Catalytic Carbon Cartridge in RO .. is it safe for drinking water??

I have RO setup as follows
Purtrex 5 Micron Sediment Filter
Packed Catalytic Carbon Cartridge
Pentek ChlorPlus 10 Carbon Block
75 GPD Dow Filmtec Membrane

i noticed on the refill LABEL on the Catalytic Carbon it sates: "May be harmful if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through skin....."

my question is the RO water using the "Catalytic Carbon" cartridge/sage safe for HUMAN CONSUMPTION and ingestion for the human body??

 

People drink RO water all the time; it's the carbon that may be harmful, not the water it purifies.

 

You will be fine.

 

Do you have Rodi or RO? You shouldn't drink Rodi, only ro. I know you say RO but that's a general term Imo.

 

@Devin...Yes its RO ( reverse osmosis ) , i do not have DI. I just dont want to drink the Catalytic Carbon (GAC) filtered water and end up in the hospital. So do u guys THINK its safe or KNOW its safe?

 

Yes it is safe to drink but my question is why do you have the catalytic carbon cartridge in the first place and why such a high micron carbon block. Personally I would eliminate the catalytic carbon completely and install a single 0.5 micron Matrikx +1 carbon block good for up to 20,000 gallons of normally chlorinated or chloraminated water. The 10 micron block is only good for about 3,000 to 5,000 total gallons so at 4:1 waste ratio 600to 1,000 treated gallons maximum.

Catalytic Carbon is used for high levels of chloramines but only removes the chlorine portion and a DI cartridge removes the ammonia portion.

 

you got it just about right...i have high levels of chloramines in my city water and therefore have to use the catalytic carbon. I was using the 0.5 Matrikx +1 carbon block before but it was effective enough against the chloromines.
i use a 10 micron to catch the leftover "dust" from the catalytic carbon and from there it goes to the RO membrane and from there my dual DI.

i wast worried about the dual DI part as i dont drink that (the DI is for my future saltwater setup) but i was worred about my RO drinking water half of my setup as this is the first time i use catalytic carbon and i was skeptical about drinking it, but after doing more research today and reading and calling places i have found out that it is fine to drink reverse osmosis water filtered with catalytic carbon. From what i understand there are no "side effects or negative long term effects"

 

How were you judging the effectiveness of the previous set up? Did you have chlorine breakthru after the carbon as measured with a low range chlorine test kit? This would be the only way to tell, the ammonia is removed by the DI resin not the carbon so presence of ammonia is the fault of the DI not the carbon. Unless you ahve levels of chloramines above the 4 mg/L EPA drinking water MCL catalytic carbons are a waste of money. They are good for cooling towers or industrial applications where levels are really high but don't do any more than a good modern design 1 micron or less extruded carbon block in drinking water.
Also the 10 micron afterwards is not trapping much when you conside rhow coarse that is, you can actually see 40 microns with the unaided human eye so 10 is pretty big.

Just trying to help and save you money in the process. There are a number of uninformed vendors that will sell you the moon if they can and I don't have a connection to any vendor, just an informed end user like everyone else.

 

Yes my city water has tons of CHLOROMINES...my city literally experiments with its water...The city's water is so bad that it was on the news earlier this year.
my previous setup was fine against CHLORINE , but it didnt do good against CHLOROMINES. This is why i got the catalytic carbon , however next time i might swap the 3rd stage 10 micron and try the 1 micron, but i have heard that the catalytic carbon may clog it faster, ill have to experiment with that.

 

Again I ask, how are you judging the effectiveness of chloramine, or more accurately the chlorine portion of the chloramines removal with the carbon? Carbons do not remove the ammonia, regardless if it is catalytic, coconut based, bituminous or whatever. It will only remove the chlorine and help break the bond with the ammonia which the membrane removes much of and the DI removes the rest. What do you have for data showing it was or was not effective or are you going by what a vendor is telling you?
Chloramines really are not that big a problem for a good carbon block and more importantly good DI for the ammonia.
If you are seeing chlorine breakthru in the finished water then I say yes you have a carbon problem, if you do not see chlorine and you are still getting short DI life or ammonia in the finished wate rthen you have a membrane and/or DI problem. I am confident the carbon is not the issue if you used a 0.5, 0.6 or 1.0 micron carbon block and protected it with an equal sized sediment filter so the pores did not get fouled.

And yes you are correct a 1 micron or better yet 0.5 micon sedimnt filter will plug faster after the granular carbon but it does a 10x better job of protecting the RO membrane which is its sole purpose at this point in the process. The cleaner the membrane is the better it will function (ie ammonia removal) and the longer it will last, costing you less to own and operate.