Best RO for the money?
- Thread starter vdubfiend
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AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
www.spectrapure.com MaxCap RO/DI is by far the best.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
Honestly the cartridges are cheaper because the quality is cheaper. Are they absolute rated prefilters instead of nominal rated? Is the carbon block a 0.5 micron one rated for 20,000 gallons of chlorine? Is the membrane hand tested and guaranteed to be better than 98% efficient?\You get what you pay for with RO/DI and don't cut corners, water is the largest ingredient in your system and everything revolves around it.
joncat24
Member
I dont know about the ratings of the cartridges or havent doen anyside by side chemical examination of the two units...all I know Is that I get 0 tds water out of it for $139 instead of $350 and the cartriges are $25 for all of them except for the membrane.
0 tds is the same as 0 tds no matter how you get it right.
0 tds is the same as 0 tds no matter how you get it right.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
No 0 TDS is not 0 TDS. reads Spectrapures explaination on their Sponsors Forum. You will never get a membrane to last 10 years with a unit like that but talk to Randy Holmes Farley in the Chemistry forum and you will find out his last Spectrapure membrane lasted him 10 years because he used quality filters. You get what you pay for.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
0 TDS is a calculated number and not an actual number. Using microsiemens conductivity or megaohms resistivity is an actual number. There is a difference.
I monitor 4 points continously, 1. Pre RO membrane, 2. Post RO membrane,3. Post MaxCap DI cartridge and 4. post SilicaBuster DI cartridge or final product water. I also use my handheld HM Digital COM-100 meter to test tap water and confirm my inline readings for accuracy so I actually test 5 places.
If you want to know how well your unit is working disregard the RO/DI number and test the tap water and RO only which is the actual efficiency of the membrane which is the workhorse. Poorer quality units use DI as a crutch to make up for poor membrane performance but it ends up costing you much more in the long run as it eats DI faster. An important number to remember is for every 2% you increse the RO membrane efficiency you DOUBLE the life of the DI resin, that can lead to a major savings in a very short time. My membrane is averaging 99.25% rejection still after 8 month of heavy use and I'm still on my original DI cartridge after over 530 gallons of DI water. The RO is also used for household uses like drinking water and ice maker so it sees heavy daily use .
I monitor 4 points continously, 1. Pre RO membrane, 2. Post RO membrane,3. Post MaxCap DI cartridge and 4. post SilicaBuster DI cartridge or final product water. I also use my handheld HM Digital COM-100 meter to test tap water and confirm my inline readings for accuracy so I actually test 5 places.
If you want to know how well your unit is working disregard the RO/DI number and test the tap water and RO only which is the actual efficiency of the membrane which is the workhorse. Poorer quality units use DI as a crutch to make up for poor membrane performance but it ends up costing you much more in the long run as it eats DI faster. An important number to remember is for every 2% you increse the RO membrane efficiency you DOUBLE the life of the DI resin, that can lead to a major savings in a very short time. My membrane is averaging 99.25% rejection still after 8 month of heavy use and I'm still on my original DI cartridge after over 530 gallons of DI water. The RO is also used for household uses like drinking water and ice maker so it sees heavy daily use .
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
Great deals are not always what the appear to be. Most of the eBay units will cost much more in the long run.
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definitely staying away from ebay...
was looking at the spectra pure mentioned about for $350
Melevs reef is using another brand for $170 or so and his tanks are great... any thoughts on his?
http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html
....
definitely staying away from ebay...
was looking at the spectra pure mentioned about for $350
Melevs reef is using another brand for $170 or so and his tanks are great... any thoughts on his?
http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
Melevs units are comparable to other units in the $150 to $199 range available from Purely H2O, Filter Guys, AWI and Buckeye. It is not in the same league as the MaxCap system, nothing available anywhere from anyone is at this point. They have years of research and development invested in the MaxCap and it shows in how well it works in comparison to other units.
foolish08015
New member
Is There any way to cut down on the wast water . what would happen if put a T fiten on the wast line and refed it through the RODI unit would it make the membrain over work.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
By end product, if you mean the RO/DI product water, yes it will be the same or close to the same but for a much shorter period of time. Normal DI cartridges may last you 150 or 200 gallons while theirs are proving to go as long as 1800 gallons and longer per cartridge. You can easily see where replacements will be less frequent and will end up saving you money. Their figures are showing the average payback between the difference in a normal RO/DI and the MaxCap unit is between 1 and 2 years tops. I would already be at the end of the life on my 4th DI replacement cartridge with my old unit which was a good quality RO/DI itself. Figure the cost of all those replacements and I'm only at 8 months of usage. I plan to keep the unit 10 years or more so it continues to save me for the life of the unit. Not to mention the superior quality prefilters and carbons they use greatly extend the RO membrane life too, Randy Holmes Farley got about 10 years out of his first Spectrapure RO membrane! Most membranes in Phoenix last 18 to 24 months with normal nominal rated filters.
There are ways to reduce the waste, one is used on the 180 and 300 GPD MaxCap systems. You feed the waste from the first membrane into the second membrane so you effectively get twice as much product water for the same amount of waste.
Spectrapure is developing a new system that they hope to have on the market very soon. It will have a 1:1 waste ratio and possibly even a 1:2 or 1 waste to 2 good!!! It will be microprocessor controlled and have some very unique feature not found anywhere else today in a residential/reefkeeping type unit. There is some info on it on their Sponsors Forum but it is still pretty quiet until its fully tested. I hope to get my hands on one for some beta testing
.
There are ways to reduce the waste, one is used on the 180 and 300 GPD MaxCap systems. You feed the waste from the first membrane into the second membrane so you effectively get twice as much product water for the same amount of waste.
Spectrapure is developing a new system that they hope to have on the market very soon. It will have a 1:1 waste ratio and possibly even a 1:2 or 1 waste to 2 good!!! It will be microprocessor controlled and have some very unique feature not found anywhere else today in a residential/reefkeeping type unit. There is some info on it on their Sponsors Forum but it is still pretty quiet until its fully tested. I hope to get my hands on one for some beta testing
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