RO vs tap water

[seangee]

Just changed my filter cartridges and membranes after 9 months (recommended 12 months).
Probably should have gone inside to fetch my camera but I was reminded why I will never again drink water out of the tap.

 

[AilyNC]

Do you drink the RO water? I never drink tap water & buy in bottled mineral or spring water for drinking.

I live in hard water limestone area. Tap water is 307ppm. The house had a water softener unit under the sink. It needs salt top up. We've a tap not connected to this for the baby (well he's 2.5 now) as babies can't have high sodium water.

Anyway the thing has stopped working a few months now. And we're wondering about fixing it or getting an RO unit. This would mean all water going to appliances/shower is RO water instead of current softened water. The kitchen tap can be RO and we have a second kitchen tap for just regular untreated mains water.

My waffle filled message really just to ask if you drink RO water?

 

[seangee]

Do you drink the RO water? I never drink tap water & buy in bottled mineral or spring water for drinking.

I live in hard water limestone area. Tap water is 307ppm. The house had a water softener unit under the sink. It needs salt top up. We've a tap not connected to this for the baby (well he's 2.5 now) as babies can't have high sodium water.

Anyway the thing has stopped working a few months now. And we're wondering about fixing it or getting an RO unit. This would mean all water going to appliances/shower is RO water instead of current softened water. The kitchen tap can be RO and we have a second kitchen tap for just regular untreated mains water.

My waffle filled message really just to ask if you drink RO water?

Yes.
Its just a separate tap in the utility room. I use it for fish, kettle, coffee machine, iron and dog/cat drinking bowls (they share ). Just after I put in the RO I treated myself to a sodastream and have a couple of bottles of fizzy water a day using RO. SWMBO drinks bottled water. I'm not suggesting there is a correlation but in the 16 years we have lived in this house we have lost 2 cats and 2 neighbours to bowel cancer

Using RO for showering would be wasteful. Even the good units waste 50% of the water that goes into them.

 

[AilyNC]

Yes.
Its just a separate tap in the utility room. I use it for fish, kettle, coffee machine, iron and dog/cat drinking bowls (they share ). Just after I put in the RO I treated myself to a sodastream and have a couple of bottles of fizzy water a day using RO. SWMBO drinks bottled water. I'm not suggesting there is a correlation but in the 16 years we have lived in this house we have lost 2 cats and 2 neighbours to bowel cancer

Using RO for showering would be wasteful. Even the good units waste 50% of the water that goes into them.

From what I've seen (in small amount of research) they recommend both units. The softener to remove hardness & would go to appliances & shower/bathroom. Then the RO unit to remove sodium & other things from the softener water and go to a kitchen sink tap. If we do that I could keep both hard water tank & RO softer water tank. Will look into more but pretty certain the softened water is not recommended for Aquarium use.

 

[seangee]

Here is the sediment filter (stage 1). Piece of paper is as reference because the filter started its life as white.

The 12 month guidance is obviously not enough for our water supply because the filter was saturated and left a slurry in the bottom of the canister. Fortunately the RO membrane was still doing a good job. One of the main reasons for the pre-filtration stages is to extend the life of the membrane. Since the membranes are fairly inexpensive I changed that anyway and diarised to do it all again in 6 months time.

 

[AilyNC]

I buy a lot of bottled water for myself so was thinking of a better solution at home. Will definitely look into the RO unit.