Can A Power Outage Damage My Reverse Osmosis System?

A storm is coming soon and you have lost power to your home before. You have all the basics covered to make it through a power outage, but what about your drinking water? Can the loss of power to your home cause any damage to your reverse osmosis system?

The loss of electrical power will have no effect on a reverse osmosis system but if there is no electricity to power the pump providing water to the system, it will not create filtered water. Booster pumps or UV lamps on some reverse osmosis systems will not function without electricity.

If you rely on your reverse osmosis system for your drinking water and you feel that there is a chance that you may lose electrical power in the near future, fill some bottles with reverse osmosis water as a reserve, but you should still get water from your reverse osmosis system even after the lights go out.

Will my reverse osmosis system stop working if there is a power outage?

If you have well water and you’re well water pump has no electricity to deliver water to your reverse osmosis system, it will not be able to make any filtered reverse osmosis water but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t have any water from your reverse osmosis system.

Most popular reverse osmosis systems come with a 3.5 to 4-gallon storage tank so that you always have stored reverse osmosis drinking water ready to dispense.

As long as your reverse osmosis system is working properly, your 3.5 to 4-gallon storage tank should have about two and a half gallons of stored water ready for you to use even after the lights have gone out.

Why did I say that you would only have about two and a half gallons of reverse osmosis water available? See my article “How Much Does A Reverse Osmosis Storage Tank Hold?“.

The reason that you will still be able to get filtered water from a reverse osmosis system with a standard “air charged” tank is because it dispenses the stored water using stored air pressure that is not controlled by electricity, and the loss of electricity because of a power outage will not affect the operation of a reverse osmosis storage tank whatsoever.

Watch this quick video about how a reverse osmosis system works!

The plug is just for a booster pump which is not nessesary for most systems.

The exception to this is if your reverse osmosis storage tank works using the water pressure of your home to dispense your water which will not work at all if there is a power outage and you have no water running in the home.

These “WOW” (Water On Water) reverse osmosis storage tanks work great when the water pressure in your home is ideal, but they are basically useless if the power goes out and there is no water pressure in your home to force the water out of the storage tank.

Both a standard “air charged” reverse osmosis storage tank or a “WOW” tank use a rubber bladder to store your filtered water and will not be affected by the loss of power to your home.

Will my reverse osmosis water be ok to drink if I lose power?

Providing that your reverse osmosis system was working correctly before you lose electrical power, the water stored in the systems storage tank should be of the same quality as when your electricity was on.

A reverse osmosis system with an ultraviolet purification stage will not be able to purify your water when there is a loss of power because the ultraviolet bulb requires electricity.

If you do lose power and you rely on the ultraviolet stage of your reverse osmosis system to purify your drinking water, check that the ultraviolet bulb on your system is working properly before you continue to drink the water from the system.

Why is my reverse osmosis water slow when I have a power outage?

Because a standard air charged reverse osmosis storage tank works by the air pressure on the outside of the water bladder, if there is less water inside of the storage bladder, the air pressure surrounding the bladder will be less and therefore the water will dispense at a slower rate.

As you use the water inside of the bladder without it getting replenished because of a power outage meaning that there is no water going to the system, the less water that is in the water bladder, the lower the air pressure so it will flow slower as the water empties from the tank.

Under normal conditions, an air-charged water storage tank will have the strongest flow when it is completely full and the flow will be weakest as the last of the water from the tank is dispensed.

Should I shut off my reverse osmosis system until the power comes back on?

If you have any electronic stages like an ultraviolet bulb or booster pump to your reverse osmosis system, unplugging them until your power is restored may help to prevent a power surge which could cause damage to electronic components.

If you are concerned about the electronic stages of your reverse osmosis system getting damaged when you are away from your home, adding a surge protector will help to protect your system even when you are not home.

But if your reverse osmosis system has no electric stages on it, turning off the water going to the system should not be necessary as the system will only use water to make more filtered water and there should not be any surge in your water pressure when your power comes back on.

My power has been off for over a day, is my reverse osmosis water still ok?

Providing that you normally use your reverse osmosis water on a regular basis, the water that has been stored in your reverse osmosis system storage tank should be absolutely fine for several days even if there is no freshwater going into the system.

If you have lost power and there is no water going into your reverse osmosis system you can still use the water that has been stored in the storage tank but if you have not repressurized your storage tank in a while, you may not get all of the water that is in the tank because the tank pressure is too low to force all of the water out of the tank.

For the most part, losing power in your home will have no negative effect on the performance of a reverse osmosis system and the quality of the water that is already stored in the tank of the system should be fine to drink.

When your power comes back on, your reverse osmosis system should go back to producing reverse osmosis water just as it did before you lost power. Reset your clocks including the clock on your water softener, but you shouldn’t worry about your reverse osmosis system.