As per the Bureau of Indian Standards, the desirable quality of drinking water is that which has TDS (Total Dissolved Salts) content of 500 ppm or less (ppm stands for parts of the salt present in a million parts of water, 1 ppm = approximately 1 mg/L ). Where water of this quality is not easily available, the compromise/permissible level is water having upto 2000 ppm.

RO is a process where water having more than the desirable salt content is put in one part of a vessel with two compartments separated by special media and pressure is applied on the water. This results in only the pure water going across the media to the other compartment with the salts remaining in the same compartment. Thus the process results in accumulation of salts in the first compartment. Beyond a certain concentration of salt the process will not proceed further and the water which contains all the salt is rejected.

In RO systems of small capacity suitable for domestic purposes, the rejected component may be as high as 45%. The process therefore is a wasteful one with much of the water having to be thrown away.

Diverting large volumes of this highly salty water into the sewage line could result in acting against the smooth movement of its contents. The reject will not be tolerated by normal garden plants. It will form deposits on the floor and sanitary ware. It is also not advisable to divert it to the septic tank.

RO is to be resorted to only in cases where the salt content of water to be used for drinking is much higher than advisable.

Even here reduction of the salt content to the level of 10 or 20 ppm is counterproductive. If the salt content of the water is very high even for non-potable purposes, rainwater harvesting often works wonders.

One of the doubts that many people have is about the taste of water. RO purifiers remove essential minerals from water, making it taste bland. This is the reason why water purifiers from renowned brands like EARTHBOY come with a Mineral RO technology. This feature retains essential minerals in water and also dispenses tasty drinking water.

Maintaining a water purifier is a necessity to make sure it works efficiently. However, in the first year, you hardly need to make an expenditure on maintaining the RO water purifier. In addition, you need to clean the water purifier regularly for hygiene purposes. The filters need to be replaced after 6 months or a year depending on the usage and quality of water you receive.

Natural sources of water come get contaminated because of a number of reasons before it reaches your taps. The minerals such as heavy ions and salts dissolved in water during the cycle are known as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). A high level of TDS in water can have a negative impact on your health. This is the reason why EARTHBOY water purifiers come with a TDS controller so that you drink completely safe water.

Reverse Osmosis water purifiers come with a semi-permeable membrane that allows only pure water to pass through it. The membrane rejects the contaminants that are too large to pass through the small pores. As a result, the purification process removes the large and harmful particles from water.