What are the side effects of RO water purifier?
Reverse Osmosis is observed to be one of the very reliable ways to purify water at your home. This is because the RO purification system offers the most comprehensive elimination of almost all kinds of impurities from the water. This ensures the health and prosperity of all family members. In spite of all these benefits, some of the critics of RO water purification system think that the use of RO purification technique causes a few side effects to the user.
Side Effects of RO Water Purifier?
There are mainly three types of problems associated with the use of RO water purifier system. These are:
- RO Purification eliminates essential minerals and nutrients from the water
- RO purification also lowers the pH value of water
- Wastage of water
To solve these issues, it is important to understand these issues and learn the right solutions for them.
RO Purification eliminates essential minerals and nutrients from the water.
Along with the removal of harmful bacteria, and heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and lead from the water, RO purification system also leaches away essential minerals such as magnesium and calcium too.
This is due to the fact that the molecule size of the mineral is quite larger when compared to the molecule size of water. RO membrane only allows water molecules and restrict minerals from passing through it.
Due to which people believe that RO removes essential minerals from the water that it produces. This makes RO water not beneficial for your health. Some of the body ailments that such water can cause are tiredness, cardiovascular disorders, muscular cramps, and weakness.
Solution
Re-mineralization or addition of lost essential minerals into the water is an effective solution in such a case. Now let us see how we can do this.
When you find that the purified water is depleted from essential minerals, then to restore back the mineral content, you can add a mineralizer cartridge in the market. Addition of this filter is a simple procedure. You can get it done by yourself or from a professional.
Mineralizer cartridge adds essential minerals such as calcium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium into the filtered water. It also raises the pH value of the water and makes it alkaline.
There are several specialized water bottles named “alkaline water bottles” available in the market, which when used increases the mineral content in the water and increases its pH value too.
Besides these two ways, there are some natural ways too that can provide you necessary nutrients in your diet. There are several foods that are rich in both of these essential minerals.
List of foods that contains Magnesium
- Green leafy vegetables like spinach,
- Fruits such as figs, banana, raspberries, and avocado,
- Seeds and Nuts,
- Vegetables such as broccoli, peas, green beans, and cabbage,
- Seafood such as mackerel, salmon, tuna,
- Whole grains like oats and brown rice, and
- Dark Chocolate
List of foods that are rich in calcium
- Milk,
- Yogurt,
- Cheese,
- Almonds,
- Whey Protein
RO purification also lowers the pH value of water
When water passes via a semi-permeable reverse osmosis membrane, then several inorganic and organic constituents fail to make their way through it. This is not the case with gases like Carbon Dioxide. It can easily pass through the membrane and combine itself with the “free”
Hydroxide ions present in water.
This forms acidic bicarbonate ions or Hydrogen Carbonate, while the positive Hydrogen ions are unable to search any substance that they can react with. This happens because most of the harmful impurities get eliminated through the membrane. So, water now contains a greater number of H+ ion in it. This reduces the pH value of water and makes it acidic.
Solution
To make the pH level of the water neutral, it is important to add alkaline substances in the water. It balances the acidic content in the water and makes it neutral. Alkaline water bottles are a good source of the alkaline substance that when added to acidic water neutralizes the pH level in the water.
Another easy way to make your water neutral or alkaline is the addition of soda, pH drops and lemon to your water.
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Wastage of water
This is another problem associated with RO water purifiers in which it has been seen that a lot of water gets wasted in the purification process. RO water purifier systems waste the same amount of water that it purifies. This means if the RO water purifier system purifies around one liter of water, then it wastes around one liter of water.
Solution
If you don’t want such unnecessary wastage of water from this purifier system, then you can even collect and store the water for different purposes such as washing dishes, or watering plants, etc.
RO water purifiers are one of the best water purification methods available in the market as of date. So, if you are in the market to buy RO water purifier, you must get all the information pertaining to its side effects and efficient ways to deal with them.
