RO-DI......."safe" to drink?

[rabid seacow]

Currently I use RODI for water changes and top offs for my tank. I would like to buy a home system, that could double as drinking water but was told by the LFS not to drink RODI because the dionization proccess has a strange interaction with membranes and ions in the esophagus and stomach. I also heard form an E.N.T doctor that drinking distilled H2o wasnt a very good idea for reasons relating to the distilling process and the stripping of the water's "nutrients"
Anyone heard anything similar?

 

[sonny]

If your tap water is safe to drink, then the water produced by a RO DI unit will be safe. It removes metals and other impurities in the water. It might taste a little different than you're used to, but it is safe. A lot of communities in beach areas use RO water for drinking. Deionized water uses an extra step by using charged particles that attract certain ions like silicates and phosphates. The unit would also remove flouride that may be in your water system. Make sure to keep your DI cartridge fresh, because if you don't it can leach the elements back into the water. Most of the ones you get now have a color change feature that lets you know when to change it.
Sonny

 

[saltwaterkid]

Actually from what I was told from the company I bought my RO/DI unit from was that DI water is not good for drinking and can cause harm. Thats why my drinking water kit is supposed to attach to the unit before the DI cartridge. I asked him the same question you just asked and he went into some technobabble that I just nodded to. I honestly can't repeat the reason why.

 

[sonny]

I have looked in both the Spectrapure and Kent web sites, and neither say anything about not drinking DI water. If it was bad for you, I'm sure they would say, so they wouldn't get sued.
Sonny

 

[ironreef]

stripping nutrients from the water= minerals. so how is not having minerals in water bad? if you have a balance diet you get enough. most ppl don't drink enough or any water at all anyway. I would be concerend with storing it for long periods of time = bacteria may get in tere because there is no chlorine. But being bad for you... i don't think so

 

[saltwaterkid]

I'm just the messenger of information. I honestly don't know the truth. I bought my unit and got the info from Aqua FX.

 

[broomer5]

I am not an expert chemist but I do know this.
Water consists of of hydrogen and oxygen - H2O.
H+ Hydrogen ions bonded to OH- Hydroxyl ions. In it's purest form, water is very agressive - looking to chemically bond with or break the bonds of other compounds. DI water is basically very pure "de-ionized" water that has no other ions. It is fairly agressive stuff. In industrial plants that use DI water for their processes - they must use either glass or platic lined piping - the DI water will actually strip the ions from a carbon steel or copper pipe - eventually destroying the pipeline. DI water will seek out anything it can to strip ions from - be it a metal pipe - the salt mixture we use in our tanks - or the ions in the tissue of your throat and mouth.
I would not even consider drinking deionized water at all.
Any other help on this would be great folks,
Broomer ( Brian )

 

[kodi]

RO/DI water has almost all of the minerals removed. Water will naturally try to reach a neutral balance (that includes those minerals that have been removed). If there is any substance that has these missing elements that RO/DI water comes in contact with it will try, and in fact in most cases will, draw those elements from the substance. In short, your body has some of the very minerals that have been removed during the RO/DI process and there will be a battle to get them back. I worked at a place where they treated their well water (like an RO/DI process) the process was so complete that the company was always having water leaks, because the water was consuming the pipes from the inside/out trying to restore the balance. IMO I wouldn't drink DI water.

 

[ironreef]

funny I thought all the ions in water were organic? Why would it strip ions from metal. I know ppl who have been drinking di water for yrs no probs. expalin how water will consume pipes? Its not corrossive? theres not salt in it? No minerals when its di.The old rainier brewry used di never hear about that when I was there? fwiw I drank di water don't carefor it myself. No may ppl who do drink it. no probs. but I would waste a di for this purpose.
[ May 09, 2001: Message edited by: Ironreef ]

 

[caymanlovers]

Iron - Ions have nothing to do with organic or inorganic. Things without proper ion balance seek out ions to get in balance so as far as the pipes and things, the water literally absorbs the metal to "get" the ions. The places you are talking about using DI water may have used it for cleaning and other things and they may have had plastic pipes that are not affected by DI water - our bodies are not so resistant and will readily give up the ions.
From what I have read I would not drink it on a regular basis, it is actually very caustic.

 

[dgs174]

I was trying to stay out of this thread, but CaymanLovers is right Iron. This process is called osmosis. Particles, regardless of their chemical makeup (organic or not) will diffuse down their gradients to the less concentrated areas. Because di water is hypotonic to our hypertonic body, we can lose some minerals to the water while it goes through our digestive track.

 

[captain_karma]

first off....organic. most elements, ions thereof, and their isotopes are naturaly occouring. Oganic pertains to compounds which are based on carbon chains. Therfore most pipes, salts, and what not are not organic, but elements that make these things up are used and or needed by the body.
Secondly...water dissolving pipes. water is the universal solvent. even if it is not DI if water is given enough time it will dissolve most elements ( a few I know it wont readily dissolve are gold, silver, ands platinum). Water likes to have ions dissolved in it. If you Deionize water it will more aggressively ionize and dissolve things it comes into contact with, including most pipes.
finally...DI use in brewing beer. If you use DI to make something like beer you are starting with very clean water, and then adding barly, hops, malt, and whatever else in some of these newer beers. The water begins to act upon these additives and therefore no longer Deionized when you drink it as beer.
now for some research:
I looked up the Material Safty Data Sheets for DI water. Chemical producers print up these sheets to give information and hazard warnings on products they sell to their customers.
Here are the results:
out of ten different companies I found in a quick search
7 out of 10 say there are no hazadrd associated with DI water, but also listed that DI water can't be absorbed through the skin, eyes, or by ingestion.
3 out of 10 stated that DI can be an irratant to the skin and eyes. Can be absorbed through skin, eyes, and ingestion.
1 out of 10 stated eye and skin irratant and can cause indigestion problems. Can be absorbed through skin, eyes, and ingestion.
do a search on MSDS if you want to find more.
personally I don't drink DI. If you used DI to make coffee or coolaide maybe then I would drink it.

 

[captain_karma]

I found nine more MSDS postings for DI water:
4 of 9 state no hazard to eyes, skin, or through ingestion
3 of 9 warn not to drink and say it can cause indigestion
2 of 9 state no hazard, but also say a doctor should be consulted if large quantities are ingested.
what are large quantities? they don't say.

 

[caymanlovers]

Kent Marine has one little line on their water filtration info page that says they do not recommend drinking the DI water.
We can use it in our aquariums because the process that deionizes it really cleans it, including cations and anions, but we replace those when we add the salt. Like somebody above said, koolaid or coffee may be okay because they are also replacing the ions.
I am going with just RO because I want to be able to drink it as well.

 

[caymanlovers]

My last post on this subject -
I got a response from Kent Marine about DI water:
"Deionized water is >99.9% filtered. Being that this water is void of practically all its mineral content, it is astringent. This water is very "aggressive" in how it interacts with other materials. DI acts like a sponge, absorbing what it can from the environment. When you drink DI water, it can taste flat, and very dry. Some people have stated that the DI water tastes "chemically" or "fishy", this is from the actual resins and how they were activated. The MSDS (material data safety sheet) on deionized water states deionized or deionized/distilled water should not be used as drinking water. A large amount of MSDS information is available online and I suggest reading some of them. Some MSDS's state it can cause illness."
Steve