OK to drink RO/DI ?

Charlie Davidson · #1 10/21/2007, 12:38 PM

Is it OK to drink ro/di water?
From what I remember it is,, But was told different yesterday..

Charlie Davidson · #2 10/21/2007, 01:07 PM

I just found a Tee and a shut off valve. I will just tap into ro water-- and save the Di cartriges- for tank water.

But would still like to Know!!??

landragon · #3 10/21/2007, 01:13 PM

it is not reccomended to drink di. Its a bit too pure, and your body would like you a lot more if you drank a quality spring water. R/o is better than di, however some interesting studies from japan show r/o does not properly hydrate human cells like distilled or rain or spring water.

bertoni · #4 10/21/2007, 02:31 PM

I haven't actually seen any data that convinces me that RO-DI is not safe for drinking. I drank it for years. The taste is rather flat, although I didn't care.

Charlie Davidson · #5 10/21/2007, 03:05 PM

Thanks , guys! I see most drinking water units are ro.. so I will just use that for now.
I was most concerned because I use same water for my "hot-dogs" .. Don't want to hurt my "children"
Anyone else want to join in? All info is valued!!

BTW, I thought the coffee tasted better with ro/di !

bencozzy · #6 10/21/2007, 04:39 PM

ive seen this asked before by bodybuilders and health "freaks" and they were all told as long as you eat food and get your minerals you will be fine with drinking ro/di water.

LB · #7 10/21/2007, 05:54 PM

I think if you throw in some barley and hops you should be ok!

I asked the guys at The filter guys this and they said to drink just the ro not di. Thats all I got

bertoni · #8 10/21/2007, 06:07 PM

Some of the DI resins aren't rated food-grade, so that might be an issue.

JaredWaites · #9 10/21/2007, 06:18 PM

Jeez,

RO/DI is perfectly fine to drink, as long as you bought the system for drinking water purification...most DWP systems are RO however and don't have a DI stage added. The reason its not healthy to drink it, would be that there are no minerals in the water...so as bencozzy said, eat food and drink RO and you'll be fine and won't end up with cancer or any other diseases.

I have heard of people accidentally ingesting the Resins on accident by having a high flow through the filter and this can cause Mucosal damage.

Charlie Davidson · #10 10/21/2007, 06:32 PM

LB, Barley sandwich at noon

Jared-- Destin? Man, great little drinking village,with a fishing problem

JaredWaites · #11 10/25/2007, 09:04 AM

Yessirr.

Supposed to be a great fishing village...but you damn sure got it straight.

ryanpal · #12 10/25/2007, 01:07 PM

i think the idea is (similar to distilled water)...i read that it takes minerals out of the body.

it was stated that the water enters the body without minerals but leaves the body with them.

...on that note i drank distilled water for some time myself...to each their own i guess

bertoni · #13 10/25/2007, 04:54 PM

RO-DI won't remove minerals from the body per se. Substituting RO-DI for tapwater will reduce the intake of whatever minerals the tapwater contains. In some situations, that might be an issue, but I doubt that's common at all.

AZDesertRat · #14 10/25/2007, 04:56 PM

There have been no conclusive studies proving nor disproving DI or RO/DI water has any effect on the human body. You would have to consume much more than we could possibly drink and be on a water only diet with no solid food for it to have any effect at all.
I have drank RO water since 1992 with no ill effects.

InADream · #15 10/25/2007, 05:11 PM

Honestly the RO/DI doesnt taste the greatest to me, I went ahead and bought a carbon filter and added a Tee before the DI chamber and use that for my drinking water... My family loves it especially when the see the TDS meter of publix water... I will eventually add a tank to the Ro water and run a line to my fridge so I always have cold pure water...

Dream

kysard1 · #16 10/25/2007, 06:30 PM

The issue with RO/DI is bacteria. Best to put a UV after the RO.

AZDesertRat · #17 10/25/2007, 09:21 PM

Bacteria does not pass through a properly maintained RO system. Look at the chart here that shows the relative size of bacteria and viruses, they are way larger then the pores in a RO membrane. With nanofiltration or microfiltration its a different story though since they are lesser technologies.

http://www.gewater.com/pdf/1117987-%...20Spectrum.pdf

kysard1 · #18 10/26/2007, 12:06 AM

The output side of the membrane and storage tank can be festered with bacteria, again this is a common problem.
The bacteria doesn't have to pass thru the membrane. The seals also slightly weep. Remember you don't start with a sterile system. We always spec UV after RO for pretreatment systems.

UV is recommended for post RO drinking water.

jmarti705 · #19 10/26/2007, 01:33 AM

ya i wouldnt drink it

Rosseau · #20 10/26/2007, 11:51 AM

This has been an ongoing debate in my lab for years... the consensus seems to be that you would need to drink an obscene amount of the stuff before you have any real problems.

CapitalO · #21 10/26/2007, 12:17 PM

A lot of people think DI water is bad for you because it doesnt have any salts (or electrolytes) so its hypotonic to our cells. This would imply that we lose electolytes by drinking pure water since the pure water will absorb salts to become isotonic and properly hydrate us. Although, we intake electrolytes from a bunch of other sources, so drinking only DI water probably wont cause any major effects if the salt levels are maintained in our bodies. I guess its possible to harm yourself by drinking a ton of DI water in more extreme conditions (IE if you were starving and had very low levels of electolytes), but for most purposes I would be cool with drinking DI water. If I was going to consume a ton of water, like during excercise or after being dehydrated, I would definitly pick something like gatorade over DI water.

burris · #22 10/26/2007, 12:38 PM

kysard1 is right, the risk is bacterial contamination. The risk is higher with DI because of the huge surface area for bacteria to colonize. Have you ever smelled something "fishy" coming out of the DI when you first turned the system on after a fallow period?

HowardW · #23 10/27/2007, 07:50 AM

Here's an entertaining thread on the topic:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=182344

CapitalO · #24 10/27/2007, 12:25 PM

Wow, I didn't realize there was so much debate about this. I think the best case for not drinking RO/DI water is the bacterial dangers.

In the thread that Howard posted, someone was talking about cells exploding in DI water... thats actually true, cells in hypotonic solutions will swell and burst via osmosis; but that doesn't mean all the cells in our body will start exploding if you drink a hypotonic solution

I would suspect that the dirtiest of dirty tapwater is hypotonic to our cells. Our bodies are adapted to handle this effect -for the same reason, I don't really buy into the electrolyte leeching theory in practical cases.

I had a high school chemistry teacher tell our class that if we drink distilled or ultra pure water exclusively "WE WILL DIE!"

Boomer · #25 10/27/2007, 12:46 PM

I don't really buy into the electrolyte leeching theory in practical cases.

Yup, just a bunch of gibberish but babes may be another issues.