Does Reverse Osmosis Strip Out Minerals?
QUESTION:
We are customers of an RO System from US Water. Speaking with a long time plumber familiar with these systems he stated ours is a very good unit but RO would strip the water of important minerals? Is this true or false?
Our unit is:
5 Stage USA Made Arsenic Reverse Osmosis Filter Pack
If above is true, what is your recommendation for adding this stripped minerals back into the water prior to reaching the drinking faucet?
ANSWER:
Yes, an RO system will strip out the minerals… it will also remove a plethora of chemical and bacterial contaminants.
So often, people get fixated on the wrong thing. Reverse Osmosis removes the largest spectrum of contaminants of any water treatment process and it does remove the minerals. However, water is not a significant source of minerals. Let me say that again: Water is not a significant source of minerals.
If you drank a bathtub full of water a day you might get 10% of the minerals your body needs. You get minerals from foods and supplements.
It's an illogical argument:"Let's get less than 1% of the minerals my body needs but leave in chemical contaminants that have been proven to be cariogenic?" Some people add minerals back to their water with special filters and go to great length to re-mineralize or attempt to make alkaline water. IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO YOUR BODY! Once the water passes through the cell wall, whether the pH is 6.0 or 8.0, it becomes the pH of your body and on top of that, the minerals you can add are but a drop in the ocean.
Let me break it down even more. Ask these questions:
- Are minerals in the water good for you? YES!
- Is water a significant source of these minerals? NO!
- Is water a significant source of cariogenic chemicals? YES!
In short, it is best to remove the chemicals and minerals and just eat a good diet! Take a supplement if you want, but try as you might, you cannot get the minerals from the water you drink, and raising the pH of the water to make "Alkaline Water" has become a Billion Dollar Industry that is built on a scientific misconception. Water that is truly alkaline may have some medicinal benefits but simply raising the pH by remineralization and thinking that makes your water is alkaline is as erroneous as thinking you can defy the law of gravity.
Instead of being focused upon the lack of minerals in RO water, you should be more concerned with contaminants the Reverse Osmosis system is removing. Things like lead, chlorine, chromium 6, chloramine, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, TCE, THM, PCB, GenX and hundreds of other chemicals and contaminants... some that we may have yet to hear about. That's one of the best things about reverse osmosis: even if there is some "emerging contaminant" that we have not heard of, the odds are that Reverse Osmosis will remove or reduce it.
I always say "Buy a Filter or Be a Filter" and while reverse osmosis is lot more than just a "filter," you simply cannot utilize better technology in treating your water. Of course, some people are going to say that "Reverse Osmosis is wasteful - it wastes 3 gallons for every gallon it makes." That is true... and in most homes families use 2 or 3 gallons of water a day, so they might waste 6 to 9 gallons.
Your dishwasher and washing machine waste a lot more than that, and all they are doing his cleaning your clothes and dishes. A RO system is cleaning your water, so that you aren't the filter, storing carcinogenic chemicals in fat cells. Yes, it wastes a little bit of water, but it adds a lot to a healthy lifestyle. Some people say "I don't want to waste water, so I have bottled water delivered." The bottled water plant wastes the water when it makes it and the smog-emitting truck that delivers it is good right?
If you are thinking about a reverse osmosis system - get the facts and remember, all of our US Water Systems are built right here in in the USA at our factory and we also have the only systems that also kill bacteria. We think that is very important, and so every US Water Systems RO system includes the Pulsar Quantum Disinfection Polishing Filter which also eliminates the bacteria.
Cheers!
39 Comments
Hello everyone!
I’ve been drinking “purified drinking bottled (reveres osmosis only) water for 2 years. I found out recently that drinking this water is dangerous for health. After I found about it I taught to quit drinking purified water and start to drink spring water. I tried one day for couple of hours and I had high blood pressure. I stopped it.
Right now I am still drinking purified water only Total Dissolve Solids (TDS) only 5.
My question is this, how can I quit purified water, safely, and start to drink normal (spring, tap..) water.
Please, tell me step by step how to do it.
Thank you.
Feel free to believe what you want, but there is no credible evidence that drinking water purified by reverse osmosis is dangerous to your health. There is no “normal” water. Many people drink high TDS water and live into their 100’s and many drink low TDS water and live into their 100’s as well. In my opinion, the most important thing is to remove the contaminants from the water and reverse osmosis removes a wider spectrum of contaminants than any other water treatment process.
Concerning pH in RO water, what is the expected pH value? We have a very old Water Care RO unit, from the 90’s, which has had the carbon filters changed, but no new membrane, until now. We just replaced it with a new one made by Omnipure. We also have a counter top Zen re-mineralizing filter. Before replacing the membrane, we checked the pH of our tap water, around 7.5, our RO water, around 6.3, and our Zen water about 7.2. After we installed the new membrane, the RO water checks about 7.5, pretty much the same as the tap water. We have a Rainsoft water softener, so the tap water has been softened. Is this what we should expect to see for a new membrane? Does the higher pH indicate that the RO membrane is not removing minerals? What other reason would account for the higher value? Concerning the age of the original membrane (25 years), what is the normal failure mode for a membrane, other than rupture, or reason they should be replaced? Is there more to this than just a mechanical screen that should work indefinitely, as long as it is not clogged or ruptured? We are looking at newer unit options and found your site. Any advice or comment would be appreciated.
With any RO, you need a TDS Meter to determine it’s effectiveness. I recommend this:
https://www.uswatersystems.com/ap-1-hm-digital-aquapro-water-quality-tester-tds.html
Most RO is going to deliver a pH of 6 to 7. A RO membrane is not a screen. It is a literal membrane and after 25 years, there’s no way it was working.
pH is not a measure of alkalinity and the pH of the water you drink probably has no correlation with alkalinity whatsoever. Enter the work alkaline or alkalinity into the search bar on nthe blog and you will have plenty to read about this issue. Increasing the pH of your water likely won’t hurt you and is definitely won’t help. It will just mean you have less dollars!
I have been drinking RO water for the past 11 years. I am now very deficient in minerals and my health and energy are declining. My healthy diet remains the same or is even better than 10 years ago. Everything is pointing to RO water being the issue.
Verna,
If it makes you feel better, blame it on the water, but that is silly… and impossible!
If you drank a bathtub of water a day, you would get but a small portion of the minerals your body needs. You need to look at your diet and/or supplements!
Hello,
I want to get a RO filter, not just for getting rid of heavy metals but the endocrine disrupting pharmaceuticals in tap water. But some sources mention the filtration unit is partially made of plastic and so it still leaves plastic residue in the final product. What are your thoughts on that?
We have a very large division in our company that does LAB WATER where they can be NOTHING in the water and we use plastic. It leaches nothing if you use the right types and ours does.
Hello. I have been using RO water through bottling my own at our local Walmart for years and years. I also eat a healthy diet, take supplements, and feel I am fine. I cannot tolerate the chlorine taste of tap water, and I am a tea snob, and it ruins tea to use tap water. I also started using Himalayan pink salt exclusively in cooking and on my food, which adds a lot of minerals I know I need. Thank you for this article.