Rain water is cheaper and collection is generally good for the waterways as it reduces runoff and erosion. Example: If you live in a suburb and get a major storm in the spring, I guarantee somebody has fertilized their lawn at the wrong time just prior. Everyone around me does and wonders why they have to mow twice a week in May. They also have likely applied a weed control. Pretty much everyone in the midwest has been hit by rain fairly well in the last few weeks. A lot of those toxins and fertilizers have run off into our waterways or downhill into someone else's garden (fortunately I live on a high point and use raised beds). The treatment plants in the midwest have yet to catch up on technology to deal with the extra runoff more pavement, houses, schools, shopping centers, and less trees equates to when you have a huge number of new developments. Fine by me. Our business thrives on overloaded motors at treatment plants (I sell motors and we perform testing on motors). Still, point is that rainwater collection helps in a number of ways and is just as good as RO. If you are in the south and the drought severely beats your community yet another year straight, collection in the spring will greatly reduce the amount necessary to draw from the tap in times of scarcity. Especially if you draw from an RO system which uses up to 3 times the water the tap does. My brother (lives just outside of Georgia in Beaufort, but goes to school there) said that last year there were people talking about banning full house RO systems for that reason and limiting them to under sink only. Makes sense. They were on strict water rations for pools and lawns. Why not go after a bigger problem common in some new high end housing developments? RO is very polluting and increases load on water treatment plants. It does nothing positive whatsoever for the water ways. They are expensive and increase the water bill. The water itself is great. Don't get me wrong. I just think it is definitely worth weighing the pros and cons. I have enough plants in the summer - soil and hydro - that they use more water than my family of 6 does in a month. If I used RO for the plants (we do for drinking), my bill would likely quadruple. It's not just the price of the RO system and filters. It's also the price of the tripled consumption one must consider. All the problems you described can also happen with water temp fluctuations or just too high of water temps all the time. I'm quite sure they can also be affected by the quality of light due to the changed rate of nutrient consumption under poor lighting and the chemicals secreted by roots under varying conditions. These are called root exudates. I did an experiment last year on artificial lighting versus sunlight and discovered many things about the nutrient solution along the way. I used the same solutions and water in both and found very significant differences in the fluctuations of one set over the other. The high quality light (sun) set had very low reservoir maintenance while the low quality light set all had reservoirs that shifted daily out of optimum ranges. I made sure that reservoir temps stayed within 5 degrees F of each other (that was the best I could manage). I wasn't trying to study that, though. It was an interesting side observation of the experiment I was actually running concerning the effects of lighting on yield and foliage. Sometimes the RO way is the only way. Apartment dwellers or those that live in those idiotic communities that have ordinances or HOA's against rain barrels due to aesthetics. Or maybe you live in a part of Colorado where collection is illegal (though that is being strongly fought). You say you no longer have pH adjustments but the plants look better. How? They must be feeding or they wouldn't look better. Feeding = changes in chemical composition in reservoir = pH changes. Especially with tomatoes. More so with heavy feeders with huge fruit like the Cherokee Purple. Am I misunderstanding you?

As someone well steeped in a medical and science background, I can't really recommend an ionized water system over RO. No offense. Of course all unstudied things remain a mystery, but sometimes there are reasons we don't study things, because they don't make a lot of sense. Water is an extraordinarily weak buffer. You can sway its pH by electrolysis, but upon contact with any small amount of acid or base, it will quickly lose whatever pH it has. Read, stomach acid vs ionized water... stomach acid wins. If your goal is better tasting water, then carbon may be fine. If you want to remove tasteless chemicals and toxins, maybe RO is for you. The claim that there are 80,000 chemicals and toxins in the water supply at one time or another is sort of like claiming that every once in a while somebody gets hit by a bus, or struck by lighting. Yes, they are very real things, like chemicals in water, that may cause harm. But living your life in fear of such things can make people do extreme things, and waste a lot of money. You are not going to stay in your house, and avoid all roads to avoid lighting and buses, nor should every house install an RO system "to be safe." If your city has a bad track record for maintaining its water, you live near a clearly unregulated pesticide production facility, or you live on a farm with a well that has fluctuating water quality, it may be that an RO system is for you for "safety reasons." I still maintain an RO system is for us water snobs that not only want better tasting water, but clear ice, clear tea, and better water for our plants and high maintenance fish....

Most likely the problem is in the waste side of the RO. First, check the waste tube. After closing the RO feed line valve and emptying the tank, disconnect the waste tube on the downstream side. It should be attached to an air gap or it may possibly be directly connected to a drain line. Most likely, this is where your plug will be. Either clean out the tube or just replace it. Also clean the air gap, or whatever device/valve used to connect to your waste line. There should be a back-pressure valve somewhere in the waste side. You will need to look at your manual to see where it is. If it is missing or damaged, you won't get much RO water. If you don't find a problem in the waste line, check your feed pressure. If your house pressure is less than 35 psi that could cause your problem. Remove the tubing from the fed valve. With a bucket ready open the value to ensue you have good for here. Water should blast out. If it doesn't, shut down water to the house and replace the valve.

Hi flatwater, I'm with Dornbracht and glad to hear that you like our faucet. David already said it best, our faucets don't work with RO water. The hot and cold water faucets are meant to be combined with a tank and filter system from insinkerator (a carbon based filter). If you really need RO, I can't point out other manufacturers, but as said before, maybe our dealers can - you can find a dealersearch on dornbracht.com. Here is a link that might be useful: Dornbracht