What is Kent’s Zero Water Wastage RO Technology & How It Works
Did you know conventional RO purifiers can waste as much as 70-80% water?
Shocked?
This is unfortunate but that’s the sad truth.
Saving every drop of water is our collective responsibility and this can’t be ignored at any cost.
In a country like ours, where water shortage is a major problem, there can be no justification for such wastage.
Taking note of the unnecessary use of RO purifiers, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed an order, in December 2021, banning the use of RO purifiers in areas where the TDS level is below 500 ppm. The NGT further asked the Government of India to make it mandatory to recover more than 60% of water wherever RO is permitted in the country.
RO purification is considered the most effective and safest form of home water purification.
The problem is not the technology but its unnecessary use.
Due to a lack of consumer awareness, RO has become the default water purification choice.
But the truth is, that most Indian homes do not need RO purification. Especially the ones where the source of water is municipal water supply.
RO purifiers should only be used where the TDS level is above 500 ppm or if the water source is known to be contaminated with heavy metals like lead, arsenic, fluoride, etc.
Before the official ban, the NGT, in its order dated May 20, 2019, requested the Ministry of Environment and Forests to not only frame rules for the manufacturing and sale of RO purifiers but also to ban RO use in areas with low TDS levels.
Understanding the gravity of the situation and the impact of the formal ban on their businesses, many brands started working on addressing the problem.
Some brands have made a lot of progress in addressing the problem of the huge wastage of water by RO systems.
Taking the lead, Kent, the leader of the Indian water purification industry, introduced their first ‘zero water wastage’ RO purifier in December 2019.
What is Kent’s Zero Water Wastage Technology?
Most people, when they first hear about the term ‘zero water wastage’ RO, think that this technology does not produce any RO waste water.
No, that’s not true. Frankly speaking, that is just not possible because of how Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology works.
Kent’s zero water wastage technology simply provides you with an easy and automated way to reuse the RO reject water by pushing it back to the overhead tank (Pani ki tanki).
How Kent’s Zero Water Wastage Technology Works
If you have used an RO purifier before then you are already aware that all RO purifiers have a separate pipe for waste or reject water.
In most cases, this wastewater goes down the drain and is wasted.
To find a solution to this problem, Kent came up with an innovative idea.
To save the RO waste water, Kent added an additional pump in their RO purifiers.
This pump sends back the rejected water to the overhead water tank. Instead of sending the reject water down the drain, it gets mixed with water in the overhead tank. This water is reused as normal water for household purposes.
This ensures not a single drop of water is wasted.
Take a look at the image given below for a better understanding of the process.
The internal pump might seem small but it is highly powerful. It can push the wastewater to a height of up to 10 stories.
This technology might not be that practical if you are living in a multi-story apartment building, because such buildings generally have one large common tank. In most cases, for various reasons, you don’t have permission to push the RO reject water back into the tank.
However, this technology will prove very beneficial if you are living in an independent house that has its own overhead water tank.
Myths About Zero Water Wastage Technology
It will increase the TDS level of water in the overhead tank?
No, it won’t.
Depending on the size/capacity of your overhead tank and your daily drinking water requirement, the RO purifier normally uses just 3-7% of the water in your overhead tank.
This means that the RO reject water that goes back to the overhead tank is just 2-5% of the total water in the overhead tank.
The RO reject water gets mixed with overhead tank water. And since the overhead tank gets fresh water supply daily, you won’t notice any significant increase in the TDS level of the overhead tank water.
The RO reject water is much better in quality as compared to the raw water supplied to your home. This is so because the rejected water has already passed through multiple filtration stages like pre-filter, sediment filter, and pre-carbon filter. This means the rejected water is free from all the dust, mud, sand, and chlorine.
It will reduce the life and efficiency of the membrane and filters.
As we have seen above, the zero water wastage technology does not have any significant adverse impact on the quality of water in the overhead tank.
The overhead tank water gets a fresh water supply every day so there will be no negative effect on the life of the membrane and filters of the RO purifiers.
Some Zero Water Wastage RO Purifiers from Kent
Can this Technology be Used in Existing Kent ROs?
Yes, that’s the best part. To make use of this environment-friendly technology, you don’t need to buy a new Kent RO. Kent offers an upgrade kit using which you can turn your existing RO purifier to ‘Zero Water Wastage’ RO.
Saves Water & Your Money
Bonus Tip
How to Achieve Zero Water Wastage in any RO?
You can achieve zero water wastage with all RO purifiers. You don’t necessarily have to buy a new Kent RO for that.
However, Kent’s new technology makes the process automated and a lot easier.
To achieve zero water wastage, you need to follow two easy steps.
- Store – Instead of sending the RO reject water down the drain, store it in a separate storage tank for other uses.
- Re-use – Use this stored water for washing utensils, floor mopping, gardening, cleaning & flushing your toilet, etc. You may want to read our detailed post on reusing RO-reject water.
