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Question: Do Reverse Osmosis Units Need Electricity?
Posted by: | CommentsAnswer: No, they run on water pressure. You need electricity only if you add an electric pressure-boost pump to increase the system’s performance or an ultraviolet light to be certain that your water does not have any bacteria. Both of these items are options on most RO units and the decision to select options will depend on the incoming water PSI and the contaminant level of your incoming water.
Question: What Specifications Should I Look For In A Membrane?
Posted by: | CommentsAnswer: With the exception of a few proprietary RO system manufacturers, all residential membranes are the same size and all fit in the same membrane housing. When the residential RO market first started to come alive, nearly all of the membranes where 8 to 10 gallons per day systems. Many of the proprietary membranes are still under 25 gallons per day production capacity. But the vast majority of the RO systems being sold today are 50, 75 and 100 gallons per day units.
To better understand how membrane manufacturers rate the capacity of their membranes, you need to be aware that membrane manufacturers establish the gallons per day production for a membrane based on the following criteria: 1) Incoming water at 77 degrees Fahrenheit 2) Incoming water at 65 PSI 3) TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of 200 ppm.Not very often do we find these three conditions existing in real life situations. Correspondingly, most RO system users are unable
to achieve the level of production indicated by the manufacturers ratings. Bear in mind that it is possible to achieve greater production capacity than the rating from the membrane manufacturers if your water temperature is greater than 77 degrees (F) or you have more than 65 PSI flowing from the incoming water. Some marketers of membranes rate the membranes they are selling to have production capacity greater than the ratings listed by the manufacturer. Some will indicate 85 gpd from a truly 75 gpd membrane. They could well have achieved those numbers but they have altered the water temperature or increased the PSI upward and are in fact quoting unachievable ratings in the real world unless your real world includes the increased PSI and temperature.
RO membranes are self-flushing provided there is a match between the RO membrane and the flow restrictor. To operate properly (and to extend the life of the RO membrane) there needs to be approximately 3 times the amount of water going to drain as compared with the product water going to the storage tank unless you have include a Permeate Pump which will reduce the drain water flow. The ratio of water flowing through the membrane is the function of the flow restrictor.
If the flow restrictor is too small, you will be causing pre-mature fouling of the RO membrane. If the capacity of your flow restrictor is too high, you are sending too much water to the drain, this will cause a small increase in water usage.
The life of a membrane is directly related to the care and support given by the owner. If you do not change your pre-filters every 6 months, you will likely be shortening the life of your RO membrane. Proper care of the pre-filters could extend the life of a RO membrane out to 5 years or more. Chlorine will quickly foul up a TFC membrane. You must be certain that there is sufficient carbon capacity in your carbon pre-filter to avoid chlorine wiping out your RO production capacity
Reverse Osmosis Is Just A Simple Film Based Filter, Nothing Else.
Posted by: | CommentsBackground
Some folks would have you believe that Reverse Osmosis (RO) water is some high-tech, super, genetically altered water that could one day destroy the world. Nothing is farther from the truth.
Reverse Osmosis is just a filter with much smaller holes than other filters.
Reverse Osmosis is just a normal film based filter that pushes water through a film-membrane from one side to the other. It works just like every other filter mechanism you have ever seen throughout your life. Water vapors and molecules are small enough to pass through the semi-permeable membrane, contaminants are not. Simple enough right? The only difference is that the RO membrane is much more refined which means it restricts more contaminants than other filter systems.
There is nothing scary, complex or unnatural about reverse osmosis water. Reverse Osmosis technology has been used widely in the food industry for many years. It is used in the dairy industry for the production of whey protein powders and for the concentration of milk to reduce shipping costs.
Reverse osmosis is used globally throughout the wine industry for many practices including wine and juice concentration, taint removal; such as acetic acid, smoke taint and brettanomyces taint; and alcohol removal. Known users include many of the elite classed growths (Kramer) such as Château Léoville-Las Cases in Bordeaux.
Reverse Osmosis Systems Are Afforable For Most Families
Posted by: | CommentsThe statement that Reverse Osmosis (RO) is expensive may be true or false depending on a variety of factors. But generally speaking, reverse osmosis systems do have a greater start-up cost than faucet and counter-top filters. Quality RO systems will last up to 10-15 years and should be looked at as a long term investment.
When it comes to filter replacement, in most instances RO systems only require pre-filters to be changed once a year with the RO membrane needing replacement every 3-5 years. Faucet filters will need replacement filters every 3 months because they usually have only one filter requiring constant attention. Overtime a period of time the RO costs are minimized but the quality of RO water is where the real value lies.
RO systems are typically 5 stage systems that use five separate and unique filter cartridges to address different contaminants. They include one sediment filter pre-filter, two carbon pre-filter, one RO membrane and one polish carbon filter. Countertop and faucet filters typically have one small carbon filter only. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why RO systems are the better solution and provide cleaner and purer drinking water. One quick method to test the quality of RO water vs filter is to make separate trays of ice cubes of both types of water. You will notice the RO water will provide much clearer ice cubes — an obvious indication that RO is superior quality water.
RO systems deliver much cleaner, healthier water and in the long run that means less visits to the doctor’s office. Healthier drinking water for ourselves and our families can be summed up in one word, PRICELESS.
Answer: Yes, it is necessary to match the capacity of the RO membrane and the flow restrictor. Unless the capacity of these two items are matched, you will either be putting too much water to the drain or you will pre-maturely foul the RO membrane. See our comments on flow restrictors for added information.
Question: What is better, a 75 gpd or a 24 gpd RO membrane?
Posted by: | CommentsAnswer: Some Reverse Osmosis units make 75 gallons or more of water a day, but some only make 24 or 36 in a day, yet the cost is about the same. Why would anyone buy the low producing RO unit?
More isn’t always better. If you need 75 gallons a day or if you need to quickly refill when you have guests, then you should buy the higher capacity unit. But if you’re only going to use 3 gallons per day, a lower production membrane will probably last longer and do a better job because it gets to run longer and spends less time sitting idle. Reverse Osmosis membranes clean themselves as they process water, so it’s really healthier if the membrane has to work longer to fill the tank. Think of it this way: If you draw off a gallon of water, a 24-gallon-per-day membrane will refill the tank at the rate of about a gallon per hour. For many users, that’s plenty fast. If however, you drain the tank preparing dinner for guests, you may need to refill their drinking glasses during the meal and then you will wish you had a RO system like a 75 gpd unit which will provide a gallon of water in 20 minutes.
Question: What’s the life of a RO membrane?
Posted by: | CommentsAnswer: The life span of a RO membrane depends on 1) the contaminant level of your water, 2) the maintenance program you follow for changing your pre-filters and 3) the amount of water you use. Membranes can usually operate well for a couple of years but they will last up to five or more years under good conditions. To test the membrane, measure the total dissolved solids (TDS) of the water coming into the membrane and the RO product water as it leaves the membrane housing outlet. Compare the two TDS numbers by dividing the RO TDS by the incoming water TDS. If the percentage is greater than 12%, you need to test again in a few weeks and be prepared to replace the RO membrane when the percentage approaches 15% as that would indicate your rejection has fallen to 85%. You will likely also notice that the RO membrane will be producing less water as the rejection percentage declines.
Answer: That guy may someday be President or some other high ranking politican, because technically what he said was true, but for practical purposes it’s an out-and-out lie. It’s true that the Reverse Osmosis membrane doesn’t remove chlorine. It doesn’t have to, because it has a high quality carbon filter (two on some models) in the flow in-front of it that do the job. In fact, if the carbon filter didn’t remove all the chlorine, the membrane would get eaten alive in no time because TFC membranes cannot tolerate chlorine. Statements like this are an obvious effort to deceive. It’s surprising that some very large companies which sell one or two stage counter-top filters continually repeat such misrepresentations just to sell their products.
Reverse Osmosis Is A Universal Solvent, Not A Leaching Agent
Posted by: | CommentsWater Is A Solvent
Water is known as a universal solvent as witnessed by the fact that as rain reaches the surface of the earth, the water quickly dissolves and/or transports just about every material with which it comes in contact. While some of these materials may be beneficial, most are not useful in drinking water and many are harmful and even toxic. Absolutely pure water very rarely now occurs naturally.
Research On RO Leaching Of The Human Body
In July of 2008, the Brighton Standard Blade, a Colorado newspaper contacted EPA at their readers request to find out if RO water leaches minerals. The EPA spokeswoman said that their organization does not support this idea. The WQA also rejects the idea the RO water can leach minerals in a 1993 report titled, “Consumption of Low TDS Water”. Their extensive research presented evidence that suggests water with low amounts of total dissolved solids (TDS), such as Reverse Osmosis treated water has no ill effects on the human body. It is estimated that over a 70 year lifespan, a person drinking tap water or mineral water will be ingesting about 200 to 300 pounds of rock that their body cannot use. While most of the microscopic rock minerals will be eliminated from our bodies regularly, some will be stored in our human tissues becoming toxic. The primary culprits are calcium salts and over time they can cause gallstones, kidney stones, bone and joint calcification, arthritis and hardening and blocking of arteries.The presence of other hard metal minerals (some are radioactive) is suspected to cause other degenerative diseases as well as including eye glaucoma, cataracts, hearing loss, emphysema, diabetes, obesity and cancer. These minerals available, especially in hard tap water, are poorly absorbed or rejected by cellular tissue sites and if not evacuated, their presence may cause arterial obstruction and internal damage. (Dennison 1993, Muchling 1994 Banik 1989)
Conclusions
Reverse Osmosis water is very pure and its purity will actually help improve the absorption of all nutrients including good organic minerals. No more ingesting of bad inorganic minerals (rocks) means the body will no longer be stressed and taxed to absorb something that wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. Drinking water heavy in inorganic minerals is like putting random rocks from your back yard in your chicken soup. Considering the fact that some inorganic minerals are radioactive and others are toxic, you are literally playing Russian roulette with your health. Use common sense. Drink the cleanest and purest water you can find.
The So-Called Water Experts Have No Link To Sources For Their Claims
Posted by: | CommentsBackground
Do not trust the majority of articles posted online by so-called Water Experts that attach Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filtration as unhealthy. About 90% of these articles were written by the sales affiliates of a single counter top filter company which competes directly against RO filtration sellers.
How do we know this? Well 90% of these articles all link back to websites that sell and promote only one brand of counter top filter. Their articles are posted all over the internet with the sole purpose of pushing people into believing an untruth and therefore purchase their filters.They never back up their claims with sources or links because the primary purpose of these articles is to sell their counter top filter and make themselves some money.
The Facts About Water Purification
Now let’s take a brief look at the primary difference between a Reverse Osmosis system and a countertop water filter.
Counter tops are particle filtration systems and have a 1 micron rating. This means that all of the nasty materials smaller than one micron , including contaminants such as asbestos, insecticides, pharmaceutical drugs and human viruses (to name a few) will not be filtered out by a counter top filter. The RO membrane has a .0001 micron rating (10,000 times smaller than the filter used by the counter top filter) and the RO membrane is classified under nanofiltration technology. The pores in a RO membrane are actually measured in Angstroms (it takes 10,000 Angstroms to equal 1 micron) and at this level of filtration the RO membrane will filter out all of the contaminants noted above as well as thousands more that would be missed by a counter top filter. Combined with its other 3 or 4 or 5 stages of filtration, Reverse Osmosis delivers the cleanest drinking water available on the market with a 90 – 98% contaminant rejection rate.
Bottom Line
Let’s make an analogy. Let’s say that you are a police officer and your different layers of clothing represents the different water filter layers of a RO system. The dangerous elements you face everyday patrolling the streets represent the contaminants in tap water.
In this scenario the sediment filter is your officer’s jacket. It is handy to have around when you need it to protect you from the occasional raining or cold day. The carbon filters represent your shirt and pants which you should wear everyday to keep warm and block out the sun & wind. The RO membrane is your Kevlar bullet-proof vest, it can stop bullets and protect you when a simple shirt or jacket just won’t do.
A reverse osmosis system is like an officer wearing his full uniform including a Kevlar vest, helmet, shirt, pants and jacket. He is fully protected from 95% of the dangers that the world can throw at him. A counter top/faucet filter is like an officer wearing just a normal shirt & pants without any other protection. Sure it will be enough in many cases, but watch out when the bullets start flying.
RO simply delivers the cleanest, purest drinking water on the market.Counter top and faucet filters DO NOT remove the following contaminants from tap water. Reverse Osmosis does filter these and many other contaminants missed by counter-top filters.
So Who Are You Going To Believe
As stated above, the water scientific community believes the Reverse Osmosis water is healthy to drink. So WHO ARE YOU GOING TO TRUST? THE EPA & WQA or a bunch of affiliate salesmen on the internet?
