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Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to the educational section of the site. If after reading this section, you have any questions please contact us and we will respond as soon as possible.

What Is Reverse Osmosis?

To understand "reverse osmosis," it is probably best to start with normal osmosis. Osmosis is the "movement of a solvent through a semi permeable membrane (as of a living cell) into a solution of higher solute concentration that tends to equalize the concentrations of solute on the two sides of the membrane." That's a mouthful. To understand what it means, this picture is helpful:

In figure 1 a beaker is filled with clean water, and a tube has been half-submerged in the water. As you would expect, the water level in the tube is the same as the clean water level in the beaker. In figure 2, the end of the tube has been sealed with a "semi permeable membrane" and the tube has been half-filled with a salty solution and submerged. Initially, the level of the salt solution and the water are equal, but over time, something unexpected happens, the water in the tube actually rises as shown in figure 3.

The rise is attributed to osmosis of the clean water to the salty water through the membrane. The water pressure rises as the height of the column of salt water rises, until it is equal to the osmotic pressure. At that point, osmosis will stop. Now, when we apply pressure to the salty side as in figure 4, we reverse the natural occurring osmosis. This is called 'reverse osmosis'. Only clean water passes through the membrane while the solution gets concentrated.

What is a membrane and how does it work?

Reverse osmosis uses a membrane to purify your tap water. A membrane is a thin plastic sheet that has molecular sized pores engineered into it. These pores are so small they only allow water molecules to pass through. There are essentially two things that make a membrane work. One is pressure, since the pores are so small, pressure is needed to drive the pure water through the membrane. Your house water pressure is all that needed to make the purifier work (no energy needed). The second thing is cross flow. Again since the pores are so small a membrane can not work like a conventional filter where all of the water is forced through the filter. If one was to force water through a membrane the molecular sized holes would plug up very quickly.

So for a membrane to function properly some of the water passes through the membrane and goes to your reservoir while some of the water is flushed down the drain. The constant motion of water over the surface of the membrane helps to keep the surface of the membrane clean.. This is the reason to why RO membranes last so long and perform like new with minimum maintenance even after years of operation.

What will the Omega RO purifier remove from my water?

The Omega purifier will remove 95%+ of all dissolved solids and 100% of all suspended matter. It may be hard to visualize just how small a reverse osmosis membrane pore is, so take a look at the diagram below to see the relative size comparison to a few harmful contaminants.

  1. average size of a reverse osmosis membrane pore
  2. average size of herbicide and pesticide molecule
  3. average size of the smallest virus
  4. average size of the smallest bacteria
  5. average size of Giardia Cyst

General Comparison of Water Process Systems

Carbon Filters (and other Filters): prices vary

  1. Accumulate dirt by adsorption that can be released with a change of conditions particularly at the end of the filters life. Those with silver in them will kill some bacteria but you will still drink the bacterial carcasses.
  2. Best for showers and laundry!
  3. Ceramic filters are much better than Carbon, because you can clean them several times, but they only remove particles, large bacteria and cysts.
  4. A combination of the two (Ceramic + Carbon) is a little better.

Distillation: $400-$1100

  1. This is one of the cleanest methods that you can get provided that it has not boiled over.
  2. Frequent cleaning required for proper operation.
  3. You have to be certain there are no large organic molecules that can distill over with the water (Benzene, Toluene, Dry Cleaning fluids...).
  4. Energy costs are through the roof. Actually 9 times more than the Omega RO unit.

Ozone: + $1,000

  1. Also an excellent means of sterilizing water, but more controllable in industrial settings.
  2. Does not remove anything like salts, but is supposed to oxidize all organics if the residence time is long enough.
  3. No easy way of testing the system for performance.

Pressurized Reverse Osmosis (RO): $400- $1200

  1. This system is becoming outdated.
  2. The need for a second filter to remove odor made us wonder why and where the odor was coming?
  3. The rubber bladder in the under the counter pressure tank is a source of bacteria since it is a perfect growth medium.
  4. There is no way of testing these systems since the systems are often sealed.
  5. These systems recover only ~ 20% of the water and let 80% go down the drain. California has banned the units because of waste of water.
  6. Multiple filter changes required at least twice a year.
  7. Membrane should be replaced when the manufacturer specifies, typically every two years.

OMEGA RO Water System: $349.99 depending on options

  1. Fixed the problems with the pressurized systems.
  2. Recovers 50% -75% of the water and discards the dirt with the other half.
  3. The whole system is simpler and thus less expensive.
  4. The counter top reservoir is clear so that you can see if there is any contamination and you can clean it when neccesary.
  5. A simple test tells you that the system is operating normally.
  6. The membrane has a pro-rated warranty.
  7. Membrane replacement is not frequent at all. Depending on your water quality the membrane can even last 4+ years.

What makes The Omega Water Purification System better than other reverse osmosis systems? Other companies sell 3-6 stage RO systems. They must be better than a two-stage system, right?

This is a simple question, which has several points as to why the Omega system is better than any other reverse osmosis system on the market today.

Marketing Aspect

To start, mass merchandisers build their systems with 3-6 stages for several reasons. They build systems that can be used by mass markets. A good example of this is the sediment filter that is great for cottage/lake water (due to the high amount of sediment in the water) but is not necessary for city water. Most salesmen who sell these larger systems don't know much about them, so the manufacturer makes a system that looks impressive.

Another reason there are more stages on other systems is because these other systems have a steel holding tanks for your purified water. The steel holding tanks have rubber bladders in them, which is a great growing medium for bacteria and bio-slime (non of the typical water holding tanks can be cleaned or checked for contamination). Due to the danger of bacteria, a carbon filter is placed after the holding tank to help remove these unwanted contaminants. It really doesn't make much sense to put in another filter after you have already made pure water.

The Omega system solves this problem by using a plastic counter top reservoir to collect and store the pure water. The container is clear and if contamination is suspected, cleaning the holding tank is simple. We are committed to providing customers with the most efficient and cost effective system on the market. Two stage systems are what we sell to most consumers because that's all they need. However we do sell systems made for very dirty water (cottage or lake water) that are typically 3 stage systems.

Performance & Environmental Aspects

Actually, 3-5 stage systems are not as effective as the Omega system. The 3-5 stage systems use questionable techniques for water purification. As seen above with carbon filters after the membrane, while the Omega system collects pure water right after the membrane.

Other systems use sediment then carbon block filters before the water gets to the membrane because if large particles (a grain of sand for example) reach the special (and often numerous) valves, they may clog the valves and stop water flow. Finding a blockage would be extremely difficult if not impossible in one of these systems and you might have to buy a whole new system. The Omega system has no pre-filter, but has a specially engineered reactor system before the membrane. This reactor strips the water of chlorine or other impurities that have been proven to reduce the life expectancy of membranes.

Another reason the Omega system has no need for a pre-filter is because at we have developed an internal non-clogging valve which allows even grains of sand to pass through the system and get flushed down the drain. Another big difference between the Omega system and other reverse osmosis systems is the amount of water that is recovered. All reverse osmosis membrane systems discard some dirty water when producing pure water. The big question is how much bad water is discarded for how much good water recovered. All other reverse osmosis systems waste approximately 5-12 gallons of water to get 1 gallon of clean water (poor performance), while the Omega system discards approximately 1 gallon for every 1 gallon of pure water. Omega membranes typically outlast all other systems membranes. This is because the Omega system is constantly allowing a small amount of water down the drain, the constant motion of water helps to keep the surface of the membrane clean and extends the membranes life.

Another unique feature of this system is the performance testing which can be done by anyone, with ease. We also sell TDS meters that allow you to simply test the water out of your counter-top reservoir. Using a TDS meter to test the water from other reverse osmosis systems will not tell you when it is time to replace the heart of your system (the membrane), due to the fact that the water must go through another filter after the membrane. If buying a TDS meter is not to your liking, you can test the system with a simple red food dye, which is impossible to do on other systems because of all the extra filters but works very effectively on the Omega system.

Economic Aspect

As you may have gathered from the two points above, such elaborate systems will be expensive and may cause many headaches. Add to this, the fact that most manufacturers state that you should change all 2-4 filters every 6 months to a year and change the membrane every two years. Remember that you have to change the membrane every 2 years because you have no way of testing the membranes performance. The Omega system allows the user to determine when the proper time is to change the membrane. It's not hard to figure out that other systems will cost much more in annual maintenance (and don't forget that you have to open, then change the filters and membrane yourself which can become a really wet challenge). The Omega system recommends changing the reactor approximately every 18 months and changing the membrane every 3-4 years depending on the quality of your water. Not only does the Omega reverse osmosis system last longer but when you purchase replacement reactors or membranes they come in a housing with all new fittings ready to be snapped into place, no fuss or floods and no plumbers required.