If you know me very well by now, you probably know I’m a big fan of Reverse Osmosis (RO) as a water purification technology. There’s a lot of conversation about it lately, a lot of people talking about the pros and cons, and like any technology created by man, nothing is perfect – but RO is very good!

I decided to clear up some of the confusion over what it’s all about by starting an article series about the many benefits of RO. Most people think of it as a drinking water source and that’s about it. It gets compared to tap water, to bottled water, to carbon filtration, the “pitcher-style” filters and on and on, but instead of focusing on the technology, I want to talk about the many “other” uses of RO – beyond drinking water.

There are so many “alternate uses” that I can’t cover them all in one article – what I’ll do is give you a few with each posting and talk about them with enough detail so you can see whether or not this would be a good application for you – something you’d want to try yourself.

1. Cooking. This may seem simple, but it’s often overlooked. My thinking on this one is, “If I wouldn’t drink the water, why would I use it to cook my food?” Think of the ways you can use RO water for cooking….

Steaming vegetables. We use a countertop vegetable steamer. We had used it with tap water for a long time, and the steam generator had a buildup from the dissolved minerals that are left behind when the water evaporates. Since switching to RO, most of those minerals have flaked away and the unit looks like new again. Just the same way your teapot doesn’t need to have that white, gunky build-up, any water-using appliances can benefit from RO’s clean, pure water.

What about rice? If you look at the hard, dry grains you start with, and then compare those to the fluffy, white grains you end up with, you’ll easily see how much water goes into rice. The cleaner, the purer the water you use to make your rice, the better, tastier and healthier your rice will be. This just makes sense – why would adding chlorine or other contaminants do anything but hurt the flavour of one of the tastiest side dishes around?

Same thing goes for pasta. Most people wouldn’t think of using 4 or 6 litres of bottled water to make their pasta, but when you have an RO system, there’s really no limit to how much you can use! Just like rice, pasta absorbs and takes a lot of water in as it cooks. If the water is clean and pure, you won’t have all the chemicals or bits of dissolved rock to taste – if you make home-made pasta sauces, this is a must. So much time, effort and love goes into those sauces that it is almost criminal to poison the flavours by introducing chlorine and other toxic chemicals into your meal. Let your flavours do what they’re supposed to do – be delicious!

…instead of focusing on the technology, I want to talk about the many “other” uses of RO – beyond drinking water.

2. Spot Free Rinse. Wait a minute, you’re probably thinking… I’ve heard about that at the car wash, but how can I use RO for this? That’s all the spot free rinse at the car wash is – Reverse Osmosis water. It removes any chlorine and any dissolved materials that will create and leave behind water spots when the vehicle dries.

So how do you do this at home? Easy – when you’re ready to wash your car, just follow the normal steps you’d always do, but have a spray bottle ready that’s filled with RO water. Once your vehicle is clean and rinsed off, use the spray bottle as a final step – mist the entire vehicle and that should be about it. No hand drying should be required and you’ll have a virtually spotless finish! (AND – for a LOT less money than doing it at the car wash!)

*** TIP: if you use softened water to make your soap solution, you can save even more money by reducing the amount of soap required by about 75 – 80%! As an added bonus, when you use less soap, you’ll not only be saving money, you’ll also be less likely to miss some soap when rinsing and you’ll waste less water rinsing it away at the end!

3. Humidifiers. This is one of my favourite RO water uses. When we install an RO system into a basement, we always ask the homeowner if they’d like their furnace’s humidifier connected. Most people are familiar with the disgusting gunky build-up you see after only a few month’s of running the furnace humidifier. That’s all the material that’s carried along in the tap water that normally feeds the humidifier (yes, it’s true – if you drink tap water, just look in your humidifier to see all the “stuff” that you’re drinking down in each glass of water, tea, coffee or juice made with it – GROSS!!!)

By running the appropriate water connection from the RO system to the humidifier, you’ll be sure that only pure water gets to the system. One of the main reasons humidifiers fail so quickly is the buildup of all the dissolved and carried-along particles in the tap water. If you use purified water (which now doesn’t cost you any extra with your in-home RO system) your humidifier will last MUCH MUCH longer, all the while requiring less maintenance and less toxic chemicals to clean!

Ok – that should be enough to get us started. Please feel free to post any questions or comments – and if you have a unique way to use your RO system, send it over to us at info@douglasenviro.ca – we’ll reward you for your efforts! (or if you’re shy about email, visit us online at: www.douglasenviro.ca and use the contact form to submit your idea. While you’re there, make sure to sign up for our free newsletter, filled with ideas and information like this on water, air quality and healthy living!)

Take care and enjoy healthy water for life!

Greg