Good guide!
My 2 cents about the minerals in water. It doesn’t go along with traditional thoughts in this country. [ Disclaimer: I don’t have an RO. I have a UF+UV based water purifier but it’s mostly being used as convenience rather than water filtration. Our tap water is ~150 TDS and we drank it just like that for many decades. ]
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Need of minerals in water is over hyped.
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Our body needs more than 10 grams of minerals everyday. Our food serves 99.99% of the minerals we need.
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Next time you buy a bottle of mineral water, do check how much magnesium, sodium and potassium it has. And then google how much magnesium, sodium and potassium a human body needs daily. You would literally have to drink thousands of bisleri bottles daily to cover your mineral needs. But drinking so much water would essentially remove minerals from your body and you will die.
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Drinking the water for its minerals is like marrying all the women in India so that you can call Katrina Kaif as your wife.
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One can easily survive on distilled water (aka battery water) which has a TDS of 0. It’s a superstition that one can’t.
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Secondly, you don’t know what kind of mineral you are getting in the name of drinking TDS water. In southern India, it may be laced with industrial chemicals whereas in northern India, it can carry fertilizers. Let’s not expect that water you are getting is cleaned of pollutants.
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I agree on that we can do away with copper infusion like gimmicks. Because,
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Minerals are considered in pairs. Copper pairs with zinc. Our digestion system usually can’t differentiate between copper and zinc. Both are important minerals and used for different functions. But intaking one more will suppress the other. You take copper supplements and you will find that it comes with zinc too.
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Slightly unrelated, our bodies aren’t good at absorbing metals in the pure form. Essentially, they need a bus. Meaning in order to absorb a metal it needs to be in a form of oxide, sulphate, phosphate, carbonate etc. There’s no benefit using copper vessels by thinking it’ll refill your copper levels. If that had worked, people would never develop an iron deficiency.
[*]Another important yet highly unknown factor: The chemical called Phthalates.
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It’s found in most of the plastics, cosmetics, fertilizers etc. It’s everywhere. It could even be food grade plastic, IDK. It’s one of those bad plastic ingredient that no one yet talks about because no one knows. It’s a hormone blocker. It’s anti testosterone and estrogen. It makes your capital-D into small-d. Although adverse effects are temporary for adults, but if they reproduce, the next 2 generations may have adverse effects (I really don’t mean to offend anyone). Plastic plumbing is everywhere these days. I did some research and PVC pipes have it while uPVC don’t. Some people use cPVC for drinking water but I couldn’t make sure if it carries phthalates or not. Somebody working in chemical industry please let us know. Edit: cPVC do contain phthalates. Just found out.
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AFAIK, RO and charcoal filters can remove phthalates. No idea about others filters.
[*]About taste, a good RO should produce distilled water like taste. Distilled water has no taste. People who complain that their RO has changed the taste never knew how pure water tasted like.