RO water purifiers aren’t always the answer!

Racheal Jane Sunny
DrinkPrime
Published in
7 min readOct 12, 2021

When you were searching for the perfect water purifier for your home, did your friends and family members suggest you get an RO water purifier? But, when you start to do research you will come across a number of terms such as RO, UV, UF, Copper…the list goes on and there really isn’t much of an explanation or comparison for what they actually mean. Most people get confused and decide to purchase an RO water purifier because someone said so.

You care about your drinking water quality. But you need to make a hefty investment to purchase a water purifier. The big question right now is whether investing in an RO water purifier will provide you with perfectly purified drinking water? So, before you purchase a water purifier, here are a few points you should know:

  1. How does an RO water purifier work?
  2. Why an RO water purifier may not solve your drinking water quality problem!
  3. How can you get clean and safe drinking water?
  4. DrinkPrime vs RO water purifiers — Make the right choice

We will simplify everything for you so that you don’t get flustered the next time you hear about filtration processes. It’s not as complicated as people make it sound.

1. How does an RO water purifier work?

The reverse osmosis (RO) water filtration process is simple — The input water is made to pass through a very fine membrane so that particles that are bigger than water molecules are retained on the pressurised side of the membrane. The filter, with small pores, removes several impurities before you receive the output water. In simpler terms, an RO membrane acts as a sieve. The image below shows how reverse osmosis works.

An RO water purifier will have several stages of filtration. The filtration can be before the RO process or after it. These are known as pre-filtration and post-filtration processes. There are a variety of filters depending on their purpose.

This may include a combination of RO + UV + UF and TDS controller. Some water purifiers may have a filter combination of RO + UF + UV in the water tank as well!

2. Why an RO water purifier may not solve your drinking water quality problem!

Did you know that every area has a different water quality? In fact, the water quality in your apartment may be different from the house next door. While there are several reasons for the difference in water quality, the three main causes are:

  1. Different water sources
  2. Different levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) in water
  3. Different levels of turbidity in water

To give you an example, if you live in Koramangala and your friend lives in Whitefield in Bengaluru, you do not have access to the same quality of water. Also, if you and your friend live in Koramangala but receive water from different sources, you won’t have access to water of the same quality!

If you wish to know more about the water sources in a gated community, check out this article: What’s Missing in Your Gated Apartment? One Thing Your Gated Community Does Not Offer.

This brings us to the question — Why does an RO water purifier under-purify or over-purify your drinking water?

An RO water purifier or any water purifier is set to purify every water the same way. As mentioned earlier, there will be pre-filtration and post-filtration processes as well. But, these processes are not customised based on the water quality in your area. So, if your friend receives the water of good quality and if you receive the water of poor quality, an RO water purifier will filter both the same way. This leads to under-purification or over-purification of water.

Also read: Why Buying a Water Purifier is an Expensive Mistake

Given the problem, how can you trust an RO water purifier to provide you and your family with perfectly purified, safe drinking water? You can’t.

Given the problem, how can you trust an RO water purifier to provide you and your family with perfectly purified, safe drinking water? You can’t.

3. How can you get clean and safe drinking water?

Water pollution is a serious problem in India. The majority of surface water in the country is polluted. So the question of whether you should buy a water purifier isn’t relevant. You SHOULD get a water purifier but it should give you clean and safe drinking water instead of under-purified or over-purified water.

To make sure you and your family can access perfectly purified water, you need to get a water purifier that is customised according to the water quality in your area. This means that the filtration process in your water purifier needs to be set based on the quality of input water.

For example, if the TDS level in your area is between 0 to 300 parts per million (PPM) and the turbidity level is greater than 1 NTU (nephelometric Turbidity Unit), and the Chlorine level is greater than 50 PPM, the filtration process in your water purifier should be:

100% Cotton Yarn Sediment Filter + Pre Carbon Block with Organic Activated Charcoal + Chemical Free Low TDS Rejection RO Membrane with Germs Remover + Silver Impregnated Post Carbon Filter

On the other hand, if the TDS level in your area is 300 to 500 PPM, the turbidity level is less than 1 NTU, and the Chlorine level is greater than 50 PPM, the filtration process in your water purifier should be:

100% Cotton Spun Sediment Filter + Pre Carbon Block with Organic Activated Charcoal + Chemical Free RO Membrane with Germs Remover + Silver Impregnated Post Carbon Filter

Here are two more types of water qualities and the perfect filtration processes they should undergo before they reach the end-user, who could be you!

If the TDS level is greater than 500 PPM, the turbidity level is greater than 1 NTU, and the Chlorine level is less than 50 PPM, the filtration process required is:

100% Cotton Spun Sediment Filter + Pre Carbon Granules with Organic Activated Charcoal + Chemical Free RO Membrane with Germs Remover + Silver Impregnated Post Carbon Filter

If the TDS level is greater than 500 PPM, the turbidity level is greater than 1 NTU, and the Chlorine level is greater than 50 PPM, the filtration process required is:

100% Cotton Yarn Sediment Filter + Pre Carbon Block with Organic Activated Charcoal + Chemical Free RO Membrane with Germs Remover + Silver Impregnated Post Carbon Filter

So, as mentioned above, you need to get a personalised water purifier for your home so that you can access safe drinking water. That’s why you need to check out DrinkPrime, the personalised water purifier on subscription.

4. DrinkPrime vs RO water purifiers — Make the right choice

We are sure that you’re familiar with the concept of personalisation. We realised the importance of providing personalised water purifiers on subscription when we collected water samples from different areas in cities and assessed the water quality. We learned that the one-size-fits-all approach of traditional water purifiers does not provide perfectly purified water to you. To ensure this, we personalise the DrinkPrime filtration process based on the water quality in your area.

Once you reach out to us, we get on a call with you to know your requirements and location. You can choose the subscription plan based on your drinking water consumption. If you stay alone and consume just about 125 litres a month, you can choose the DrinkPrime Solo plan. If there are more people in your house and you consume more water, you can opt for our bigger subscription plans.

Since we have already collected water samples and know which filtration process is perfect for your area, our partner will deliver your personalised DrinkPrime at home during the time slot you have chosen. Post the delivery of DrinkPrime, our technician will visit your home to install it. You can choose the most convenient time slot for this too!

The technician will recheck the TDS level of the input water (the water that flows into DrinkPrime) and the output water (the water that you consume). With this, you can be sure that you’re accessing clean and safe drinking water.

Once the installation is completed, the technician will sync your DrinkPrime with the mobile app we offer. That’s it! You can use our mobile app to check your drinking water consumption, your DrinkPrime’s health, recharge your DrinkPrime, and reach out to our support team.

Want to know how easy it is to subscribe and use DrinkPrime? Check out what Vinod has to say about easily accessing safe drinking water without any hassles.

If you’re planning to buy a water purifier keep this in mind:

Did we tell you that we monitor your water purifier health using the Internet of Things (IoT)? We do this to ensure your water purifier is healthy enough to give you clean drinking water. In case we need to service your water purifier or change filters, we schedule a maintenance check immediately. This is absolutely free of charge for a lifetime!

Moreover, with the DrinkPrime mobile application, you can monitor your water consumption, water purifier quality and make your monthly recharges.

Are you curious to know more about DrinkPrime? Check out our website to know more: www.drinkprime.in.

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