Domestic Water Purification - How To Use RO and UV Water Purifiers

How much TDS should healthy drinking water contain? What level of TDS is considered to be too low? All these are common questions that cross the mind when looking to source clean and healthy drinking water. The answer to all these questions is a slightly complicated one for the simple reason that no definitive information is available. In fact, to make matters more confusing, there seems to be conflicting and contrary points of view on the issue. But to make things slightly clearer right in the beginning, I'll tell you 3 main things. There is more evidence supporting that lower TDS levels in water DO NOT harm the health of a person, TDS levels above 500 are not desirable and above 1000 are considered unhealthy. There has been some criticism lately for drinking water that is low in TDS. The reasons given are that low TDS levels make the water acidic, do not provide the necessary salts and minerals that are naturally found in water and also leach the minerals out of the Body. ...

Perhaps the only major difference between these two water purifiers is that a reverse osmosis purifier removes the dissolved solids in the water where as a UV does not. Both the systems are equally effective at killing the bacteria and parasites in the water. However, the RO water purifier will also remove the dead bodies of these parasites where as a UV purifier will simply kill them, make them inert and the water safe for drinking. The advanced reverse osmosis water purification systems also use UV along with RO to be more effective at killing the bacteria and parasites. This is because UV is thought to be more effective at eliminating more kinds of pathogens than just the RO filtration system. The RO membrane can also develop small tears that can allow some bacteria to get through. The UV addition should take care of that possibility as well. So the only job that a reverse osmosis water filter effectively does differently from the ultraviolet water purifier is that it removes the d...

Let me tell you about two instances that makes me believe that the water supply we already have is not all that bad. When I got a reverse osmosis water purifier installed in our home the company that installed the system is also obligated to check the current water supply for bacteria like E. coli and other contaminants. The sample is sent to the labs for testing and the results come back in a month or so. In my case it came back negative for the presence of any dangerous bacteria and pathogens. Unfortunately, it did not tell me anything about other contaminants like heavy metals, chlorine, fluoride etc. The second point is that the help in the house such as the gardener and other people working outdoors routinely drink the water from the garden hose without any adverse effect on the health. Not to mention that we ourselves use the tap water for everything else apart from drinking such as washing utensils,  brushing teeth, showering etc. It's true that people in India have develop...

Most people are not aware of how much water gets wasted in their reverse osmosis water purifier. A company will claim 1:2 ratio but that is mostly not the case. Most ro water purifiers will discard 80% of the water. I have measured the amount of water that gets wasted as I collect all the extra water to be used for other household purposes. My reverse osmosis water purifier discards at least 4 to 5 L of water and that's in summers and when the membrane is new and unclogged.  Most people do not know that a reverse osmosis water purifying system discards a lot more water the colder the water gets. So it's not surprising for the amount of discarded water to double in winters. Another important observation that I have made is that even though the membrane life is 6000 L , there is degradation in its performance after the first 1500 L or so. It starts to discard a lot more water to filter each litre of clean water. This happens because all the filtered out TDS starts to clog the me...

An RO water purifier is considered to be the safest option for clean and healthy drinking water in our homes today. In many instances it's an overkill and not really required but that is another discussion. In this post we will talk about how to choose the best RO water purifier system for your home. We will talk about the important features and functionality that a good RO water purifier should have. FILTRATION PROCESS Let's start with the filtration technology that it uses. And RO water purifier uses reverse osmosis to remove the contaminants from the water. This includes bacteria and parasites, as well as dissolved salts and minerals. Reverse Osmosis Reverse osmosis is a process by which the water is forcefully pushed across a membrane which has very tiny pores in it. These pores are so small that mostly only the water molecules can pass through it and everything else that is dissolved in it gets caught and filtered out. Sediment Filter and Activated Charcoal H...

Water purification has become our requirement and the standard in every household wherever the Quality of water cannot be relied upon. There are many kinds of water filters and purifiers available in the market. We generally want to buy the best that we can afford but surprisingly, this might not be the best choice. Choosing the correct water filter or water purifier should be based upon the kind of water supply you receive and the kind of purification that is best suited to make that water safe and handy for drinking. Here's a useful link about various kinds of water purifiers and and filters and how you can choose one that is correct for your your home. Water purifiers have become an essential part of homes and kitchens where the water supply is not completely pure and healthy for drinking. Well, the most proper way to choose the right water purifier for your home will be to get the water tested and determine what kind of contaminants if any does it contain. The quality o...

Water purifiers and more specifically Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purifiers are more common in the Eastern world than the Western countries and Europe. In India they are becoming more and more common. But should you actually install one in your home? Most people in India install is because they think they are getting the best drinking water. This is not always true. BEST drinking water should mean the water that is the healthiest for you. Water that an RO water purifier gives you is not always the best for you. An RO water purifier and a UV water purifier just do one thing differently. The RO reduces the dissolved solids (TDS - Total Dissolved Solids), whereas the UV water purifier does not. Except for that it is believed that the UV is MORE effective in destroying pathogens in the water as compared to just RO. This is the reason why the higher end RO water purifiers use reverse osmosis in combination with UV to treat the water. Is TDS a bad thing to have in drinking water? Only ...

Today, UV and reverse osmosis are two most common kinds of domestic water purification methods. Clean drinking water is a bigger issue in the eastern and the developing countries like India. The cities have a pretty reliable municipal water supply system but people do not feel confident relying on the quality of tap water supply for drinking. Expensive water purifiers like reverse osmosis are becoming common. The cheaper option is UV water filters with activated charcoal and sediment cartridges. But reverse osmosis systems have been promoted quite strongly as the last word in water purification and as something that every household must have in order to protect the health of loved ones from waterborne diseases and toxic dissolved substances. This is true. They have their dis-advantages as well, but the RO water purifiers are currently the last word in water purification and provide the safest water to drink. Further more, they can purify water from mostly all sources...