No it is not the same principle at all, a water filter will filter out large particals of bebris to clean the water.
An RO unit uses presurised water to be forced through a special membraine which is different to a water jug filter which only allows 92-97% H2O through an very minimal disolved salts (the other 3-8%)
As i said b4 the water filter will be like passing the water through a fine mesh which allows H2O as well as lots of other disolved salts through it
"Reverse osmosis (RO) is a process that overcomes many of the shortcomings of distillation and ion exchange. To explain reverse osmosis let us first look at osmosis. This is a natural process, which occurs whenever a dilute solution is separated from a concentrated solution by a semi-permeable membrane. Water, driven by a force caused by the concentration difference - the osmotic pressure - passes through the membrane into the concentrated solution. The flow of water continues until the concentrated solution is diluted and back pressure prevents any further flow through the membrane (osmotic equilibrium).
If a pressure greater than the osmotic pressure is applied to the higher concentration side of the membrane, the normal direction of osmotic flow is reversed, pure water passes through the membrane from the concentrated solution and is thus separated from its contaminants. This is the basic principle of reverse osmosis (sometimes call hyper-filtration).
In practice, feedwater is pumped into a pressure vessel containing a spiral or set of hollow fibers of semi-permeable membranes. The purified water passes through the membrane to form the 'permeate'. The contaminants accumulate in the residual water, called the 'concentrate', which is bled continuously to drain. The latest generation of polyamide thin film composite reverse osmosis membranes which have replaced early cellulosic membranes, remove 95-98% of inorganic ions, together with virtually all the large non-ionic contaminants and organic molecules with a molecular weight greater than 100. Dissolved gases are not removed.
Thin-film composite membranes are used in all ELGA's laboratory reverse osmosis equipment.
Due to this exceptional purifying efficiency, reverse osmosis is a very cost-effective technology for a water purification system. However, it is limited by the relatively slow rate of production and is, therefore, normally used to fill a reservoir prior to use or further purification. Reverse osmosis tends to protect the system from bacteria and pyrogens. It is often combined with ion exchange to considerably improve product water quality."
This was taken from ELGA'S web site
http
/www.elgalabwater.com/
Hope this helps
