RO/DI Question

Hello all. I just came back from a weeks vacation at my parents summer camp. Its way out in the woods so no real roads, electricity or running water. We use the water from the lake that we pump up to the camp to clean the dishes and take a shower and stuff like that. But the problem is we have to bring our drinking water. So when you leave for a week thats allot of water, for drinking, cooking etc...

So heres my question, would a RO/DI unit clean up the lake water good enough to drink? Its a pretty big lake and its not polluted at all. Well i dont think at least.

Thanks for any input guys and gals.

Marc.

 

A good RO unit could clean up the water as far as sediment, many chemicals, etc. But they all warn that they cannot eliminate microbiological agents. So unless the water basically is potable, I would not trust a RO unit alone to clean it up. Check with local athorities to see if it is or can be made safe first.

Mike

 

Thanks for the info, ill try to find out more about the lake.

Marc...

 

You could get away with that, just add a couple drops of bleach per gallon, might want to find the exact amount, to purify the water. Old survival tip. The RO/DI cleans the sediment, the bleach kills the bacteria

 

I believe boiling does too. Bleach....can you drink that?

 

bleach treatment here.....EMERGENCY DRINKING WATER SUPPLIES

 

A good Ro unit followed by a UV is typically appropriate for a lake source. That said, you would be well served having a sample of your lake water run thru an independent testing lab for a broad variety of contaminants first. This is what I did with my well before I selected the means to treat my water at home. Turns out my vacinity has had periodic problems with bacteria (ranch and dairy country) so I have a UV on my system at home.
If you get stuck, just call us at spectrapure and ask for Mr. Gibbs (he specializes in these systems).
bruce

 

A RO will remove virus and bacteria. Vendors do not advertise as such due to the liability involved, they have no idea how well or poorly you maintain the system and don't want to get involved in lawsuits.
A RO will filter raw sewage to drinking water standards, its done all the time. The micron size of viruses and bacteria are many times larger than the pore size in a RO membrane so it is considered an absolute barrier.
That being said, make sure you use a 98% rejection Dow Filmtec 75 GPD or GE Water 100 GPD RO membrane NOT a 100 GPD Dow Filmtec NanoFilter rated at 90% rejection, big difference! The Dow 100 is approved for Pool and Spa Use and is not approved for drinking water while the others are.

Use high quality replacement filters, disinfect the system at least annually if not every 6 months and you will not have any problems.

Stick with a trusted brand and vendor and stay away from the ebay quality systems with poor track records and you are in good shape.

 

You may have some bad advice here. You asked about RO/DI water and you received advice on RO units.

The deionization process is not for drinking water and I do not recommend you do this. DI water passes through an ion exchange which contains sodium hydroxide – therefore enriching the water with sodium ions, not at all healthy. What’s worse is the extreme purity of the water in that it lacks minerals. There are rare cases where the lacking minerals will can cause a body to enter osmotic shock when the water actually pulls the minerals and elements from your blood more rapidly than the walls of your cells can take. This results in internal bleeding when the cells collapse. This is rare, but as occurred – want to risk it?

RO units make drinking water with the caveats mentioned above – RO/DI does not. Hope you enjoyed your week away from civilization !!

 

bleach is chlorine. wich is what we use in the water treatment plant i work in. so what im saying is chances are if you have city water you are mostly drinking about 1ppm in your water.