Does whole house reverse osmosis make sense?
The short answer is "YES" but that doesn't mean that it is for everyone. We will consider the pros and cons of a whole-house RO system and you can decide if it is for you or not. First of all, water quality varies greatly from well water to surface water to municipal water. Well water may have things like iron, sulfur, manganese and tannin which almost always have to be removed, especially in the case of a whole-house RO system. Those contaminants must always be removed before the reverse osmosis process. Let's not forget that reverse osmosis removes the largest spectrum of contaminants at the most economical cost of any water treatment process. Essentially, a whole house reverse osmosis system will remove 98 to 99% of most contaminants including Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), sodium, chloride, sulfate, nitrate, arsenic and a plethora of other chemical and organic contaminants. One of the key ingredients to a whole house reverse osmosis system is proper per-treatment, which includes removing the iron, sulfur, manganese, tannin and other nuisance elements. So, ahead of an RO system, it is essential that filtration or oxidation of these contaminants are accomplished. If the water is hard, then it needs to be softened or (what I prefer) use an anti-scalant to prevent hard water build-up on the membranes. Anti-scalant systems are gaining popularity because no water is wasted and no salt is needed. A whole house RO system consists of the aforementioned pre-treatment, the reverse osmosis system itself, an atmospheric storage tank, a re-pressurization pump, ultraviolet light or Quantum Disinfection and sometimes a calcite filter to raise the pH or add some TDS back to the water. Here is what a city water whole-house RO system might look like:
Who might need a whole house reverse osmosis system? Lots of people. It could be health related in that they may want to remove as many chemicals as possible from their water. Many people have a sensitivity to such chemicals and therefore need a whole house RO system. In other cases, it may be that there are contaminants in the water that create ascetic issues such as high chlorides, sodium, sulfates and others. Sometimes we see water that has TDS levels in excess of 2,000 PPM (the USEPA recommends drinking water that is below 500 PPM). I'll grant you that the water you use to flush your toilet doesn't have to be super clean, but the amount of water used for flushing toilets in very insignificant compared to most other uses for water in your home. Washing dishes or clothes, bathing, shampooing, shaving and cleaning in clean reverse osmosis water is a pure joy. Back in the day, people used to bathe in rainwater, which is generally absolutely soft. When I was in Haiti a few years ago, we would wait for a heavy rainstorm and stand underneath a downspout plume just to enjoy a good shower. With shorts on and a bar of soap, we enjoyed every second of that shower. If taking a shower in the cleanest water on the planet, without chemicals, pesticides and hardness appeals to you, then maybe you are a candidate for a whole house reverse osmosis system. If you want to be able to drink from any faucet in the home, then maybe a whole house RO system is for you. Maybe you just want the best water possible. If so, a home whole house reverse osmosis system may just be what the doctor ordered! Cheers!
141 Comments
Hello,
My water just tested at 10.7 ppb for arsenic. I live in southeast Michigan where arse ic is a normal part of life. What are my options?
Thanks so much
Maredith
Hello Mark,
I have been researching and debating whole house RO. I have a well. I like your high efficiency of only 3700 gallons of waste per 15000 gallons. Its one of the best I have seen. But I live in the desert in AZ and water is scarce. Is there any reason I couldnt route the waste water back into the well? Then it would just get diluted within the aquifer and go back to mother earth. We have TDS of around 900 ppm and high arsenic. I really dont want to waste any water if possible. In other words, I dont think RO is for me if I MUST dump the waste water.
Hi Mark,
We have Kinetico Reverse Osmosis under kitchen sink that feeds to our refridgerator and ice maker. We would like to install a separate under-the-counter ice maker. I have heard using a completely separate (2nd R/O system) would be best for the under counter ice maker. Or even using 2 tanks to increase volume for that ice maker. I dont know how all of it woukd be installed. Any thoughts you have on this please would be great. Thank you for your time and expertise. Best Regards, Don
Hello Mr. Timmons,
If your RO whole house filtration systems work so well at decreasing chemicals like chlorine and chloramines at 97% to 98%, why are you unwilling to offer a performance guarantee? If I test my water after installation and it does not decrease things like chlorine and chloramines by at least 90-95%, I should expect a refund. If you are so confident in your product, why do you not offer this?
Sincerely,
Catherine
I think I need a whole house RO system as our water test came back Iron 0.35mg/L and Chloride 444mg/L. This is on a 30 year old house and the water faucets are failing (corroded). Do I understand correctly that a water softener will not remove the Chloride? Note, Im talking Chloride, not Chlorine.
What is the cost of a whole house reverse osmosis system?
Dear Sir/Madam
We are interested with water purification system can you send me price list of that systems.
For our market more interested from 5 to 30 liter per hour systems.
Approximate feed water conductivity is 500?S/cm required conductivity is 10?S/cm
Best regards
General sales manager Davit Davtyan
I currently have and need a whole house R/O system which requires chlorine to be added periodically; the system is 11 years old. Within the past 6 mos I have spent almost $1000 replacing different parts. Today I was told that I need to spend an additional $2500 in parts and labor to keep the system working; therefore, I am considering replacing the entire system (excluding well pump) at a price of approximately $7000 + tax. Is there a more reasonable alternative and / or is that a fair price (new R/O system would include 300 gal poly storage tank with 1/2 hp 20gpm submersible house pump, 31 gal pressure tank, whole house WS1 Vortech back washing carbon filter, WS1 Vortech water softner w/ new salt tank, PH filter and ozone generator machine for sanitizing pure water)?
We are needing a whole home system. We have had our well tested last year and they said it is high in sodium and manganese. Do you have a test that you send out for us to send back in to be sure the one we had is correct?
I can send you pics of the system that was in place before and the test we had done. Not sure if any of it still works or is any good. The house was a foreclosure and we dont know anything about the system. From what I read about your company I think if you can figure out what we need.
Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated. We are currently hauling water and not using the well.
I would like a quote for a whole home water system
Can you provide a cost estimate for the complete system profiled above? My friend is a very capable Hvac engineer who is going to do my install, mainly I am concerned with the cost of the equipment. Thanks for your article and assistance?
What is your opinion on whole house Carbon Filtration?
I installed a whole house RO system and also have an additional small filter on the shower. I notice a big difference in the water quality (taste, softness). And yet I still drink bottled water. (Even though its town water, the source is fed in part from the Aberjona River if youve ever read the book or seen the movie A Civil Action youll know where this is. Hence my paranoia.) Id like to stop buying bottled water. Im considering having the water tested, but am concerned that thats just a snapshot. Im also thinking about adding a UV filter (interesting about putting it before the RO system) Or does the RO system do enough? Am I basically just paying for plastic bottles and drinking water thats equivalent to what comes out of my tap? Thanks for your thoughts.
Which system would remove PFBS (similar to PFAS). It is a man-made chemical. We currently have 14/Trillion from our well water. There has been several dump sites near our home by a company who used PFAS and PFBS for treating shoes.
*Whole home filter:
I was thinking of doing:
1). pre-filter polyspun filter
2). Active Carbon Filter
3). Reverse Osmosis . (IF necessary for man-made chemicals). Our fluoride, iron, etc levels are good. It just just the PFBS that we have an issue.
ANY help is appreciated.
PFAS and PFBS are cancer causing man-made chemicals.
Not to be rude, but it seems to me like Mark Timmons is a salesmen with no experience in water treatment. I know it may be to late for you guys but hopefully this will answer some others questions.
Maureen- your smell is most likely caused by iron or iron bacteria in the well water. Adding bleach or Hydrogen peroxide as you have been will help. If you dont want to do a water softener, some form of aeration would take care of the problem without chemicals.
John Sagert- I figured Mark would be of some help on this and corrected you. The white you see is hardness scaling out in the form of calcium carbonate, not calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide (lime). Lime is actually used to soften water believe it or not. All you need for that is a water softener, that will also allow your 1 micron filter to operate more efficiently. An RO system is not needed in your case, but if you wanted extra pure water go for it.
Bern, I havent done any research on this, but I dont think so. My wife and Mother in law have been on hard well water their whole life and have great heads of hair. The brown residue you see is iron buildup.
Kathy Feyk- the article touches on this issue, but doesnt tell you what the effects are. The blue staining is most likely due to low pH water. That is hell on copper. The calcite filter will help with that. I know because I have one! If you click on the calcite filter link you will get some useful info on this.
Nick-
Water Treatment Operator