I drank some. It dissolved my teeth.
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Did you read it? Do you agree with it? All of it? If not, then you too, god forbid, might disagree with the author.
Apparently is is unsafe to drink water with tds less than 100 ppm. Omg, everyone on the east coast of the US is about to die! Certainly everyone in Boston is doomed from excessively clean tap water.
Seriously, that is just utter nonsense. most people in the US do not rely on their drinking water for calcium and magnesium. If that were a real issue, the EPA would require it in tap water and bottled water. No such requirement exists.
sure, you could drink too much di water, or just really clean tap water, and you might have issues. Drinking too much of anything may cause issues of various sorts. That doesn’t make it unsafe. People should always have a varied diet, including beverages.
Do you and your family drink RODI water?
It may be safe to drink I guess but for the amount of water (and money) I waste just to get a single gallon of the stuff I would rather put it in my tank rather than the toilet!
@madweazl definitely run my waste line to my garden so it's not a total loss; but still feel guilty considering water in the Southwest where I live is a pretty scarce and a limited commodity...Run the waste water outside to the garden or lawn. I havent setup tanks at this house but we did at our last place. Now that I'm using a lot more water (two tanks), I'll be investing in a 1:1 system over the inefficient BRS system that I currently have.
The dangers of dihydrogen monoxide
Do you and your family drink RODI water?
I'm confused people here actually saying that If you took 2 properly sanitized containers. Filled on with tap water another with RO/DI water and sealed them. The one containing the RO/DI water is more likely to contain harmful bacteria and support the growth of that bacteria? That defies all logic.
The entire point of RO/DI systems is to remove (some/most) bacteria, viruses from the water, along with other contaminates, chemicals, metals and organics. Sure there will be less chlorine and such to sanitize the water, but there will also be fewer organics to feed the bacteria, not to mention less bacteria in the water to start with. The only exception I see might be if the water is stored in an unsanitary environment.
I'd love to see one of the lab techs here put this to a test in a controlled environment.
1, RO/DO water in sealed & sterilized container.
2, Tap water in a sealed & sterilized container.
3, RO/DO water in an open container.
4, Tap water in an open container.
5, RO/DO water refrigerated.
6, Tap water refrigerated.
Test for bacterial grown after a reasonable amount of time. A week or so would be the most I'd imagine people let water sit around for.
Test again after a longer period of time to allow for further culture of the bacteria.
And if possible type it, to determine if any strains that may be found are actually harmful.
Heck lets take this further. If RO/DI water for some reason actually encourages the growth of bacteria and whatnot why do we store so much of it for our tanks? Wouldn't we just be culturing bacteria? Should we stop storing RO/DO water & only store tap water instead? What about the other contaminates? I guess RO/DI is good in that aspect. I suppose in that case we should stop storing water all together. One could say that when we add it to our tanks the salt helps kill off that bacteria. Should we immediately make salt water with RO/DI? But doesn't it go bad? Should we store our water with only highly pure salt and add all the necessary elements immedialy before using? But then again Salt only kills certain strains. Could many of the problems we see in our tanks actually be caused by storing RO/DI water? Would more water changes help, but then again how do we store all that water?
Something to think about...
Personally I'll continue drinking, washing my hands and showering with tap water. Using RO in my coffee & Tea, for some reason it just tastes so much better. And when flushing/changing the coolant in my vehicles. I'll leave the RO/DI for the fishes.
Here’s a study:
Assessment of the extent of bacterial growth in reverse osmosis system for improving drinking water quality - PubMed
This study was carried out to assess reverse osmosis (RO) treatment efficacy of drinking water in terms of biological stability in the distribution system. Two flat-sheet RO membranes were used in this study. Experiments were designed to investigate the growth of biofilm and bulk phase bacteria...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
In spite of the low nutrient contents and few cells in the RO permeates, monitoring of the model distribution systems receiving the RO permeates showed that remarkable biofilm accumulation and bulk cell growth occurred in the RO permeate water. In quasi-steady state, the total cell numbers in the biofilm and bulk water were of order 10(3) cells/cm(2) and 10(3) cells/mL, respectively,
and
Therefore, efforts to minimize bacterial growth in the RO permeate water and in the distribution system must consider post-disinfection.
Here’s a study:
Assessment of the extent of bacterial growth in reverse osmosis system for improving drinking water quality - PubMed
This study was carried out to assess reverse osmosis (RO) treatment efficacy of drinking water in terms of biological stability in the distribution system. Two flat-sheet RO membranes were used in this study. Experiments were designed to investigate the growth of biofilm and bulk phase bacteria...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
In spite of the low nutrient contents and few cells in the RO permeates, monitoring of the model distribution systems receiving the RO permeates showed that remarkable biofilm accumulation and bulk cell growth occurred in the RO permeate water. In quasi-steady state, the total cell numbers in the biofilm and bulk water were of order 10(3) cells/cm(2) and 10(3) cells/mL, respectively,
and
Therefore, efforts to minimize bacterial growth in the RO permeate water and in the distribution system must consider post-disinfection.
I wasn't implying you said anything, just a general feeling I got from reading everyone comments and this entire thread at once.
Am I reading it wrong or isn't this suggesting that a lower number of cells grew compared to tap water, additionally a significant number of the cells were heterotrophic which use organic carbon as their food source, breaks down sludge and poses little if any health risks to humans as many are prolific on our own skin?
Wouldn't most be flushed out as it is more prolific in bulk water than the biofilm?
Activated carbon also significantly reduces heterotrophic bacteria, do you know if this study filtered the water through a carbon filter immediately prior to the RO membrane similar to how our RO systems do?
Doesn't an RO system filter out most harmful bacteria, protozoa and Viruses down to about 0.0001 micron leaving very little if any harmful bacteria able to make it based the final stage and able to grow in comparison to tap water?
Which makes me curious as to what all the other cell growth consisted of.
Obviously anything that could grow in such low nutrient environment would likely flourish due to the lack of sanitizers present such as chlorine at that stage. But again very little would make it that far, unless it was somehow introduced when changing filters. Which I suppose is a good reason to wash your hands prior. Much would also be flushed out before it could colonize to harmful levels with regular use. Another reason to flush the system a little before using and use it often.
Despite advancements in municipal water treatment facilities it's not always perfect as this study suggests by growing more bacteria in tap water than RO. It may also be safe to assume that living at the end of a line and/or attempts to conserve water in your own home may actually promote further bacterial growth as the water remains more stagnant.
In my view an RO system would only further purify the water making it safer wise than regular tap water if used the way most would use the system for drinking water. Not to mention all the other non-bacterial impurities an RO system removes. Luckily I live in an area with pretty darn good tap water and I'm not afraid to drink it despite the chlorine smell being overwhelming at times. However in many areas the water out of the tap may not be so great.
I wasn't implying you said anything, just a general feeling I got from reading everyone comments and this entire thread at once.
Am I reading it wrong or isn't this suggesting that a lower number of cells grew compared to tap water, additionally a significant number of the cells were heterotrophic which use organic carbon as their food source, breaks down sludge and poses little if any health risks to humans as many are prolific on our own skin?
Wouldn't most be flushed out as it is more prolific in bulk water than the biofilm?
Activated carbon also significantly reduces heterotrophic bacteria, do you know if this study filtered the water through a carbon filter immediately prior to the RO membrane similar to how our RO systems do?
Doesn't an RO system filter out most harmful bacteria, protozoa and Viruses down to about 0.0001 micron leaving very little if any harmful bacteria able to make it based the final stage and able to grow in comparison to tap water?
Which makes me curious as to what all the other cell growth consisted of.
Obviously anything that could grow in such low nutrient environment would likely flourish due to the lack of sanitizers present such as chlorine at that stage. But again very little would make it that far, unless it was somehow introduced when changing filters. Which I suppose is a good reason to wash your hands prior. Much would also be flushed out before it could colonize to harmful levels with regular use. Another reason to flush the system a little before using and use it often.
Despite advancements in municipal water treatment facilities it's not always perfect as this study suggests by growing more bacteria in tap water than RO. It may also be safe to assume that living at the end of a line and/or attempts to conserve water in your own home may actually promote further bacterial growth as the water remains more stagnant.
In my view an RO system would only further purify the water making it safer wise than regular tap water if used the way most would use the system for drinking water. Not to mention all the other non-bacterial impurities an RO system removes. Luckily I live in an area with pretty darn good tap water and I'm not afraid to drink it despite the chlorine smell being overwhelming at times. However in many areas the water out of the tap may not be so great.