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Specifications & Efficiency of Reverse Osmosis Filters

Water purification involves filtering as much foreign matter as possible from the water supply. Reverse osmosis can remove even the tiniest contaminants.

  1. Reverse Osmosis

    • Reverse osmosis uses a semi-permeable membrane to separate water from any ions, particles or dissolved substances it may contain, according to FreeDrinkingWater.com.

    Overall Efficiency

    • Reverse osmosis can reject 90 to 99 percent of total contaminants, including almost any particles greater than 300 daltons in molecular weight. General Chemistry Online defines a dalton as 1/12th the mass of a carbon-12 atom's nucleus.

    Ion Rejection

    • The efficiency of reverse osmosis membranes depends on the ionic charge of the particle. These membranes can reject more than 99 percent of strongly charged ions and 95 percent of weakly charged ions.

    Particle Size Ranges

    • Reverse osmosis can filter out particles ranging in size from alt or sugar molecules of .002 microns all the way down to atomic particles of only .0001 microns.

    Considerations

    • FreeDrinkingWater.com points out that since no one purification method can filter out every kind of contaminant, the best water purification systems use a combination of filtration technologies.

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