Question regarding RO Unit outlet

[Miamireefer]

Hey folks,

I have an RO unit from pure water club blah blah....but my question is pretty general and coupld apply to any unit.

I am installing the unit outside in my terrace and I have the adpater piece that attaches to the water hose then feeds into the RO unit. On the outlet side it says to storage tank... Can I simply cut off the valve at the water hose when the unit doesn;t have to be in use? I want to use this unit to fill empy jugs I have in the house and I will manually top off the water in my tanks, but of course when the unit isn't in use I want to kill the water at the source of the hose feeding the RO. I will also use it to fill a container when needed to do my own salt mix.

Will this have any bad effect to the unit or filters etc etc??

Thanks in advance!

Nick

 

[Rogger Castells]

Yes you can

 

[coralfragger101]

Ditto

But I don't think you will be happy with that set up. Let's say it's time to fill a container to make your salt water. You might be using a brute trash can for this. You insert the hose into your can and turn the valve. You are now making water. Depending on what unit you have it may be about 7 or 8 hrs later when you have 25 gal in the container. That's a long time to wait. Let's say you are only filling a gallon jug. It could still take 20 min or so. If you run off and do something else (like you probably will) then you forget about it and come back to an overflowing container.

You might want to think about having a storage container that will hold some water already. A simple float valve will shut the water off when the container is full.

Then when you get real lazy, you can apply the same principal to auto top off your tank using the unit.

 

[coralfragger101]

If you really only want to make like 5 gal at a time then here is a simple solution.

Buy a Dummy Depot 5 gal container. (This should be cured prior to use)

Then make the top look like this.

You can turn the valve and go about your business. You DO NOT even have to seal the top on. It won't float and overflow. It has enough weight to it so that won't happen. The bucket will fill and shut your water off. Come back later, shut the valve off, remove the top and do whatever you want with the water.

 

[a2fire2i]

Coralfragger,
Do you have any info on that float switch? I am looking to do the same thing with my brute 44 gallon can.

 

[coralfragger101]

You can pick up a float valve at any number of places.

That particular one came from PurelyH2O.com

 

[Ding2daDong]

So adding a john guest valve inbetween the hose outside and my ro/di unit would be alright? I just don't want to build up pressure and have a leak or problem.

Thanks

-Matthew

 

[coralfragger101]

Yes you can.

But if your RO/DI unit has an auto shut-off then you can put it "after" the unit. When you shut the valve then pressure will build and the auto shut-off kicks in and shuts the unit down.

 

[Ding2daDong]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11882494#post11882494 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralfragger101
Yes you can.

But if your RO/DI unit has an auto shut-off then you can put it "after" the unit. When you shut the valve then pressure will build and the auto shut-off kicks in and shuts the unit down.

So is one way better then the other?

Thanks

-Matthew

 

[pedromatic]

It would be wise to add a flow restricting adapter before the unit, so the water pressure from the hose doesn't exceed what the unit is designed to handle. I don't think the depots carry them, but you can get one from one of the RO vendors. I've also seem them at some LFS, one being Reef's Edge.

 

[coralfragger101]

Not that I know of but I'm not an expert on RO/DI units either.

Personally my JG valves are after the unit. This way I can turn one on and fill the container that line goes to (with float valve) so that it will stop when the container is full which builds up pressure to the unit (quickly - within seconds) and shuts the whole unit down. I can then come back and turn the JG valve off at my lesiure.

You may wonder why I don't just leave the JG open all the time then. If I did this then the reservoir I filled (say the auto top-off to the tank) looses just a bit of water and the float drops just a hair then the unit will kick back on again. No sooner than the unit kicks on again it makes a little bit of water which raises the float and shuts it down. This takes place too quickly for my liking. In fact it was actually making my pressure gauge dance all over the place and I'm not sure it was good the unit to be turning and off so rapidly.

 

[coralfragger101]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11882929#post11882929 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pedromatic
It would be wise to add a flow restricting adapter before the unit, so the water pressure from the hose doesn't exceed what the unit is designed to handle. I don't think the depots carry them, but you can get one from one of the RO vendors. I've also seem them at some LFS, one being Reef's Edge.

I would think that the unit would come with one ???

 

[pedromatic]

naah, they make money from all the little doodads you can add. You can live without it, like an inline TDS meter, but it helps.

 

[Miamireefer]

GUYS thanks very much for allyourhelp...work has me going in a frenzy since I got a promo so I am basically a sponge at work and home sucking in eveything i can to make progress..

you guys are a major help and once again THANKS!


Nick