On Mar 29, 10:39 am, "Christopher Nelson"
wrote:
We have really awful municipal water and a watersoftenerthat results
in OK wash water but terrible tasting drinking water. Even using a
Brita pitcher doesn't make the water any where near as good tasting as
buying bottled water. But I'm sick of the expense and trouble of
hauling a case of bottled water home from the grocery store every week
and I'm considering a water filter, a reverse osmosis system, I
imagine and I'm left wondering, if the RO filter takes all the stuff
out of the water, do I still need asoftener?

It's the things in water that give water a good or bad taste. A
distiller or an RO gives you the highest quality of water but... if
you do not have a proven need for an RO, then I say go with an
undercounter 2 stage drinking water filter. They use an RO faucet and
give you all but full line pressure while taking up less space than an
RO. A proven need is like arsenic, nitrates etc. in the water that are
health related problems. All ROs use the same cartridges as the 2
stage so you'll spend a lot less money anf there's no waste or
expensive membrane to replace. The membrane reduces many things found
in water but doesn't remove all of anything. An RO will usually
require a softener to remove hardness, iron and any manganese and the
RO water usually is described as flat or tasteless. A filter doesn't
do that. I use a 5 mic prefilter and a high quality carbon block with
a swivel long reach RO faucet.

As to RO wasting water... all kinds if things use water to be made. We
don't look at that water as wasted anymore than our shower water or
eering the lawn oe washing the vehicle. Why do we see it as wasted
water when we use water to make water into very high quality water
then? I think we waste A LOT of water watrering lawns and plants,
showers more frequently than once a day, washing vehicles, bathing
pets each week on'n on but.. we keep doing it and the day is coming
fairly soon we will be paying much more for water than we have been
because there ain't any new water being made anywhere. What we got is
what we get. Anyway... enjoy it while it lasts and conserve what you
can, it will last longer.

Gary
Quality Water Associates