Refrigerator Water Filter vs. Reverse Osmosis: Which Provides Cleaner Water?

Description:
Are refrigerator water filters really effective, or is a reverse osmosis system the better choice? In this episode of the Home Tip Show, we dive into a detailed comparison of water quality from three different sources: tap water, refrigerator-filtered water, and reverse osmosis water.
Using a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter, we measure the levels of contaminants in each water source. The results are surprising:
Tap Water: TDS level of 53-59
Refrigerator Water: TDS level of 45-53
Reverse Osmosis Water: TDS level of 1-3
The taste test reveals significant differences, with the reverse osmosis water being the cleanest and best-tasting, free from chlorine and fishy smells found in the other samples.
Join us as we explore:
How effective is the carbon filter in a refrigerator?
The pros and cons of using a TDS meter for water quality testing.
Which water filtration system offers the best quality for your home.
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated with our latest tips and reviews!
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:01 Setting Up the Test
02:04 Testing Tap Water
04:09 Testing Refrigerator Water
06:11 Testing Reverse Osmosis Water
08:12 Conclusion

Пікірлер: 90

  • @donnadimanna9173
    @donnadimanna91733 ай бұрын

    Thank you

  • @sparkyreb
    @sparkyreb Жыл бұрын

    I’ve got an ro unit and to be honest it’s the chlorine taste I can’t stand in municipal water supplies. I Put an inline filter (your fridge version ) in and yes the tds is higher but all are acceptable. The main point with the inline is removing the chlorine taste. Downside is limescale isn’t reduced with that only an ro unit does but the costs for an inline compared with an RO is a big difference. Other factor is making sure your tank on the ro unit is sterilised along with the filter housings and pipework on a schedule.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for your input. It appears our experiences are similar, however, my tank is sealed and has a pressurized rubber inner liner so I don't believe it's supposed to be cleaned. I do wipe off the filter fittings when I do my yearly filter changes. I wait until the TDS gets around 8 before I spend the money for filters. I’m “frugal” :). I agree, if you’re only concerned about taste, a simple inline carbon filter may help. We are most concerned about the pharmaceuticals and the other unknowns in our Durham, NC water as they allow motorized boating in our reservoir here.

  • @MaryWasowski
    @MaryWasowski3 жыл бұрын

    Very informative, keep up with the videos.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thank you. The production quality will get better with experience. The payback is how much I enjoy helping others.

  • @talljohn5350
    @talljohn5350 Жыл бұрын

    Just because there’s stuff dissolved in what doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. What matters is what is dissolved.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Yep

  • @angelahess6329
    @angelahess6329 Жыл бұрын

    We need to get a RO, thanks for the useful information!! We drink so much water and need to have clean what after my husbands surgery.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    I have an updated 2022 version of that video coming out as soon as I can get it edited

  • @akbychoice

    @akbychoice

    Жыл бұрын

    RO systems use about 3 times the amount of water you get.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    @@akbychoice not true. Every drop put into my RO system is filtered and comes out the spigot.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    @@akbychoice look up the Apec Systems home 5 stage RO system

  • @raydigityabel

    @raydigityabel

    11 ай бұрын

    RO systems purify the water so much that it is devoid of any minerals, making it acidic. But more importantly, drinking something with 0% solutes and mixing it with your cellular plasma levels of about 4% solutes causes those cells to swell and they will break. To avoid this your cells eject a portion of their cellular volume which causes your blood pressure to increase. So your kidneys rapidly remove the excess fluid volume to get back to normal. So you're urinating out your minerals. Deminerization of the body has alot of problems associated with it. Anxiety, heart arrythmias, digestive issues...etc.

  • @stevelumley9626
    @stevelumley96263 жыл бұрын

    I primarily drink spring water, i wonder how that water compares. I would be interested in that result. If you can do a test and reply here, that would be great.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    3 жыл бұрын

    I plan to do a comparison between our water and various off the shelf brands including Spring water.

  • @issavibez394

    @issavibez394

    Ай бұрын

    ​@thehometipsshow alot of brands lie about their waters plus they all in plastic I would trust them expensive for no reason

  • @mikeliberto5697
    @mikeliberto5697 Жыл бұрын

    What kind of filter do you have under sink? Which brand? Thanks

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    It’s the APEC Water 5 Stage Reverse Osmosis system

  • @adamschaeffer1565
    @adamschaeffer1565 Жыл бұрын

    Just got a tds meter today and tested mine. Then came to youtube. My tap and frigidaire are both at 46 ppm. Seems like the fridge filter doesn't do squat.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Same thing we experienced in out tests. However, the fridge filter can make the water taste a bit better if your water gets a smell to it from to time. Nothing beats RO water for taste, however.

  • @sethc758
    @sethc75810 ай бұрын

    All I know is the water from our sink tastes like chlorine.. Pool water. And the filtered water from the fridge doesn't taste or smell like anything whatsoever.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    10 ай бұрын

    Fridge filters are carbon filters that can help to improve the taste of water. They won't, however, remove micro plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc. If a fridge filter works good enough for you, that’s great! In our situation the fridge filter alone maybe helps with the taste a little bit, but not enough.

  • @misterb6416
    @misterb64167 ай бұрын

    Really can't go by that test completely because it picks up healthy minerals as well, but it's a good way to see how your water is generally.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    7 ай бұрын

    I agree. We calculate that humans get enough of the good nutrients from other sources such as soda, fruits, veggies, etc to worry about what good stuff is filtered out by our RO system. For pets, however, their water bowl may be their primary source of water so we never use RO for them.

  • @misterb6416

    @misterb6416

    7 ай бұрын

    @@thehometipsshow Good point.

  • @deezerdeezer

    @deezerdeezer

    6 ай бұрын

    @thehometipsshow Studies are showing this is not true, drinking RO water cause demineralizaton of bones and teeth pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38125211/

  • @509Smoker
    @509Smoker Жыл бұрын

    😂 he rinsed the tap off the meter with tap water... and kept rinsing with tap water 🤣

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Be nice :). In the follow up 2022 video I corrected that…and guess what. It made no difference in the results.

  • @henwas1
    @henwas13 жыл бұрын

    Wow, looks like RO is the way to go.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    3 жыл бұрын

    It can be. It is void of any nutrients, however, so it shouldn’t be your only source of liquids (which very rarely is for most people). The taste (or lack there of) is incredible! Stop by for a glass sometime.

  • @ozzyg92

    @ozzyg92

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@thehometipsshow buy an Ro system that adds minerals after and you’re good to go.

  • @krnzzang84
    @krnzzang842 жыл бұрын

    Been drinking tab water all my life, and I am still guuuud. It all depends where you live

  • @eman151511

    @eman151511

    2 жыл бұрын

    You may seem fine but check out what just fluoride does to you for example. That stuff is for your teeth (maybe). NOT for you to swallow. Check the back of toothpaste for example. And that's just one chemical or metal in tap water.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    2 жыл бұрын

    To each their own. If the TDS reads above 250, have it further tested. I grew up on well water. You could literally light it on fire but I loved the rusty taste.

  • @LaidBackLora

    @LaidBackLora

    Жыл бұрын

    My mom does too and she said stop saying it's bad for me 😂

  • @Z3r0Cache
    @Z3r0Cache10 ай бұрын

    Shouldn't you have used distilled water to clean it off between tests?

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    10 ай бұрын

    Yes, I should’ve. I caught that after the fact and retested it using distilled water, and it made zero difference in the results.

  • @josesandoval4106
    @josesandoval410611 ай бұрын

    Wow!!! I did my tap water and it comes out at 554

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    11 ай бұрын

    That’s a bit on the high side. I would be curious as to what is causing the high number. Maybe go look at your water supplier’s water reports online. To verify your meter is working correctly, consider checking against bottled water (not bottled mineral water)

  • @captcory
    @captcory Жыл бұрын

    been drinking out of the hose for years. guess i'm old skool

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Me too! Lol!

  • @issavibez394

    @issavibez394

    18 күн бұрын

    All that toxic flouride

  • @JK-rt5xx
    @JK-rt5xx Жыл бұрын

    Tap 53 isn't that bad I think?

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Agree, but it definitely tastes much worse than RO. And, what is the composition of those dissolved solids. Pharmaceuticals, micro plastics, auto petroleum runoff? I’m not sure but no thanks ! :)

  • @lovestonedandlacquered
    @lovestonedandlacquered3 ай бұрын

    Wish you had a berkey

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    3 ай бұрын

    What’s a Berkey?

  • @Lilmonkmonk
    @Lilmonkmonk Жыл бұрын

    If i could smell fish in my tap water, I'd immediately contact the water company, I hope you did!?

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Sometimes that just means that the reservoir is getting low. So if you give it time, it will auto correct. You can remove the fishy smell with a simple carbon filter many times. Obviously, RO system would be best but give a cheap carbon filter a try first.

  • @Lilmonkmonk

    @Lilmonkmonk

    Жыл бұрын

    @thehometipsshow I'm in the UK so may be different..as long as you're OK and healthy!

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    it’s very interesting how changes are different between different parts of the world. thanks for sharing.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Let us know what you decide to do. my reverse osmosis system was about $250, so a bit pricey, but the water tastes absolutely amazing.

  • @Todd2Toxic
    @Todd2Toxic Жыл бұрын

    Can you ship me a water tester, I wanna test the water from my new fridge

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Hi. I'm sorry but I don't sell them. You can purchase TDS water testers from Amazon for about $15. Best of luck!

  • @BEandME2020
    @BEandME20202 жыл бұрын

    I've been buying Arrowhead spring water and also the crystal Glacier Spring Water I recently bought a Home Forest TDS EC & TEMP Meter Tester. I tested both of those Waters and they're really high up in ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION red like >😡500 which I thought was good water, even my sink tap water and my refrigerator water with filter is also in the red I have always stayed away from purified water thinking it was dirty so I bought a couple to test Sam's Club purified water was at a level 22 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION Costco's purified water was 17 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION and another store brand of purified water from Winco came at a level 4 ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION. So now I have to regroup and get purified water but I have bought the reverse osmosis water that comes up super clean as well testing PPM at 4 But the refrigerator water filters Everydrop 3 don't work it's ppm PARTS,PER,MILLION it's TDS >500😡 Everydrop is 50 bucks I'm not buying anymore. Now I'm gonna test the ice from stores and my frezzer. But I be buying more of the reverse osmosis and Winco brand water. I live in Arizona hard water here I also have a water softener. So if the TDS Levels in water is 500 PPM according to the EPA's maximum contamination level, why would I want to drink anything that still has some type of high particles in it even at 500 when you can find other sources that's a lot more cleaner. They sell water filters for Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerators when the filter number is so high they're not getting no more of my money I'm keeping my coins.

  • @BEandME2020

    @BEandME2020

    2 жыл бұрын

    I live in Arizona hard water here I also have a water softener. So if the TDS Levels in water is 500 PPM according to the EPA's maximum contamination level, why would I want to drink anything that still has some type of high particles in it even at 500 when you can find other sources that's a lot more cleaner. They sell water filters for Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerators when the filter number is so high they're not getting no more of my money I'm keeping my coins.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    2 жыл бұрын

    Interesting ! RO water is definitely the most free of contamination, but you don’t want to exclusively drink RO water because the minerals in spring water are important to your body too. We try to find a balance…if it’s a glass of cold drinking water or water for the coffee maker we use RO from our under sink RO filtration system. If we go out to eat or we are cooking with water then we use the tap water. Again, RO removes everything from the water and you need some of those minerals. Also, your pets need those minerals as well so we always give our dogs water from the tap, not the RO water.

  • @BEandME2020

    @BEandME2020

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@thehometipsshow That's if you can find good pure spring water

  • @Mac11-92

    @Mac11-92

    Жыл бұрын

    Spring water is higher in TDS because it has natural minerals in the water. Purified water doesn't have minerals, which is why its TDS is lower, around 20. Higher TDS does not necessarily mean it's bad water. For instance, if you added a little sugar to your purified water, the TDS would shoot up. Even though the sugar is perfectly safe.

  • @issameQ

    @issameQ

    Жыл бұрын

    That TDS meter only tells you that there are minerals dissolved in the water. It’s doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Remember that drinking distilled water which completely gets rid of all minerals is bad for you and eventually will make feel unwell. The best spring water out there will have tons of minerals which are essential to your health and that TDS meter will read beyond its limit. Toxic contaminants are what should worry you. Get a filter that assures your water is free of contaminants not a filter that completely removes essential minerals. We drink water to get electrolytes and that’s what you get in an IV if you ever go to the ER for dehydration not just liquid water.

  • @JamesDean-vl3uf
    @JamesDean-vl3uf2 жыл бұрын

    My tap water is 187

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    2 жыл бұрын

    I found this. I think. you are okay. It really depends on what the dissolved solids are. You don't want to drink water that is too low in TDS exclusively because you're not getting the minerals a human needs. www.bisleri.com/blog-detail/understanding-tds-and-its-role-in-drinking-water

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    2 жыл бұрын

    I like water that tastes good, which ours does. No iron, rust, pharma, etc. We get our minerals from vitamins and from cooking etc.

  • @dennisbrown3717

    @dennisbrown3717

    2 ай бұрын

    187 is actually good if it’s not chlorine raising it. A lot of city waters have high tds because the chlorine in it.

  • @hatimy
    @hatimy Жыл бұрын

    Lol did you just rinse the tap water with tap water?? 😂

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    For consistency in testing it's important to use the exact same procedure for each test. For our follow on tests we rinsed in RO water each time, and neither water had any impact on the results. Check out the follow on video for the rest of the story.

  • @dennisbrown3717
    @dennisbrown37172 ай бұрын

    That is basically deionized water at 1or 2 and you should not be drinking that. You must be thirsty all the time. There are literally no minerals in that water.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    2 ай бұрын

    We typically add back the minerals we lose by either using Aquasana packets or better yet, Mineral Pro replacement filters. When you look at the totality of the water, you drink in the food you buy, and when going out to restaurants to eat, I’m not 100% sure that mineral replacement is even necessary. However, when we give water to our dogs, we make sure that we do not give them the reverse osmosis filtered water.

  • @mattmiller3967
    @mattmiller3967 Жыл бұрын

    Did the same test with the same tester, same results. The frig filters are just another revenue generator for corporations to sell us a bill of goods. In a 2021 LG frig yet to boot. 👎 corporate scams 👍 with RO

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    I’m with you. I do believe that that refrigerator filters (like any carbon filter) can slightly improve the taste of fishy smelling water and such, but I’m with you 100% on the fact that refrigerator filters do not remove dissolved solids such as micro-plastics, pharmaceuticals, toxic chemicals etc. so there is no health benefit for your family by using refrigerator filters.

  • @judgedayan9934
    @judgedayan99342 ай бұрын

    Maybe your fridge filter was not a good brand. You have to test 5 or more brands of fridge filters.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    2 ай бұрын

    Thank you for the suggestion, but a refrigerator filter is nothing but a carbon filter. It’s a single stage and it can make the water taste a bit better but it is absolutely not gonna remove the dissolved solids in the water. I’m not planning on testing fridge filters at this time because 5 stage reverse osmosis Systems, like we have installed under our sink and costs a few hundred dollars, is far superior. If you are only worried about taste then a fridge filter is probably good enough for you. If you’re worried about dissolved solids, like pharmaceuticals and high levels of minerals, etc., then you need to go with a reverse osmosis system.

  • @romancurbelo3927
    @romancurbelo392710 ай бұрын

    Maybe you shouldn’t be rinsing your meter with that dirty tap water

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    10 ай бұрын

    So I hear. :)

  • @porkboy86
    @porkboy86 Жыл бұрын

    what science class did you take? did you graduate high school? You're rinsing it with tap water That's going to affect your results. either use three different meters or wait for it to dry off and clean it with something God

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    Hi Jeff, I always appreciate positive feedback. I received feedback on that point already (last year). Science and Biology aren't my favorite subjects, but I try to do the best I can.. I have my BSEE now and work as an IT Director in RTP (not that it matters) Last week I posted the 2022 update to this test (including a single blind taste test). In the new test I used the RO water for all rinsing, however, nothing changed the final outcome.; RO water is superior, followed by the brand of bottled water we tested (Sam’s Club RO Mineral Water), followed by fridge filtered, followed by tap. There are so many different factors and ways to test water, but I’m limited to my current equipment. You sound like you may have some good ideas for a future version of this test so give the updated video a view and let me know how we can improve it. I might even enlist your help for next time. Maybe we could have you run a version of our future test on your water to compare results. (I can ship you my TDS meter). You can email me direct at thehometipsshow@gmail.com Jon

  • @porkboy86

    @porkboy86

    Жыл бұрын

    @@thehometipsshow it's cool bro. I shouldn't have been so harsh but I just felt so obvious to me. I was like what is he doing Lol. Good video still

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    Жыл бұрын

    No worries, but thank you for the follow up post. My offer stands…if you’d ever like to partner or have ideas for any new videos for my channel just let me know.

  • @issavibez394

    @issavibez394

    18 күн бұрын

    😂😂😂 these youtubers are funny bro

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    18 күн бұрын

    I try to be!

  • @alexgreco748
    @alexgreco7489 ай бұрын

    this shit does not me feel good about drinking a gallon per day for the past 2 years from my fridge.

  • @thehometipsshow

    @thehometipsshow

    9 ай бұрын

    I completely understand!!!