Water TDS safe limits?

[Dulcesuenos]

Curious what the safe limit ranges are for drinking water? I read that 500 is ideal and under 100 not safe or good tasting. Animals can handle 3000ppm+ we had some salt water ingress thru a vent. Flushed it twice. Still getting a reading of 1900ppm. Havent had to drink it yet but wanted to know if its ok todrink? Doesnt taste salty when rinsing after brushing....

[S/V Illusion]

This is one of those standards that isn't precisely a standard. The recommended safe TDS concentration is 500 mg/l BUT depends on what comprises the contaminant matrix. Exaggeration for effect - you wouldn't want 500 mg of arsenic salts being the predominant contaminant. So, it is only a rough guideline in the absence of any other measure and should NEVER be considered alone as a sole standard by which you can quantify "safe"

[chrisjs]

The USDA and DHSS recommended intake of sodium is 1,100-3,300mg per day. On average, Americans consume about double that amount, so somewhere between 2-5g per day. At 1,900ppm, your water contains 1.9g/liter. So assuming you do not ingest salt in other forms (hard to do!!) you should probably limit water consumption to no more than 2 liters per day. Obviously, there should be no harm if you are only doing this for a limited period of time - until you can refill your water tank with fresh water.

[Captain Bill]

One thing to remember is that not all the salt in seawater is NaCl and that conductivity meters measure all of the dissolved ions. Generally anything below 1500 parts per million is considered safe to drink and is about the taste threshold for salt. It sounds to me like one more flush should get you well below that. You must have practically filled your tank with seawater to still have that much salt in it after two flushes. I'm assuming of course that you drained your tank as far down as you could before refilling. Also, don't worry about being below 100, as it's perfectly safe to drink assuming you are eating as well. There have been a couple of previous threads regarding the low threshold. Water that low may taste a little flat, but internet stories that it is unsafe is pure bunk, probably started by someone who wants to sell you a mineral pack.

[Dulcesuenos]

Thanks everyone! Great advise love this place!

[senormechanico]

There used to be a TV commercial for Brita or some other brand which showed "0 TDS" on their product water.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Captain Bill

There have been a couple of previous threads regarding the low threshold. Water that low may taste a little flat, but internet stories that it is unsafe is pure bunk, probably started by someone who wants to sell you a mineral pack.

I always found that rather funny. Folks are gullible and many slept through chemistry and biology... and aren't embarrassed about that. There are actually quite a few streams and shallow wells that are quite low in dissolved minerals and folks do just fine. In hot weather, depending on diet and exercise, there is of course a kernel of truth.

[velero]

long term 1500 PPM(10 days or less)
Short term 1000 PPM
No PPM will dissolve your own salts. Not good!!
The RO membranes will filter some pathogens that the regular filters miss.
More TDS will make you dring more water...........

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_...micals/tds.pdf

[daddle]

That WHO report does not say that. Personally 500ppm TDS water tastes salty to me. But I drink it. I drank 3000ppm for a few days and didn't like it at all. 50 to 100ppm TDS is nice. There is no lower limit. Almost everybody gets plenty of salt and minerals in their food. Especially western-style snack addicts.

Plenty of healthy active people around the world drink only rainwater from the roof. That is nearly 0ppm TDS.

There is loads of health nut paranoia bukum about water.

A Brita filter does not affect TDS. That's just silly. Lowering TDS requires energy input. No way around that.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by velero

No PPM will dissolve your own salts. Not good!!

When I was in the Navy we made and drank distilled water. We did this for months and didn't die from it. There are pently of minerals in your food to make you for not getting any in your water.

[Cheechako]

Long story so I wont repeat here, but my fancy water maker always read too high. I removed the whole automatic and sensing system. Never tested again, drank the water for 3 years with no issues. I say if it tastes salty it is! If it doesnt it isnt!

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by velero

No PPM will dissolve your own salts. Not good!!

That is simply not true. Water is absorbed from the gut by a process called osmosis through a semipermable membrane. In this case water always moves from the side of the membrane with a lower concentration of solutes to the side with a higher concentration of solutes. In this case blood has a much higher concentration of solutes. Blood has a solute concentration of about 9000 ppm so water is going to move from any concentration less than that to the blood. It's going to make little difference if the TDS of the water you drink is 0 ppm or 300 ppm with respect to the amount of water one will absorb. If the membrane was permeable to salts then salt would move the other way and it would not matter if the concentration in the intestine was 0 ppm or 300 ppm. The body would be drained of electrolytes.

[belizesailor]

As I recall, my Spectra Catalina system was set by default to alarm on anything over about 700PPM.

Water comes out of my well here at the house at 10 PPM ... very nice.

[Dulcesuenos]

Down to 300 now that we were able to flush them!!!

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Long story so I wont repeat here, but my fancy water maker always read too high. I removed the whole automatic and sensing system. Never tested again, drank the water for 3 years with no issues. I say if it tastes salty it is! If it doesnt it isnt!

Good point we could just taste it a tiny bit at the high level it was at.