First, what are coliform bacteria? Think of them as the canary in the coal mine for water quality—harmless in small amounts, but a sure sign something unsavory (like sewage or surface runoff) has snuck into your well. E. coli is the most famous (or infamous) member of this family.
You don’t want them in your drinking water. And luckily, your RO system is a bit like a bouncer at an exclusive club who really checks IDs.
How RO Does the Dirty Work
The magic is in the membrane. Imagine a net so fine that it catches everything larger than a water molecule. Bacteria? They’re huge compared to that pore size. The RO system literally shoves water through this microscopic mesh, and the bad guys get flushed down the drain as “brine.”
It’s almost unfair, really. The bacteria don’t stand a chance. Studies routinely show RO removes 99.9% of coliform bacteria, which is about as close to perfect as you can get in the real world.
