Can You Hard Plumb An R O Unit To 3 Different Places?

[Jozlyn]

I want to get an RO unit, but I also want to get value for money! Can it be plumbed to support 3 different sources?

1 Tank for top ups (of course)
2 kitchen tap for cooking and drinking
3 fridge to supply cold water and ice (depending on which button you push!)?

 

[andywg]

You don't really want to be drinking RO water long term. The complete lack of any salts or minerals means it will start to pull these from your body.

Also, most fridges have their own filters of some sort, and again, you don't want to be drinking RO long term.

 

[Jozlyn]

Bugger, was trying to "value add" for the hubby!

 

[AK77]

RO machines are commonly used in homes to treat tapwater for drinking/cooking purposes. The RO machines don't remove all salts. There are still trace amounts of minerals and salts remaining in the water. RO water is normally 95-98% pure. The salts/minerals that are removed along with other chemicals are commonly found in green leafy vegetables and are not the only source available to us for ingestion. IE so long as you have a balanced diet, there should be no detriment to health at all with regard to using RO machines, only benefits in the form of not ingesting chlorine, fluoride and heavy metals. You can of course add minerals back to the water after removing the undesired contaminents if you so wish.

As I understand it, the main "problem" with drinking RO water long term, is the acidity. RO water tends to be about 6.5PH whereas the body favours a higher alkalinity. You can purchase water electrolizers (sp?) which increase the alkalinity of water and is believed to be the best stuff you can drink.

The waste water from the RO machine will be higher in nitrates than the tap water (because its now concentrated due to pure water being extracted). This can be used for watering plants as it will act as a fertilizer.

Hope that helps.

AK

 

[andywg]

I disagree that RO water has only benefits. Your body is not designed to drink pure water. RO water is far purer than any water found in nature.

If you use RO water to drink, and thus remove trace elements, cooking in the water will remove the elements from any vegetables boiled as the water takes in the nutrients from the vegetables.

This cached page details some of the problems.

I do not doubt that with a properly researched and applied diet one could overcome the problems of drinking RO water (such as massive loss of calcium and magnesium) but why bother? Why go to the hassle of purifying the water, only to add so much of it back in when the water is already a higher quality than most bottled water (going by analysis of Uk Tap water vs mineral water)?

Edit---

The article for the above website is reproduced here together with some further information.

 

[AK77]

I'm presuming that Joz is mainly concerned with purchasing an RO machine for use as a water source for her aquarium. Using the water for drinking and cooking would be a secondary reason and something to "justify" the financial outlay.

As much as our bodies aren't intended to drink 100% pure water, although RO water is not 100% pure, neither were they intended to ingests heavy metals and petrochemicals. Municipal water supplies contain a lot of contaminents and heavy metals from old pipework. Chlorine is added to kill bacteria although the bacteria is still in the water - you just drink dead ones.

Fluoride, an industrial waste product, which any chemist will tell you, is an environmental contaminent which is dumped into many water supplies. In the US its never been approved by the FDA and is listed as a contaminent by the EPA. Fluoride has been linked in government and scientific reports to a wide range of harmful health effects, including: bone and tooth decay (including dental and skeletal fluorosis, bone pathology, arthritis, and osteoporosis) Alzheimer's, memory loss and other neurological impairment, kidney damage, cancer, genetic damage, and gastrointestinal problems. In addition, fluoride has been found to leach lead from old water pipes and soldering material, which has resulted in increased lead levels in people.

The American Dental Association also warns about the use of fluoridized water. Dangers of fluoride

The Nazi's also used fluoridised water on the Jews in WW2, as a mind suppressant.

Yes boiling vegetables does deplete their vitamin and mineral content as it leeches into the water, although I use this water for making gravy with etc. I also don't tend to boil my salad vegetables either lol. Milk is a readily and widely used food source containing calcium. Adding minerals back in after filtration is no big deal, it just means that you aren't ingesting hundreds of chemicals into your body that have detrimental health effects - that's why I'd bother.

 

[andywg]

The Nazi's also used fluoridised water on the Jews in WW2, as a mind suppressant.

Godwin's Law!

But seriously, flouride is often intentionally added, and while some scientists and some groups do not like it (though large holes can and are shot in their evidence to support their claims), a number of organisations support it, some of them are listed below (list taken from wikipedia):

American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
American Association of Public Health Dentistry
American Dental Hygienists Association
American Dental Association
American Public Health Association
American Water Works Association
Australian Dental Association
British Dental Association
British Medical Association
Canadian Dental Association
Canadian Dental Hygienists Association
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry
FDI World Dental Federation
International Association for Dental Research
National Cancer Institute
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
World Health Organization

I wouldn't have any problem with drinking water with flouride in it from a water company. I just don't see flouride in the water supply as a reason to remove loads of trace elements, just to fight hard to put them back in.

 

[AK77]

If you are happy drinking it, then do so.

I've done enough researching into it over the past few years to form my opinion on it and avoid drinking it.

 

[SkiFletch]

Jozlyn, did I see in past posts of yours that you guys have microbial problems with your drinking water, or am I imagining that?

 

[Jozlyn]

Jozlyn, did I see in past posts of yours that you guys have microbial problems with your drinking water, or am I imagining that?

LoL, yeah you imagined that.

We choose (like most of the people in out town and area) to use rainwater for drinking and cooking as the town water tastes vile! There's nothing wrong with it, it's potable (no flouride in ours yet ) it just tastes off! Even more so when it's just been "dosed" the smell of chlorine is very very strong.

My problem is that the RO units are VERY expensive, if I can find a way around using one, that wont be detrimental to my fish and reef, then I'll use it.

Thank you to everyone for the input Much appreciated.

 

[SkiFletch]

You pretty much have 5 options IMO

Option #1: Use town water
- Cheap
- Will lead to algae outbreaks eventually
- Risk to inverts/corals from Copper contamination

Option #2: Buy RO water from an LFS
- Expensive longterm, especially with a big tank
- No initial cost outlay
- Risk that the LFS is not maintaining their membrane properly, thus getting bad water
- Time and gas consuming to get the water to your house from the LFS

Option #3: Buy distilled water from supermarket
- Really expensive longterm, especially with a big tank
- No initial cost outlay
- Time and gas consuming to get the water to your house from the LFS

Option #4: Use Rainwater
- Cheap
- Somewhat substantial risk of airborne pollutants/contaminants getting in the water
- Could possibly lower/remove that risk with carbon filtration

Option #5: Own RO unit
- High initial cost outlay
- Longterm cheaper than Options 2 or 3
- Purest water possible, no risk of contamination, best/safest for corals/inverts

Just a question, have you searched through oudoor supply or camping places for RO units? I'd imagine RO technology would be somewhat readily available on a continent with so much frontier landscape since its the best way to remove microbes from streams/lakes/etc. Often times "aquarium" things are re-badged and the prices jacked up