[canadawest]

Hey Sam,

A TDS meter is a device that measures Total Dissolved Solids. Basically it tells you how pure your water is. A reading of '0' means you have no impurities of any kind in the water (which is what you get with RO/DI water)

Anything can cause dissolved solids. From metals, to phosphates to the chlorine in our drinking water. I use one to test my RO/DI water for purity, and as soon as I get a reading, I know it's time to change my DI filter. It's also a good way to check the efficiency of your RO membrane, so you know when it's about time to change that too.

As for using it for drinking water, no I just use the carbon-filtered water from the water dispenser in my refrigerator. Seeing as my tap water only reads 17ppm on the TDS meter, I suspect that it's not too bad. Once the dispenser filter system removes the chlorine and smells from the water with the carbon filter, it actually tastes pretty good.

There are some doctors that recommend that people shouldn't drink RO/DI water because it is too pure, and our bodies need some of the metals and minerals that are present in the drinking water. I'm not a scientist or biologist or doctor, so I can't comment either way on that one.

Besides, if I use it for drinking water as well, it just uses up the filters that much faster, which ends up costing more money so I take the "scraps" from the fridge and leave the "good stuff" for the fish! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]