Drinking Water from Watermakers

[sdowney717]

rain water picks up dirts and dusts from the air.

Rainwater is it Safe :: The Online Rainwater Harvesting Community

It will have some elements in it that distilled water wont have.

[sck5]

If you are worried (god knows why you would be) then go buy a multivitamin with minerals. Or bring the oral rehydration packs they sell for people who travel in the desert. Or drink Gatorade. But I would be FAR more worried about third world water than from a watermaker. pure is GOOD.

[speciald@ocens.]

I am a doctor and have played one on TV. Rain is not dirt free. Each drop condenses on "dust". Most Caribbean islands are fresh water deficient and use reverse osmosis to provide their population drinking water. Even some American municipalities have similar plants. There is no floride in ro water - a minus, and no chlorine - a plus. Trace minerals may be missing - like magnesium but diet will provide adequate amounts.

[Alecadi]

Originally Posted by oldcal46skipper

Back in the Sea of Cortez in 1988/9 a friend was having some health issues and sought medical care back in the States. The Doc said she needed to drink at least one beer each day to supplement the lacking minerals in RO water. After she started drinking beer, no problems.

Works for me.

URGENT URGENT URGENT stop
SEND IMMEDIATELY DOCTOR'S ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER stop
FEELING VERY ILL stop
IN URGENT NEED OF THAT MEDICATION stop
CAN I INCREASE QUANTITY IN AN EMERGENCY stop

[capn_billl]

I would ditto the Gaterade, or even a bottle of Perrier. Yes RO or distilled water has less elecrolytes, (none), compaired to well water or surface water. And these minerals sodium, potasium, calcium, carbonates, chlorides, etc..., are neccessary for proper functioning of cell membranes

There are a number of companies that sell mineral supplements both in liquid and pill form. Beer is brewed in mineral rich water to aid the yeast growth.

If you drink excessive quantities of mineral depleted water, (IE more than your body needs), you CAN dilute your bodies electrolyte levels, even to death.

For most of us washing down a can of salt pork and soda crackers with a glass of RO water evens out pretty well. For the rest, a few bottles of mineral rich water added to top off the water tank will not only take care of it, but also improve the taste.

[escapeyachting]

At last, a useful reply from the doctor and from capn_bill - thank you! Most of the rest of the replies seem to have missed the point and don't understand the chemical and biological processes involved or, worse, revert to sarcasm or crude humour about beer... I thought this forum was intended to be helpful. Obviously not.

So, the conclusion is that RO water is not perfect and needs to be supplemented by minerals/vitamins - just as we thought! We have the best watermaker on the market on board - and a back up - so we will manage our water and our health appropriately. Thank you.

[capn_billl]

Good luck cruising. For most people who spend most of their time ashore, (or in port). You get enough different sources of nutrition you don't need to pay much attention.

For someone who spends a major quantity of their time getting all of their nutritional intake from a single source, the odds of an imbalance or worse a missing nutrient becomes more likely.

IE a passagemaker, or astronaut.

The early sailers found out pretty quick that lack of fresh vegetables caused scurvy and rickets. Since then we have found a long list of neccessary nutrients that are required for good health. Missing some can be fatal, the others if missing can cause weakness or fatigue.

There are a number of articles on the web about recommended nutrients for people on a limited diet, (IE preserved food on an extended passage).

Tree nuts carry well and contain many trace minerals including chromium, (needed for sugar metabolism).

Also resist the temptation to pack 30 days of your favorite food, (it wont be after eating it for 30 days). As much variety as you can pack will make it more likely that at least one meal will have all the nutrients you need.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by escapeyachting

So, the conclusion is that RO water is not perfect and needs to be supplemented by minerals/vitamins - just as we thought! We have the best watermaker on the market on board - and a back up - so we will manage our water and our health appropriately. Thank you.

Actually RO water from sea water has plenty of minerals in it. If you read any of the literature that actually comes with the units you will see that the membranes remove only 98-99% of the salt from sea water. There is absolutely no need to supplement your mineral input from sea water based RO units. If you look at the total dissolved solids coming out of your RO unit it will be between 200 and 600 ppm which is on par with most municipal water supplies. Keeping a supply of bottled water on board for drinking purposes in case of a water maker failure is probably a good idea, but it's not neccesary because RO water is going to harm you in any way.

By the way, I'm a biologist that used to teach human physiology to premed's when I was in graduate school. Body fluids have a TDS of roughly 15000 ppm and drinking any water with less that 15000 PPM will dilute body fluids if you drink enough of it. Frankly whether the water contains 0 ppm or 300 ppm tds, it is not going to make much difference in the amount of water it takes to kill you. So if you are not drinking enough tap water to kill you, you don't need to worry about how much RO water you drink.

[clockwork orange]

Jimbo just beat me to it, millions of people around the world drink rainwater collected from their roof,both on land and on boats.
Steve.

[swagman]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

On another watermaker thread someone mentioned they dumped a cup of salt water into their water tank to regain some of the minerals.

I like the beer method better though. Especially Guinness, which surely has more minerals. . . .

I can recall when my mum went into hospital years back and they gave her a bottle of stout twice daily saying it was good for her..........

On reflection, it's probably why my dad had a hard time getting her to leave and come home.

JOHN

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Tellie

Having a cheeseburger and two beers at Nippers will cause your body more damage than all the RO water you'll ever drink.

That is correct.

One needs four (4) beers.

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by Jimbo485

isn´t rainwater just distilled water?
plenty of people drinking that before the invention of the watermaker?

This subject comes up regularly on reefer forums (no, not THAT type of reefer, folks who keep saltwater fish).

The RO/DI systems that go in your home produce 0-3ppm of TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), with the membrane producing a TDS of 3-15, typically, depending upon the membrane and the TDS of the incoming water (ours is about 350 - which is very hard). The DI (Deionizing Resin) reduces that to 0 if it's new.

If the RO systems on boats are 98-99% effective (as noted above), then on a TDS of 35,000, that's a TDS of 350-700!

The consensus is that RO/DI water is harmless (0 TDS) - and we use it all of the time. Makes CLEAR ice! The internet stories about it leaching all the chemicals/minerals from your body are just another typical internet myth.

BTW, rainwater that I've collected and tested is typically between 5-15 TDS - nearly distilled, and way less than a boat's typical RO system.

P.S. I am a molecular biologist by education.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Therapy

That is correct.

One needs four (4) beers.

OK, mixing four beers and RO water can be problematic for some at Nippers. After four beers one has the tendancy to take a dip in Nippers RO water supplied little pool and end up nekkid between two topless babes. Personally, it's one of my favorte ways to enjoy RO water and beer.

[Lancerbye]

I totally support the beer supplement idea. I now have an excuse for loading all that beer aboard when I head off on my annual getaway for a couple of months. We should however be carefull about this information. If the breweries find out they will now be able to claim it as a health food and raise their prices.

[hummingway]

Beer is a wonderful thing but ... not all beers are made with high mineral waters. The highest mineral content is likely to be found in the ales of the Burton, U.K. area where the wells are very hard. Most pilsners on the other hand are brewed with very soft water. Any beer is a diuretic and is going to carry your electrolytes away so whereas one might help more isn't necessarily better, at least in that respect.

The myth of Guinness for health persists form a time when doctors in the U.K. prescribed one stout a day to pregnant women. It wasn't the stout you're most likely to find however, it was a milk stout and Guinness was one of the manufacturers. It was in fact an herbal beer having, amongst other ingredients, dock root in the recipe. The milk in the name was milk sugar which gave the beer good body. Good luck finding a milk stout outside of the U.K. and even there it's not common.