The original home water filtration method was a reverse osmosis water purifier fitted to your water supply. In the years since this system was introduced, more effective and economical systems have become available and yet major players in the water industry continue to push the old system. This article looks at the disadvantages of reverse osmosis water filters.

Still Being Sold

Although there are far cheaper and more effective water filters available on the market today, some people are still led to believe that a reverse osmosis system is the best way to filter the water to their homes.

This is largely due to a lot of marketing dollars spent by the larger water companies selling the units, and the fact that they do a very good job for certain applications such as removing the salt from sea water leaving it suitable for use in irrigation and industry. They do remove many of the harmful contaminants present in drinking water; however this is where the plus points start to run a little thin.

Unnecessary Waste

It is not easy for any salesman to hide the fact that gallon upon gallon of water using reverse osmosis is wasted, in order to produce just a few gallons suitable to drink.

Many using a septic system for their waste water have to upgrade to larger sizes because the tank couldn’t cope with the amount of waste-water it was accumulating. For example, between 40 to 90 gallons of waste-water is produced in order to give the householder just 5 gallons of purified drinking water. This is an unnecessary and flagrant waste of a precious commodity.

Power Bills

This particular system needs plenty of power in order to turn waste water in to that which is drinkable. Certainly when you take into consideration the ratio of waste water to make drinking water a lot of electricity is required and this is not only bad for your home electricity bills but for the environment as well.

So Does Reverse Osmosis Make Water Safe To Drink?

This is the most important question when considering purchasing any water filtration system, and especially so when buying one that is as costly and expensive to install and operate.

Well, the answer is that this system makes the water safer to drink, but not necessarily safe. It does a competent job certainly, but no better than the considerably cheaper systems employing more economical methods to filter water without all the whistles and bells whilst doing so.

This is because one of the major disadvantages of reverse osmosis systems is that it does not eradicate all the cysts or chemical contaminants that are found in water.

One manufacturer of such equipment has freely admitted that these units are only designed to clean up the waters aesthetic properties. They don’t in fact act as a barrier against waterborne micro-biological and toxic chemicals.

One other disadvantage of reverse osmosis filters is that they can remove all the natural minerals which are good for us from the water. If giving your family fresh, clean, pollutant free water as efficiently and cost effectively as possible is your aim, then you would do well to look elsewhere.