If you believe what the marketers of residential reverse osmosis systems are saying, you would think that you had a revolutionary piece of equipment at your fingertips. The only problem is that the reverse osmosis systems residential benefits have not quite been what people had expected.
Residential reverse osmosis systems are revolutionary only because they are the first RO systems built for home instead of industrial use. RO has been a standard water treatment method in the industrial world for quite some time. It is used in order to keep mineral deposits from forming in machines such as boilers.
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The reverse osmosis systems residential applications have only recently begun to be explored. Touted as a water purifying system, it is basically a scaled down version of the filter that they use at the treatment facilities. This filtering system leaves a lot to be desired in the way of water treatment, even at that level.
Even though the idea of residential reverse osmosis systems is a relatively new one, the RO system has actually been utilized for water treatment for over a century. First introduced in order to slow down the death rate from waterborne diseases, the system only worked moderately well. It wasn't until chlorine was introduced in 1908 that the apparatus began to be effective.
The problem with RO system is that it is not of the design to be an effective water cleaning apparatus. The porous membrane filter is a capable de-mineralization tool, but it is not effective in the removal of anything smaller or lighter than a water molecule. This shortcoming is something that reverse osmosis systems residential owners aren't finding out about it until it is too late.
There are many toxic chemicals flowing through our drinking water system, and most of them flow through the filter along with the water. So does a horde of bacterial agents, far too small for the membrane to capture. The big worry that owners of residential reverse osmosis systems have is that their system will also be helpless to thwart these contaminants.
It would be a safe assumption that if the RO system at the water treatment facility failed in its mission to halt the flow of these toxins, that residential reverse osmosis systems don't stand a chance at stopping them. That is because the RO system is really only the first section of what needs to be a multi pronged attack in combating today's modern contaminants.
Had many of the reverse osmosis systems residential owners done their homework before they bought their unit, they would have known that it was not what they needed. They would have realized that there are whole house and point of use filtering systems that they could have gotten at a fraction of the price that they paid.
Residential reverse osmosis systems are not the answer. What is necessary in combating chemicals in your drinking water is the combination of an activated carbon filter and a multi block filter. Add to these a sub-micron filter and an ion exchange unit, and you have all the water purifying system that you'll ever need.
Residential Reverse Osmosis Systems - What You Need to Know OSMOSIS
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