What the heck is reverse osmosis?

Recent reports have brought up more questions than answers about drinking water, either from the tap or bottled. It is vital to take steps towards improving the water you drink, especially with the constant uncertainty of how clean our drinking water is. Installing a reverse osmosis system in your home, at your kitchen sink, is a convenient and logical solution to ensuring your clean water.

You may be asking yourself, what does a reverse osmosis system actually do? If my water needs to be filtered, why not use one of those water pitchers, my refrigerator filter or a screw-on faucet filter?

To understand the benefits of reverse osmosis, and what differentiates it from a filtered water pitcher, begin with understanding the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the natural movement of a lesser concentrated liquid through a semi-permeable membrane, into a solution of a higher concentration. Osmosis equalizes the concentration of the liquid on both sides of the membrane. Simply put, it mixes clean purified water with contaminated water.

Reverse osmosis reverses this process by creating pressure to force the contaminated water through a semi-permeable membrane that removes the gunk and junk; thus producing delicious drinking water. Moreover, a reverse osmosis system is made up of four carbon filters. Each filter removes specific contaminants from the water.

Function of each filter:

o Filter One: This filter removes sediment; the big stuff.

o Filter Two: Allows the sediment-free water to travel through the filter, trapping and removing organic chemicals and chlorine. These are the smaller particles that water pitchers, refrigerator filters, and screw-on facet filters definitely miss.

o Filter Three: This membrane removes 90-98 percent of the chemicals left in the water, depending on the water pressure and temperature. The trapped sediments are then dumped into a drain. The filtered water flows into a two to three gallon storage tank.

o Filter Four: When the water is ready to be enjoyed, the stored water flows through this final carbon filter removing any possible taste and odor left in the water. Essentially, polishing the water.

A reverse osmosis system’s filter process pushes water through four filters, in comparison to a filtered water pitcher, refrigerator filter and a screw-on faucet filter that runs water through a carbon filter once. A reverse osmosis system, like Culligan’s AC-30, provides you with an endless-supply of clean, safe drinking water right at your kitchen sink.