The Disadvantages Of Reverse Osmosis Water Filters

One of the most expensive ways to filter the water coming in to your home is by purchasing and installing a reverse osmosis water filter system. However, in this case the most expensive does not necessarily mean the best. Set out below are some of the disadvantages of reverse osmosis water purifiers.

Still Being Sold

These outdated systems are still being promoted by water marketing companies that realize the profits to be made from these very expensive units that start at $10,000 each.

This is largely due to a lot of marketing dollars spent by the larger water companies selling the units, and the fact that they do a very good job for certain applications such as removing the salt from sea water leaving it suitable for use in irrigation and industry. They do remove many of the harmful contaminants present in drinking water; however this is where the plus points start to run a little thin.

Waste

One of the many disadvantages of reverse osmosis water filters is the incredible amount of water that is flushed away as waste, in order to produce a tiny fraction of filtered drinking water.

As an example, in order to produce 5 gallons of treated water, units discharge between 40 to 90 gallons of water as waste! This is bad enough, but if you are one of the thousands of people using a septic system to collect waste water from your home, then the chances are you will need to upgrade the size of your tank.

Power Bills

These systems take power to run, and given the waste water to drinkable water ratio, it is clear that they will be using electricity at a high rate. Not ideal given the increasing price of electricity, along with the higher impact on the environment.

So Does Reverse Osmosis Make Water Safe To Drink?

This is the most important question when considering purchasing any water filtration system, and especially so when buying one that is as costly and expensive to install and operate.

Well, the answer is that this system makes the water safer to drink, but not necessarily safe. It does a competent job certainly, but no better than the considerably cheaper systems employing more economical methods to filter water without all the whistles and bells whilst doing so.

This is because one of the major disadvantages of reverse osmosis systems is that it does not eradicate all the cysts or chemical contaminants that are found in water.

One manufacturer has freely admitted as much with a proviso that these kinds of units are only designed to clean up the water's aesthetic properties. They don't actually act as a way of preventing waterborne toxic and microbiological chemicals from getting into the supply.

Another smaller but nevertheless important of the many disadvantages of reverse osmosis filters is the removal of all the health-giving natural minerals found in water. All of these facts should point towards using a less expensive and more efficient way of providing pure water for your family.