Water Maker / Reverse Osmosis water health

[CatNewBee]

I don't like the taste of plastic, I buy my soda and other beverages in glass bottles if possible. It makes really a difference. A good wine or beer in a glass bottle is always superior to a coke in a PET bottle - just try it - you'll taste the difference for sure

[svlamorocha]

Originally Posted by Bean Counter

Is the empirical evidence you refer to published on the net somewhere?

No, I have seen a few boats that use 100% watermaker water from new and their Quick heater tanks have not corroded. I have also seen the same model of Quick heater fail on boats that used dock water in areas with hard water.

Thanks for asking, you forced me to read a bit,

The link below suggests that (setting pH aside) there is a sweet spot between 50 ppm and 500ppm where corrosion is minimized. That is where boat watermakers fed with sea water lie.

The bit I did not know is that the water that has gone through the salt-based softeners that are so common in the US is particularly corrosive for water heaters because if the added sodium. So the problem is not the hardness but the softening of it with sodium!

[CatNewBee]

I am sure, you'll get all the elements your body needs out of other sources - like fish and veggies, spices and anything you eat or drink. A healthy body can easily sort out what to keep and what to throw out if not needed through the kidneys, liver and gut. It does not matter what the original source was. Clean water is always better then a contaminated one from dubious shore taps.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Oliver47

I guess reverse osmosis system is well worth considering. But keep in mind that there is significant price variation on RO units, you can read the comparison reviews here. There are many good units for a reasonable cost.

These are fresh water RO systems not salt water RO systems. They won't work for desalination.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Oliver47

I guess reverse osmosis system is well worth considering. But keep in mind that there is significant price variation on RO units, you can read the comparison reviews here. There are many good units for a reasonable cost.

This is written a bit like some kind of spammy promotion.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by catsketcher

I don't have a watermaker but I do teach Chemistry at high school. I don't get the idea that pure water can be corrosive. Acids and alkalines are corrosive and they are that way because acids are (basically) dissolved Hydrogen ions and alkalines are what is left from the water molecule when a Hydrogen gets removed- one oxygen and one hydrogen atom - a Hydroxyl ion.

Understanding acidity or pH is a strange thing in that the curves of strength are logarithmic rather than linear. Any pH close to 7 will have very few corrosive ions within it. A change of 1 unit on the pH scale is a 10 fold change in the ions. How pure water with a pH of 7 could eat out anything sounds like bad science to me. As a science teacher I go a bit crazy with flat earthers, ear candlers, bad chiropractors saying they can cure athsma, the foot washers in Chinese massage places that say they pull out toxins, and anyone who uses quantum in their title.

It is really hard to work out what is correct when people want your money but given that RO water is what is used for the best chemistry experiments because it does not react with anything, I think we are safe to call remineralisation to counter corrosion, bad science.

cheers

Phil

45 years as a water treatment professional for large scale municipal, commercial and industrial installations. Currently on a project in Indonesia. I started in my industry when RO was seriously in it's infancy.

Early RO installations did not consider remineralization systems. But over time, end users found that carbon steel pipe was coming apart. One site in Florida sued the company I worked for over the problem. I'm sure there were other cases, but I don't have to deal with that. I only commission the entire plants.

This current project has everything from clarifiers and multiple stages of filtration pretreatment, to desalination RO, then on to polishing RO, then ion exchange stages to produce feedwater for super critical boilers.

The desalination stream splits to feed 2. Bolier feedwater (no remin), and calcite contactor remin. That second stream system splits again into service water for other systems, and potable water, which is dosed with sodium hypchlorite. This is a small plant by comparison. 665 cubic meters per hour.

The largest I have worked on was in Saudi. 880 cubic meters. I was only responsible for the huge remineralization portion of the plant.

Water is known as the universal solvent. The more pure that it is, the more aggressive it is.

Here on this project, upstream of the desal, piping is all fiberglass, prior to the high pressure desal pump, where it becomes super duplex stainless. Downstream of our desal plant, the piping is all 316 stainless steel, until it gets to the calcite contactor/remin system. Once it leaves the remin, it is non-aggressive enough for carbon steel.

I also worked on a water reuse/groundwater replenishment project in So Cal. The first phase of the project (the one I was on) was 87 million gallons per day. It has since expanded

Before that water was pumped back into the aquifer, it was remineralized so it would not be dissolving the rocks under Orange County, California.

Just a little clarification without opinion.

[Kerryf]

Originally Posted by Bean Counter

If the nations of the world used individual anecdote as a basis of designing desalination systems, think of how much money they would save.

....and spend it all on remineralization cartridges!

[Kerryf]

Originally Posted by Bean Counter

If the nations of the world used individual anecdote as a basis of designing desalination systems, think of how much money they would save.

....and then spend it all on remineralization cartridges!