What do you use RO water for, besides brewing?

[TheCache]

As the water completely lack any minerals it will absorb the minerals in your body until some equalibruim is achieved and then are flushed out of your body.

I believe this is true, but it needs to be understood in context. Your body gets minerals from many sources; the food your eat, any supplements you take, the beer you drink, etc, etc. According to WHO (leaving further discussion of their value to the political threads), RO water can be problematic if that is the only water you drink and you are mineral deficient in your diet or for other health reasons. I also noticed that some companies who sell alternatives to RO systems used the WHO report to bash RO making it even hard to get an accurate picture. Maybe some of the RO folks on this site could weigh in.

I drink RO water at home and have for the last couple of decades. I don't have the science behind this, but my feeling is I do less damage drinking RO then drinking the trace amounts of chemicals and contaminants not removed by my local water utility. It's a trade off. In some cities this may not be true, but I used to live in a rural area and only had well water. It was not good for drinking without some treatment.

Also, adding trace minerals is easy. A jar is pretty inexpensive and last quite a while. I do this regularly. A couple shakes in a glass and I've got clean water with a good amount of clean minerals.

Do your homework, lots of info for and against out there. I'll go with all things in moderation and hope for the best.

 

[JAReeves]

A quick Google search found this on a familiar site...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/help-me-design-better-mineral-water.644788/

I used the khymos site for my mineral water recipes. Two of my kegs are dedicated to sparkling mineral water, Pellegrino-style. That way I don't hear any complaints when one runs out .

EDIT: As @Deadalus mentions below, the wastewater is an issue. Because I live in (normally) sunny and dry SoCal, I direct all wastewater into a rain barrel in the yard and use it to water the yard, cooling water from making beer, also; it all ends up in the plants at some point.

 

[Deadalus]

I have been putting it in the clothes iron.

I also use it in the brine for making fermented vegetables.

If it isn't particularly necessary, and if you don't capture the waste water, it is a wasteful use of water. If on a well not that much of an issue I'd say. During the growing season, I direct the waste water to one of two water tanks to use for watering plants and the garden. I simply don't have a good way to store though in the winter.

 

[RyPA]

I have been putting it in the clothes iron.

I also use it in the brine for making fermented vegetables.

If it isn't particularly necessary, and if you don't capture the waste water, it is a wasteful use of water. If on a well not that much of an issue I'd say. During the growing season, I direct the waste water to one of two water tanks to use for watering plants and the garden. I simply don't have a good way to store though in the winter.

Isn't that contaminating veggies that you are going to eat? Or is it flowers?

 

[day_trippr]

Isn't that contaminating veggies

RO brine isn't exactly toxic - it's pretty much what one would be consuming if there was no RO system in sight
In the scheme of things I'd be more concerned about where the backwash from a water softener ends up but only because there's so much salt involved...

Cheers!

 

[JAReeves]

RO brine isn't exactly toxic - it's pretty much what one would be consuming if there was no RO system in sight
In the scheme of things I'd be more concerned about where the backwash from a water softener ends up but only because there's so much salt involved...

Cheers!

@Buckeye_Hydro or Bobby should correct me, but the chlorine/chloramine would be removed by the charcoal filter. The remaining metals & minerals would be removed by the RO system in the waste water. It’s this waste water that goes into the garden, perhaps a little more concentrated than straight hose water would be, but so far I haven’t seen adverse effects on my hops, grapes, tomatoes, etc.

 

[Deadalus]

Isn't that contaminating veggies that you are going to eat? Or is it flowers?

I've considered it but all it's doing is adding extra minerals to the soil, it's city water to begin with. I can multiply the numbers in the city water report by 4. My municipal water is no where near hard water and not dangerous. I already irrigate my garden. I collect rainwater too though so the maybe 60 gallons of waste water gets diluted by about 90-180 gallons of water when I water with rainwater. The plants don't take up all the removed atoms/molecules/minerals immediately, some will be attached to the soil through cation exchange. I only brew every 3 weeks or so and so it will rain and some of that material will be picked up and work its way into the water table and eventually back to the ocean or possibly precipitate underground or along the way somewhere.

I'd consider it a little more closely if the incoming water had specific issues.

 

[RyPA]

Good points and yes as long as your tap is decent then no issue. I was thinking along the lines of using RO to avoid potential chemical contamination, fluoride, etc. that you'd be still consuming those things, only through veggies instead of water.

 

[Bobby_M]

I don’t know the science/biology of this, but I have been drinking it as my primary source of water for over 25 years now. I’m still alive, my bones are intact and I have all my teeth.

If you were malnourished or on some very strict diet and only drinking RO, you could become mineral deficient. You get minerals from your diet as a whole, food and water.

I use RO for coffee, general drinking, making ice, feeds into my perpetual seltzer tap, the steamer function on the clothes dryer, the clothing iron, humidifiers, cooking that absorbs water like pasta and rice.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

CPAP machine

 

[day_trippr]

I can multiply the numbers in the city water report by 4.

I think that multiplier would be far smaller: I believe my system yields one part per four, and I think that's actually fairly typical of consumer level RO systems. That does not make the brine mineral concentration 4x stronger than the base water...

Cheers!

 

[Dog House Brew]

Haven’t bought mine yet, but I will soon. I could get by before my kid got a Panther Chameleon. That misting system has pushed me to it. I look forward to the RO options. I have 15 jugs and when I fill it is $90. Won’t take long to pay for a system.

 

[RyPA]

Haven’t bought mine yet, but I will soon. I could get by before my kid got a Panther Chameleon. That misting system has pushed me to it. I look forward to the RO options. I have 15 jugs and when I fill it is $90. Won’t take long to pay for a system.

My panther chameleon passed last August, I miss him. They are such cool animals

Did you get a Mist King?

 

[Dog House Brew]

Yes on Mist King, sorry for your loss.

 

[RyPA]

Yes on Mist King, sorry for your loss.

Solid choice, mine treated me well for 5 years, and thank you

 

[day_trippr]

Holy cow, that little dude is spectacular!

 

[Dog House Brew]

Our little man was almost lost to power outage this winter. Gave him shots and force fed him for 3 weeks before he ate a live bug. Herbert is year and a half now.

 

[RyPA]

Our little man was almost lost to power outage this winter. Gave him shots and force fed him for 3 weeks before he ate a live bug. Herbert is year and a half now.

Yeah, they are tough to keep, pretty much the only reason why I don't have 2-3 of them right now. I really want a Parsons.

You have to constantly monitor temp/humidity/UVB, keep bugs gutloaded, and worry about power outages. Finding a qualified vet is also nearly impossible. I may get another eventually, but am enjoying caring for only a dog at the moment.

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

@Buckeye_Hydro or Bobby should correct me, but the chlorine/chloramine would be removed by the charcoal filter. The remaining metals & minerals would be removed by the RO system in the waste water. It’s this waste water that goes into the garden, perhaps a little more concentrated than straight hose water would be, but so far I haven’t seen adverse effects on my hops, grapes, tomatoes, etc.

We call RO System "waste water" CONCENTRATE because the dissolved minerals are concentrated in this water relative to the feedwater (tap water). It's tap water with most of the sediment removed, and the chlorine/chloramine treated. Then it's had about 20% of the pure H2O pulled out of it by the membrane.

So in determining if the concentrate is suitable for any particular use, the first thing to look at is the quality of the tap water. Some concentrate is better than some tap water. And the opposite is true in many cases as well.

Russ

 

[Dog House Brew]

Yeah, they are tough to keep, pretty much the only reason why I don't have 2-3 of them right now. I really want a Parsons.

You have to constantly monitor temp/humidity/UVB, keep bugs gutloaded, and worry about power outages. Finding a qualified vet is also nearly impossible. I may get another eventually, but am enjoying caring for only a dog at the moment.

I’ll second all of the above. Drove an hr to the only vet that would see him. No wonder their lifespan in the wild is so short. When he is gone, I’ll admire them from afar. More expensive that any dog I’ve owned. When you commit to one, you have to do what you have to do.

 

[gaviga]

I'm almost done installing my brewery's RO system (big thanks to Buckeye Hydro!), just need to tidy up a bit.
View attachment 820929

So I'm wondering what you guys who have plenty of RO water on hand use it for besides brewing and sanitizing?
I understand it's not tasty in coffee, or for drinking straight. Probably no tgood for ice cubes, either?
My wife's steam iron comes to mind, and car batteries.
What else?

I have had an RO in my houses for over 30 years. We use it for almost all cooking. We use it for coffee. I make my cold-steeped coffee with it. I like it because it removes the sulphur smells that we periodically get in our community well, and the salt from our water softener. When we lived in the city, the carbon filter in our RO removed the chlorine taste from the city water. I can build my brewing water from scratch with it (I got a 9-gallon tank upgrade for brewing). I won't go without one.

But you should use distilled water in an iron. RO water still has some minerals in it that will cause corrosion.

 

[Deadalus]

I have had an RO in my houses for over 30 years. We use it for almost all cooking. We use it for coffee. I make my cold-steeped coffee with it. I like it because it removes the sulphur smells that we periodically get in our community well, and the salt from our water softener. When we lived in the city, the carbon filter in our RO removed the chlorine taste from the city water. I can build my brewing water from scratch with it (I got a 9-gallon tank upgrade for brewing). I won't go without one.

But you should use distilled water in an iron. RO water still has some minerals in it that will cause corrosion.

Sure distilled water as opposed to municipal water or well water is best but the difference between distilled and RO water for an iron is neglible.

 

[Deadalus]

I think that multiplier would be far smaller: I believe my system yields one part per four, and I think that's actually fairly typical of consumer level RO systems. That does not make the brine mineral concentration 4x stronger than the base water...

Cheers!

You're correct I'd say... I was thinking of the amount of water in the concentrated waste water which is about 4x the amount of ro water obtained. So five parts water with 4 parts going into the concentrate is ~5 to 4 or about 25% more, which is a lot less as you mentioned. This is neglecting what makes it through the membrane and that which is taken out by the prefilters to the ro membrane. Hopefully I'm doing it right this time!

I totally understand though people using an RO system if the water is funky. One place I worked the water practically tasted like blood from too much iron but it passed inspections because it didn't exceed a threshhold (or there may not even have been one).

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

Yep - the federal limit (MCL) for iron in drinking water is 0.3 ppm. That level will stain and affect taste and cause other problems. Goal for brewing water is "non detect."

 

[NeoBrew]

I almost forgot one of my favorites. I have pretty hard city well water. I hand wash all my beer glasswear so it doesn't get etched in the dishwasher. After hand washing and rinsing I use about a tablespoon of RO water from the faucet on my sink to rinse off the tap water. I can then air dry all my glasswear and have it come out spot free!

 

[gaviga]

I almost forgot one of my favorites. I have pretty hard city well water. I hand wash all my beer glasswear so it doesn't get etched in the dishwasher. After hand washing and rinsing I use about a tablespoon of RO water from the faucet on my sink to rinse off the tap water. I can then air dry all my glasswear and have it come out spot free!

I do the same but I use more RO water

 

[Buckeye_Hydro]

And another thing I forgot. We have lots of customers who wash their expensive cars, cycles, or motor homes etc., and then rinse with "spot free" RO water. Anything under about 30 ppm TDS will produce a spot free rinse.

 

[hottpeper13]

So , I can't use it on my Subaru?

 

[Tom R]

, I can't use it on my Subaru?

Subaru OK.
Yugo? Nope.

 

[Henbrew]

I use my RO for brewing, aquarium (only 50%), coffee, and drinking water (have alkaline mineral filter added). I bypass the alkaline filter when I brew since I'm adding my own brewing salts anyway. I've found many random instances where I want to use it, sometimes as a final rinse for brewing equipment. Our tap water is very hard and will spot like crazy.