What is The Best TDS level for RO-filtered Water?

When shopping for water filters, you will come across a lot of businesses advertising their products using the term "TDS," claiming that this is their primary technique of determining the quality of the water. Total dissolved solids, or TDS for short, is a measurement of all dissolved substances in water, including salts, compounds, minerals, and metals. A TDS test is frequently used by water filtration companies and homeowners to assess the water's quality because it is simple, rapid, and affordable.

A TDS test is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it can reveal the concentrations of dissolved salts or chemicals from industrial waste in your water and establish its general quality. It is significant to remember that water is a universal solvent that readily picks up and dissolves contaminants. Your water may include various toxins that a TDS test cannot detect, depending on your location and supplier. Therefore, you can't rely on this test to give you information about precise water quality problems, such as salty taste, increased hardness, or corrosiveness.

Furthermore, a lot of water purifiers are made to deal with issues unrelated to TDS, such as chloramine removal, thus, evaluating your water's TDS in these situations is pointless.

So when precisely is it beneficial to analyse the TDS in your water?

Continue reading to learn more about TDS and get the answers to some frequently asked questions about it.

What is TDS?

The total concentration of organic and inorganic compounds dissolved in water is referred to as TDS. These compounds consist of ions, metals, minerals, and salts. Total dissolved solids in your drinking water come from a variety of sources, including industrial effluent, sewage, plumbing pipes, natural sources, urban runoffs, agricultural runoffs, chemical fertilisers used in plumbing and gardens, and chemicals used in water treatment. Depending on the kinds and quantities of substances dissolved in the water, the water TDS level can either be beneficial or harmful for human consumption. TDS is made up of a variety of salts, metals, minerals, and organic molecules, some of which supply minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium that your body needs as a complement to its daily demands.

Others, like lead, nitrate, cadmium, and arsenic, can be detrimental to your health. Additionally, while some of these might not be harmful to health, they can give water a salty or bitter flavour and contribute to problems like scale formation, water hardness, and discolouration. This implies that different water sources will have various elements present as TDS, which leads to the following query.

What water TDS levels are considered safe and unsafe?

Depending on the source of your water, TDS levels may change. TDS levels in tap water can range from 200 to 1000 ppm or even more, depending on the source of your water. However, the TDS value of tap water in places with high mineral concentrations may be significantly greater. TDS cannot be removed by active carbon filters; however, water filtration methods like reverse osmosis can.

TDS levels between 200 and 500 are often appropriate, and values under 500 have not been linked to any adverse health effects by science. However, a TDS result over 1000 mg/l may signal hazardous quantities of dissolved solids in your water.
It is crucial to comprehend the significance of various levels of TDS because it is obvious that not all TDS concentrations in water are unhealthy for ingestion by humans. The World Health Organization's (WHO) study to determine the ideal range of TDS levels came to the following conclusions:

• Upto 300: Excellent
• 300 – 600: Good/Acceptable
• 600 – 900: Fair
• 900 – 1,200: Poor
• Above 1,200: Unacceptable

It is important to keep in mind that water with low TDS levels can taste flat and pleasant, whereas water with greater levels may taste sour, salty, or unpleasant.

Why Should Total Dissolved Solids in Water Be Measured?

• Taste and smell: In high-quality tap water depending on the type of dissolved solids present, TDS level can taste salty, bitter, or sulfuric. Additionally, it might cause your water to smell bad.
• Cooking: Food's flavour can be altered by a high TDS water concentration. For instance, spaghetti can have a bad taste if it is cooked in water with a lot of chlorine.
• Cleaning - Tap water with a high TDS level can bleach your clothes and dishes and leave ugly yellowish streaks on them. It is typical to observe buildups in your sinks, tubs, and faucets while this type of water is running in your home.
• Plumbing and Appliances-Hard tap water can be caused by high calcium and magnesium concentrations. These dispersed minerals can lead to scale buildup in the piping, which will cost money in repairs and replacements and limit the life of your water heaters.
• Health - While drinking water with higher TDS values may not always be dangerous, some minerals, such as lead or copper, can be harmful to your health if drunk in high concentrations on a regular basis.

How does RO eliminate TDS?

Because it removes 99.9% of all contaminants and sediments from water, including Total Dissolved Solids and particles as small as.001 microns, reverses osmosis differs from ordinary filtering (TDS). The system's pressure-generating RO membranes only allow pure water to pass through them. It is preferable to purchase a reverse osmosis filter system to guarantee that your water is clear of toxins. Your local tap water may naturally contain a high amount of total dissolved solids or may take up a range of impurities (TDS).

Your filtered water will most likely have the same TDS level as your unfiltered tap water if you have a carbon water filter installed to remove chloramine or chlorine from your city water source. This is so that dissolved particles in water are not taken care of by carbon filtration. Chlorine, chloramines, and VOCs are reduced by carbon filters through a process known as adsorption, which also improves the water's overall flavour and odour.

Additionally, the micron rating that is typically included with carbon filtering systems shows how porous the filter material is. Any water particle larger than 0.5 micron will be blocked from passing through a filter with a 0.5 micron rating. However, the tiny pores on the carbon filter membrane cannot physically filter out TDS because it is fully dissolved in the water.

Conclusion

You need not be concerned unless your water is much outside the recommended TDS limit. In order to maintain the TDS level in your drinking water, it is also critical to invest in the proper filtering equipment.