New RODI Unit placement

[pdiehm]

I had my RODI system in the garage, but in the year of trials and mistakes, found that my waste line possibly froze, and my source water was way too cold for the unit. According to BRS my unit performs optimally at 77 degrees. My source water this winter was approximately 40.

I've been looking in the basement, particularly in our Hot Water heater area, and the cold water line going into the HW heater is accessible, and the PVC is cool to the touch.

Is it as simple as cutting off the water supply to the house, running the water until the pipes are empty...cutting this PVC, attaching a T, and then branching off to a line for my RODI unit? Branch will have a ball valve, and then a ball valve near my RODI that I turn on when I want to make water.

My waste water, will run across the storage room floor joists, and up into our main sink drain via saddle bracket.

Does this sound about right?

 

[rwb500]

i dont know much about household plumbing but that sounds OK to me.

what i am here to say is that your water might still be very cold going into the unit. run one of your sinks on cold for a couple minutes, and that is how cold the water will be. if you really want to warm it up you might have to use a long run of thin tubing in a warm area.

 

[Toddrtrex]

The water pipe going into your water heater is PVC and not copper?

 

[pdiehm]

The water pipe going into your water heater is PVC and not copper?

it is pvc, connecting to copper. I'll try to get a picture.

 

[Finnaddict]

I think everything sounds good as far as plumbing. Not sure what you could do about the cold water though. Also it doesn't matter if your source water comes out of a plastic or copper pipe before the RO/DI unit. Although plastic will be easier to make plumbing changes.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I think everything sounds good as far as plumbing. Not sure what you could do about the cold water though. Also it doesn't matter if your source water comes out of a plastic or copper pipe before the RO/DI unit. Although plastic will be easier to make plumbing changes.

It doesn't matter per-say, I was more being curious and making sure the OP was looking at the correct pipe.

Here in the Mid-West I have never seen PVC used for supply lines, only drain side. If it is done that way out East, would wonder if standard PVC could be used.

Of course the OP could be talking about PEX, which is not the PVC I was thinking of at the moment.

 

[pdiehm]

It's Charlotte cpvc. Not sure what the diff is.

 

[pdiehm]

No so worried about the water temps as there isn't much I can do about that. I know for a fact my waste line is frozen as it is ran outside. That's the main reason I am moving it. Garage gets very cold. Basement not so much.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Don't know one way or another, but would find out if should use CPVC for your connections, and/or if you need a different solvent for connecting CPVC to PVC.

I do know that CPVC is different than normal PVC, so that is why I bring up the part above.

 

[Sn8kbyt]

cpvc is used for pressure applications where as pvc is non pressure like drains. You can cut it put in a tee and a valve and then hook your ro/di up to that. Make sure you buy cpvc parts and glue though.

 

[pdiehm]

I will have to exchange. I bought pvc

 

[Gorgok]

cpvc is used for pressure applications where as pvc is non pressure like drains. You can cut it put in a tee and a valve and then hook your ro/di up to that. Make sure you buy cpvc parts and glue though.

CPVC is able to stand higher temperatures than PVC without softening, but pressure wise both are available in many ranges. Schedule 40 pvc i believe has a minimum of 120psi... which is why people make spud guns out of it.

 

[gt93pony]

I had my RODI system in the garage, but in the year of trials and mistakes, found that my waste line possibly froze, and my source water was way too cold for the unit. According to BRS my unit performs optimally at 77 degrees. My source water this winter was approximately 40.

I've been looking in the basement, particularly in our Hot Water heater area, and the cold water line going into the HW heater is accessible, and the PVC is cool to the touch.

Is it as simple as cutting off the water supply to the house, running the water until the pipes are empty...cutting this PVC, attaching a T, and then branching off to a line for my RODI unit? Branch will have a ball valve, and then a ball valve near my RODI that I turn on when I want to make water.

My waste water, will run across the storage room floor joists, and up into our main sink drain via saddle bracket.

Does this sound about right?

Why would your cold water supply temperature be different in the basement as opposed to the garage?

 

[pdiehm]

Why would your cold water supply temperature be different in the basement as opposed to the garage?

There's not much I can do about the temperature, but our garage has been getting quite cold and I'm certain that my waste drain is frozen solid (i have it running out of the garage to the rain drain, and that is causing an issue with the water backing up and going through the DI Resin (I literally burned through an entire resin canister in 5 hours and only 15 gallons of water). No way I can run it back into the house...

That is my main concern.

My 2 options are:

move to the basement, and tap into the water line, and the waste to the sink drain

Leave in the garage, and get 2 brutes to hold waste water, taking up more space, in addition to the RODI container and the Salt container.

I'm open to options. In part that's why I posted here. Many have vast more experience than I and have ideas that I wouldn't ever imagine.

 

[sleepydoc]

Personally I would move the unit inside. If the plumbing is CPVC, it won't be hard to tap into it. You can also get fittings to hook up RO/DI units under a sink or directly to a faucet, which might be more convenient.

 

[skeeter_ca]

It seems that the water would only freeze in the line if any is left over after the ro/di shuts down. It should not freeze if your line would drain out completely in the hose that exits the building.

Skeeter

 

[pdiehm]

I have it running along the walls of the garage, which isnt level, so it should be rolling out, BUT, it goes up, through a hole and outside, where its buried under rocks and along our porch...then there's a horizontal run to the rain drain, and that area is where I'm pretty sure isn't being purged of water, and frozen.

 

[pdiehm]

Personally I would move the unit inside. If the plumbing is CPVC, it won't be hard to tap into it. You can also get fittings to hook up RO/DI units under a sink or directly to a faucet, which might be more convenient.

Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I can easily use a saddle valve and attach the waste drain to our sink drain in the kitchen and just come up through the flooring in the sink.

I'm looking at making a decision today. According to what I've read, it needs to be attached to the cold in of the HW heater (and not the hW out pipe). our hot water heater has a line in, with a valve, and I'm sure that's the cold since there is a copper 1/4" tubing attached to it, which feeds our refridgerator.

I've also followed that line, and it feeds the cold line on our sink. So I'm pretty sure that particular line is my CW line in to the HW heater.

Then it's about getting to Home Depot and getting some CPVC fittings, and some wood to make a 16" stand for my RO barrell and run a drain into a 20 gallon brute container for salt mixing.

My pump that I have been using to run water from the garage to the house has a 15' head max, should be enough to push it up a flight of stairs and into the aquarium...if not, i'll be getting a stronger pump. Figure I'll need about 50-75' of tubing to avoid carrying buckets.

 

[pdiehm]

RODI moved. Plumbed the main cold in line....going to wait as long as I can before my wife gets home to open up the water line...hopefully all seals are cured...otherwise it'll be a mess, and we're back to square one in the garage

 

[Shaummy]

too late now..but you could have tapped into that line that I presume goes to your fridge with some sort of John Guest style fitting. Hopefully your original plan works out well for you.