Purifying the water that goes into your pipes is crucial to ensure that you have a clean water source. When you are doing a water purification for your household, Reverse Osmosis (RO) is one of the many methods that you can use.
The most important thing you should consider about reverse osmosis is achieving the right amount of water pressure for it to work.
If you are concerned about whether your water purifying system is effective, you can always call your local technicians. However, to save you some unnecessary cost, you can just do it yourself and check if there is indeed enough water pressure in your tank.
How Does Reverse Osmosis Work?
To know how much water pressure is needed for reverse osmosis, you need to know how it works first.
Understanding the process can help you grasp the method easier and you can troubleshoot the problem faster next time. So what exactly is reverse osmosis and how does it work?
In normal osmosis, the water from a natural source goes through a semipermeable membrane that acts as a filter for molecules before flowing into a highly concentrated solution.
In reverse osmosis, the pressure is applied from the concentrated solution towards the diluted solution to filter out water pollutants that may cause health risks.
The water still flows from your natural water source but it is filtered using the process of reverse osmosis. The permeable membrane in your water tank acts as a filter to purify the water that goes through your pipes.
There are also many other water filtration systems such as sediment, activated charcoal, and ultraviolet disinfection filters.
Having the right amount of water pressure ensures that your water source is safe to use for daily activities in your house such as drinking water and taking showers.
When you are using reverse osmosis as your water filtration system, you are basically letting the water pressure push the natural water into your tank to be filtered out. The filtered water then is the water source that you are using every day.
How Much Water Pressure Do I Need?
The short answer is 60 pounds per square inch (psi). That’s generally what most filtration systems using the reverse osmosis method need for it to work efficiently.
However, do not worry if it drops to 40 psi or goes up to 80 psi because it happens in most cases and it’s totally normal.
Having the right amount of water pressure ensures that your water source is safe to use for daily activities in your house such as drinking water and taking showers.
When you are using reverse osmosis as your water filtration system, you are basically letting the water pressure push the natural water into your tank to be filtered out. The filtered water then is the water source that you are using every day.
Low water pressure
If you are having trouble with low water pressure in your household, meaning that it goes lower than 40 psi, you are going to need to address it as soon as you can.
This is because it can cause a clean water shortage and your filtration system will not be able to successfully push the natural water into your tank.
This means that you will not be able to get as much filtered water as you normally would since there is not enough water pressure to start with.
Having low water pressure makes it hard for natural water to reach your reverse osmosis membranes so keep an eye on this issue.
High water pressure
On the opposite side of the spectrum, having a water pressure that is high, meaning it goes way beyond 80 psi could also raise concern. This can ruin the filtration system that you have set up by forcing molecules that are supposed to be filtered to enter your water pipelines.
If the molecules and water pollutants that are supposed to be filtered go through your system, it can cause you many problems.
Aside from diarrhea and other health risks, it can also ruin your appliances that use water such as your washing machine. This is because unfiltered water also carries toxic metals and chemical compounds with them.
How Can I Fix my Water Pressure?
You can normally sense that there is something wrong with your water pressure based on the amount of water it pumps into your whole house water system.
To diagnose what is wrong with your water pressure, you can:
- Invest in a pressure gauge so you can easily keep track and measure your water pressure.
This tool is inexpensive and can be purchased at your local hardware. A pressure gauge can measure up to 300 psi, so it should be able to measure the normal water pressure needed for reverse osmosis.
Once you have diagnosed the problem, whether the water pressure in your tank is too high or below the normal psi, you can then start fixing the problem without the need of a professional plumber.
- For high water pressure, you can install a regulator for your water pressure to make sure that it does not go beyond 80 psi. Sometimes your regulator will fail so don’t rely on them and check your system every once in a while too.
- For low water pressure, check your pressure regulator and set that minimum pressure default at around 50 psi so that it doesn’t have to reach 40 psi before it alarms you. All you need to do is adjust the screw located at the top part of the regulator to increase the flow.
Conclusion
Making sure that the filtration system in your house such as reverse osmosis is working great adds a layer of protection to your family. To ensure this, you have to know the basics of water pressure as this is the most crucial part of the reverse osmosis process.
Jomar Teves
A blogger by day, a tech enthusiast by night, and a downhill mountain biker at the weekends. After four years in business school and working for multinational clients, Jomar believes he can improve the world through his writings. Jomar has six years experience as a writer and is a graduate of the BSBA Entrepreneurial Marketing program. His work has been published on Clutch Points, Blokt and iTech.