The point many are missing related to the scenario of traveling to purchase RO water is that the “store bought” RO water ALSO required 4 gallons of “waste water” to make each clean gallon. The woman in the hypothetical scenario isn’t saving any water at all.

It’s a choice of personal preference; I can’t imagine not having a system here in the AZ desert, even with the extreme need to conserve. We rely on our RO system to provide clean, safe water for consumption, ice production, and use it in the humidifiers as well. We currently divert much of the “waste” water to our landscaping, ant the native plants seem to thrive on it.

I have never seen so many idiotic comments in one place. Mark you may as well just give up.
Let these people just go buy bottled water and be done with it, they will never get it.

Is RO wasteful? Well humans are wasteful. We are animals adapted to using and consuming our environment.

The problem with this post is that valid arguments and bad arguments are presented as equal, which is triggering people. As a fact people need to wash clothes as a health issue, even more so wash dishes. The pathogens in both present not only a very real danger for yourself and family but is a public health issue. Travel to India or SEA where hygiene on these very issues are not to first world standards and immediately this is an asinine position.

So you do need to wash dishes and clothes. This logically establishes that such activities are necessary uses of water and thus by definition do not constitute “waste.” Now do you NEED RO water? There are obvious benefits but from a heath perspective you will not generally not get immediately sick from a pathogen and/or spread it to your kids or community because you drank municiple water. This is where ppl are getting stuck on. Logical fallacy invites challenge.

Back to the original question, is RO wasteful? Assuming that one would purchase bottled water, no not really. Since bottled water Is often RO. If the comparison is to filtered water, then yes you could make that argument. Then the argument defaults to “do you need RO water” as opposed to carbon filtered and it comes down to a benefit-cost argument. RO is definitely superior it does use more water but if you take care to turn off the water brushing your teeth and unnecessary flushes, doing dishes you can get much of it back

Mark Timmons is obviously an angry, biased, idiot who doesn’t understand that water will soon be more expensive than gasoline. We can create new, and more efficient energy sources, but water is finite. Also, using the waste water from the osmosis process outside to water plants is crazy. The sodium is exactly what many plants don’t care for (if anything, put it in the ground; it’ll get back to the aquifer). I’d say he’s a water ‘charlatan’, not a water ‘doctor’. Never seen so many excuses from an ‘expert’ to avoid the ever more important concepts of conservation of all natural resources. You just convinced me to stay with my Brita pitcher, and avoid your wasteful, expensive nonsense.

It has been my experience that people who call others " an angry, biased, idiot who doesn’t understand…" and a “charlatan” have some very deep-seated problems and should seek some psychological help or medication. If you think a Brita pitcher will remove many contaminants, you are delusional. I would advise you to get more education about plants, sodium levels and many other aspects about water. I’m not angry at you and I hope you seek help to get better. Good Luck.

Thanks every one for all your arguments . Was a good read and very entertaining.

I was upset to find out about the wastage after I had bought the system only a week ago . But just as shocked that our government allows these systems in our country. you see here in South Africa we get what you call water restrictions , so you may even go days with out water in certain areas. so you end up going thru 6 gallons a day with your family , ( making food , brushing your teeth , washing your face , make a cup of coffee.wash the dishes all with that 6 gallons),

So what may be waste to one may not be waste to another .

But thanks to all the clever people here I will now get a holding tank for the waste water and a pump connected to my washing machine and dish washer and use the RO waste water to do the cleaning work.

Then my family can enjoy their 3 gallons of RO water a day while I knock back a few beers with some Rum and Coca cola,

Because only drinking RO Water for the rest of my life so as not to use my body as a filter is what I call a "Waste " of life.

But thanks guy’s and girls for your combined input I will defiantly do the tank (pump) set up with the waste water .
Even Thou the tank system will now cost me more the RO system :(

regards,

Guy Stocker

Great article. Answers my RO question (about efficiency). I actually have 2 previous systems from you guys. It’s funny how everyone here is getting bent on your tone, but missing the point. Thanks Mark!

Hi Mark,
You could make the RO 100% efficient instantly by connecting the reject water outlet to the toilet flush tank. That way, the reject water will be used to flush toilets, thus won’t be “WASTED”, but rather used “efficiently”, and all the people not getting IT, will be happy. Just combine RO with toilet flushing system and rake in the big bucks. BTW, these zero waste systems will fill landfills with used RO membranes. I wonder what the environmentally “conscious” folks have to say about that.

Also, thanks and kudos to US water systems to allow you to speak your mind, even if abrasively towards certain people. In today’s corporate limitations, such is a rarity.
Many lives are lost to unclean water even today. I rather save the sick time or death and “waste” some water – than the other way around.

We had the film in the dish washer, and film in the showers. Installed a water softener for the whole house and have a 20 GPD reverse osmosis under the kitchen sink just for drinking water. We use about 1-1/2 gallons of drinking water per day, so our ’waste" water is about 4 gallons per day which we collect and put on our garden and house plants. We have no more films, and our drinking water is superb and registers about 3 ppm of dissolved solids, close to distilled! We are very happy with the setup and would recommend this solution to all.

I’m using it to clean windows. What an absolute wast of water. My garden got watered fair enough. But I’m chucking a way more than I use. WAST.

What kind of system do you have?

I have found that most window washers have their own “homemade” systems that are about 15% efficient. That means they waste a godawful amount of water. You may be wasting 6 gallons for every gallon made.

That’s why smart window washers use our engineered systems which waste just 1 gallon for very gallon made. You should consider the benefits.

Thanks for your insights. How “contaminated” is the by product from RO? Could it be utilized for non-potable functions such as clothes, dish and sundry other cleaning functions? Lawn and garden irrigation systems? I assume no problem passing through a toilet system and entering the drain field?

Yes, it generally can be utilized for all that.

YUP Agree with the Doc ! If you believe the waste theory and it bothers you that much! Save that “wasted water” to put on your garden the plants will enjoy it! or flush your Toilet with it! still think RO is worth the effort and “waste” ! just me! There are other solutions if you are inventive!

Hi, this might be helpful in regards to ro efficiency.
Ro membranes are rated at different efficiencies, so start off with a low waste model. Mine is 1:1 (1 volume of drinking water:1 volume of waste)
The major efficiency problem with RO systems is the storage tank, which is usually pressurized. The fuller the tank gets, the more pressure is required to fill it. I don’t know the exact calculations but efficiency seems to decrease exponentially as the tank fills.

For example, I have a 12 litre storage tank. When filled from empty (allowing it to fill completely without drawing water from the faucet), the waste produced is about 17 litres.

However, if I draw 1 litre from the full tank and allow it to refill, there is about 5 litres of waste water produced.

I have my waste water line connected to storage containers which is why I know this, and I’ve tested it a few times.

So, what I do is allow the clean water storage tank to fill completely, and then turn off the input water valve. I then use all of the water from the tank before turning the input water on again.

There are other factors which can decrease efficiency – colder water is less efficient, lower pressure mains water is less efficient, and the more head or height from the ro system to clean water container and waste container or drain will decrease efficiency also. These are very small decreases though, as long as input pressure isn’t under the manufacturer’s guideline and output head or pressure isn’t huge (shouldn’t be more than 50 cm in most undersink situations so negligible also.