There is no exaggeration in saying that pure water is life. The fact that water being the topmost constituent making up our body; necessitates that drinking water should be comprised of all essential minerals and nutrients. Unfortunately, water quality in most places is not such that we can refill our glasses and bottles directly from our taps. In UAE water is passed through a desalination plant before it reaches to our tap. Nowadays to get potable drinking water many residents in UAE are relying on water filtration systems. These water purifiers are more sustainable in the long run rather than plastic bottles. In these water filter systems, the most popular and effective ones are that use reverse osmosis technology. Reverse osmosis technology let the water pass through a reverse osmosis membrane that removes all contaminants from the water. It is so effective in purifying the water that sometimes this reverse osmosis process makes the reverse osmosis water devoid of essential minerals and nutrients. Due to this drawback just reverse osmosis systems are infamous as inefficient purifiers because they remove even the useful minerals needed by human body.
Minerals required for human body
Our body functions get affected due to lack of trace of certain minerals. Iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium and sodium etc. are few names that play an important role according to their benefits in human bodies. The benefit of each single mineral we will discuss in a separate article. If a person keeps on drinking water that is deficient in these constituents for a longer period of time, then body starts malfunctioning and begin showing symptoms and varied signs that are in some cases might be alarming. It is necessary that reverse osmosis water should be mineralized to get better taste and flavoured water that also aid in digestion.
Reverse Osmosis Purifiers Vs. Water Softener
Due to this lacking in reverse osmosis purifiers many people prefer water softener over reverse osmosis systems. They think that water softener tends to purify water in a more efficient way than what most reverse osmosis filtration systems offer. This is not the case in actual a water softener just softens the water by replacing the hard minerals in the water with softer ions. Its primary function is not to purify and clean dust sediments, rust and harmful micro-organisms present in water. The higher content of magnesium, calcium and other minerals in larger amounts makes the water hard when it passes through pipes and lines. Water softener replaces the hard ions in water with softer sodium ions. The presence of hard minerals in the water makes the taste of water unpleasant to drink and also reduce the soap lather and main cause of lime scale build up in pipes and taps. In UAE, hard minerals are not the major issue in water but main concern is the large amount of chlorine that is dissolved in water. Unfortunately, the salt-based water softeners don’t remove chlorine from water nor it performs any kind of filtration activity to remove sand and impurities from water.
Water softeners can be accompanied with a reverse osmosis system but it is more expensive if added separately with a RO water purifier. Nowadays reverse osmosis water filters come with in-built mineralization tubes and alkaline tubes which are more affordable and effective to use to purify home drinking water.
Re-mineralization of Reverse Osmosis Water
In order to make filtered reverse osmosis water beneficial and a complete source of hydration it needs to be remineralizer otherwise it lacks taste and interferes with body function’s optimality. There are certain ways of achieving this to make reverse osmosis technology and water more useful and healthier. Let’s ponder light one by one on 5 such ways.
- Addition of sea salt
- Re-mineralization through mineral drops
- Use of Alkaline water pitchers
- Alkaline bottles
- Mineralization tubes addition/ Adopting Alkaline Mineralization Reverse Osmosis Systems
Addition of sea salt
The most traditional way of adding minerals back to reverse osmosis water is by adding a mineral salt in the water. Rather than ordinary table salt, minerals rich salt such as Himalayan salt or desert salt is added in the drinking water. Just adding your usual table salt can lead to an over intake of sodium. This is an inexpensive way to remineralizer a reverse osmosis filtered water. But this is tiresome where you need to supplement water with the salt each time by yourself. You can do it in every glass or else you need to add up salt in your storage container. Just a pinch of salt would do the purpose. Another drawback of this method is that you will initially struggle to find the right concentration of salt that will suit your taste as well as fulfill the desired mineral level concentration. Another challenge with addition of salt is finding the right salt itself in the first place that you should add. Though this way is cost-effective but does not guarantee benefit as well.
Re-mineralization through mineral drops
Over the counter mineral drops are available that also serve to remineralizer the reverse osmosis water. These concentrated drops come in small bottles and are highly marketed for hydration, aid in digestion and alkaline feature. These drops reverse the lacking mineralization content of reverse osmosis water. They are not very cost efficient in the first place. Secondly, they carry the hassle of mineralizing every container or your glass. For sometimes they are ok just like a supplement but on daily basis it is a hectic job. Sometimes they completely change the taste of water which is not preferred by many people. This method also like mineral salt addition just post mineralize water. It doesn’t terminate the use of a water filtration system.
Use of Alkaline water pitchers
Another considerable way of remineralizer the water treated by reverse osmosis systems is use of alkaline water filter pitchers. These pitchers balance the pH level of water making it alkaline. These containers are highly advertised to balance the acidity by regulating the water’s pH levels. After the water gets filtered through a reverse osmosis system it is added in the pitcher. The good thing is that this pitcher does not need any electricity to work and has some storage capacity as well. These pitchers also contain mineral balls at the top that remineralizer the water. The cons present in the use of these alkaline pitchers is that you need to refill it every time after consumption. The storage capacity of these water pitchers is just 3.5 to 4L which is not enough for even a single family. Secondly these pitchers are just balancing pH but they don’t add back minerals efficiently to the reverse osmosis water.
Alkaline bottles
These bottles are just a potable form of alkaline water pitchers. These alkaline bottles are just a waste of money. For one bottle you just spend hundreds of dirhams doesn’t make sense. You can simply carry a refillable water bottle with you and fill an antioxidant alkaline mineralized water directly from your tap.
Mineralization tubes addition/ Adopting Alkaline Mineralization Reverse Osmosis Systems
The most advanced and modern way of demineralizing is to get a mineral tube addition in your reverse osmosis filtration system. This is more convenient, and it is cost effective as well. You can simply get it added in your purifier as an extra filtration stage. You just need to call your filtration company and they can simply update your system. We upgrade many systems of our customers on their request and suggest them as well to do it. It just costs a little as compared to all drudgery ways explained above.
Nowadays the systems that are available and are highly advanced are alkaline mineralized anti-oxidant built in water filtration systems. These systems do filtration in multiple stages and are highly in demand. These systems not only provide you a reverse osmosis filtered water but also add back all minerals with great taste. These state-of-the-art water filtration systems are known to build up immunity with pH levels of 8.5 to 9.5. Hence these systems are a complete package that reduce acidity in stomach, boost immunity and provide you clean and pure drinking water.
Summary
In places like UAE, just mineralization of tap water as well as softening of tap water is not enough. Sand, dust particles and chlorine absorbed in water need to be removed. The methods discussed above to remineralizer water are just suitable if you already have filtered water and they act as a post addition method otherwise these ways are useless. The most effective and efficient way without much hassle is to remineralizer water by addition of mineral tubes and BIOCERA in already bought reverse osmosis systems. If you are looking to buy a home water purifier, then go for antioxidant alkaline mineral filters or at least go for reverse osmosis systems that have a mineralization tube inbuilt in them.