[encantotom]

i learned something today maybe the rest of you knew and i was left out....

i am buying a chilled water drinking fountain for the garage.  i was curious if the RO system i am putting in ther garage for drinking water will be enough pressure for the drinking fountain, so i called Elkay and asked their tech support.  

what they said surprised me.  

Don't do it.  

they said that RO water causes corrosion to the metal tubing and tank in the drinking foutain and will leach the metals into the RO water and make it fail and not have great tasting water.  

i looked it up on line and that is why they use all plastic tubing for RO systems.  

well, what do ya know....

tom

[Fulltiming]

New information to me. Thanks Tom.

[Richard]

Tom, I don't know about that. Used RO systems for years in Texas or the water wasn't drinkable. Deionized water, made by passing the water through resin exchange beds is extremely corrosive and should not be used for drinking water since it will leach the minerals from your body.

Is it possible the person you talked with confused the two completely different water treatment systems.

[encantotom]

It was a very clear discussion. I Really WANTED to know if there was enough pressure from the ro system for the drinking fountain. She brought up they don't recommend an ro with the drinkING fountain

Tom

[lbrachfe]

Richard,

I had never heard that Deionized is highly corrosive before. Why is this so and why are these resin systems recommended for drinking water ??

[encantotom]

richard,

have a look at this FAQ from a RO company. look at the question about not using copper lines for a fridge water line

tom

http://www.freshwatersystems.com/t-faqro.aspx#hide14

[prairieschooner]

Tom, that is very interesting indeed!
I installed our RO System about 5 years ago. I installed it so that I could use filtered city water or the RO water to the tap at the sink and to the ice maker. Last year the copper tubing going going to the ice maker failed and when I removed it I couldn't shorten it because of corrosion resulting in numerous pin holes when flexed. At the time I wrote it off to 30 year old copper tubing and general use, now I may need to rethink this.

[encantotom]

i had never thought about it before. i have an RO system in the house,but it used dedicated plastic tubing and just goes to the faucet.

i was excited to have RO going to my drinking fountain, but now it will just be from the simple prefilter and water softener.

tom

[HoosierDaddy]

Im trying to understand this..A regular water softener uses a resin bed. Is that what you are referring to, Richard? If R/o water is not feasible that leaves only distilled water. Tom, I suppose you could build a solar powered water distiller!!!?

[whatsnewell]

I have used R/O systems for years, however, all the output was sent directly through a plastic water line to a dedicated spigot. I use the same setup in the coach. All that being said something doesn't seem right about what she is saying.