For cat servants [Purina Cat Naturals?]

[VacationForever]

Ok, so I bought a cheap one off Amazon, as you suggested. I checked the RO water. It reports 19ppm on average. I tested it a number of times. Ran the RO water for a bit, captured a few ounces in a glass, stirred the water around with the end of the tester, and it averaged as low as 17 and as high as 21. Most often it was 19, spot on. The LCD indicator screen stayed green.

By contrast, the tap water, which is artificially softened with salt pellets, returned more than 500ppm. The LCD indicator turned red.

What does this mean? Google is telling me these numbers are not unexpected.

And I still don't know why the Ro water makes my cat throw up.

Dave

Nevada water runs about 375PPM. Softened water is nothing more than salt added to the water to remove calcium but load up with a ton of salt, hence 500PPM. That is our reading on softened water as well. Softened water should never be consumed. Even if you run it using a Brita or Pur, it removes maybe 10-50 PPM, doesn't do anything to remove the bad salt from the water. The purpose of softened water is really to not leave calcium in the sink and shower.

My whole house RO has about 1 to 3 PPM here in my new home. The one that the Costco vendor put into my prior home ran about 5 to 15 PPM. The RO has a couple of "membranes", which what is called, one should be replaced yearly and the others every 3 years. Get a water quality company to come in and service your RO system once a year or you can do the change yourself, by buying the "membrane", which looks like a tubular filter. Technically, RO is about almost as pure as distilled water. Maybe Kai prefers water with a bit more minerals as in bottled water.

 

[DaveNV]

Nevada water runs about 375PPM. Softened water is nothing more than salt added to the water to remove calcium but load up with a ton of salt, hence 500PPM. That is our reading on softened water as well. Softened water should never be consumed. Even if you run it using a Brita or Pur, it removes maybe 10-50 PPM, doesn't do anything to remove the bad salt from the water. The purpose of softened water is really to not leave calcium in the sink and shower.

My whole house RO has about 1 to 3 PPM here in my new home. The one that the Costco vendor put into my prior home ran about 5 to 15 PPM. The RO has a couple of "membranes", which what is called, one should be replaced yearly and the others every 3 years. Get a water quality company to come in and service your RO system once a year or you can do the change yourself, by buying the "membrane", which looks like a tubular filter. Technically, RO is about almost as pure as distilled water. Maybe Kai prefers water with a bit more minerals as in bottled water.

Thanks. Good info to know. This RO system under the kitchen sink was installed new last year by a local plumbing company. It has five filtration stages to it, where some (most?) have three. They came about two months ago and replaced the membranes and whatnot under the sink. So I'm being told it's as good as it will get. The RO water tastes fine to me, and we humans drink it a lot. The cat, not so much.

I just tested the bottled water we're buying. It tested at 18ppm. So there it is. The RO is essentially as good as the bottled. But the cat throws up from the RO water, and not the bottled. Must be a difference in the dissolved solids, whatever they are. And he really throws up from the tap water.

Regardless, it's good to know what's what here. If buying bottled water keeps me from cleaning up cat barf, I'm ok with that.

Dave