Is RODI water good for your dog?

[Authentic]

Just wondering,some say it's too clean for your family to drink as regular water,what about for your dog?

[Buckeye Hydro]

I wouldn't make a practice of it.

[FlyPenFly]

Long term is probably not great but I guess it depends if your local tap water is horrendous or not.

[mcgyvr]

I wouldn't make a practice of it.
Based on what? opinions or facts?

[FlyPenFly]

Based on what? opinions or facts?

What's with people jumping down throats at the slightest nothing.

[mcgyvr]

What's with people jumping down throats at the slightest nothing.

I was just hoping to get some facts from a "water filter" company..
No need to keep spreading any "myths" that might be out there..

Just wondering why they "wouldn't make a practice of it"

I'd happily drink RODI water and would have no problems giving it to my animals.
For every article bashing it there is another praising it..

[GAW]

It would seem that the real question is: why in the world would anyone want to give their dog RO/DI water?

[Brian Crook]

I love the taste of RO water and it seems pretty healthy to me. Maybe it's the DI part that is the concern. Who knows.

Tap water is good too.

[James77]

I was just hoping to get some facts from a "water filter" company..
No need to keep spreading any "myths" that might be out there..

Just wondering why they "wouldn't make a practice of it"

I'd happily drink RODI water and would have no problems giving it to my animals.
For every article bashing it there is another praising it..

The only myth I have ever heard is that RO water draws minerals from your body....but that is quickly shown as ridiculous when it is compared to the amount of minerals that you take in with food. But there is also the issue of bacteria. With chlorine removed, bacteria is free to grow. I have drank water from a fouled system, and it was horrible taste wise...I suffered nothing else.

Randy Holmes:
I would not drink either RO or RO/DI that is not intended for human consumption because pathogenic bacteria can grow in the system, and be released into the drinking water. This is a known problem. The bacteria grow when disinfectants are removed (such as chlorine). Systems designed for drinking usually have ways built in to kill bacteria, such as a UV.

I do not believe that lack of minerals part is any concern. You get minerals lots of other ways, such as foods and other beverages.

The concern with post RO water is bacterial growth. The disinfectant from your water supply is removed, so it can become contaminated.

I have problem with bacteria growing in a nutrient-deprived environment. They can go dormant, but not reproduce. There has to be substrate for growth and replication to occur. Even when bacteria go dormant in pure water (even that poses a problem of hypotonicity, that bacteria better have a capsule or a relly thick cell wall or risk bursting!), it will likely not survive a pH 1-2 in the stomach.

You may have a problem with it in theory, but in reality, it can be a severe problem. That is why many RO systems for human use incorporate a UV to kill bacteria. They do not need to grow fast to be a concern.

From the FDA:

http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/Inspections/InspectionGuides/InspectionTechnicalGuides/ucm072913.htm

Researchers at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) conducted extensive investigations on the bacterial contamination of RO systems used in producing purified water for dialysis (15). They reported: 1. certain naturally occurring Gram- negative bacteria can multiply in relatively pure RO water; 2. thorough periodic disinfection of the entire RO system is essential in producing water with acceptable bacterial counts; 3. stagnant water in pipes down stream of the membrane is the major source of bacteria and endotoxin in the product water; and 4. the efficiency of a membrane in rejecting bacteria is better in continuous operation than in intermittent use.


and


Technical Requirements of a RO System

Several basic technical requirements of a RO system are:
Feed water should be adjusted to proper pH and be prefiltered. The amount of TDS and suspended materials in the feed water after prefiltration should be controlled within the designed limits.
Feed water and product water should be monitored for microbiological quality. The system should be disinfected when microbiological quality levels are exceeded.
All system components should be mechanically cleaned before disinfecting. Appropriate tests should be performed to assure that chemicals used in disinfection are completely removed from the system.
The use of filters or ion-exchangers down stream of RO modules should be avoided.
The RO system should be designed for continuous flow without traps, dead ends and pipe sections which may collect stagnant water.
The chemical and microbial quality of water should be tested at predetermined intervals during a production cycle. In-line conductivity probes should be installed at key points for continuous monitoring of water quality.
The equipment should be qualified and the RO system should be validated periodically, as well as operated and maintained according to manufacturer's instructions so that it can consistently produce water with acceptable quality.

That is off this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15908849#post15908849

[Timber77]

ro is fine, di is not really good to drink for you or your dog

[Boboli]

just give your dog the waste water. It probably has all the extra stuff you don't want to give your fish.
lololol.

[das75]

my dog thinks rabbit crap is kibbles and drinks from puddles, I've politely asked him to stop but seems he doesn't want to listen. If he started emptying the tap water I put in his bowl and refilled with ro, even ro/di, least of my concerns.

[jerpa]

I wouldn't have any concern drinking RO/DI from a properly maintained machine designed for human consumption. There is nothing "unhealthy " about pure water. The DI filters do tend to add a metallic taste to the water though.

My concern, as states by others above, would be bacterial contamination. This contamination is mainly concentrated in standing water past the RO membrane. The DI chambers will add a significant amount of volume past the membrane when compared to just a few feet of tubing.

[Authentic]

The reason I brought this up is that Maltese tears stain the dogs face under the eyes,one thing that helps is feeding purified water,I figured why buy it if I already have plenty of rodi,I do love the forums as there is always a lot of information out there,thanks to everyone that chimed in.

[hogfanreefer]

Explain more about this bacterial contamination? What about people that have drunk well water for years with no antibacterial additives? If a unit is in constant use would there really be a significant bacterial load?

[timmykotanks]

This is not specifically about RO/DI but I noted some comments about your water company. In Canada we can look up water testing results by municipality. If you are worried about your local water you may be able to get results online. I say this as my municipal building wasn't much help in answering my questions but the online report was quite thorough.

[das75]

Explain more about this bacterial contamination? What about people that have drunk well water for years with no antibacterial additives? If a unit is in constant use would there really be a significant bacterial load?

Not unheard of to shock wells (http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/wwg411) with chlorine and with ag running off, e-coli is becoming more common, even in community wells (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_Tragedy).