Do You Drink the RO DI water

[wrightme43]

Thanks, I am looking to hear why people think the way they do about this. If it is just electrolytes, I think salt and gatorade probley have me hooked up just fine. The taste I like, it tastes pure to me. Then again the water that comes out of the tap in B.G. KY tastes like something George Carlin would say. LOL
I am hoping one of the Chemistry Gurus will chime in here and let us know in no uncertain terms why and what is good and bad about using ro, and rodi to drink.
Thanks again everybody for your response. Steve

 

[Oscapus]

I know that medical doctors recommend drinking plain water instead of juice to help soften a hangover. Your body needs water then, not other stuff. I drink my RO/DI all the time. I assume I get plenty of electolytes from the other stuff (beer, coffee, hot sauce...)

 

[ROWAUSA]

This is a topic I have had very long discussions about as to which comes first, RO or DI. Let me start off by saying I get my aquarium water from a store that sells water. They have a 12 stage filtering process which produces just about pure H2O. The guy that owns the store is a health nut as well. What he tells me is, if you just live on his water, you will not live long. Now, do any of you just live on RO/DI water? I doubt it. We get most of our other minerals and trace elements from the food we eat. Sure, there is water thats real good for you with lots of minerals and that kind of good stuff in it, but let me know where that is and I'll run the pipe to it.

Now about RO and DI. The RO and DI filters do about the same thing. I know there are a few differences, but for arguments sake, lets agree that they both remove solids. Now, which filter costs more to replace. If you have a Spectrapure or a Kent system, I would guess your answer would be your RO membrane. So with that said, if you wanted to protect your RO filter and provide it with the best possible water to filter, wouldn't you put the DI in front of the RO and then if you wanted that nice sparkling water, you could polish it, I love that statement, polish water, with a carbon filter.

What say you?

 

[wrightme43]

Ok I think I follow you. I agree that if the only thing I had to drink and eat was rodi water I would not be happy and may die. LOL
I would think (i know its trouble) lol the reason the di is after the ro is that the di would try to absorb, adsorb, a whole lot of stuff and lose effectiveness very quickly then it would all fall on the ro membrane.
Flip side the ro membarne stops stuff, does not absorb it just stops it and washes it down the drain, what gets thru is absorb, adsorbed by the di and it is able to handle that task well, taking water that is almost pure and getting the rest of the stuff.
This is just my thoughts on the matter and I am in no way a chemistry or any kind of guru about anything.
Would love to hear what BOOMER, and COLIN have to say on this matter. Anybody know them personally and could maybe get them to chime in for us?
Good thoughts Rowausa, I want to learn more about it myself.
Steve

 

[ROWAUSA]

Steve, thats the only argument that holds any water, LOL, when it comes to RO/DI and which one gets the water first. What does not pass through the RO, get caught by the DI. All the stuff that can't pass through the RO goes down the drain. I just think it's going to blowout the RO way before the DI when the RO comes first. I can replace almost 3 to 1 DI filters over RO membranes.

Just a thought. BTW, my water guy has a very professional setup and the DI is before the RO.

 

[wrightme43]

Oh no I am not knocking it at all, I just wanted to ask, and learn more. I am glad you posted that, and now I will have to think on it. LOL. I am just a tad bit obsessive. LOL That is really a lie, a lot obsessive. I wonder if it would worth setting up two identicle systems and routing water in one way and the other and keeping records of $ cost and water quality. LOL then we would know for sure. Thanks again for the posts and input. Steve

 

[plack]

There is electolytes in other types of food and all food contains some water so it's effects would be minor i believe

 

[Boomer]

On the deep side, we just had this discussion our chem froum at RC;

There is nothing wrong with RO or RO/DI water for drinking. Your body is very adept at maintaining osmotic equilium in the setting of hypo and hypertonic fluids. The primary components that make up serum osmolality are sodium, glucose, and blood urea nitrogen (which can be roughly estimated by Na x 2 + BUN/2.8 + glucose/18). Serum oncotic pressure is also maintained by blood protein, primarily albumin. None of these things are found in great quantity in tap water or RO/DI. It just tastes different because of the lack of contaminants normally found in tap water. Most of the trace elements and ions you get from your diet, not drinking water.

You can cause electrolyte imbalance by drinking enough RO/DI or tap water alone (called psychologic polydipsia, which is rare but usually seen in schizophrenics and others with mental illness.) And I'm talking gallons of excess water a day. You simply overload your kidneys ability to get rid of the hypoosmolar solution and eventually your sodium drops too low and you seize (typically when it hits less than 120 MeQ/dl - normal is 135 -145). In contrast this can happen inadvertently in newborns just by giving them as little as 8-12oz of tap water a day for several days due to their relative body surface area (which is why newborns should only receive formula or breast milk.)

Ok, now that I have bored everyone silly with this long winded explanation, the bottom line is RO/DI is just as safe as tap water, as long as you drink it to match your daily requirements. Any ions, minerals, etc that have been removed you will easily replace by eating. The only thing that you might not be getting enough of is flouride, but as long as you brush your teeth you will be fine. Just be careful with the kids since flouride in municipal water has been shown to reduce cavities in children, and they don't brush like they should. So drink up!



RO units have been used for years for drinking water purposes. From under the counter units to massive million gallon per day plants it is a method that is recognized by EPA, AWWA, NSF and a host of other American and World health organizations. The greatest use is for de-salinization but it is also used to treat difficult supplies that would otherwise be unfit to drink. The main reason it is not more widely used is that it is wasteful when used on a large scale. The reject water loss outweighs the benefits of the output quality.

DI is a grey area. There is no known harm from drinking DI but there is also no demand because of the cost of treatment. This means there has been almost no attempt in the water treatment industry to promote its use. Of course, in an off hand way millions of people drink its close cousin sodium exchanged (demineralized) treated water form either home units or municipal supplies. Except for the added sodium in such water, there have been no health related issues. Drinking DI would even eliminate the sodium problem, but again, cost is the factor and DI would cost more than sodium exchange as the sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide used as the regenerants cost more than salt. Also, these regenerant's disposal is somewhat more involved.


Which all means in short it is fine to drink just don't be drinking lots of it / day


I forgot to put that in bold

 

[ScottT1980]

Boomer hath spoken...

Thanks for the info...

 

[dnjan]

So with that said, if you wanted to protect your RO filter and provide it with the best possible water to filter, wouldn't you put the DI in front of the RO and then if you wanted that nice sparkling water, you could polish it, I love that statement, polish water, with a carbon filter.

What say you?

I thought you wanted to put the carbon in front of the RO membrane, because the carbon removes the "stuff" put in by water districts to protect our health (chloramines?). This "stuff" can harm the RO membrane.

 

[Boomer]

if you wanted to protect your RO filter and provide it with the best possible water to filter, wouldn't you put the DI in front of the RO

No, not a good idea, as the DI will be exhausted quickly. You want to protect the DI not the RO

 

[Boomer]

I thought you wanted to put the carbon in front of the RO membrane

YES, that is correct, as it is how chlroine and chloramine are removed, by the carbon. They react with the carbon and produce carbon oxide and leave behind harmless chloride ions. The ammonia from the break down of the chloramine is removed by the DI if you have one. If not then it enters the tank.

 

[wrightme43]

Now this is what I am talking about. Some knowledge based on facts. My common sense has gotten me into loads of trouble, ( I think sometimes I am smarter than I am) lol. Thanks Boomer, and Every Body who has posted. This is a great thread, because of the people here. Steve

 

[Boomer]

Steve

Would love to hear what BOOMER, and COLIN have to say on this matter. Anybody know them personally and could maybe get them to chime in for us?

You/anyone dose not need that, just PM me if there is something you want me to respond to

 

[VINA DEL MAR]

Do anyone here knows how much money it cost to make 5 gallons of RO/DI using a Kent Maxima 50 gls/day unit?TIA

VINA

 

[wrightme43]

No clue, at 3 cent a gallon in wasting 4 for 1 it would be 20 gallons or 60 cents plus wear and tear on membranes. Thats all I know. Steve

 

[FishinInTheDark]

I'm raising a dead thread. I just wanted to say thanks to all for this one. My tapwater has suddenly begun to taste like the YMCA pool. I'm glad I can resort to my RO/DI until it gets better!

 

[wrightme43]

Cool I had forgotton all about this one. I got my second rodi unit the other day. It came with the 8 gallon tank that goes under the sink. I can say this, coffee sure tastes better with rodi, than the craptastic tap water we have here.

 

[Scooterman]

Most units for drinking have a valve that allows you to skip the DI unit, your still drinking very pure water, just with minerals & more taste.

 

[liveforphysics]

When I was a chem TA in college, I would chug the distilled water or the RO/DI water I used for mixing stock solutions to a tune of about a gallon a day.

It just happend that I was TA'ing right after swim team practice, which always left me very thirsty to get to the lab for some exellent water.

I was/am a salt eating monster though, and with my 5 jumbojack hamburger per day lunches (only back when i used to swim 4hrs a day), I dont think I was in much danger of running out of free ions.

Reading this thread from the begining, includeing all the linked material really forces a guy to question so much more of the info which seems to be the general consensus of the "experts".

Good thing for Boomer, or this board likely would have remained clueless, misslead, and further missleading others.