Reverse Osmosis (RO) Drinking Water

Important facts you need to know

Before you invest in a RO system:

All RO purifiers use 'crossflow' mechanical filtration and have a waste to purified water ratio of 3 to 1 at best. This means that at least 30 litres of water go to drain for every 10 litres of purified water produced.

RO purification is non-specific - it takes out the good elements as well as the bad. Water has many good elements eg Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Electrolytes to name but a few.

Humans, in nature, have never drunk pure water. Indeed pure liquid water is non-existant in nature

They take up about a quarter of the space, or more, in a standard undersink cupboard.

They need a waste connection.

Expensive compared to a water filter. Our basic Pearl-T undersink drinking water filter, which is adequate for most peoples needs, is just £69.30 delivered totally complete.

Health warning? There is a substantial and growing body of medical & expert opinion against Reverse Osmosis drinking water purification. Not only because the good elements are removed but because of the 'aggressive' and acidic nature of purified water. H₂O is nature's solvent so the thinking is that it can and does leach out beneficial elements you take in with your food & drink.

Up until this year (2007) we manufactured and supplied our own brand of RO purifiers. For us, the final nail in the coffin for Reverse Osmosis was this from the website of the Drinking Water Inspectorate for England and Wales; an exact copy taken 22nd February 2007:

"Reverse osmosis systems
Reverse osmosis (RO) filtration systems remove virtually all dissolved solids, soften the water and produce a waste stream equivalent to 20-30% of the incoming flow. There is also a substantial reduction in pressure through the RO unit. RO may have applications within the home if the consumer is using water for specialist purposes such as photographic processing or hydroponic culture. RO treated water should not be used for potable purposes. Because of the correlation between cardiovascular disease and consumption of naturally soft water the Department of Health has advised that consumption of artificially softened water should be avoided.

Consumers should also be aware that installation of RO could increase water bills by up to one third because of the waste stream. The Water Fittings Regulations require that consumers give notice to their water company of the intention to install a RO system."

In view of all this up to date information, as a responsible water filter manufacturing company, we have withdrawn RO from our inventory completely.

Do we have alternatives?

Yes, lots ! With no water wasted, bad elements removed, beneficial elements retained, taking up a fraction of the space used by RO, more cost effective to buy and maintain.

For those of you worried about hormones (eg oestrogen), endocrine disruptors and pharmaceutical residues; all our Pearl and Oyster models will filter these out.

All supplied totally complete from incoming cold water 'saddle valve' connector to dispensing tap (with different tap models if required).

Doulton are the recognised world leaders of water filter cartridge technology. We incorporate the Doulton^tm Imperial Supercarb^tm or Ultracarb^tm Silver impregnated self-sterilising Ceramic Cartridges with an Activated Carbon Block core to cover just about all eventualites in the two Pearl Super & Ultra Models. If you simply want the best without further ado, then:

for details of the Pearl DUC, Ultra click on this link on this link
priced from £147.98 for the complete system.

But if you want to examine your options in more detail:
To pick the right water filter for you, click on this picture  Click here for all the water filters.