Drinking Water - Should I drink tap vs. fridge filter vs. RODI?

[BlueWorldJeff]

Is it healthy to drink 0 TDS water as my only drinking, cooking water source? Or do I need the minerals left over. Our tap water TDS is 450 and even through the fridge filter, it is still 400.

We even got an Aquasana whole house filter with softener and pre/post filter and it still shows 400 out of the tap and the same through the fridge filter. The Aquasana goes down to 3.5 microns, so I;m guessing the filter on the fridge is 5 microns or higher.

My neighbors RO unit on her sink get the water down to 22 TDS. Is that just beneficial nutrients at that point?

How can my water be 400 TDS after a $1500 whole house filter?!?

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I also tested my tap water (after whole house filter installation) for other contaminants using the first alert drinking water test.
There is no Chlorine, Lead, Pesticides, Nitrate or Nitrite. The pH is normal, but the hardness was a bit high (250 ppm) for using a softener.
The kicker was the bacteria test. I put the tap water in the vial and it says to put it in a place between 70-90 degrees and if it stays purple after 48 hours, then no presence, but if it turns yellow then "It is highly likely that potentially harmful bacteria were detected". I put it on the window sill and within 24 hours it was yellow. Is this because it got sunlight/direct sunlight? The instructions dont say anything about avoiding sunlight. I'm kind of freaked that there could be E Coli or Coliform or Salmonella in our water. My wife has had stomach/intestine/digestive issues since we moved into this house 2 year ago.

Any feedback/opinion would be appreciated.

 

[BigJohnny]

Is it healthy to drink 0 TDS water as my only drinking, cooking water source? Or do I need the minerals left over. Our tap water TDS is 450 and even through the fridge filter, it is still 400.

We even got an Aquasana whole house filter with softener and pre/post filter and it still shows 400 out of the tap and the same through the fridge filter. The Aquasana goes down to 3.5 microns, so I;m guessing the filter on the fridge is 5 microns or higher.

My neighbors RO unit on her sink get the water down to 22 TDS. Is that just beneficial nutrients at that point?

How can my water be 400 TDS after a $1500 whole house filter?!?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also tested my tap water (after whole house filter installation) for other contaminants using the first alert drinking water test.
There is no Chlorine, Lead, Pesticides, Nitrate or Nitrite. The pH is normal, but the hardness was a bit high (250 ppm) for using a softener.
The kicker was the bacteria test. I put the tap water in the vial and it says to put it in a place between 70-90 degrees and if it stays purple after 48 hours, then no presence, but if it turns yellow then "It is highly likely that potentially harmful bacteria were detected". I put it on the window sill and within 24 hours it was yellow. Is this because it got sunlight/direct sunlight? The instructions dont say anything about avoiding sunlight. I'm kind of freaked that there could be E Coli or Coliform or Salmonella in our water. My wife has had stomach/intestine/digestive issues since we moved into this house 2 year ago.

Any feedback/opinion would be appreciated.

I'd recommend you get professional water testing first and foremost. Find a private company or use the city if available. This is your health were talking about and it's worth the cost. Consumer test kits can be very inaccurate and therefore unreliable, I've heard bad things about the one you used.

Then treat any issues you have appropriately.

As far as the performance of your filter system, call the people who installed it and tell them your concerns that it's not working properly.

 

[Heavymman]

I use RODI water for drinking. I just bypass the DI resin for drinking and use DI solely for reefing

 

[Butuz]

Use RO for drinking. RODI for the tank. DI gives a horrible taste to water and removes more than needed.

 

[KrisReef]

Are you on public or private water supply? Public supplies should be able to tell you what is in the water.
Our water is +300 TDS coming into the house. I run ro for drinking water and have that also supply the refrigerator because my wife doesn't like the taste. I have noticed that I am healthier not drinking unfiltered tap even although I grew up drinking this southern California swill that is filled with calcium and chlorine and whatever else gets sucked into the intakes.

My mom had a whole water house water softener and her water was worse than tap imo. She had an ro unit in the kitchen and that was the only water in the house I would drink. Highly recommend ro, but you should get your water tested to see if you don't require DI, or pipe replacement, or???

 

[scardall]

In small amounts it does not matter. RODI in large amts. would not be recommended due to the lack of minerals. If you compensate, then no issue.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I drink my RO water, which has TDS below 6 ppm. Lots of people say that drinking low TDS water is not good for you, but I don't buy it. The average tap water in the US has about 250 ppm of dissolved solids. 250 ppm is about 250 mg/L. There are 3.785 liters per gallon. So, a gallon of tap water has about 946 mg of solids in it. The average person needs about 1 gallon of water per day. So, assuming you drink water with zero TDS over tap water, you're missing out on 946 mg of solids. This is less than 1 gram of solids. If water provides a significant amount of mineral content to your diet or you're becoming mineral-deficient because you're missing the minerals in your tap water, you have a serious diet problem.

The most common solids in tap water are magnesium, calcium and sodium. Sodium is a huge problem in peoples' diets in the US anyway. With all the high blood pressure and heart disease in the US, eliminating that source of sodium could be a net health benefit. Second, magnesium and calcium are fairly easy to get in your diet. One glass of milk will give you 300 mg of calcium, a third of your DRV (some soy and almond milks have double that). A single handful of mixed nuts will provide between 300 and 400 mg of magnesium, or between 70% and 100% of your DRV. So right there, by eating two very simple foods, you've consumed almost 700 mg of the supposed 946 mg that tap water is supposed to give you. If you count the sodium in the milk and the salt on the nuts, you've completely made up for the minerals missing in the tap water. All of this totally ignores that if you take a multivitamin, you get 100% of calcium and magnesium anyway.

Plus, this discussion totally ignores intangibles, like contaminants in the water supply that, while rare, could make you very sick if you ingest them. Consider the case of the unfortunate people in Flynt, MI, some of whom still don't have clean drinking water today. Suppose you were in their shoes: if you had to choose between water with enough lead to make your family sick, or water missing a few mg of calcium and magnesium, which would you choose?

 

[BigJohnny]

In small amounts it does not matter. RODI in large amts. would not be recommended due to the lack of minerals. If you compensate, then no issue.

That's actually a common misconception. Humans get almost 100% of their minerals from food. If it were true, people on submarines would have issues because they only drink distilled or evaporated water.

 

[Geebs19]

We use RO for drinking and RODI for the tank. We love how the RO taste

 

[DudeBruh]

Guess I’m on the better side as my TDS coming in is only 85 give or take. Out of my fridge is 35 so I’m not concerned enough to enlarge my RO system for the whole house, considering we drink a fair amount of bottled water as well.

 

[WillH]

Di resin is not food safe

 

[Dancingmad]

Are you on public or private water supply? Public supplies should be able to tell you what is in the water.

When I moved I asked my water company when I signed up if they could tell me whether they use chlorine or chloramine to disinfect their water so I could decide on how many carbon blocks to add to my RODI system. The customer service rep didn't know, but I got a call from a chemist that worked there a couple days later and got a bunch of cool information. I didn't expect to actually get a call! Asked a bunch of questions and got all the details about my tap water supply.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

When cavemen & cavegirls roamed the Earth they drank pristine water with plenty TDS. Its the minerals in water that the body needs for normal functioning.

Ug

 

[Gareth elliott]

Didnt see this touched on, but a water softener will significantly add tds. I would suspect this is the reason the op’s is much higher than their neighbor.

Side-note the vast majority of Americans have absolutely safe tap water. The EPA could do more, and there are definitely some areas that need large overhauls to the water supply. But most of us live where daily tap consumption is healthy and safe.
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/index.php#.W63whaQpD7q

Will give an idea on yours.

 

[DWPhilli]

I was able to pull the water report from the local public supplier website. I drink RO, but also have no problem drinking from the tap

 

[Dancingmad]

When cavemen & cavegirls roamed the Earth they drank pristine water with plenty TDS.

Mmmmm and some bonus dysentery too. I need to hit the restroom just thinking about it. ;Clown