patient leaflets say boiled water is ok to use. Let it cool, carefully pour leaving some water in the kettle. Limescale when heated tends to wrap around the coil heater, and in any case solidifies and sinks to to lower part of the chamber. In the morning carefully clean out the water vessel since again any residual calcium is likely to be at the bottom of the chamber.

 

Farm shops can sell distilled water for under 50 pence a litre so long as you buy more than 25 litres at a time, otherwise it's about £1 a litre or so. Mole Valley is about £1.20 a litre. I guess you're using 500ml a night, so for shorter voyages, a 5 litre, 5 kgs keg should do the trick.

 

 

[tigerfan75]

Just a week ago, I booked a cruise for late next year.  I, too, was surprised to learn that the distilled water was not furnished free of charge.  It has been free on every other cruise line I've used.  It was explained to me by the Cunard phone rep that it was a "relatively new policy".  I am concerned about how to carry my water onboard, also.

[Winifred 22]

2 hours ago, Craigrlewis said:

Currently on QV and asked for distilled water for my CPAP machine from the butler.

 

Was advised its now obtained from the medical centre.  Called them and was told could go down and collect it

Went down and the man presented with me with what i think was either 500ml or 1 litre bottle and said “that will be $22”.  It was no large than a litre and pretty sure it was 1/2 litre.
 

I was a bit shocked as its always been provided free of charge either in a bottle or jug.

 

The manufacturers web site will sell you 5 litres  for £9.49 - so a hefty mark up there for Cunard.

 

Spoke to the pursers desk (& they must have been briefed about the change) as she explained it is no longer free and guests will be charged and this had been the case for at least 2 months.

She took my negative feedback and said she would pass it on but admitted she doesnt think it will change the new policy.

 

I did say how can I bring bottles of water on board when your own web site has a case weight limit of 20kg and water ways a lot.

 

 I added I was happy to pay for it (as transporting water wasn’t practical) but the mark up they have chosen to apply smacks of price gouging.

 

 I also added it would be cheaper per litre to buy some wine from the bar and use instead.

 

So next time I cruise from Southampton will be checking a carry on case with water in it!

Just thought I would mention this in case anyone else os expecting them to still provide free distilled water.

 

Respectfully ask that we please don't turn this into a “….well they don't provide this or that prescription drug free of charge or aspirin etc etc so why should they give you free water…”

Im just flagging it up and like I said I would pay for it if it were a reasonable mark up or cost price.

 

 

We don’t know where they source their supplies from or what they pay for it so without knowing that fact you can’t say they have marked it up. 

[Host Hattie]

Thanks for the update, it's disappointing that you weren't made aware of the change. That's very expensive water !

[Host Hattie]

The UK version of the Cunard website  now says -

 

"Distilled water supply

Some equipment may require distilled water. Please be advised that we are unable to provide this on board, and recommend bringing your own supplies. Alternatively, you may wish to discuss a suitable alternative with your respiratory team or the manufacturer of your CPAP unit."

[exlondoner]

28 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

The UK version of the Cunard website  now says -

 

"Distilled water supply

Some equipment may require distilled water. Please be advised that we are unable to provide this on board, and recommend bringing your own supplies. Alternatively, you may wish to discuss a suitable alternative with your respiratory team or the manufacturer of your CPAP unit."

Well, at least it says so. Not being informed is the worst thing.

[Craigrlewis]

1 hour ago, Winifred 22 said:

We don’t know where they source their supplies from or what they pay for it so without knowing that fact you can’t say they have marked it up. 

Er yes i can say its marked up because i looked on the manufacturers website and checked the price.

[Napagirl]

Wow! We pay about $2 a gallon at home. I guess we'll stop by a store near the port before we get on board. 

[Poole Boy]

As the water from the tap is made from Sea water it is likely to be as good as distilled water, very unlikely to have any limescale or other impurities, if in doubt you can always boil it first and let it cool, and store in the fridge until required

[exlondoner]

21 minutes ago, Poole Boy said:

As the water from the tap is made from Sea water it is likely to be as good as distilled water, very unlikely to have any limescale or other impurities, if in doubt you can always boil it first and let it cool, and store in the fridge until required

Surely that stuff that gets piped into the ship at every port she stops at isn’t seawater?

[Victoria2]

I showed my class how to get distilled water from  tap water. It involved me boiling the water in a pan, a bowl in the boiling water, a glass pan lid bigger than the pan and ice cubes to put in the inverted pan lid.

 

Took some time and didn't get much as the steam condensed into the bowl in the pan but it was definitely distilled.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Victoria2

[SedNabokos]

11 hours ago, Poole Boy said:

As the water from the tap is made from Sea water it is likely to be as good as distilled water, very unlikely to have any limescale or other impurities

 

 

As exlondoner says, they pipe in water when ashore.  I know someone on my recent cruise that had similar issues with his CPAP machine - and although he was first told they used reverse osmosis they finally admitted that they took on more water in Heraklion and added some more chlorine to it.

 

11 hours ago, Poole Boy said:

if in doubt you can always boil it first and let it cool, and store in the fridge until required

 

Which is sound advice if you're worried about water not being suitable for drinking, but it won't remove the impurities that affect a CPAP.

[chengkp75]

15 hours ago, SedNabokos said:

As exlondoner says, they pipe in water when ashore.  I know someone on my recent cruise that had similar issues with his CPAP machine - and although he was first told they used reverse osmosis they finally admitted that they took on more water in Heraklion and added some more chlorine to it.

All water on ships have chlorine in it.  When it is made onboard, either by reverse osmosis or by distillation (which is the most common method), it is chlorinated before it goes into the storage tanks.  Water taken from shore also gets chlorine, at the same level, as the water made onboard, before it goes into the tanks.  Then, when the water is circulated from the tanks around the ship, more chlorine is added.

 

Water taken from shore has to jump through more hoops than water made onboard, including being isolated from use for 24 hours until a coliform bacteria test comes back negative.  So, this delay in being able to use, along with the cost, means that shore water is only taken when the ship does not have enough time at sea to make enough onboard.

On 12/10/2023 at 6:53 AM, Poole Boy said:

As the water from the tap is made from Sea water it is likely to be as good as distilled water, very unlikely to have any limescale or other impurities, if in doubt you can always boil it first and let it cool, and store in the fridge until required

The water onboard will have calcium carbonate dissolved in it to neutralize the slight acidity of distilled water, so the CPAP, over time will build up a calcium scale.

[ovccruiser]

Used to use distilled water in car batteries now it's de-ionised water, is that safe to use or must it be distilled?

[chengkp75]

14 minutes ago, ovccruiser said:

Used to use distilled water in car batteries now it's de-ionised water, is that safe to use or must it be distilled?

De-mineralized water is similar to distilled water in purity.  The process to de-ionize the water is designed to remove "ions" from the water, in other words dissolved mineral salts.  However, depending on how it is produced, this could leave pathogens in the water.

[exlondoner]

27 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

De-mineralized water is similar to distilled water in purity.  The process to de-ionize the water is designed to remove "ions" from the water, in other words dissolved mineral salts.  However, depending on how it is produced, this could leave pathogens in the water.

Which boiling would remove?

[chengkp75]

33 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Which boiling would remove?

Bacteria and viruses don't boil.  Water boils at a lower temperature than most anything else in water, so you boil the water, collect the steam, and condense it back to pure water.  Distilled water is not just boiled water, it has been converted to steam and then condensed back to liquid.  The minerals and pathogens are left in the brine or effluent, becoming more concentrated in this "reject water" and goes overboard.  Water distillation plants make about 1 gallon of distilled water for every 3 gallons of water pumped into the unit.

Edited December 13, 2023 by chengkp75

[Pushpit]

6 hours ago, exlondoner said:

Which boiling would remove?

A few pathogens can survive boiling, not many though. The biggie in this area relates to a group of rice bacteria, bacillus cereus, - which doesn't survive boiling but the bacteria - if left long enough - produces a spore toxin which survives boiling / reheating, and can cause (very) upset tummies. Hence the need to be careful with cooked rice storage. A properly controlled steam process can only contain water vapour and nothing else.

[Pushpit]

On 12/11/2023 at 2:20 PM, chengkp75 said:

All water on ships have chlorine in it.  When it is made onboard, either by reverse osmosis or by distillation (which is the most common method), it is chlorinated before it goes into the storage tanks.  Water taken from shore also gets chlorine, at the same level, as the water made onboard, before it goes into the tanks.  Then, when the water is circulated from the tanks around the ship, more chlorine is added.

QM2 is effectively distillation, from the liner's technical specification leaflet. It uses a multi-effect evaporator made by the Swedish company Alfa Laval. The contraption is the bottom left photo. As an illustration of the huge water capacity on QM2, a typical fuel tanker on UK roads, moving petrol and diesel to petrol stations, is 38m², so the QM2's capacity is equivalent of 100 such trucks.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple-effect_evaporator

 

https://www.alfalaval.co.uk/products/process-solutions/fresh-water-solutions/multi-effect-plate-desalination/mep-multi-effect-desalination/

[chengkp75]

Yes, worked with those types of units for over 40 years.  But, even when completely produced by distillation, the water will have chlorine in it, and also since distilled water is slightly acidic as I've mentioned above, they will add calcium carbonate (an antacid) to it to neutralize it to prevent it corroding the piping system, and to prevent it leaching minerals from your teeth, so it really isn't distilled water when it gets to the passenger cabin.

 

And, while as you say, the ship can store 100 road tankers worth of water, look at the daily consumption versus the capacity (1100 tons/day consumed, 3800 tons capacity) and realize that all that storage capacity is just over 3 days worth of consumption.

[exlondoner]

21 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Yes, worked with those types of units for over 40 years.  But, even when completely produced by distillation, the water will have chlorine in it, and also since distilled water is slightly acidic as I've mentioned above, they will add calcium carbonate (an antacid) to it to neutralize it to prevent it corroding the piping system, and to prevent it leaching minerals from your teeth, so it really isn't distilled water when it gets to the passenger cabin.

 

And, while as you say, the ship can store 100 road tankers worth of water, look at the daily consumption versus the capacity (1100 tons/day consumed, 3800 tons capacity) and realize that all that storage capacity is just over 3 days worth of consumption.

So we hope the processing plant doesn’t break down in mid Atlantic. In fact we hope very much.

[chengkp75]

4 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

So we hope the processing plant doesn’t break down in mid Atlantic. In fact we hope very much.

Though the likelihood of all three breaking down at the same time is small.  QM2 is lucky in having all those sea days in a row, where they can run the evaporators 24 hours a day, to match or exceed the consumption.  Port intensive itineraries leave less time steaming at sea (and you have to be going near full speed to make maximum water), so they cannot match the total consumption for the cruise, and this is why they sometimes take on water in port.

[exlondoner]

27 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Though the likelihood of all three breaking down at the same time is small.  QM2 is lucky in having all those sea days in a row, where they can run the evaporators 24 hours a day, to match or exceed the consumption.  Port intensive itineraries leave less time steaming at sea (and you have to be going near full speed to make maximum water), so they cannot match the total consumption for the cruise, and this is why they sometimes take on water in port.

When I went to a talk by a couple of officers on one of the Vistas, they said they always took on water at every port where they could.

[chengkp75]

5 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

When I went to a talk by a couple of officers on one of the Vistas, they said they always took on water at every port where they could.

One problem with taking shore water is that it must be segregated from the rest of the water storage (so kept in one or two tanks), and not used until a coliform bacteria test comes back negative, which takes 24 hours to complete.