House water supply very hard. What are my options for our situation?

koalakoala

Carrot007 said:

For those more knowledgeable in these things, can you suggest what our options are?

Soft water is, a. horrible to drink (I know people in such an area, they buy bottled water), and b. horrible to shower in. DO you do much else with it (I already mentioned the boiler).

Do they think bottled water is hard water?

silvercar

If RO water isn’t safe to drink, what is the purpose of an RO filter? 

silvercar

Eldi_Dos said:

If there are babies or young children in the household I would err on the side of caution with these devices.

No kids here, but I remember when making baby milk bottles we were told to use freshly boiled water as reboiled has too high a mineral content.

cherry.c

We've had water softeners (using salt) for many years and would always have one installed. However we have a separate, unsalted, supply pipe to each cold water sink tap.

Belenus

cherry.c said:

We've had water softeners (using salt) for many years and would always have one installed. However we have a separate, unsalted, supply pipe to each cold water sink tap.

Do you mean all cold water taps or just those at the kitchen and utility sink etc and not at bathroom basins etc.

We have also had water softeners for decades but we only have unsoftened water at the one kitchen tap for drinking and cooking.

coffeehound

No point in having a ready-salted outside tap either, unless perhaps for a car detailing fundamentalist

Slinky

coffeehound said:

No point in having a ready-salted outside tap either, unless perhaps for a car detailing fundamentalist

OH turns off the feed through the water softener when hosing the top layer of muck off the car but turns it back on for the final rinse as he gets a much better finish.

ispookie666

silvercar said:

If RO water isn’t safe to drink, what is the purpose of an RO filter? 

It is not safe to drink directly, you have to boil it. Nothing to do with minerals, purely because of bacterial contamination

silvercar

ispookie666 said:

silvercar said:

If RO water isn’t safe to drink, what is the purpose of an RO filter? 

It is not safe to drink directly, you have to boil it. Nothing to do with minerals, purely because of bacterial contamination

Reverse Osmosis Systems

• Reverse Osmosis Systems use a process that reverses the flow of water in a natural process of osmosis so that water passes from a more concentrated solution to a more dilute solution through a semi-permeable membrane. Pre- and post-filters are often incorporated along with the reverse osmosis membrane itself.
• A reverse osmosis filter has a pore size of approximately 0.0001 micron.
• Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing protozoa (for example, Cryptosporidium, Giardia);
• Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing bacteria (for example, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli);
• Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing viruses (for example, Enteric, Hepatitis A, Norovirus, Rotavirus);
• Reverse Osmosis Systems will remove common chemical contaminants (metal ions, aqueous salts), including sodium, chloride, copper, chromium, and lead; may reduce arsenic, fluoride, radium, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, potassium, nitrate, and phosphorous.

from here: https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/home-water-treatment/household_water_treatment.html

Jack_Bauer

ispookie666 said:

silvercar said:

If RO water isn’t safe to drink, what is the purpose of an RO filter? 

It is not safe to drink directly, you have to boil it. Nothing to do with minerals, purely because of bacterial contamination

Actually it has nothing to do with bacteria and everything to do with minerals. The RO filter filters out everything; salt, bacteria, minerals, practically everything. It is because of this fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) have issued warnings against consumption of this water.

After analyzing hundreds of scientific studies concerning demineralized or reverse osmosis water, the World Health Organization released a report (linked below) stating that such water "has a definite adverse influence on the animal and human organism."

What they have said is that consuming reverse osmosis water for even just a few months can create serious side effects. "The effects of most chemicals commonly found in drinking water manifest themselves after long exposure." However "only a few months exposure may be sufficient 'consumption time effects' from water that is low in magnesium and/or calcium. Illustrative of such short-term exposures are cases in the Czech and Slovak populations who began using reverse osmosis-based systems for final treatment of drinking water at their home taps in 2000-2002. Within several weeks or months various health complaints suggestive of acute magnesium (and possibly calcium) deficiency were reported. Among these complaints were cardiovascular disorders, tiredness, weakness or muscular cramps." Again, serious side effects within just several weeks or months.It gets worse...
Because reverse osmosis water doesn't have enough minerals, when it is consumed, it also leaches minerals from the body. This means that the minerals being consumed in food and vitamins are being urinated away. Less minerals consumed plus more minerals being excreted equals serious negative side effects and big health problems. In a scientific study performed to see if minerals consumed in food can make up for the lack of minerals in reverse osmosis water, scientists concluded that "reduced mineral intake from water was not compensated by their diets...low-mineral water was responsible for an increased elimination of minerals from the body."

https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutrientschap12.pdf