WHY USE A REVERSE OSMOSIS SYSTEM TO PURIFY YOUR WATER?
Other that water from your faucet, there are three main ways for you to obtain your water:
1. Have your own system, such as a reverse osmosis system or a distillation system. On a scale from 1 to 10 in terms of purity, distilled water from a distiller with good post filters is a 10. However, this depends on boiling water which gets to be quite expensive, quite a hassle, flat tasting, and bad for the environment because it uses so much energy. The main reason why someone would insist on distilled water is if their bodies cannot tolerate reverse osmosis water.
On the other hand, reverse osmosis water is a 9 in terms of purity. It is convenient -- with a separate faucet mounted next to your kitchen sink -- relatively inexpensive (about $6 per month for a normal household), great tasting, and has a relatively minor environmental impact. The typical reverse osmosis system is a four stage process: Stage 1 removes large particles (over 5 microns) of dirt, rust, sand, sediment, and other particulates; Stage 2 is a one micron carbon filter which removes almost all of the chlorine, organic chemicals, and micro-organisms; Stage 3 is the reverse osmosis membrane which removes most of the dissolved solids in water; and Stage 4 is a charcoal filter which removes the remaining traces of chemical and odors, and improves the taste of your water.
2. Purchase a simple water filter. Unless you buy a reverse osmosis water system, you normally get a filter which removes large particles of dirt. Sometimes, you also get a charcoal filter which removes odors and improves the taste of your water. But these filters do little to remove chemicals or micro-organisms.
3. Purchase bottled water. Purchasing bottled water is inconvenient, a hassle, quite expensive, and requires you to depend on someone else to do their job properly. (I even worry about the plastic molecules from the bottle mixing in with the water.) In addition, if you purchase a new container each time you buy water, it is terrible for the environment (and recycling helps but not much). On the other hand, if you merely refill your old container, it can have horrible micro-organisms growing in it not to mention what might be growing in the machine youre drawing the water from. Moreover, few people realize it, but unless the bottled water is purified by distillation or reverse osmosis, it is normally no purer than water from your faucet. See our web page on "Problems with Bottled Water."
Most intelligent people understand the necessity of having pure drinking water -- they merely need additional information as to which is the best way to obtain it. We have evaluated all the alternatives and have concluded that a reverse osmosis system is the only way to go. Some people find fault with reverse osmosis because it removes minerals from the water. Thats true, but it you want more minerals, you can simply eat healthier foods or take vitamin supplements.