FOOD Not food but water - R.O. Water

[Toosh]

What should the TDS test read for a reverse osmosis system with remineralization?

My municipal water TDS is about 240.
My R.O. water (with remineralization) reads 150.

I get that the TDS will never be 0 with remineralization but 150 seems a bit high. Can I trust that I'm filtering effectively? The R.O. water tastes better. I don't have any hit of chlorine smell like I do with the municipal water.
Thoughts?

 

[Henry Bowman]

What should the TDS test read for a reverse osmosis system with remineralization?

My municipal water TDS is about 240.
My R.O. water (with remineralization) reads 150.

I get that the TDS will never be 0 with remineralization but 150 seems a bit high. Can I trust that I'm filtering effectively? The R.O. water tastes better. I don't have any hit of chlorine smell like I do with the municipal water.
Thoughts?

RO is not meant so much for minerals, hardness, PH etc...it is meant mostly for Bacteria control. If it is a quality system it should work just fine...they are water wasters however. ( if yours is a last stage activated carbon it will also reduce chlorine )

 

[LibertyInNH]

If you want to used TDS to see if your RO is working, take a sample before remineralization-and yes, that could cause TDS to read that high.

RO does not do much for pH other than making water slightly acidic, which is not good for you or your pipes - it will leach copper and lead, and mobilize certain synthetics in plastic pipe, and your biome wants to be alkaline. Low pH also causes more minerals to be reabsorbed, affecting your TDS.

Unless there is some specific unique contaminant that you are particularly sensitive to, putting municipal water through RO is a colossal waste of time and resources.

Want to remove chlorine or chloramines, use activated carbon.

Want to remove fluoride, arsenic, and a few other metals, use an activated alumina filter.

ETA: the TDS of RO should be much lower, like 10-30ppm. You also need to understand that a TDS meter is definitely a poor man's analytical tool - since it's really a surrogate for conductivity, it's not telling you anything more. A non-7 pH will read as TDS even if there's nothing else in there.

 

[Txkstew]

I had a guy come out and test my well water. He did his thing with a test kit, putting different drops into a series of tubes. His comment was that he'd love to sell me a water treatment system, but that I had perfect water. 480 foot deep. That was years ago, so maybe a new test is called for. My water looks good, and taste good, so I don't know what they might find wrong.

 

[Quiet Man]

My raw well water reads around 240-280 on my TDS meter throughout the year. With a fresh membrane and set of filters in my RO, that will drop into the 6-8 range. I will replace the set again when it rises to 15-20. I am not using a booster pump, but I have a Permeate Pump to increase RO efficiency (it simultaneously reduces waste water and increases membrane efficiency).

Are you able to take a measurement with remineralization bypassed/removed?

 

[Publius]

There are different membrane's for reverse osmosis systems, there are systems designed for boats and it with filter cartridge filters to pre filter the water for algae and zoological's the membrane will remove salt from sea water to make drinkable-potable water and it's so clean they use this for washing the boat and will leave no residue/spots.