Should I drink R.O. water or bottled water?

by Anonymous
(East Anglia)

Good morning, I would appreciate some advice please.

During a chance conversation with a new work colleague, we were talking about drinking RO treated water. His advice to me was that this shouldn't be consumed, to which I was a little surprised as I had been led to believe the more pure the water the better it is.

I then did some research and found the study done by Frantisek Kozisek from the national institute of public health Czech Republic. Her thoughts and discovery alarmed me greatly.

My main reasoning for investing in what I thought was better water was because when I was approximately 22 I had kidney stones and as we live in East Anglia our water is very hard.

When we moved into our new house, I installed a block salt water softener and on the advice of the supplier installed an RO unit for drinking water.

Would you give me some advice please on what you think would be my best course of action as I like having soft water which suits our washing and cleaning requirements so we don't get scale all over everything?

But so far as RO for drinking, I am concerned. I wouldn't have a problem with buying bottled water so long as I know what is good quality and then disconnect my RO unit.

The water I produce through my water softener comes out at around 240 ppm and the ph is around 7.8, the water from the RO unit is around 13ppm and 7.5 ph.

If I purchase bottled water, what are the properties and other various figures I need to be looking for to ensure we are getting good all round quality water for human consumption?

Many thanks in advance for your time reading this and if you are willing to give me some help/information that would be very much appreciated. Kind regards.



RESPONSE:

Since you want to keep your salt-based water softener, I think the easiest and best solution might be to find out if the company where you bought your RO drinking water system has a re-mineralization cartridge that can be installed after the R.O. membrane. In fact, if your R.O. water is coming out consistently at 7.5 pH it may already have a re-mineralization cartridge. Many of the R.O. companies do provide that option now.

If not, then I would at least alternate your RO drinking water with mineral spring water. I think it is fine to drink RO water intermittently. It is clean water and it is good for cleansing the body. I just don’t recommend drinking it every day on a long-term basis, because like your coworker, I believe drinking demineralized water (RO water) can create a mineral imbalance in the body.

Regarding the bottled water option, natural spring water or artesian well water would be good choices. I would first check out findaspring.com to see if there is a natural spring near you where you can get drinking water.

If not, bottled spring or artesian well water is fine, but you do have to do some research to see where the company gets its water and if it is, in fact, from an actual mineral spring.

Honestly, I just don't have the time to stay on top of the numerous bottled water companies to be able to give current accurate information, especially because things are always changing in the industry and it is not well regulated.

I would start by seeing what type of mineral spring water is offered in your local stores (for convenience sake) and then call those companies to find out more about what they offer, where they get the water, where and how it is bottled, and what type of disinfectants are added, if any.

Then I would test the pH of the bottled water on occasion. If it is true mineral water, it should be at least 7.0 pH or higher because of the mineral content.

You can read more about drinking spring water here.

I hope this helps a little . . .