is RO/DI good for drinking water?

[savage]

I just purchased a Watts Premier 4 stage RO unit w/3 gallon storage tank and faucet from Costco Wharehouse. Is it neccasary to add a deionization stage, making it an RO/DI for my water changes? If so, is it safe for drinking water?

 

 

 

 

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[smac]

I don't think it's really necessary to add the DI unit. RO should be fine. It makes good drinking water in my estimation, though don't drink the first few gallons.

[CoolGuy77]

Its actually not really good to drink RO water or distilled for that matter. A downside to reverse osmosis as a method of purifying drinking water is the removal of healthy, naturally occurring minerals in water. The membrane of a reverse osmosis system is impermeable to natural trace minerals. These minerals not only provide a good taste to water, but they also serve a vital function in the body’s system. Water, when stripped of these trace minerals, can actually be unhealthy for the body. Unless you live in an area where the tap water is contaiminated, I'd probably not recommend drinking RO water.

[savage]

well i bought this DI canister w/media from the filter guys for $36:

 

http://www.thefilterguys.biz/di_systems.htm

 

I'm gonna T off between the RO unit and the faucet with an oneway check valve directly to my RO/DI tank so the DI cannot leach back into my RO drinking water. Plus I don't want my DI to prematurely deplete. I'm also gonna hook up an IN/OUT TDS monitor which i got for $26 on EBAY.

 

Jim at The Filter Guys was very knowledgable and helpful. Before I talked to him or got a response from Coolguy77, I thought it would be OK to drink RO/DI. From what I was told, RO/DI is a very agressive water, which means wants to absorb its minerals from any source it can get its hands on. Very bad for childrens teeth, since it deprives them of flouride. Running RO/DI through copper plumbing is not reccomended as it will pull copper out of the piping and eventually eat right through. Who would ever think pure water can be so bad? However, RO is absolutely safe for drinking water.

 

Remember kids, just say no to RO/DI. (for drinking)

 

 

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[neanderthalman]

Who would ever think pure water can be so bad?

 

The Wicked Witch of the West.

 

I'm fairly certain that there is no issue with RO or RO/DI dissolving teeth or copper piping. Somehow, I'm willing to bet that this is a myth. There's no reason that high purity water would be better able to dissolve insoluble materials like teeth and copper pipes. It's not going to increase the solubility of such substances.

 

I've also heard people claim that RO/DI water will harm your skin as well. In all of my semiconductor fabrication labs, nobody has ever been injured by the ultra-high purity RO/DI water we use for washing and rinsing wafers and glassware. We get it on our hands and wrists all the time. Nobody has even been warned about it either. The Hydrofluoric acid? Different story. There's a lab tech with no bones in two of his fingers because of that stuff.

 

Would RO/DI be more likely to cause osmolysis and hyponatremea than tap water. Yes, but you're still going to need to drink a gallon all at once to be dangerous. Compared to the concentration of solutes in the human body, the purity of tap or RO water is not much different than the purity of RO/DI water.

[Reef Gator]

Savage,

 

Good research! You have it perfectly right.

 

Neanderthalman,

 

Your reasoning is correct, but you're only thinking short-term. Long term, RO/DI water will dissolve seemingly insoluble materials. There is really no such thing as a completely insoluble material. Furthermore, teeth (and all other bones) are not really stable crystaline solids, but living tissue that constantly absorbs and leeches ions. If all you drink is deionized water your teeth and possibly other bones (depending on how much calcium is in your food) will become thinner and more brittle. On top of that, you would be depriving yourself of the fluoride that is added to drinking water and has been proven to help prevent tooth decay. Would you notice the difference after a month? probably not. After several years? I'd bet you would have a few more cavities to fill. On the other hand, you could make the same arguement for someone who drinks nothing but sodas.

[wav3form]

My wife makes coffee with the water from my ro/di unit. Our bones are going to melt!!!

[neanderthalman]

Savage,

 

Good research! You have it perfectly right.

 

Neanderthalman,

 

Your reasoning is correct, but you're only thinking short-term. Long term, RO/DI water will dissolve seemingly insoluble materials. There is really no such thing as a completely insoluble material. Furthermore, teeth (and all other bones) are not really stable crystaline solids, but living tissue that constantly absorbs and leeches ions. If all you drink is deionized water your teeth and possibly other bones (depending on how much calcium is in your food) will become thinner and more brittle. On top of that, you would be depriving yourself of the fluoride that is added to drinking water and has been proven to help prevent tooth decay. Would you notice the difference after a month? probably not. After several years? I'd bet you would have a few more cavities to fill. On the other hand, you could make the same arguement for someone who drinks nothing but sodas.

 

Good call on the sodas - probably much much worse than drinking DI

 

On the leaching of minerals, I'm calling B.S. on that one. The human body, and in particular, the cell membranes, are exceedingly efficient at controlling the passage of minerals and other nutrients. Consider them the most incredible RO membrane in existence. The one notable exception to their control capabilities is water. Water is able to pass through the cell membranes at through osmosis, and the cell has virtually no control over it. Putting a cell in a hypotonic solution, like RO/DI will cause water to diffuse into the cell, following the concentration gradient. This will continue until the cell explodes - called osmolysis. It works with tap water and red blood cells under a microscope, popular high school biology experiment - try it some time.

 

As for the bones, you're not quite right again. The bones ARE an inorganic crystalline solid. It IS alive, but the cells are isolated in tiny "pockets" throughout the calcium matrix - the precise name for thes pockets escapes me at the moment. The RO/DI is never going to contact the cells or bones anyhow.

 

The only part of your body that RO/DI will contact is the beginning of the digestive tract. Once in your stomach and intestines, it is going to mix with all of the food, minerals, acids, enzymes, and various other solutes, and cease to be RO/DI water. So, that leaves your mouth, teeth, and esophageal tract as the only part of the body ever exposed to RO/DI by drinking.

 

Ok, fluoride, teeth, and water. The amount of fluoride in tap water is very small, and if you brush your teeth twice a day with a fluoride-containing toothpaste (all of them), you're going to swalllow fluoride in the process regardless. If you don't brush your teeth twice a day, good luck blaming your cavities on RO/DI water. Above it all, the "fact" that fluoridated tap water prevents cavities is not a "fact" at all, it is a hotly debated controversy that I'm not even going to touch.

 

RO/DI does not and cannot make insoluble materials any more soluble, nor does the mechanism or pathway for the leaching of minerals from the human body exist. I did a search through Ovid medline and Pubmed for journal articles, and found no clinical studies that showed it to be hazardous to drink deionized water. If you could pull up a clinical study or journal article that shows this hazard to exist, then I would gladly read and consider it. Until I see hard evidence to the contrary, I'm going to consider the leaching of minerals and dissolution of teeth a myth.

 

The only possible hazard to drinking RO/DI water is the lack of minerals. I'm pretty sure, however, that if you eat a proper diet, you're going to get them elsewhere. The concentration of minerals in tap water is extremely small, and it's not the only dietary source.

[bradarmi]

Who says pure H2O is good for you? If you drink excessive amounts of RO water, you will become hypotonic, (low amounts of salts in the bloodstream). There should be at least some minerals in the water.

 

I just picked up a book called the Fluoride Deception, except my boss took it from me before I had a chance to read it all. Anyway, the premise, was that Fluoride and the whole "it is good for you" routine was all a hoax, cover-up, and lie. It brought some rather interesting phenomena up for discussion. I am still unsure, but I am starting to think Fluoride may be a bad thing, especially at higher doses since we are encountering more and more of it in the environment. I suppose we have just another thing to think about.

[Truck_Under_Water]

Screw water, drink beer.

[yardboy]

I've worked at a RO/DI water treatement plant for 25 years and I can tell you that the myth of RO/DI water leaching minerals from your body is just that, a myth. Tap water from most places has 1-2 ppm calcium in it, for example, not enough of a source of calcium for anybody. We've used RO/DI water for years for coffee and tea making, and most of us drink it also. The ones who don't complain it tastes funny. Fact is it has no taste, which is the funny part.

On the other hand, we never use copper pipes to transport it, not for the reason you may think, but mainly because the pH (5.5-7.0) is in the range that the copper willl definitely dissolve into the RO/DI. We only use plastic or stainless steel in the plant to keep the water from corroding the pipes. But then, we put phosphate into the tap water to keep it from dissolving the pipes too, as it's pH is such that it will definitely corrode them.

I don't even want to go there as far as fluoride is concerned, the question of the government forcing me to take drugs I don't necessarily choose to take. There is enough evidence to indicate that fluoride in drinking water may be harmful long term, and I certainly want the choice of whether to take it or not.

[neanderthalman]

Who says pure H2O is good for you? If you drink excessive amounts of RO water, you will become hypotonic, (low amounts of salts in the bloodstream). There should be at least some minerals in the water.

 

I cannot agree with you more. Drinking excessive amounts of RO/DI water will cause hyponatremea and osmolysis - the results of hypotonic blood. Drinking excessive amounts of tap water will do the same thing.

[mybuickskill6979]

Good call on the sodas - probably much much worse than drinking DI

 

On the leaching of minerals, I'm calling B.S. on that one. The human body, and in particular, the cell membranes, are exceedingly efficient at controlling the passage of minerals and other nutrients. Consider them the most incredible RO membrane in existence. The one notable exception to their control capabilities is water. Water is able to pass through the cell membranes at through osmosis, and the cell has virtually no control over it. Putting a cell in a hypotonic solution, like RO/DI will cause water to diffuse into the cell, following the concentration gradient. This will continue until the cell explodes - called osmolysis. It works with tap water and red blood cells under a microscope, popular high school biology experiment - try it some time.

 

As for the bones, you're not quite right again. The bones ARE an inorganic crystalline solid. It IS alive, but the cells are isolated in tiny "pockets" throughout the calcium matrix - the precise name for thes pockets escapes me at the moment. The RO/DI is never going to contact the cells or bones anyhow.

 

The only part of your body that RO/DI will contact is the beginning of the digestive tract. Once in your stomach and intestines, it is going to mix with all of the food, minerals, acids, enzymes, and various other solutes, and cease to be RO/DI water. So, that leaves your mouth, teeth, and esophageal tract as the only part of the body ever exposed to RO/DI by drinking.

 

Ok, fluoride, teeth, and water. The amount of fluoride in tap water is very small, and if you brush your teeth twice a day with a fluoride-containing toothpaste (all of them), you're going to swalllow fluoride in the process regardless. If you don't brush your teeth twice a day, good luck blaming your cavities on RO/DI water. Above it all, the "fact" that fluoridated tap water prevents cavities is not a "fact" at all, it is a hotly debated controversy that I'm not even going to touch.

 

RO/DI does not and cannot make insoluble materials any more soluble, nor does the mechanism or pathway for the leaching of minerals from the human body exist. I did a search through Ovid medline and Pubmed for journal articles, and found no clinical studies that showed it to be hazardous to drink deionized water. If you could pull up a clinical study or journal article that shows this hazard to exist, then I would gladly read and consider it. Until I see hard evidence to the contrary, I'm going to consider the leaching of minerals and dissolution of teeth a myth.

 

The only possible hazard to drinking RO/DI water is the lack of minerals. I'm pretty sure, however, that if you eat a proper diet, you're going to get them elsewhere. The concentration of minerals in tap water is extremely small, and it's not the only dietary source.

 

 

are you talking bone marrow?

 

i drink water from my RO/DI. actually it tastes alot like the aquafina stuff. i have yet to look at there website but on there bottles i have yet to see anything about them addin minerals or anything to the water. and they use an RO unit for sure. i agree with neanderthal. i don't think its harmful as long as you don't drink more then your 8-10 cups a day. a lady died from drinking to much water like last week. drinking to much of ANYTHING is bad for you. moderation is the key!!

[Riona]

But also that is debated. If you drink a pop(or soda, to the southerners out there ) you are supposed to drink an extra glass. Or if you excersize heavilly you are supposed to drink more to replenish what you've lost. But that isn't the debate, right?

 

Anyway, what would be a good alternitive to RO/DI water for drinking? I live in a place where the tap water literally makes me ill(I get stomach cramps and something similar to heartburn, though I doubt that is exactly what it is, for a couple of hours if I drink more than a sip or two) yet I really hate buying tons of water to drink(kinda expensive for someone on a limited budget, leaving me not drinking nearly enough. . .) Do those filters like the britas work as well as they claim to for drinking water? Or would I need to know exactly what I am trying to remove to get it out of the water?

[Helfrichs Chick]

Screw water, drink beer.

 

I second that!

[Drez]

DRINK YOUR RO/DI WATER or better yet, BEER made from RO/DI water!!

 

You paid for it, use it. Its good for you (or at very least not harmful) and IMHO tastes a lot better.

 

RO/DI water will not leech anything from your teeth or bones, thats nonsense. The only place it would/could leech anything would be from the intestine /stomach. But its dosn't anyway so who cares. Even if it could it would loose such a property as soon as it became mixed with food and gastric juices. As for small minerals in water, this is a popular argument for advocates of spring water, also rubbish. Minerals in water are no good for us to absorb. Its like getting chewing on metal for your iron content, all the minerals we need we get from our food regardless. In fact, the spring water is aweful, often has TDS values of 450ppm. The legal limits are often around 500ppm. There is no limit on the bottom end for the simple reason there is no harm in it.

 

Even if it was bad for you (which it isn't) pop is worst and I'm willing to be you dont think twice before gulping down a can of coke. So if you think it tastes better, down that RO!

 

Last, with respect to the toxicity of water, you can in fact die from drinking too much water too quickly (RO/DI or not). Sometimes marathon runners over do it and run into that problem. Perhaps in this isolated situation, RO/DI might be worst in that the problem might be encountered slightly earlier. But then again I don't think Savage was initially concerned with issues of water toxicity.

[mybuickskill6979]

heres what i wonder lol. if we can get intoxicated by water why drink beer lol. just down a gallon lol err

[savage]

All done:

 

RO TDS readings = 21 (drinking water)

DI TDS readings = 0 (ready fo salt mix and top-off)

[10" Red Devil]

Ill just add my 2 nuts. I thought I heard a story about Spring water/well water actually being bad for you.

 

A very successful doctor actually recommended that this guy drink nothing but R/O or distilled water with 0 or near 0 TDS to help combat high cholesterol. The reason is because the guy drank well water his whole life and while the guy did everything they could think of to combat this they still had high cholesterol. The doctor suggested that it was the overly high TDS of the well water. In reality we shouldnt even need minerals in our water, I guess we should be getting more then enough from our food and when we drink minerally rich water it causes an imbalance. I guess the guys cholesterol magically went down after this. This was just a story related to me by one of my parental figures though and they were just relating it so take it for what it is anecdotal at best, but worth researching.

[travisurfer]

Do those filters like the britas work as well as they claim to for drinking water? Or would I need to know exactly what I am trying to remove to get it out of the water?

We had to switch over to Brita water since water from the culligan man started getting expensive. The filter seems to rely on some kind of carbon polymer to function. There is a noticable difference between the brita water and tap water so it may be worth a shot.

 

Also, I remember my English teacher telling me that there is no proven research that says we have to drink water. Instead, water should come from the foods we eat. I run track, etc. and I can say I have noticed a positive difference form when I was constantly drinking water and then when I started drinking less so I dunno.

[yardboy]

Activated carbon is the filter medium of Brita's. They definitely work to remove chlorine and some of the organics present in tap water. I wouldn't drink my tap water without filtering it at least through a carbon filter.

[gabe129]

I use the Culligan water for my tank and for drinking and that is ro water also. my teeth are defenetly not rotting........

[neanderthalman]

Also, I remember my English teacher telling me that there is no proven research that says we have to drink water. Instead, water should come from the foods we eat. I run track, etc. and I can say I have noticed a positive difference form when I was constantly drinking water and then when I started drinking less so I dunno.

 

 

Yeah.....I wouldn't ask my Biology teacher how to define "irony" either.

 

Advice from my doctor a few years back (after a dehydration incident). When your urine is clear and frequent, you are drinking enough water.

[Bobalouy]

Has anyone seen the infomercials for this contraption, www.zerowater.com

[egloskerry]

I just gotta laugh at this idea that pure water is going to cause your body to explode, basically. Yes, if you put nothing but RO/DI in your body for a couple weeks, it may harm you. But so would the lack of food. You get electrolytes from the food you eat, and they are present in a more than high enough concentration to perform their duties, unless you are actively trying to kill yourself with water.