Reverse Osmosis - Best Home Option? page

[gilroy]

Turns out fluoride ain't good for ya! So, I'm looking to clean up the water at the house. I'm open to any and all advice on this as I have no experience here. But, my primary questions are:

1) Is this the best individual sink option? Or would you recommend something else?
Amazon.com: 5-Stage Premium Reverse Osmosis System: Home Improvement

2) If I purchase an individual pipe filter (such as the linked product), I'm favoring purchasing two (kitchen sink + main shower). I'm wondering if I should go ahead and purchase a "whole home" system for the money. Any advice on whole home vs. individual pipe systems? And, any recommendation on a "whole home" product worth purchasing?

Thanks.

[Goldie]

Gilroy, we have one very similar to 1), in the kitchen. I use the R/O water for anything we drink or for what I cook with. I'm not sure a system like this would work in a shower. The tank holds the already filtered water, and once you "empty" it, it takes awhile to refill (the filtering process is not fast).

If you're worried about fluoride and other contaminants in all your house water, you'd be better off getting a whole-house system. Sorry, but I can't recommend any particular kind. Our little village (117 houses) has its own well with no added fluoride. My husband is on the village water board, and we have some of the best water in our state!

I'd suggest you contact a few of the larger plumbing companies in your area and see what they recommend.

[gilroy]

Gilroy, we have one very similar to 1), in the kitchen. I use the R/O water for anything we drink or for what I cook with. I'm not sure a system like this would work in a shower. The tank holds the already filtered water, and once you "empty" it, it takes awhile to refill (the filtering process is not fast).

If you're worried about fluoride and other contaminants in all your house water, you'd be better off getting a whole-house system. Sorry, but I can't recommend any particular kind. Our little village (117 houses) has its own well with no added fluoride. My husband is on the village water board, and we have some of the best water in our state!

I'd suggest you contact a few of the larger plumbing companies in your area and see what they recommend.

Thanks Goldie.
I think I'm going to check into what the fluoride level and overall water quality is here. It's city water but I've been told it's better than most (Chapel Hill being a pretty environmentally conscious town). So we'll see...if it's not that bad I'll just do the main kitchen sink. You're right, it would be hard to put a system like that in a shower space, didn't think about that.

[Crabbcakes]

We have well water, living rurally, and we still put in an RO system under the kitchen sink. We started that when we used to live in NJ, when our city water made our beloved herbal teas look like mud, and taste about the same. With RO water, they stay crystal clear...

Since we have well water though, and tested properly with a real lab and all before we bought the current house, we know that our water is just hard, so we softened it for shower use and also put in a primary filter in the line that goes to the water softener (lots of particulate stuff in the water around here). There are shower head filters out there, although I have never used one - might be an option for you.

Just in case you didn't know - the efficiencies on household RO filters are low, meaning that you only get around 15% (or maybe a bit more with newer household RO technology) of the water entering an RO system as actual filtered water in your tank - the rest is discharged into the waste water pipes and lost. That will up your water use/bill. (Industrial/municipal systems get much, much better efficiencies because they can recycle the wastewater/know how to keep the variables of RO under control much better so that much water isn't lost (like water flux rate, solute concentration, and pressure)). BTW, the lost water is water that flushes the contaminants away.

We like ours - lots of water tastes funny to us now. I think you'll like yours when you get it in.

[Knifegill]

Just make sure to cut your RO with something hard, like a mineral supplement. Drinking straight RO will mess up your system quick, pulling minerals out of your bones and teeth to balance your body's hardness. It's very stressful. I recommend investing in a large quantity of water jugs, or a few large ones, and using well water for most drinking and cooking. Find a local artesian well to fill up at, they're usually free and closer than you think.

[Crabbcakes]

Just make sure to cut your RO with something hard, like a mineral supplement. Drinking straight RO will mess up your system quick, pulling minerals out of your bones and teeth to balance your body's hardness. It's very stressful. I recommend investing in a large quantity of water jugs, or a few large ones, and using well water for most drinking and cooking. Find a local artesian well to fill up at, they're usually free and closer than you think.

try FindaSpring.com – Online Spring Database to find a natural spring.

Knifegill - if you are back here, would you please expound on the "pulling minerals out of your bones" thing? I have read a lot about hard water gunking up your system, and then alternately purified and/or distilled water turning your bones to lace, and everything in-between, that I would like to hear more of your experience since you mentioned it.

[Goldie]

Knifegill - if you are back here, would you please expound on the "pulling minerals out of your bones" thing? I have read a lot about hard water gunking up your system, and then alternately purified and/or distilled water turning your bones to lace, and everything in-between, that I would like to hear more of your experience since you mentioned it.

Yes, please, so would I.

[Knifegill]

I don't have any concrete evidence. I'm just a regular joe! But as a fishkeeper, I do know a fish's health can be adversely affected when maintained in too low a pH, weakening the bones. In the short term, it's not a huge deal. It takes a long time for the damage to be done. But if you want your typical asian mass-bred pet shop fish to live a good long life, neutral or slightly hard pH is typically preferable.

As for humans, we get our minerals from food and dirt, animal bones and, usually, water. While we might break even on the acidity scale by drinking bone broth and supplementing minerals to counteract the intense acidity/demineralizing effect of RO water, why play that game? Any water that dissolves rocks so aggressively probably should not go into the body. If anything, you'd want a net excess of minerals to be excreted, instead of a net loss of minerals spent from the bones to stabilize the bloodstream. To me, this just seems like common sense.

A quick google search brings up a little food for thought, though I'm not really going to dig too deep.

SnyderHealth.com - Water Ionizers - The Dangers Of Distilled And RO Water

[Goldie]

That site is a front to sell water ionizers. Automatic fail for any kind of belief factor.

[Knifegill]

Yeah, you're right. But keep digging. You'll find more.