Long term use of reverse osmosis water for drinking /cooking? (Aledo: house, to buy)

[MovingtoDFW]

Anybody here with significant experience (1-2 years or more) using reverse osmosis water as their only source of drinking and cooking water? I am looking at installing one but finding some negatives to RO water online (apparently completely depletes useful minerals, is acidic, potential long term health issues?).

Have also read counter-arguments but checking to see if anybody here has practical experience using this and noticed anything different? With a lot of online info, it is hard to know which is motivated info from competitors vs what is real.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by MovingtoDFW

Anybody here with significant experience (1-2 years or more) using reverse osmosis water as their only source of drinking and cooking water? I am looking at installing one but finding some negatives to RO water online (apparently completely depletes useful minerals, is acidic, potential long term health issues?).

Have also read counter-arguments but checking to see if anybody here has practical experience using this and noticed anything different? With a lot of online info, it is hard to know which is motivated info from competitors vs what is real.

We have slightly hard water at our lake house and considered RO there. We passed for several reasons. Chiefly, the wasted water would have been a negative for our aerobic septic system. Further, RO'd water tastes flat and dead to me...the fam. agreed so we passed.

For sure ROing water makes it more acidic as it strip minerals.

[Nodpete]

You do know that you can opt to have RO water just for drinking don't you ? I have hard water for outside watering, softened water for laundry, cooking, etc. and RO water for drinking. And, you can add a filter that will add some minerals back into the RO water.



I use an 'under the sink' system from APEC water and find it works really well. They have several different systems to chose from and even email you when it's time to change the filters. Check out their site.

[MovingtoDFW]

Originally Posted by Nodpete

You do know that you can opt to have RO water just for drinking don't you ? I have hard water for outside watering, softened water for laundry, cooking, etc. and RO water for drinking. And, you can add a filter that will add some minerals back into the RO water.



I use an 'under the sink' system from APEC water and find it works really well. They have several different systems to chose from and even email you when it's time to change the filters. Check out their site.

How long have you used this RO system for? I am also considering this just for drinking/cooking.
Seems you haven't noticed any issues since starting this...which is good to know

[Nodpete]

It's been just over a year. It takes a little getting use to the taste but we tend to drink more water now. We keep a gallon milk carton in the fridge so we always have cold water.


Check out APEC they are very easy to deal with and installing one of their systems is simple. Good luck !

[fwsavemoney]

Originally Posted by MovingtoDFW

Anybody here with significant experience (1-2 years or more) using reverse osmosis water as their only source of drinking and cooking water? I am looking at installing one but finding some negatives to RO water online (apparently completely depletes useful minerals, is acidic, potential long term health issues?).

Have also read counter-arguments but checking to see if anybody here has practical experience using this and noticed anything different? With a lot of online info, it is hard to know which is motivated info from competitors vs what is real.

I have been using an RO filter for the past 6 years for drinking and cooking and wouldn't have it any other way. I researched a lot at the time and decided that RO is indeed the best option - both taste wise and quality wise. Distilled water is more pure but it is a pain to do it at home.

We love the taste of our filtered water. We know that it is time to change the filters when the taste starts changing. You get filters that add the minerals back if that is important to you. As pointed out earlier, it does waste water but I haven't noticed any major change to my water bill since I got it installed.

I would HIGHLY recommend getting one. Get a well rated one from Amazon and get a plumber to hook it in.

[MovingtoDFW]

Originally Posted by fwsavemoney

I have been using an RO filter for the past 6 years for drinking and cooking and wouldn't have it any other way. I researched a lot at the time and decided that RO is indeed the best option - both taste wise and quality wise. Distilled water is more pure but it is a pain to do it at home.

We love the taste of our filtered water. We know that it is time to change the filters when the taste starts changing. You get filters that add the minerals back if that is important to you. As pointed out earlier, it does waste water but I haven't noticed any major change to my water bill since I got it installed.

I would HIGHLY recommend getting one. Get a well rated one from Amazon and get a plumber to hook it in.

Thanks for the post...helps ease our decision making!

[4Movingeast]

When we lived in Aledo and had well water we had a softener installed for the entire house and a faucet RO from Costco installed in the kitchen. It was easy to buy the filters from Costco, and I loved the way the water tasted (that sounds so silly to say).

[TheOverdog]

My inlaws have had one and used it for drinking/cooking for like 7-8 years. It's a giant waste of water (especially if you have a source of filtered water like your refrigerator), but they seem to like it.



They don't drink much water though, mostly diet coke, so if you are doing it to drink more water, then be careful. Their tap water tastes horrible, so I do drink it there too.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

My inlaws have had one and used it for drinking/cooking for like 7-8 years. It's a giant waste of water (especially if you have a source of filtered water like your refrigerator), but they seem to like it.



They don't drink much water though, mostly diet coke, so if you are doing it to drink more water, then be careful. Their tap water tastes horrible, so I do drink it there too.

The RO taste angle is interesting. I really dislike the taste and it's poor for coffee and worse for espresso. Oddly, while my wife didn't dislike RO'd water she didn't like RO'd coffee at all.

At our lake house the aerobic septic simply couldn't deal with the waste water without upsizing by replacing the entire system.