Question:
I just bought a reverse osmosis water filter system off of ebay.

I currently have a whole house water filter with a couple offilters, one charcoal and one not, but I don't always like the taste.

I don't know what reverse osmosis is, but will it be better than thefilters?

Answer: R/O actually wastes about 4 gallons for every gallon it produces. Itremoves substances at the ionic level. It has a 90 to 95% filtrationefficiency depending on the filter and the source water. Using a watersoftener will actually help with the efficiency as an r/o unit has aneasier time (no scale buildup for example) filtering sodium ratherthan calcium.

If the source water has harmful bacteria in it 5 to 10% get throughand they can replicate after the filter.

You do NOT get a significant amount of calcium and minerals from yourtap water in the first place and drinking r/o or distilled water willnot harm you from mineral loss.

Ionization still strips the minerals from the water but doesn't cleanthe water at the level of r/o. Ionization resin beds can only berecharged with some rather harsh chemicals. No water waste.

Distilled requires energy to vaporize the water. Some contaminateswill pass in distillation but can be removed with carbon filtration.Minor water waste depending on the condenser.