can you drink RO/DI?

[ScubaSteve]

The #1 lab procedure we have for RO/DI is: don't drink it. You can drink it but you actually leach minerals from your body. Most home RO units won't bring your water down to totally zero so it's not as big of a deal but if it's really pure water, like what you'd get from a Milli-Q unit, you can start doing some damage. It's not going to kill you or anything but it ain't good.

I actually own a company that is developing a process to compete with RO for drinking water (mostly in rural areas and urban settings without infrastructure). We CAN drive the output water to absolute zero but no one wants to drink that water and I actually have had to design it to leave behind some of the good stuff while removing all thebad stuff.

Originally Posted by Dive_dry

bottle water is RO water

No it ain't. Sorry, not trying to be a jerk but you should really look into that a bit. Very few companies actually do that as it is so damn expensive.

[Sebae again]

I compensate my intake of RO water with beer.

[darb]

be careful not to drink too much H2O, you can get intoxicated from water also ...

[fkshiu]

Phhhphht, big time urban myth. RO/DI water becomes "regular" water the moment it touches your lips. It's not some kind of vampire water.

You get the vast majority of minerals from the food you eat. A few cups of RO/DI won't kill you. It just tastes bad.

Perhaps if you ingested nothing but gallons of RO/DI for weeks on end you'd have a problem, but your problems would be caused by the fact that you haven't eaten more than the water itself.

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

Phhhphht, big time urban myth. RO/DI water becomes "regular" water the moment it touches your lips. It's not some kind of vampire water.

You get the vast majority of minerals from the food you eat. A few cups of RO/DI won't kill you. It just tastes bad.

Perhaps if you ingested nothing but gallons of RO/DI for weeks on end you'd have a problem, but your problems would be caused by the fact that you haven't eaten more than the water itself.

+1 What possible minerals do you want from regular tap water? Copper, Lead, Arsenic, not to mention so many more minerals that are harmful to your health. Even though RO water will remove minerals from your body, you get proper organic minerals that will actually disolve in your body from the food you eat. I do like the taste of tap water but RO water is safe to drink.

[cwatkins]

No point here in vancouver. The water from the tap is pretty darn good.

And unless it came right out of the RO/DI unit, i'm not so sure about it once it's sat in jugs for a few days. Most places put some ozone in those jugs for a reason.

Vancouver now boasts the purest tap water in the world—so why are you still drinking bottled?:
http://www.granvilleonline.ca/gr/blo...good-our-water

[Rogue951]

We may have the purest water in the world, but the pipes leading to your household tap from that pure source are anything but.
Wasn't it on the news a while ago some people were complaining their old water feed pipes were contaminating their water?
Personally, love tap water. haha. Vancouver special only.

Originally Posted by cwatkins

No point here in vancouver. The water from the tap is pretty darn good.

And unless it came right out of the RO/DI unit, i'm not so sure about it once it's sat in jugs for a few days. Most places put some ozone in those jugs for a reason.

Vancouver now boasts the purest tap water in the world—so why are you still drinking bottled?:
http://www.granvilleonline.ca/gr/blo...good-our-water

[daniella3d]

Guys, it's only a problem if you sweat a lot and you drink RODI water, then you will lose minerals (sweat is salty!) and if you don't compensate that loss with some electrolite (like in Gatorade) then you can get water poisoning.

"Any activity or situation that promotes heavy sweating can lead to water intoxication when water is consumed to replace lost fluids. Persons working in extreme heat and/or humidity for long periods must take care to drink and eat in ways that help to maintain electrolyte balance."

Personaly I would not drink RODI water but I drink filtered water with a filter that remove all the toxic stuff but not all of the good stuff.

Best water I ever drink was from some lakes in the Sierra Nevada in California, 10,000 feet elevation and filtered with a ceramic filter for hiking. That tasted awesome!

Originally Posted by Wayne

+1 What possible minerals do you want from regular tap water? Copper, Lead, Arsenic, not to mention so many more minerals that are harmful to your health. Even though RO water will remove minerals from your body, you get proper organic minerals that will actually disolve in your body from the food you eat. I do like the taste of tap water but RO water is safe to drink.

[randallino]

I have a RO line for our drinking and cooking water, I prefer it to bottled any day.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Guys, it's only a problem if you sweat a lot and you drink RODI water, then you will lose minerals (sweat is salty!) and if you don't compensate that loss with some electrolite (like in Gatorade) then you can get water poisoning.

"Any activity or situation that promotes heavy sweating can lead to water intoxication when water is consumed to replace lost fluids. Persons working in extreme heat and/or humidity for long periods must take care to drink and eat in ways that help to maintain electrolyte balance."

Personaly I would not drink RODI water but I drink filtered water with a filter that remove all the toxic stuff but not all of the good stuff.

Best water I ever drink was from some lakes in the Sierra Nevada in California, 10,000 feet elevation and filtered with a ceramic filter for hiking. That tasted awesome!

Actually the same rules apply to tap water as well. If you want to avoid this you should drink bottled mineral water. Tap water is not mineral water, it may have minerals but they aren't necessarily the correct type.

IMO you shouldn't drink tap water in most cities, some are OK depending on how close you are to the source but most not so good. When I lived in Saskatoon a study showed many areas to have 3-5 times the allowable lead content in the tap water. Calgary claims they add fluoride to help your teeth while the dentist makes sure you don't swallow any fluoride during the routine treatment Then there's the chloramine with is what is now used instead of chlorine since chlorine breaks down two easily. Chloramine is ammonia bonded and doesn't break down, all those aerators on your taps are now fairly useless.
For the amount of so called "good" things in city water there are too many bad things for me personally. In Calgary and Saskatoon the source of the water comes from rivers, the city advices the water from the rivers are safe to drink but don't eat any fish from them.
Many things within the water have been linked to cancer as well which we all know is a very common disease while most of us have never heard of water poisoning due to a lack of minerals.

I currently drink RO water but previously it was RODI which can taste funny to some but it's harmless. If you like the taste then go nuts, if not try a final taste and odor filter on your system or remove the DI. You can also tee into your filter right before the DI stage and use that for drinking (just make sure the storage tank is also tee'd in before the DI) and leave the output from the DI strictly for the aquarium.
It's sometimes recommended not to drink DI water because DI alone does not remove bacteria or pathogens. When it's added to a RO system this is no longer a concern.