R.O VS Distilled VS Zerowater?

Ap0c0leS

Active Member
Hey guys i think i may have found a cheap alternative to extreamly expensive reverse osmosis water filters which can run in the hunderds easily. At walmart i found this thing called the Zero water bottle filter.. Its a water bottle you would put on a water cooler at your work office and dispense with cone shaped cups LOL!!! pics later.. Anyway this bottle comes with a TDS meter so you can check your PPM of the water ( this is why i bought it not thinking of the water) This bottle and the two filters ( carbon) will run you 60 bucks. Unfortunatly you will need to get a decanter aka something to dispense the water with as this thing your buying is just the bottle. The stand for it is just a glass thing you can get prob at the same place, if not home depot carrys it. Anyway Point of story this 100 dollar thing tells me makes cleaner water than R.O and distillation for much cheaper.. so i try it.. pour some water in, it goes though the filter.. then you can dispense it in the decanter into your cup. Test the water.. Hm ... 0 ppm... My tap water is 160..


I test people with R.O systems to check their PPM against this and tell me if you get a 0 reading.. if not i may be on to a cheap alternative to expensive systems!!!! PLUS A FREE TDS METER.. unless i am missing something here (Highly likely) This seems like really pure water and i could easily ACCURATLY measure the amount of nuets i use as i dont have to calculate for tapwater PPM before neuts are even added.. What do you guys think? ZERO WATER it is called.. Remember you will need the bottle and unless you have a water cooler/ dispenser you will need the zero water dispenser as well to dispense water. you can also buy replacement filters! This thing seems sweet but if any experts out there disagree please chime in !!! TDS is a decent way to measure neuts correct? TDS measure in PPM so i would keep my ppm around 400 early on then bump to 1000 and maybe 1500 for certain strains without problem? Or am i thinking on a different scale and would ANNIALATE my plants with that TDS?.. im confused about TDS meters but its better than having nothing
 

Ap0c0leS

Active Member
Oh by the way the dispenser they sell doesnt heat and cool the water in anyway so if you want that you will need a bona-fied water dispenser you can get at home depot or whatever,... dunno how well that would work to fill up pots or buckets though.. the zero water dispenser sits on a table or whatever.. you just pour water inthe top.. very handy
 

Ap0c0leS

Active Member
Come on lets get some comparisons.. cant anyone test their distilled or R.O water for PPM to see if i am correct? Comeone people this could save us TONS OF MONEY... It seems to balance the P.H right around 5.9 aswell
 

silentzombie

Active Member
Water with 0 ppm dissolved solids has a pH of 7. Are you sure the TDS meter is telling you 0 ppm and the water is still ~6 pH?
 

Ap0c0leS

Active Member
No i am not sure.. i do not have a digital PH meter only strips and solution but still ... how perfect is 0 ppm water for calculating nutes?
 

Defcon9

Well-Known Member
Come on lets get some comparisons.. cant anyone test their distilled or R.O water for PPM to see if i am correct? Comeone people this could save us TONS OF MONEY... It seems to balance the P.H right around 5.9 aswell

Distilled water 0ppm Ph 8.0. I buy no name brand at Price Chopper $0.99 for 4L (1 Gallon).

Now the 8.0 Ph is really irrelevant if adding any nutes, being distlled as soon as you add nutes it gets very acidic instantly. For just plain water I have to add 2 drops of ph down and one drop of ph up (it seems my ph up is stronger than ph down) and this gives me a PH of 6.0.

With my nutes I add my nutes and usually one drop of ph up to get a PH of 6.0 I want to buy a R.O. system to as I figure it should save me money and pay for itself with in 1 - 1.5 years.

My tap water no idea on PPM but I wouldn't use it as it is well water and I also go through a watersoftener so I don't even bother with it. I did try to PH it once and is is crazy alkiline. Mixed some nutes for outdoor garden with it, after adding nutes and trying to get ph right it still took 18 drops of ph down in 4 L of that crap. I use it outside and that's it.
 

vh13

Well-Known Member
Nothing beats getting your nutes dialed in like using a TDS meter, that's for sure. Since I bought one my plants have gotten the highest dosage of food they can handle without burning every time I feed 'em.

I'd confirm the accuracy of that free TDS meter though. Find someone with a good TDS meter and compare a few different solutions with theirs.
 

Ap0c0leS

Active Member
Yea brotha.. As i said this Zerowater system comes with a TDS meter.. AND it makes 0 PPM water.. its freeking awesome.. You just take plain tap water and pour it into the top of this thing.. you can prob piss in this thing and it will give you water LOL... i suggest it to everyone .. much much cheaper then an R.O and i dont see any benifit an R.O system has over this.. someone correct me if im wrong.. R.O's are to get zero PPM water correct>?
 

desert fox

Well-Known Member
I would be concerned about the reliability of the TDS meter. I have really hard water above 800ppm. I doubt it would hold a candle to RO. I got the cheepest RO unit off of Ebay for like $80 with extra carbon blocks and prefilters and a little adapter. So RO isnt really all that expensive.
 

Ap0c0leS

Active Member
thats what this is.. is R.O just carbon? This is basically the same thing lol..



Says scientific grade called the z - tester.. Who knows..
 

desert fox

Well-Known Member
thats what this is.. is R.O just carbon? This is basically the same thing lol..



Says scientific grade called the z - tester.. Who knows..

No RO goes through a prefilter to sift out any solid particals first then a carbon block some more inpuritys as well as clorine. Clorine kills your RO membrane. Then it is forced through the RO membrane splitting the water into purified and crap water. Then another block of carbon, and then sometimes a DI filter. De-ionizer.
 

cruzer101

Well-Known Member
R/O is not the same as a carbon filter.


TDS: Total Dissolved solids. What's in there besides h2o
PPM: Parts per million. a unit of measurement
EC: Electrical conductivity. another way to measure salts more accurately.

R/O: Reverse Osmosis. 2 or 3 stage Water filtering device. water is forced through extremely fine membrane filtering out dissolved solids. Desert Fox explained it best.

here:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/reverse-osmosis.htm

Charcoal Filter. Makes it taste better.

R/O water comes in between 8 to 10 PPM out of the machines in my area.
My Tap water is 350 PPM. I have my own R/O system and that water is 20 PPM
so I suppose the source is some what important in determining PPM

Distilled water is zero PPM
I guess thats what your getting with your zerowater?
So, whos meter are you using? Oh the one that came with it?

Hum. Dont get me wrong, I am always trying to figure a cheaper way to do things. Hell, I just tore apart a dorm fridge to make a chiller. But I have to say, you mentioned filling a res with this. I guess you are going to make seveval trips.
 
I have been of the mindset that RO water was the healthiest, best and cheapest water available. I have been using RO in our home for over 15 years. Within the last 5 - 6 yrs I have learned that we need to alkalize our bodies. I have tried everything, even going raw. Well raw was not only difficult, but I found I missed my beef and pork. I could not get my body to alkalize. Recently I have learned that it is not only the food, soda, alcohol and such that keeps our bodies in an acidic state, (which is not good, our bodies need to be in an alkalized state of 7.4 pH minimum to 8.5 pH) but a great deal is attributed to the water we consume. Pure water which is distilled water has a 3 pH. This is a perfect state for cancer productivity. I was shocked to learn that RO has a 4 pH. ZeroWater also has a 4 pH. Granted there are 0 TDS in all 3 of the above, but because of the pH level of the waters I have gone back to a Britta. Leaving the very costly RO mocking me. The water does not taste as good but the pH level is better by far. You can get a simple pH test kit for water online. Check it out. Best to you. Plants also like alkaline water.
 
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