With all the hype being spread concerning the quality of our public water services it’s a shame some manufacturers are adding to the confusion by promoting home water filtration systems based on a reverse osmosis water filter. Here’s what these guys don’t want you to know.
To be fair, until recently a reverse osmosis water filter system was considered top of the line when it came to protecting us from many of the more than 2100 contaminants that permeate our nation’s water supply.
An incredible number of these systems were sold over the past 30 to 40 years, and here’s why. The numbers were in, the data was clear, we should all rush out and buy one of these systems with a reverse osmosis filter.
The claims frequently read something like this:
- Reverse osmosis water filter, or hyperfiltration, is the finest filtration available today
- Used by premium bottled water companies
- Eliminates or substantially reduces wide range of contaminants
- Greatest range of contaminant removal of all technologies in treating residential drinking water applications
- Allows removal of particles as small as individual ions
- Reverse osmosis filter membranes are approximately 0.0005 microns while bacteria are 0.2 to 1 micron and viruses are 0.02 to 0.4 microns
But when you started reading the product literature and got passed the preliminary gushing over what their capabilities were, you usually (if they were a reputable company) found the section called ‘advantages’ and ‘disadvantages’.
This little area was where you discovered the first few ugly little truths:
- A reverse osmosis water filter system is always combined with sediment and carbon pre-filters
- Because reverse osmosis works against standard osmotic pressure, the process is generally fairly slow and extremely inefficient
- You should expect to waste (and pay your water company for) 3-9 gallons of water to produce one gallon of purified water
- You should expect to wait approximately 3-4 hours to product one gallon of purified water
- Reverse osmosis is not highly effective in removing organic compounds
- Pre-filters will be needed to prevent the reverse osmosis membrane from being fouled or clogged by sediment, chlorine, and other contaminants
What’s Going On Here?
The truth is that, for many years, this was the best they had. And they compensated for the short-comings of this technology by combining it with other technologies, like carbon filters, ultra-violet radiation, etc, that when sequenced properly and maintained properly did a pretty reasonable job of yielding an acceptable product at a somewhat acceptable price.
The Big Problem
The real problem was a reverse osmosis filter not only needed the help of other processes to make it all work, but it was removing inorganic minerals, one of natures most valuable contributions to our health – natural minerals like potassium, calcium and magnesium.
Systems that produce de-mineralized water, such as distillation and reverse osmosis filter system, leave us with water that has an acidic pH. Water is always trying to balance itself. So when the water pH drops as minerals are stripped away, the water becomes acidic and then tries to balance itself by pulling minerals, primarily calcium, from our bones and teeth. Great news eh?
Conclusion
So before you go out and purchase one of the reverse osmosis water filter systems, or one using a reverse osmosis filter, be sure to consider the newer technologies that are more effective and efficient using multi-phased activated carbon filters processes.
