Although their popularity has declined over the last years, residential reverse osmosis systems are still one of the alternatives that the average consumer considers when he or she becomes aware of the importance of having clean, healthy water at his or her home.
After studying the pros and cons of these residential reverse osmosis systems, I came to the conclusion that I should advise against them. Below, I will give you the three top reasons to support my decision. I rank them in terms of importance, the first being the least important.
Reason #1: They are very slow in processing water. This drawback is directly related with their principle of operation: Water has to be pushed with high pressure through a porous membrane. Whatever has smaller molecules than the pores (water) passes through the other side, while whatever has larger molecules (pollutants) stays behind. This whole process is slow because of the time it takes for water to pass these very small pores.
Typically, it takes about two to three hours for enough water to pass through the membrane to produce 1 gallon of water. Because of this, residential reverse osmosis systems use storage tanks holding 2 to 5 gallons of water. When drinking water is drawn from the RO faucet, the water comes from the storage tank.
As you realize, this fact puts some restriction on the space you want allocated at your house, as well as on the level of availability of the water you want to have, in order to cover your everyday needs.
Reason #2: To make matters worse, most RO units waste a lot of water. Just to give you an indication, they typically use between 3 to 10 gallons of tap water to produce 1 gallon of purified water; the remainder drains away.
This means that your ongoing cost per gallon of water produces goes up, due to higher consumption of tap water. Also, your installation set up should be more complicated, in order to take care of the drained water.
Reason #3: And we come to the biggest downside of all, at least in my book. Because of the way that residential reverse osmosis systems work, the minerals (calcium, potassium, magnesium etc) which are existent in tap water are discarded, because they have larger molecules than water and so do not pass the membrane.
If you have ever tasted water without minerals then you would know what I am saying. Demineralized water is flat and tasteless.
But, it is not just a matter of loss of taste. According to credible research reports, long-term consumption of demineralised water can in fact be dangerous. After a study stretching for a number of years, the World Health Organization concluded that "drinking water should contain minimum levels of certain essential minerals".
Source: Ezinearticles
