Does Reverse Osmosis Remove Fluoride?

Reverse Osmosis is known to be one of the most popular methods to filter contaminants from water. Reverse osmosis filters are so far known to be some of the best filters all over the place but does reverse osmosis remove fluoride? That so far, is a considerable question being aware of the health effects fluoride has. We even tested fluoride on boiling water and got good results.

In small quantities, fluoride as a chemical provides healthier teeth. But, in some situations, groundwater origins may contain high amounts of fluoride. Reverse osmosis is a method for purification of water has the ability to remove fluoride.

Let’s get you to the answer straight away. 

Does Reverse Osmosis Remove Fluoride from Water? 

All over the world, mostly all homes make sure to include a step of reverse osmosis in their household drinking water purification systems, to make water consumption worthy for drinking as well as cooking. 

To receive fluoride-free water, purification methods like reverse osmosis, distillation, anion exchangers, PUR Filters. bone char carbon filters, activated alumina adsorption, or other filter materials are considered to be useful. Among them, reverse osmosis works the best and easiest. 

The method of reverse osmosis uses a partially permeable membrane to eliminate ions, unwanted molecules, and larger pollutants from drinking water.

It is not simply known to be one of the best ways to make water fluoride-free. The tap water running in your homes usually contains 0.6 ppm to 0.10 ppm of fluoride in it. Reverse osmosis filters remove these levels of fluoride from the water, making it 0.0 ppm. 

How does Reverse Osmosis remove Fluoride? 

Reverse osmosis is a method that depends on the properties of solutions that depend upon the ratio of the number of solute particles to the number of solvent molecules in a particular solution, and absolutely not on the type of chemical species present there. 

In reverse osmosis, the water is purified by applying pressure, overcoming osmotic pressure which moves water through a membrane. As soon as this happens, the membrane holds tight to different types of molecules and ions, including the chemical called fluoride present in the water. 

That’s how you receive pure, fresh, clean and most significantly fluoride-free water on the other side of the membrane. 

How effective is reverse osmosis at filtering out fluoride? 

Now, it all depends on the type of reverse osmosis filters you use. For instance, just like with everything else food, electronics, cars, etc the quality varies. The same way the type of reverse osmosis filter and its quality varies from each and everyone, that’s why make sure you purchase a great quality reverse osmosis filter. 

It is very easy to buy a filter that does not function well. It might break or leak soon or maybe even not filter out fluoride completely. 

A lot of different reverse osmosis filters which purify the water poorly, i.e. by letting quite a lot of toxic molecules into its membrane. Or there can be extremely well built reverse osmosis filters that leave you with healthy, fluoride-free water at the end. 

Reverse osmosis filters are known to be the most effective filters at filtering water. But, everything about it depends on the ability of it to allow different contaminants to go through the tiny holes of the filter’s membrane. 

What does reverse osmosis not remove? 

Reverse osmosis filters do not manage to eliminate some of the other contaminants. These particular contaminants include dissolved gases such as hydrogen sulfide, a common bad contaminant with properties of a rotten egg odor, which passes through the membrane of reverse osmosis. 

The reverse osmosis filter systems, while they happen to lower or basically just completely eliminate the amounts of various contaminants like Lead, Mercury, Calcium, Iron, Asbestos and Cysts, it somehow does not eliminate some pesticides, solvents and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs). 

Does Reverse osmosis remove pharmaceuticals? 

To be able to obtain good and high amounts of removal rates of pharmaceuticals from the water (99%+), there are quite some different processes that will do the needful, processes like activated carbon,  advanced oxidation, ozonation and reverse osmosis filters.

Reverse Osmosis filters have very high effectiveness and good capabilities in removing bacteria like Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli, etc. Reverse Osmosis Systems have a very high effectiveness in removing viruses like Norovirus, Rotavirus, etc. 

Conventional treatment processes with chlorination (free chlorine) can remove about 50% of these compounds, while advanced treatment processes, such as advanced oxidation, ozonation, activated carbon and membranes (e.g. reverse osmosis), can obtain higher amounts of removal rates.

More about Reverse Osmosis

The process of reverse osmosis through a partially permeable membrane was first discovered in the year 1748 by Jean-Claude Antoine Nollet. Later, it was just considered as a phenomenon in the laboratory. 

This process is best known for its ability to remove salts and other minerals from sea water to make fresh water. The removal of salts is called desalination. Since the early 1970s, the method of reverse osmosis has also been used to purify fresh water for other purposes like medical, industrial and domestic.

It is used for decentralized purposes of solar-powered reverse osmosis, military use, rainwater purification, in the food industry, maple syrup production, low alcohol beer, hydrogen production, aquariums and even for window cleaning. This method is quite famous. 

This was all about the good uses and advantages of the method of reverse osmosis. Let’s give you some of the disadvantages of it. 

Reverse osmosis units in homes use big amounts of water because they have low backpressure. As a result, they get back only 5% to 15% of the water that enters the system. The rest of the water is let out as wastewater. The wastewater contains all the rejected toxic contaminants, and methods of obtaining this water back again are not suitable for household systems. 

Reverse osmosis clearly has a lot more advantages than its disadvantages. But like every other thing or product, it has its own drawbacks too which may happen to vanish in the future due to any newly made improvements in the filters. 

Choosing The Right Reverse Osmosis Filter

As discussed earlier, it’s really important to choose the right reverse osmosis filter. Here’s a guide that’ll allow you to choose the right reverse osmosis water filter system without any stress and hesitation, but you will end up having only confidence in your decision.

If you have already made a firm decision on buying a reverse osmosis filter then the most strongly recommended brand is APEC. APEC stands for Advanced Purification Engineering Corp. It was founded in 2002.

The best two reverse osmosis water filters from APEC are the APEC 6 stage Reverse Osmosis filter that is the tap water version and the second one is the APEC 7 stage Reverse Osmosis filter which is the well water version. Both of them are easily available on Amazon. 

APEC 7 Stage Reverse Osmosis

It is a 2.88 ounces filter with the pattern of PH+UV. This filter does not require any batteries. This filter has seven particular stages to filterize the water. 

First stage includes extending the life of the membrane system by protecting it from dust and rust. 

The second and third stages are all about the carbon block getting rid of odors, unpleasant chlorine, cloudiness, etc. 

The fourth stage includes the high TFC reverse osmosis membrane removes TDS and contaminants like fluoride, lead, arsenic, and much more. 

Fifth stage is the UV light that destroys bacteria, viruses, etc. 

Sixth stage includes the advansed coconut shell refining TCR removes any possible residual taste. 

The seventh stage is the PH+ alkaline re-mineralizing calcium filter system adds calcium carbonate to the water. 

APEC 6 Stage Reverse Osmosis

The APEC 6 stage reverse osmosis has the same six stages that the APEC 7 stage reverse osmosis filter has. It weighs 27 pounds with dimensions 16 x 5.25 x 17.5 inches. 

About fluoride

Fluoride is actually the reduced state of the substance fluorine. Huge amounts of fluoride can lead to dental fluorosis or skeletal fluorosis, which can quickly damage bones and joints. 

Fluoride is questionable. It is said that fluoride is really useful for teeth, but then it goes through the whole body, leaving bodies highly affected by it

This substance can occur naturally. A lot of health issues have come up due to the presence of fluoride. It naturally occurs in minerals. 

Conclusion

As you have noticed, reverse osmosis does remove fluoride from water. It is one of the topmost methods of making fluoride-free water. It is highly recommended, no doubt. But always remember to choose the right type of a reverse osmosis filter system, since quite a lot of them may turn out to be having breakages or leakages soon.