can RO/DI be used as drinking water?

[bawla47]

Im trying to convince my mom to help me buy an RO/DI system. So far ive spent over 1000$ on my tank myself, and my mom hasnt spent a dime. I kinda was hoping shed help me a tad, since shes going to be enjoying the tank as much as i am. But anyhow,was goin to try and convince her about the system, if shes able to benefit from it as well. i think she will help me on it atleast.

Is the system, perfectly fine for drinking water? or is it TOO pure? lol

Im thinking because of the DI, that it might not be good?


Anyhow, sorry for the newb question

Thanks in advance.
Jay D

 

[Meredith]

Awesome for drinking water!

 

[seaham358]

Some say its fine others say its not. The reason they say its not good is because the water is striped of all its minerals etc. And something about electrolites in your body yad yad yad.... Do a search on google...
Now RO water is fine to drink all you need to do is put it a T with a valve on it before the DI part, that way you can get RO when ever you want. Several people I know have it hooked up on there ice makers on the frige.
There around $100 bucks on ebay and airwaterice.com make great units and they are great with there customers there.

 

[boardsurfer]

I looove my coffee with RO water...

 

[bawla47]

ttt, anyone else tried drinking ro/di water? tastes real plain i guess?

 

[amahler]

How about the waste water from RO?

I'm getting my RO unit optimized right now with a booster pump (my pressure is like 20 PSI) and a ghetto heat exchanger made of 25 feet of vinyl tubing and a tank-heater warmed bucket of 90 degree water (gets the incoming well water from about 63 degrees into the 70's prior to RO).

What bugs the crud out of me is the waste to production ratio which hits a peak of about 4:1 (a lot worse for me as I deal with the issues above). Flushing about 80 gallons down the drain for every 20 produced (when optimized, even) makes me crazy. I'm trying to capture the waste for other reasons (water plants at least), but even then it's only a fraction since I have no reasonable means of capturing that much water on a daily basis.

I'm fabricating a small "cistern" of sorts with a container that will have an overflow drain-off on the top and a tap on the bottom for easily filling other vessels with RO waste water. My wife can water plants with it for sure... but what about drinking? It's got to be cleaner than the tap to some extent even as "waste" since it passes through at least the first two stages of RO - right?

Thoughts on any of these issues (optimizing output, how to capture it and what to do with it)?

Thanks!
- Aaron

 

[gilraen]

We only drink RO H2O

 

[skennelly]

Drinking RO water is fine, but RO/DI water isn't so good. DI removes all the sodium ions from the water and when you drink it the water removes the sodium ions from you body which is not good.

 

[bawla47]

hmm, so RO water will be real good you think? like Zephyrhills? lol. I just need to tap the line off, so she gets RO wter only.

 

[EJS4]

You could drink DI water in fact it's sold in health food stores for "cleansing diets" as to drinking waste water off RO unit I dont recommend that. RO membranes don't trap particles like carbon filters. RO works by blocking the passage of molecules, which are concentrated into the waste water. All though its a small increase in concentration its still an increase. Watering plants or lawn would be fine. Other uses: washing the car with it, add it to the washing machine in the wash cycle, (for the inventive) hook it up to a toilet bowl tank so you make RO every time toilet is flushed and the waste is used to refill the toilet tank.

 

[Dr.Nate]

My "water guy" has a very good saying regarding RO water vs. tap water for drinking......"either get a filter, or be a filter"

BTW, RO/DI is fine to drink.....I do it every day....tastes crisp and clean....couldn't do without it

 

[Dr.Nate]

I actually may have been mistaken, actually. After getting curious and reading about drinking DI water all over the internet, I'm wondering if DI is safe to drink or not myself. I'm still researching but I can tell you I stopped drinking DI water for now! I know for sure RO water is okay and even great, but I just wanted to post this reply just in case anybody started drinking mass quantities of DI water and die....couldn't forgive myself...ha.

 

[skennelly]

I was definitely going to say something Dr. Nate Are you a real doctor? I take it not. Anyways like I said DI water drains the body of nutrients and for that reason don't drink it. Put a t in your ro unit and be done with it.