What exactly is a reverse osmosis water filter? Basically, it is a filtration system that uses a special membrane with minute pores to filter out contaminants from drinking water. The reverse osmosis technology was developed in the 1950s and was meant to separate salt from sea water.
Reverse osmosis is capable of removing a wide range of inorganic pollutants and particulate matter from water thus making it relatively safer to drink.
Over the last few decades, people have been increasingly concerned with the level of pollution in drinking water. City water supply systems worldwide have been shown to contain unacceptably high levels of contamination. This made using good water filtration systems a real necessity. The reverse osmosis water filter was one among the many options that developed – and it was a well-regarded option for a while.
Unfortunately, it suffers from serious drawbacks. The biggest issue is that in some respects, reverse osmosis works too well. Not only does it remove particulate contaminants, it also filters out essential minerals present in water.
Water in its natural state contains trace amounts of minerals like calcium and magnesium (among others). When these minerals are removed from water, the pH value of water changes and it becomes slightly acidic. When this water is consumed, the human body responds by extracting calcium and other minerals from the bones so that the acidic water can be neutralized by producing bicarbonates. Repeated over the long term, this can result in serious mineral deficiencies and a weakening of the body’s skeletal system.
Further, when acidic water is consumed, the body’s fluids tend to become more acidic over time. This increases the amount of free radicals present in the human body and can trigger off many diseases including serious ones like cancer.
After a study spanning many years, the World Health Organization concluded that drinking water should contain certain minimum levels of specific minerals for maintaining good health. Drinking de-mineralized water over a period of years can create serious health problems.
A reverse osmosis water filter has other disadvantages as well. It does not remove dissolved pesticides and herbicides present in water. It also cannot filter out pharmaceutical drugs that have made their way into the water supply system. This is because these dissolved substances are of smaller size than the pores in the membranes of the reverse osmosis water filter.
Therefore, to obtain water that is safe to drink, you would have to use other filtration methods in addition to reverse osmosis, which of course, adds to the costs.
Apart from the above, the reverse osmosis water filter has another major drawback – it is not environmentally friendly. For every gallon of filtered water it produces, the typical reverse osmosis filter uses up about three to four gallons of water. People who install these filters very often notice a quantum jump in their water supply bill.
For all these reasons, it may be best to look at other types of filtration methods before investing a lot of money into a reverse osmosis water filter. With the wide range of choices available today, it should be possible to find a water filter system that provides safe drinking water while being cost effective.