Question about ro

RODI water is too pure for people, as I've heard it put. It might have something to do with the total lack of trace anything in the water, which bodies aren't exactly used to.

 

Ah, ok. I've asked this before, but nobody ever seemed to be able to answer it.

 

From what I do understand about deionized water is that it will actually dehydrate you rather than hydrate. Now I'm wanting to study up on deionized water and find the scientific reasons why. My curiosity has been spiked!

 

I meant not just RO water, but the RO/DI water. After it comes out of the unit.

 

sorry, dont really have an answer for the original question but: RO water is very safe to drink, potentialy the "safest". i asked our peditrician about this to use it to mix formula with. Also found information on it on the CDC's website. only problem is that it can taste kinda funny.

DI is where the question comes in. i coulndt really find any information on exactly why not. soemthing to do with our body needing the "ions".

if you look at the RO units in lowes, HD and such you can see it looks just like ours without the DI unit attached.

i would think that it would also remove bacteria cause the use it in the field for military in REALLY bad water. just not sure if there is antother stage after the RO part they use to make it healthy

 

I think the problem with drinking ro/di is that it will absorb minerals from your body rather than help to replenish them.It would do the same to freshwater fish if housed in it without first using additives to replenish the needed elements.

 

yeah thats pretty much the same thing i read (as far as the DI part). the part the confuses me is that ions (molecules without a charge #of protons= #electrons) so i would think that it would be less likely to be part of any chemical reaction.

 

Maybe the DI part helps with the fact that we are adding the salt to the water so it bonds better with it? I dunno...I'm just talkin outta my @$$. Well that kinda answers the drinkability of my ro/di unit...NO. If I had a "T" and valve to bypass I guess I could. Only thing I could think of adding before or after the RO to help fight bacteria would be a UV sterilizer. Oh and BTW I tasted the DI water as I was curious because everyone said it wasn't drinkable and it really tasted horrible.

 

The DI basically takes the remaining dissolved solids out of the water after the RO. The first effect would be that it would TASTE bad to us because we are used to drinking water with stuff in it - and that stuff has taste. That's why they have the tee off of the RO part of most RO/DI units.

There is a lot of debate as to wether it is harmful - does "pure" water leach chemicals from your body? Does that harm you?

If you have you RO/DI water in a bucket, it is contacting the air so does that add stuff back in.

Very interesting reads on this and a lot of opinions. Not exactly sure why someone would drink DI water but if you go for it, come back here and let is know if you get sick

 

If your RO unit has been maintained in good working order and uses a 98% rejection rate RO membrane and not a Dow Filmtec 90% rejection rate, 100 GPD membrane then the water is most probably safe to drink.

It comes down to how well your system is working, a membrane is a barrier so if that barrier is up and working at its peak then its safe, if it is giving you higher than normal TDS then no, I would not drink it.

Generally RO is safe and great to drink. They have tried to prove drinking RO/DI is harmful for years but have been unable to do so. In theory it could strip minerals and electrolytes out of your system but we eat so much food that contains the things to replace it and receive so little through our water anyway it not really a problem. Yes, if you were able to survive on RO/DI alone with zero food or other liquids then it would eventually cause a problem, but thats not possible.

Most of us don't drink DI because it tastes blah or bland, not appealing or refreshing at all. Plus its expensive to make, if i am going to drink something its going to taste good, like my homebrew!, which I make with RO by the way.