RO Waste water safe to drink?

t316

Active Member
Since the expelled water from a RO unit has passed thru several filters, and has not yet gone thru the DI filter, is there anything wrong with drinking this water (human consumption)?
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by T316
Since the expelled water from a RO unit has passed thru several filters, and has not yet gone thru the DI filter, is there anything wrong with drinking this water (human consumption)?
Are you talking about the discharge water? It seems to me that there was this same question asked a while back. I really don't remeber what they talked, I just remember reading it.
I Use it to wash clothes, almost get a 5 gallon bucket for a load of wash.
I tested my TDS into the RO unit and usually get around 230 ppm and the discharge is over 400. So I wouldn't. It would seem to me it would depend what is doing the bulk of the filtering the RO membrane or the first three stages. If the first 3 stages are then your TDS should be lower than going in.
 

t316

Active Member
I'm just saying since the water has passed by 3 filtering stages already, making it even more pure than the bottled water we buy at the store for human consumption, what makes it "waste" water. Sounds to me like we all need to be packaging it up and selling it to the general public.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by T316
I'm just saying since the water has passed by 3 filtering stages already, making it even more pure than the bottled water we buy at the store for human consumption, what makes it "waste" water. Sounds to me like we all need to be packaging it up and selling it to the general public.
It depends, on how much crap the membrane is rejecting, because the discharge water is flushing the membrane. So it doesn't get clogged, if the water hitting that is pretty clean than it won't discharge alot of contaminates, if it isn't, then it will discharge more contaminates. I dont' think there is any way of knowing without testing your tap then your discharge water in a lab.
 

alix2.0

Active Member
Originally Posted by sign guy
waste water is cleaner water than that out of a bottle at the store and here is why
its already gone throgh a sediment filter and a carbon filter. its rerjected at the ro tfc membrane. all of the warnings about not dring water from the unit is refering to the water that pases through the DI canister. so drink up
so im thinking it would actually be pretty good to drink. better than tap anyways.
 

t316

Active Member
Originally Posted by alix2.0
so im thinking it would actually be pretty good to drink. better than tap anyways.

That's the exact post I was referencing....I just didn't want to hijack your thread, but I am most interested in this. I just got my RO/DI unit in, and am starting to set it up. I hated wasting all that water. Thought about the flowers, trees, etc. ,(sorry, but I an't wasting the time flushing toilets with it) but what about my mouth, and stop buying bottled water?
 

alix2.0

Active Member
probably be fine, weve been using it for dog water, laundry, scrubbing floors, and cooking. i drank a little of it when we first set it up and it tasted like bottled water. you might want to like fill a jug up and stick it in the refrig though, it wasnt very cold.
 

keri

Active Member
We just set up our new RODI unit (tricky S.O.B!) and the waste water smells like sulphur, while the "good" water smells like nothing. Kinda scary what's in the water we drtink...
 

notsonoob

Member
Originally Posted by T316
I'm just saying since the water has passed by 3 filtering stages already, making it even more pure than the bottled water we buy at the store for human consumption, what makes it "waste" water. Sounds to me like we all need to be packaging it up and selling it to the general public.
Just to let you know....only the pure water goes into the bottles. This comes from somebody that worked int eh bottleing industry on and off for a decade.
Great care goes into the manufacture. You have to realize that if you put out bad water people could get sick and die....do you actually think in this commerce driven society that a company would RISK this since even a large company like Dannon, Coke, or Pepsi, would completely be destroyed if that happened once. ((this from my 2 days of RO safety training))
Now if it was bottled in China??? I'll buy your arguement.
 

notsonoob

Member
Originally Posted by alix2.0
so im thinking it would actually be pretty good to drink. better than tap anyways.

Well,
actually, think about all the crap over 6 months coming through your tap water all at once...
And drink it.
If it were brand new, there isn't anything that has been put into the brine yet.
I feel sorry for your dog.
 

acrylic51

Active Member
Originally Posted by NOTSONOOB
Just to let you know....only the pure water goes into the bottles. This comes from somebody that worked int eh bottleing industry on and off for a decade.
Great care goes into the manufacture. You have to realize that if you put out bad water people could get sick and die....do you actually think in this commerce driven society that a company would RISK this since even a large company like Dannon, Coke, or Pepsi, would completely be destroyed if that happened once. ((this from my 2 days of RO safety training))
Now if it was bottled in China??? I'll buy your arguement.
HMMMM...that's why I've read about a major water bottling company being caught bottling regular tap water and passing it off as the "real deal".....I don't think it would hurt to drink it.....You drank it before you had the RO unit and your still here.
 

notsonoob

Member
Originally Posted by acrylic51
HMMMM...that's why I've read about a major water bottling company being caught bottling regular tap water and passing it off as the "real deal".....I don't think it would hurt to drink it.....You drank it before you had the RO unit and your still here.
Then you read what is not true or made you to believe something that it is not. Typical journalistic slants
They do not bottle TAP WATER. IF that company did. They would be driven out of business by government oversight.
THEY FILTRATE tap water, just like you do for your fishes...only a lot better. Just like you do in most of your homes for your family.
You buy "Spring Water" it is Spring Water run through the same filtration.
You have every facet of filtration that the water goes through. From UV to Chemical, to Mechanical. Then RO. The company I worked for gaurenteed of pure water. Much like out of a virgin glacier.
If they bottled tap water then alot of people would get sick, because they don't take out all the Chlorals out of the municple water systems and just a percentage of sediments.
Do you see any sediments in the bottom of your bottled water? Do you ever see any out of the tap? That ain't just coming from your home's pipes.
 

notsonoob

Member
Both my grandmothers lived in the Milwaukee area.
Both my grandmothers drank water out of thier wells their whole lives.
Both my grandmothers died of cancer.
was it safe to drink before?
Maybe won't kill you today...but it may ruin you're tomorrow.
 

t316

Active Member
I'm not talking about drinking tap water, whether the source be well or city. I'm talking about drinking the water classified as "waste" from an RO/DI unit. No matter the source, on a 5 stage unit such as mine, this "waste" water has just passed thru 3 filters, and is getting kicked out at the RO membrane. This is just prior to going into the DI cannister. So coming out of the RO membrane, whether it's the acceptable water going on to the DI, or if it's the rejected water going down the drain, what's wrong with it?
 

ibew

Active Member
RO reverse osmosis water is very good to drink what you don't want to drink is RODI which the DI is deionizer which is bad for a human to consume so make sure your drinking just the RO part of your unit also if it is waste from RODI I would not drink it
As far as washing cloths I have no idea what effect the deionizer part would have on chemicals used to wash cloths or the clothes themselves
 

alix2.0

Active Member
theyre lost.

SO YA KNOW- he is asking about drinking water that came out of the tap, went through TWO carbon filters, and a sediment filter. NOTHING is being added to the water. then the water is expelled from the system. how can that be worse than whats going into it? if your already drinking your tap water, waste water is much cleaner.
the waste water is expelled before the RO membrane, so it is not RO water, and it hasnt gone through the deionizer yet, so it is not DI, which yes, is unsafe to drink.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by alix2.0
theyre lost.

SO YA KNOW- he is asking about drinking water that came out of the tap, went through TWO carbon filters, and a sediment filter. NOTHING is being added to the water. then the water is expelled from the system. how can that be worse than whats going into it? if your already drinking your tap water, waste water is much cleaner.
the waste water is expelled before the RO membrane, so it is not RO water, and it hasnt gone through the deionizer yet, so it is not DI, which yes, is unsafe to drink.
Yes and that waste water I use to wash clothes with. I've tested the TDS of the water and it is, in my case, and the waste water has a TDS 2x's as high as my tap water, so I personally see no benifit to drinking it.
 
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