I’ve got an ro unit and to be honest it’s the chlorine taste I can’t stand in municipal water supplies. I Put an inline filter (your fridge version ) in and yes the tds is higher but all are acceptable. The main point with the inline is removing the chlorine taste. Downside is limescale isn’t reduced with that only an ro unit does but the costs for an inline compared with an RO is a big difference. Other factor is making sure your tank on the ro unit is sterilised along with the filter housings and pipework on a schedule.
Thanks for your input. It appears our experiences are similar, however, my tank is sealed and has a pressurized rubber inner liner so I don't believe it's supposed to be cleaned. I do wipe off the filter fittings when I do my yearly filter changes. I wait until the TDS gets around 8 before I spend the money for filters. I’m “frugal” :). I agree, if you’re only concerned about taste, a simple inline carbon filter may help. We are most concerned about the pharmaceuticals and the other unknowns in our Durham, NC water as they allow motorized boating in our reservoir here.
I agree. We calculate that humans get enough of the good nutrients from other sources such as soda, fruits, veggies, etc to worry about what good stuff is filtered out by our RO system. For pets, however, their water bowl may be their primary source of water so we never use RO for them.
All I know is the water from our sink tastes like chlorine.. Pool water. And the filtered water from the fridge doesn't taste or smell like anything whatsoever.
Fridge filters are carbon filters that can help to improve the taste of water. They won't, however, remove micro plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc. If a fridge filter works good enough for you, that’s great! In our situation the fridge filter alone maybe helps with the taste a little bit, but not enough.
what science class did you take? did you graduate high school? You're rinsing it with tap water That's going to affect your results. either use three different meters or wait for it to dry off and clean it with something God
Hi Jeff, I always appreciate positive feedback. I received feedback on that point already (last year). Science and Biology aren't my favorite subjects, but I try to do the best I can.. I have my BSEE now and work as an IT Director in RTP (not that it matters) Last week I posted the 2022 update to this test (including a single blind taste test). In the new test I used the RO water for all rinsing, however, nothing changed the final outcome.; RO water is superior, followed by the brand of bottled water we tested (Sam’s Club RO Mineral Water), followed by fridge filtered, followed by tap. There are so many different factors and ways to test water, but I’m limited to my current equipment. You sound like you may have some good ideas for a future version of this test so give the updated video a view and let me know how we can improve it. I might even enlist your help for next time. Maybe we could have you run a version of our future test on your water to compare results. (I can ship you my TDS meter). You can email me direct at thehometipsshow@gmail.com Jon
No worries, but thank you for the follow up post. My offer stands…if you’d ever like to partner or have ideas for any new videos for my channel just let me know.
That is basically deionized water at 1or 2 and you should not be drinking that. You must be thirsty all the time. There are literally no minerals in that water.
We typically add back the minerals we lose by either using Aquasana packets or better yet, Mineral Pro replacement filters. When you look at the totality of the water, you drink in the food you buy, and when going out to restaurants to eat, I’m not 100% sure that mineral replacement is even necessary. However, when we give water to our dogs, we make sure that we do not give them the reverse osmosis filtered water.
I primarily drink spring water, i wonder how that water compares. I would be interested in that result. If you can do a test and reply here, that would be great.
Thank you for the suggestion, but a refrigerator filter is nothing but a carbon filter. It’s a single stage and it can make the water taste a bit better but it is absolutely not gonna remove the dissolved solids in the water. I’m not planning on testing fridge filters at this time because 5 stage reverse osmosis Systems, like we have installed under our sink and costs a few hundred dollars, is far superior. If you are only worried about taste then a fridge filter is probably good enough for you. If you’re worried about dissolved solids, like pharmaceuticals and high levels of minerals, etc., then you need to go with a reverse osmosis system.
You may seem fine but check out what just fluoride does to you for example. That stuff is for your teeth (maybe). NOT for you to swallow. Check the back of toothpaste for example. And that's just one chemical or metal in tap water.
To each their own. If the TDS reads above 250, have it further tested. I grew up on well water. You could literally light it on fire but I loved the rusty taste.
That’s a bit on the high side. I would be curious as to what is causing the high number. Maybe go look at your water supplier’s water reports online. To verify your meter is working correctly, consider checking against bottled water (not bottled mineral water)
Sometimes that just means that the reservoir is getting low. So if you give it time, it will auto correct. You can remove the fishy smell with a simple carbon filter many times. Obviously, RO system would be best but give a cheap carbon filter a try first.
Just got a tds meter today and tested mine. Then came to youtube. My tap and frigidaire are both at 46 ppm. Seems like the fridge filter doesn't do squat.
Same thing we experienced in out tests. However, the fridge filter can make the water taste a bit better if your water gets a smell to it from to time. Nothing beats RO water for taste, however.
It can be. It is void of any nutrients, however, so it shouldn’t be your only source of liquids (which very rarely is for most people). The taste (or lack there of) is incredible! Stop by for a glass sometime.
Agree, but it definitely tastes much worse than RO. And, what is the composition of those dissolved solids. Pharmaceuticals, micro plastics, auto petroleum runoff? I’m not sure but no thanks ! :)
RO systems purify the water so much that it is devoid of any minerals, making it acidic. But more importantly, drinking something with 0% solutes and mixing it with your cellular plasma levels of about 4% solutes causes those cells to swell and they will break. To avoid this your cells eject a portion of their cellular volume which causes your blood pressure to increase. So your kidneys rapidly remove the excess fluid volume to get back to normal. So you're urinating out your minerals. Deminerization of the body has alot of problems associated with it. Anxiety, heart arrythmias, digestive issues...etc.
I found this. I think. you are okay. It really depends on what the dissolved solids are. You don't want to drink water that is too low in TDS exclusively because you're not getting the minerals a human needs. www.bisleri.com/blog-detail/understanding-tds-and-its-role-in-drinking-water
Did the same test with the same tester, same results. The frig filters are just another revenue generator for corporations to sell us a bill of goods. In a 2021 LG frig yet to boot. 👎 corporate scams 👍 with RO
I’m with you. I do believe that that refrigerator filters (like any carbon filter) can slightly improve the taste of fishy smelling water and such, but I’m with you 100% on the fact that refrigerator filters do not remove dissolved solids such as micro-plastics, pharmaceuticals, toxic chemicals etc. so there is no health benefit for your family by using refrigerator filters.
I've been buying Arrowhead spring water and also the crystal Glacier Spring Water I recently bought a Home Forest TDS EC & TEMP Meter Tester. I tested both of those Waters and they're really high up in ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION red like >😡500 which I thought was good water, even my sink tap water and my refrigerator water with filter is also in the red I have always stayed away from purified water thinking it was dirty so I bought a couple to test Sam's Club purified water was at a level 22 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION Costco's purified water was 17 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION and another store brand of purified water from Winco came at a level 4 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION. So now I have to regroup and get purified water but I have bought the reverse osmosis water that comes up super clean as well testing PPM at 4 But the refrigerator water filters Everydrop 3 don't work it's ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION it's TDS >500😡 Everydrop is 50 bucks I'm not buying anymore. Now I'm gonna test the ice from stores and my frezzer. But I be buying more of the reverse osmosis and Winco brand water. I live in Arizona hard water here I also have a water softener. So if the TDS Levels in water is 500 PPM according to the EPA's maximum contamination level, why would I want to drink anything that still has some type of high particles in it even at 500 when you can find other sources that's a lot more cleaner. They sell water filters for Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerators when the filter number is so high they're not getting no more of my money I'm keeping my coins.
I live in Arizona hard water here I also have a water softener. So if the TDS Levels in water is 500 PPM according to the EPA's maximum contamination level, why would I want to drink anything that still has some type of high particles in it even at 500 when you can find other sources that's a lot more cleaner. They sell water filters for Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerators when the filter number is so high they're not getting no more of my money I'm keeping my coins.
Interesting ! RO water is definitely the most free of contamination, but you don’t want to exclusively drink RO water because the minerals in spring water are important to your body too. We try to find a balance…if it’s a glass of cold drinking water or water for the coffee maker we use RO from our under sink RO filtration system. If we go out to eat or we are cooking with water then we use the tap water. Again, RO removes everything from the water and you need some of those minerals. Also, your pets need those minerals as well so we always give our dogs water from the tap, not the RO water.
Spring water is higher in TDS because it has natural minerals in the water. Purified water doesn't have minerals, which is why its TDS is lower, around 20. Higher TDS does not necessarily mean it's bad water. For instance, if you added a little sugar to your purified water, the TDS would shoot up. Even though the sugar is perfectly safe.
That TDS meter only tells you that there are minerals dissolved in the water. It’s doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Remember that drinking distilled water which completely gets rid of all minerals is bad for you and eventually will make feel unwell. The best spring water out there will have tons of minerals which are essential to your health and that TDS meter will read beyond its limit. Toxic contaminants are what should worry you. Get a filter that assures your water is free of contaminants not a filter that completely removes essential minerals. We drink water to get electrolytes and that’s what you get in an IV if you ever go to the ER for dehydration not just liquid water.
For consistency in testing it's important to use the exact same procedure for each test. For our follow on tests we rinsed in RO water each time, and neither water had any impact on the results. Check out the follow on video for the rest of the story.
I’ve got an ro unit and to be honest it’s the chlorine taste I can’t stand in municipal water supplies. I Put an inline filter (your fridge version ) in and yes the tds is higher but all are acceptable. The main point with the inline is removing the chlorine taste. Downside is limescale isn’t reduced with that only an ro unit does but the costs for an inline compared with an RO is a big difference. Other factor is making sure your tank on the ro unit is sterilised along with the filter housings and pipework on a schedule.
Thanks for your input. It appears our experiences are similar, however, my tank is sealed and has a pressurized rubber inner liner so I don't believe it's supposed to be cleaned. I do wipe off the filter fittings when I do my yearly filter changes. I wait until the TDS gets around 8 before I spend the money for filters. I’m “frugal” :). I agree, if you’re only concerned about taste, a simple inline carbon filter may help. We are most concerned about the pharmaceuticals and the other unknowns in our Durham, NC water as they allow motorized boating in our reservoir here.
Just because there’s stuff dissolved in what doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. What matters is what is dissolved.
Yep
Really can't go by that test completely because it picks up healthy minerals as well, but it's a good way to see how your water is generally.
I agree. We calculate that humans get enough of the good nutrients from other sources such as soda, fruits, veggies, etc to worry about what good stuff is filtered out by our RO system. For pets, however, their water bowl may be their primary source of water so we never use RO for them.
@@thehometipsshow Good point.
@thehometipsshow Studies are showing this is not true, drinking RO water cause demineralizaton of bones and teeth pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38125211/
😂 he rinsed the tap off the meter with tap water... and kept rinsing with tap water 🤣
Be nice :). In the follow up 2022 video I corrected that…and guess what. It made no difference in the results.
Shouldn't you have used distilled water to clean it off between tests?
Yes, I should’ve. I caught that after the fact and retested it using distilled water, and it made zero difference in the results.
Can you ship me a water tester, I wanna test the water from my new fridge
Hi. I'm sorry but I don't sell them. You can purchase TDS water testers from Amazon for about $15. Best of luck!
All I know is the water from our sink tastes like chlorine.. Pool water. And the filtered water from the fridge doesn't taste or smell like anything whatsoever.
Fridge filters are carbon filters that can help to improve the taste of water. They won't, however, remove micro plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc. If a fridge filter works good enough for you, that’s great! In our situation the fridge filter alone maybe helps with the taste a little bit, but not enough.
what science class did you take? did you graduate high school? You're rinsing it with tap water That's going to affect your results. either use three different meters or wait for it to dry off and clean it with something God
Hi Jeff, I always appreciate positive feedback. I received feedback on that point already (last year). Science and Biology aren't my favorite subjects, but I try to do the best I can.. I have my BSEE now and work as an IT Director in RTP (not that it matters) Last week I posted the 2022 update to this test (including a single blind taste test). In the new test I used the RO water for all rinsing, however, nothing changed the final outcome.; RO water is superior, followed by the brand of bottled water we tested (Sam’s Club RO Mineral Water), followed by fridge filtered, followed by tap. There are so many different factors and ways to test water, but I’m limited to my current equipment. You sound like you may have some good ideas for a future version of this test so give the updated video a view and let me know how we can improve it. I might even enlist your help for next time. Maybe we could have you run a version of our future test on your water to compare results. (I can ship you my TDS meter). You can email me direct at thehometipsshow@gmail.com
Jon
@@thehometipsshow it's cool bro. I shouldn't have been so harsh but I just felt so obvious to me. I was like what is he doing
Lol. Good video still
No worries, but thank you for the follow up post. My offer stands…if you’d ever like to partner or have ideas for any new videos for my channel just let me know.
😂😂😂 these youtubers are funny bro
I try to be!
That is basically deionized water at 1or 2 and you should not be drinking that. You must be thirsty all the time. There are literally no minerals in that water.
We typically add back the minerals we lose by either using Aquasana packets or better yet, Mineral Pro replacement filters. When you look at the totality of the water, you drink in the food you buy, and when going out to restaurants to eat, I’m not 100% sure that mineral replacement is even necessary. However, when we give water to our dogs, we make sure that we do not give them the reverse osmosis filtered water.
I primarily drink spring water, i wonder how that water compares. I would be interested in that result. If you can do a test and reply here, that would be great.
I plan to do a comparison between our water and various off the shelf brands including Spring water.
@thehometipsshow alot of brands lie about their waters plus they all in plastic I would trust them expensive for no reason
Maybe your fridge filter was not a good brand. You have to test 5 or more brands of fridge filters.
Thank you for the suggestion, but a refrigerator filter is nothing but a carbon filter. It’s a single stage and it can make the water taste a bit better but it is absolutely not gonna remove the dissolved solids in the water. I’m not planning on testing fridge filters at this time because 5 stage reverse osmosis Systems, like we have installed under our sink and costs a few hundred dollars, is far superior. If you are only worried about taste then a fridge filter is probably good enough for you. If you’re worried about dissolved solids, like pharmaceuticals and high levels of minerals, etc., then you need to go with a reverse osmosis system.
been drinking out of the hose for years. guess i'm old skool
Me too! Lol!
All that toxic flouride
Been drinking tab water all my life, and I am still guuuud. It all depends where you live
You may seem fine but check out what just fluoride does to you for example. That stuff is for your teeth (maybe). NOT for you to swallow. Check the back of toothpaste for example. And that's just one chemical or metal in tap water.
To each their own. If the TDS reads above 250, have it further tested. I grew up on well water. You could literally light it on fire but I loved the rusty taste.
My mom does too and she said stop saying it's bad for me 😂
Wish you had a berkey
What’s a Berkey?
Wow!!! I did my tap water and it comes out at 554
That’s a bit on the high side. I would be curious as to what is causing the high number. Maybe go look at your water supplier’s water reports online. To verify your meter is working correctly, consider checking against bottled water (not bottled mineral water)
Thank you
If i could smell fish in my tap water, I'd immediately contact the water company, I hope you did!?
Sometimes that just means that the reservoir is getting low. So if you give it time, it will auto correct. You can remove the fishy smell with a simple carbon filter many times. Obviously, RO system would be best but give a cheap carbon filter a try first.
@thehometipsshow I'm in the UK so may be different..as long as you're OK and healthy!
it’s very interesting how changes are different between different parts of the world. thanks for sharing.
Let us know what you decide to do. my reverse osmosis system was about $250, so a bit pricey, but the water tastes absolutely amazing.
Just got a tds meter today and tested mine. Then came to youtube. My tap and frigidaire are both at 46 ppm. Seems like the fridge filter doesn't do squat.
Same thing we experienced in out tests. However, the fridge filter can make the water taste a bit better if your water gets a smell to it from to time. Nothing beats RO water for taste, however.
Wow, looks like RO is the way to go.
It can be. It is void of any nutrients, however, so it shouldn’t be your only source of liquids (which very rarely is for most people). The taste (or lack there of) is incredible! Stop by for a glass sometime.
@@thehometipsshow buy an Ro system that adds minerals after and you’re good to go.
Tap 53 isn't that bad I think?
Agree, but it definitely tastes much worse than RO. And, what is the composition of those dissolved solids. Pharmaceuticals, micro plastics, auto petroleum runoff? I’m not sure but no thanks ! :)
Maybe you shouldn’t be rinsing your meter with that dirty tap water
So I hear. :)
We need to get a RO, thanks for the useful information!! We drink so much water and need to have clean what after my husbands surgery.
I have an updated 2022 version of that video coming out as soon as I can get it edited
RO systems use about 3 times the amount of water you get.
@@akbychoice not true. Every drop put into my RO system is filtered and comes out the spigot.
@@akbychoice look up the Apec Systems home 5 stage RO system
RO systems purify the water so much that it is devoid of any minerals, making it acidic. But more importantly, drinking something with 0% solutes and mixing it with your cellular plasma levels of about 4% solutes causes those cells to swell and they will break. To avoid this your cells eject a portion of their cellular volume which causes your blood pressure to increase. So your kidneys rapidly remove the excess fluid volume to get back to normal. So you're urinating out your minerals. Deminerization of the body has alot of problems associated with it. Anxiety, heart arrythmias, digestive issues...etc.
What kind of filter do you have under sink? Which brand? Thanks
It’s the APEC Water 5 Stage Reverse Osmosis system
this shit does not me feel good about drinking a gallon per day for the past 2 years from my fridge.
I completely understand!!!
My tap water is 187
I found this. I think. you are okay. It really depends on what the dissolved solids are. You don't want to drink water that is too low in TDS exclusively because you're not getting the minerals a human needs. www.bisleri.com/blog-detail/understanding-tds-and-its-role-in-drinking-water
I like water that tastes good, which ours does. No iron, rust, pharma, etc. We get our minerals from vitamins and from cooking etc.
187 is actually good if it’s not chlorine raising it. A lot of city waters have high tds because the chlorine in it.
Did the same test with the same tester, same results. The frig filters are just another revenue generator for corporations to sell us a bill of goods. In a 2021 LG frig yet to boot. 👎 corporate scams 👍 with RO
I’m with you. I do believe that that refrigerator filters (like any carbon filter) can slightly improve the taste of fishy smelling water and such, but I’m with you 100% on the fact that refrigerator filters do not remove dissolved solids such as micro-plastics, pharmaceuticals, toxic chemicals etc. so there is no health benefit for your family by using refrigerator filters.
I've been buying Arrowhead spring water and also the crystal Glacier Spring Water I recently bought a Home Forest TDS EC & TEMP Meter Tester. I tested both of those Waters and they're really high up in ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION
red like >😡500 which I thought was good water, even my sink tap water and my refrigerator water with filter is also in the red I have always stayed away from purified water thinking it was dirty so I bought a couple to test Sam's Club purified water was at a level 22 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION
Costco's purified water was 17 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION
and another store brand of purified water from Winco came at a level 4 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION.
So now I have to regroup and get purified water but I have bought the reverse osmosis water that comes up super clean as well testing PPM at 4
But the refrigerator water filters Everydrop 3 don't work it's ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION it's TDS >500😡
Everydrop is 50 bucks I'm not buying anymore. Now I'm gonna test the ice from stores and my frezzer.
But I be buying more of the reverse osmosis and Winco brand water.
I live in Arizona hard water here I also have a water softener.
So if the TDS Levels in water is 500 PPM according to the EPA's maximum contamination level, why would I want to drink anything that still has some type of high particles in it even at 500 when you can find other sources that's a lot more cleaner. They sell water filters for Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerators when the filter number is so high they're not getting no more of my money I'm keeping my coins.
I live in Arizona hard water here I also have a water softener.
So if the TDS Levels in water is 500 PPM according to the EPA's maximum contamination level, why would I want to drink anything that still has some type of high particles in it even at 500 when you can find other sources that's a lot more cleaner. They sell water filters for Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerators when the filter number is so high they're not getting no more of my money I'm keeping my coins.
Interesting ! RO water is definitely the most free of contamination, but you don’t want to exclusively drink RO water because the minerals in spring water are important to your body too. We try to find a balance…if it’s a glass of cold drinking water or water for the coffee maker we use RO from our under sink RO filtration system. If we go out to eat or we are cooking with water then we use the tap water. Again, RO removes everything from the water and you need some of those minerals. Also, your pets need those minerals as well so we always give our dogs water from the tap, not the RO water.
@@thehometipsshow That's if you can find good pure spring water
Spring water is higher in TDS because it has natural minerals in the water. Purified water doesn't have minerals, which is why its TDS is lower, around 20. Higher TDS does not necessarily mean it's bad water. For instance, if you added a little sugar to your purified water, the TDS would shoot up. Even though the sugar is perfectly safe.
That TDS meter only tells you that there are minerals dissolved in the water. It’s doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Remember that drinking distilled water which completely gets rid of all minerals is bad for you and eventually will make feel unwell. The best spring water out there will have tons of minerals which are essential to your health and that TDS meter will read beyond its limit. Toxic contaminants are what should worry you. Get a filter that assures your water is free of contaminants not a filter that completely removes essential minerals. We drink water to get electrolytes and that’s what you get in an IV if you ever go to the ER for dehydration not just liquid water.
Very informative, keep up with the videos.
Thank you. The production quality will get better with experience. The payback is how much I enjoy helping others.
Lol did you just rinse the tap water with tap water?? 😂
For consistency in testing it's important to use the exact same procedure for each test. For our follow on tests we rinsed in RO water each time, and neither water had any impact on the results. Check out the follow on video for the rest of the story.