Why you should stay away from residential reverse osmosis systems
In response to the growing demand for home water filtration systems, a lot of people have chosen to buy and install residential reverse osmosis systems.
As in the case of the other water purification technologies, there are advantages and disadvantages when one wants to consider buying a reverse osmosis system. Below, I will present to you the reasons why I personally think you should better not consider selecting one. In terms of importance, the first is the least, while the third reason is the most important.
Reason #1: They take a long time to process water. This downside is directly related with the way they operate: High pressure water is forced through a membrane with very small pores in it, so that water, which consists of relatively small molecules, gets to be separated from pollutants which in contrast tend to have large molecules. Water passes through to the other side of this membrane, while the rest is accumulated before it. As you realize, due to the minute size of the membrane pores, it takes a long time for water to pass through.
Just to give you a rough indication, in order for one gallon of pure water to be produced, it may take up to three hours. As a consequence of this drawback, installation of residential reverse osmosis systems always requires for a storage tank with capacity 2 to 5 gallons of water.
As you understand, that extra storage tank will be taken into account when you estimate the space allocated at your home for the installation of the system. In addition, you should carefully dimension the capacity of this tank, in order to make sure that it will meet your maximum demand of water on a day to day basis.
Reason #2: To make matters worse, most RO units waste a lot of water. Just to give you an indication, they typically use between 3 to 10 gallons of tap water to produce 1 gallon of purified water; the remainder drains away.
This fact has a direct impact on your bottom line, as your cost per gallon of water is increased because of the higher water consumption. Furthermore, you have to take care of the water drainage, this complicating your installation set up.
Reason #3: While I may agree with you that the reasons I presented so far are not that strong enough to deter you from buying residential reverse osmosis systems, the third one I am sure will make you definitely think otherwise. As I said above, the way that these systems work is by separating water from possible contaminants it might contain, based on their molecular size. While admittedly this method is reasonably successful for a large range of pollutants, the sad truth is that, along with the harmful substances, water is stripped off from essential minerals (magnesium, calcium potassium and so on).
It is worth mentioning that demineralized water is not very appealing to your taste buds. It is flat and tasteless.
But, it is not just a matter of loss of taste. According to credible research reports, long-term consumption of demineralised water can in fact be dangerous. After a study stretching for a number of years, the World Health Organization concluded that “drinking water should contain minimum levels of certain essential minerals”.
Having said all the above about reverse osmosis systems, my advice to you is that you should consider investigating water multi filtration technology instead. To find relevant information and see what I use, visit my website.
