Bottled water alternatives (to buy, vs., safety)

[hikernut]

If you own your home, an RO system is certainly more convenient. I do maintenance once a year on the thing, and of course you can pay someone to come out and do the maintenance.

If you rent and don't expect to stay a long time it's probably cheaper to just fill containers. When I was going that route I bought enough containers so I only needed to fill up once a week, and I just did it when I was out running errands on the weekend.

[WSPHXPELON]

I've heard that a Reverse Osmosis system wastes a lot of water...Anyone know approximately how much one could expect your water bill to raise after installing a RO System?

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by WSPHXPELON

I've heard that a Reverse Osmosis system wastes a lot of water...Anyone know approximately how much one could expect your water bill to raise after installing a RO System?

It's only for drinking and cooking. Not a big deal.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by WSPHXPELON

I've heard that a Reverse Osmosis system wastes a lot of water...Anyone know approximately how much one could expect your water bill to raise after installing a RO System?

If I remember correctly, it's in the area of 3 gallons of waste for every gallon produced- so if you drink 10 gallons of RO water a week, you waste 30 gallons of water. About equivalent to the amount of water used to grow a handful of almonds, or maybe one load of laundry in an older washing machine.. your bill shouldn't even go up a dollar.

There are also "zero waste" osmosis systems that pump the waste water into the hot tap. I've used one for years & it's nice, but I got a deal on it & I don't know if I'd pay retail for that system.. I think they're $350 ish new, vs a standard r.o. which can be obtained for maybe $100 if you look around a bit on the web.

[TempeAZnative]

I just turn on the faucet and a clear liquid comes out and it hydrates me no need to buy all these plastic containers that have the same liquid in it.

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by TempeAZnative

I just turn on the faucet and a clear liquid comes out and it hydrates me no need to buy all these plastic containers that have the same liquid in it.

I feel you, but super-cold osmosis water definitely has a unique & good taste to most people.

And - I've used an industrial Bunn coffee maker for like ~7 years with exclusively r.o. water & never got any lime / minerals at all out of it when cleaning it.

I killed a regular pot with tap water in just over a year here. Big chunks of minerals would come out, no matter how often it was cleaned.

I bought a "tds " meter to verify the membrane in my osmosis system was still good a few years ago - using that was an eye opener. There's an allowable standard for "tds" that's like 500 ppm, and my unfiltered city water was coming in at ~550 ppm. Osmosis knocks it down to like 30ppm. The whole house softener & whole house carbon filter at my place didn't lower tds at all. I ended up trashing the softener when it sprung a leak. I still like the whole house carbon filter, mostly because it reduces the chlorine stank you smell in the shower.. and it helps with overall taste.. but RO water is the gold standard.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by TempeAZnative

I just turn on the faucet and a clear liquid comes out and it hydrates me no need to buy all these plastic containers that have the same liquid in it.

Ditto! Our fridge has a filter on it that we swap out 3-4x a year and that’s about it. At work we have an RO system and I can’t taste the difference.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by locolife

Ditto! Our fridge has a filter on it that we swap out 3-4x a year and that’s about it. At work we have an RO system and I can’t taste the difference.

Same here. No idea why I would want to spend money on other approaches.

[teeej]

I use Brita. I do have to fill up the damn thing a lot. Maybe I should look into a cooler. I never thought it made sense for one person.

[DougStark]

You've all seen the ads on TV: Brita filters, Pur and the others don't remove dissolved minerals (very abundant in our tap water) that Zero Water and R/O units do. IMO, reverse osmosis is the way to go. Using Zero Water would get too costly.

I use the purified water not only for drinking, but also for cleaning, washing windows, etc. The salty "waste water" gets drained to my yard for my shade tree to use.