Reverse osmosis filter - is it worth it

laois1

Registered User
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Hi. I live in a hard water area. We use a water softener to reduce the water hardness. Therefore I cannot use tap water to make babies bottles as its too high in sodium. I'm thinking of getting a reverse osmosis filter as this will remove the sodium and other potential contaminants. Initial cost is 375 to install plus 140 per annum to change filter. Has anyone any experience of using these ? Are they worth the expenditure ? I'm currently buying water from lidl to use for babies which is a bit of hassle but I've no option. Also my water doesn't taste great so I'm worried it might not be the best for the adults in the house even though we use it all the time.
 
Do you not have any tap in the house (typically the kitchen tap) which is directly from the mains (i.e. not coming through the water softener)? I don't think it's advised to drink water which has been softened. Is all your drinking water bought in Lidl (including water you boil for tea/coffee)?
 
Your kitchen tap should not be fed directly from the water softener. Are you sure your softener was installed like that? Make absolutely sure before shelling out for something you don't need. To address the taste issue, get one of those Brita jugs with the built-in filter.
 
I'm not sure about the kitchen tap but will find out from the guy who installed it. That aside I wonder does anyone recommend these filters. I'm not using lidl water for the adults in the house. It's inconvenient carrying large containers of water and storing them. Does anyone have one of these filters ? Are they reliable ?
 
We had a reverse osmosis filter fitted for the same reason as you 8 years ago. Get it serviced every year and have had no issues from it. Use it for all our drinking water. I wouldn't like to drink the water that comes through the softener without it going through the filter first.

Not sure about Leo's comment but our water, if untreated, would contain high amounts of iron and manganese and this is why we have our kitchen tap fed from the softener. If lime in the water is your only problem it would be fine to drink but you need to bear in mind other minerals that could be present.
 
I'm not sure how different a reverse osmosis filter is to a water filter but we have one of [broken link removed] for our drinking water (filled from our kitchen tap which is direct from the mains). It's a heck of a lot cheaper than the prices you're quoting for a reverse osmosis filter and we found it much better than the Brita filters.
 
Thanks for the replies folks. I suppose the main issues are too much sodium in the water and the inconvenience of buying and storing water. Even with how cheap water is to buy this unit seems like a good option. It takes up a fair bit of room under the sink, which is another drawback, but I'm leaning towards buying.
 
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