Re-Mineralising water post RO water maker

[com5984]

What do people use for this, I have found some in line filters, is that the only option?

[verb88]

What is your product water tds? Probably plenty of trace minerals still there

[com5984]

Originally Posted by verb88

What is your product water tds? Probably plenty of trace minerals still there

I'm yet to re commission the water maker but hoping to add anything I need during that process.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by verb88

What is your product water tds? Probably plenty of trace minerals still there

Post RO TDS is almost entirely sodium and chloride. The RO removes practically all di- and tri-valent ions. The trace mineral are gone.


Whether that matters to you is a separate debate.

[com5984]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Post RO TDS is almost entirely sodium and chloride. The RO removes practically all di- and tri-valent ions. The trace mineral are gone.


Whether that matters to you is a separate debate.

I've been looking at something like this to add under the sink, after the carbon filter, or do I need the carbon filter at all with this one.

10" Inline GAC / Calcite (1/4" Female Threads) – Pure Water Products, LLC

https://waterestore.ca/products/hum-...ralization-kit

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Post RO TDS is almost entirely sodium and chloride. The RO removes practically all di- and tri-valent ions. The trace mineral are gone.


Whether that matters to you is a separate debate.

You know I think your most likely correct and have tried to find out what effect if any there is from watermaker water on a person with a sodium restricted diet, or how much sodium does it contribute to a heathy persons diet and have not found a source.
I think it’s sodium chloride, not them by themselves.
I’ve asked that of some that I think may know, and have been ignored or at least they didn’t acknowledge the question.

So do you have any data?


But as far as remineralizing water by flowing it through a cartridge, but sorry that’s not going to happen.
The reason is dwell time, as fast as the water goes through it’s not dissolving any significant amount of mineral. Now maybe you would have a chance by immersing the minerals in your tank so that they sat there continuously, but I doubt even then your dissolving much mineral.
Minerals are essentially rocks, and rocks don’t dissolve in water like an Alka Seltzer.

Mineral water becomes that by percolating through rock for thousands or millions of years.

[PirateGuy]

Why not just buy some mineral supplements and take them a couple of times a week after brushing your teeth?

[com5984]

Originally Posted by PirateGuy

Why not just buy some mineral supplements and take them a couple of times a week after brushing your teeth?

Thanks, good option.

[thinwater]

There is no such thing as sodium chloride in water. These are examples of elements that fully dissociate into Na+ and Cl- ions.


The US EPA states that less than 20 ppm sodium is advisable for people on sodium restricted diets. Chloride is not restricted, although they often occur together (you actually need quite a bit of chloride for digestion).


Culigan claims (NSF tested) their reminerilzation cartridges add 20-30 ppm of Ca and raise the pH 1-2 units. Take that for what it is worth, but since it is NSF tested, the numbers are probably right. I never researched this specific portion of the topic.


20-30 ppm over 1000 gallons (rating) of water would require 26 ounces of calcium + cation, which would be everything in the cartridge. The rate of calcium leaching will depend strongly on pH.


Presumably they add mostly CaCO3, since the claimed ingredient is calcite.



https://www.culligan.com/product/min...oost-cartridge

[Chotu]

As far as the sodium thing goes, any idea how much sodium is typically left in the product water?

We are talking 20ppm via the EPA figure you mentioned being the upper limit. I see TDS is somewhere around 200ppm. So, this is 10x the recommended upper limit if it’s all sodium. Or is it actually half sodium? Or 100ppm sodium?

What’s typically left in a watermaker product stream?

Originally Posted by thinwater

There is no such thing as sodium chloride in water. These are examples of elements that fully dissociate into Na+ and Cl- ions.


The US EPA states that less than 20 ppm sodium is advisable for people on sodium restricted diets. Chloride is not restricted, although they often occur together (you actually need quite a bit of chloride for digestion).


Culigan claims (NSF tested) their reminerilzation cartridges add 20-30 ppm of Ca and raise the pH 1-2 units. Take that for what it is worth, but since it is NSF tested, the numbers are probably right. I never researched this specific portion of the topic.


20-30 ppm over 1000 gallons (rating) of water would require 26 ounces of calcium + cation, which would be everything in the cartridge. The rate of calcium leaching will depend strongly on pH.


Presumably they add mostly CaCO3, since the claimed ingredient is calcite.



https://www.culligan.com/product/min...oost-cartridge

[donradcliffe]

Just make beer with some of the water, and have a pint a day.

[xxxxx]

I use pedialyte/electrolyte powder when I think I want a little extra something something.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Chotu

As far as the sodium thing goes, any idea how much sodium is typically left in the product water?

We are talking 20ppm via the EPA figure you mentioned being the upper limit. I see TDS is somewhere around 200ppm. So, this is 10x the recommended upper limit if it’s all sodium. Or is it actually half sodium? Or 100ppm sodium?

What’s typically left in a watermaker product stream?

TDS (mmol/L) is a measure of conductivity, but through a long series of coincidental conversion factors, TDS ~= salt content in ppm. 37% of that is sodium. 200 ppm TDS is about 74 ppm sodium. (Check my math!)

[CatNewBee]

Sodium is another name / interchangeable with Natrium, similar to Potashium and Kalium.

Soda is Natrium-Bi-Carbonate Na2CO3, used widely to blow up dough for baking like yeast (baking soda) .

Also sometimes the hydrated variant SodiumHydrogenCarbonate NatriumHydrogenCarbonate
NaHCO3 is referred to baking soda.

Sodium-Chloride referred earlier is just regular Salt NaCl, and this is what needs to be removed of the water by RO.

[a64pilot]

It would seem that sodium in water is not a significant source of dietary sodium.
However what’s interesting is the recommendation that sodium not exceed 30 to 60 PPM due to taste.
Our watermaker’s product water tastes fine to me, as good or better than most municipal supplies.
Our TDS can be as high or maybe even a little higher than 250 TDS, depending on our location, Salt Pond in Long Island has been the worst. which would be way more than the recommended max of 30 to 60 PPM of sodium, I wonder why we don’t taste it?
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...m_dwreport.pdf

In that article it’s interesting to see how high the sodium can be in “softened” water.