Reverse-Osmosis Water Filter Question.

We have hard well water, about 25 grains of hardness. But the hard water tasted great. Just lived with it for quite a while, but then the wife wanted an icemaker in the new refrigerator. I knew that hard water and an icemaker wouldn't go together, besides I was tired of having to clean the deposits out of the faucets and shower heads, so I installed a water softener. It all works fine and dandy, but softened water tastes AWFUL. Wife doesn't mind it, but I grew up on good tasting well water and she grew up in town, so she doesn't know what good water tastes like anyway.

Here's the question: If I put one of those Reverse Osmosis units on the water supply to the fridge, would it improve the taste? I know that a charcoal filter won't do it.

Would the RO unit take the softness out of the water and cause calcium buildup again?

What if I ran the refrigerator supply through the RO unit straight in, bypassing the softener?

I'm tired of buying bottled water to drink. I don't drink much soda, I like water to drink when I'm thirsty.

Now I gotta go sit in a corner and ponder things for awhile before I decide what I want to do next.

Whether or not you prefer the taste of the RO filtered water over the softened water is a matter of personal preference. The output of an RO system is nearly pure water and almost tasteless.

I don't know about your fridge, but we have a new Frigidaire. I hooked the RO unit to both the refrigerator and a spigot. The spigot water tastes OK, but the water coming out of the refrigerator has a distinct metallic taste. I'm not sure what that's all about.

By the way, most fridge manufacturers recommend against connecting icemakers to RO units, because of the pressure drop. If your well pressure isn't very high, you may find you have to adjust the icemaker to get your cubes big enough.

If you like the taste of your well water, just run hard water to one tap in the house.

Dusty

I wanted to put a reverse osmosis set-up on our drinking water, because I had it tested and it showed to be heavy in sodium. I decided against it when I found out that I would have to waste as much water as I produced for drinking. From what I've read, though, RO should take out all the minerals.

Butch