Filtered Water 8 PH?

I just got a GE Smartwater 2 stage filter from home depot. THe PH water coming out of my sink is 7, but out of the filter is 8. Anyone know whats going on? Ive let the water run for about 10 min now, it only droped from 8.3 to 8

Yeah man shit happens. I've tested tap, bottled, distilled, RO you name it...they are all different.

drinking water is generally better for you the higher the alkalinity. 8.0 is very alkaline. Get yerself some ph down and your in business. Some people don't like Reverse Osmosis some find tap water to be fine. But remember in tap water its what you cant see. I'd rather keep the rocket fuel, mood enhancing pharmaceuticals and flouride in my crack pipe. Better intake control.

Well, I thought that the optimum PH for the water that your feeding your plants should be 6.5-7. Im just curious WHY filtered water is higher than neutral?

Maybe the filter is removing some particles that are slightly acidic, but missing some that are smaller and basic... Or maybe the filter gives of some slightly basic residue, I don't know...

Ph ia very tricky when it comes down to knowing "why" something happens. Its more on the physical side of science, check it out somewhere else on the internet. Im sure you can find an answer somewhere. Good luck

Something isn't right. You either have contaminates, something hooked up backwards, or a faulty meter.

The least likely answer is a bad meter. Double check your tubes. Sounds like you may be measuring the wrong side of the filter.

That would be rather funny if you were just using your tools wrong

Picasso345 said:

Something isn't right. You either have contaminates, something hooked up backwards, or a faulty meter.

The least likely answer is a bad meter. Double check your tubes. Sounds like you may be measuring the wrong side of the filter.

Click to expand...

I was playing around with my test tools and found out my sink is 8.0 and my bottled water is 7.0.I used apple cider vinegar because its all i had and i needed some 5.0ph for my rapid rooters...

8 to 7. That makes sense. A RO system will ALWAYS lower the PH.

The water coming from the new filter is not 7.5 ph, maybe it drops the longer its installed...

I bet the water tank is sanitized with a no rinse sanitizer like used in beer bottles which is basic. Just a guess

its still something of a mystery to me as well, so don't take my word as gospel .... BUT

an RO system may not significantly alter your pH... the city tap water is buffered to be at a particular pH. (My tap is around 8.8 )

BUT the RO system WILL alter your PPM. My 500 ppm tap water goes down to about 7 ppm. Now the pH may remain almost the SAME.

BUT - it would be impossible for me to succesfully lower the pH of 500 ppm tap water. The amount of pH down needed would cause nute lockouts. (8 ml of 5% acidic vinegar would do the trick, but by the next day it would go back up to a pH of almost 8.0 again.)

WHILE - it is VERY easy for me to lower the pH of 7 ppm tap water. (A single drop of 5% acidic vinegar would almost be too much. And the pH will remain wherever it goes until otherwise altered by nutrients or such.)

[so i could see it being possible for pH to raise after being RO'd actually, by having it remove the more acidic compounds while allowing some of the more alkaline buffers to remain, though in rather small quantity]

some of this i figured out because i was buying a lot of bottled water 'to avoid pH problems' ... then i'd get it home and test it and the RO'd store bought water had a pH of 8.7 !! however, the ppm were so low (generally 15 ppm or less) that it is VERY easy to properly pH the water up or down.

Well, I dunno if I didnt make it clear, but Im not using the RO water. It just looks to be a 2 stage carbon filter.

I did buy the RO water, but it didnt work with my sink