R/O Question

[somosomo]

I have an 50 GPD R/O unit that I purchased used several years ago. I have become frustrated with the amount of time that it takes to make water and have upgraded my membrane to a 150 GPD model. The R/0 unit has a gate valve for a flow restrictor already. Anyone have any ideas as to whether that will be enough of a flow restrictor ? or should I buy the filter guys 150 GPD flow restrictor setup..its $18 so it wont break the bank...but If I dont need it and can use the upgraded membrane without waiting for it that would be nice...

also I am not real happy about the amount of water that is wasted by the R/O DI setup..its alright for a 75gallon system but down the road I am thinking about going bigger and am looking for other options. I know that are Kat ANI DI setups that require acids to recharge the resin and I have also read some stuff where people just use 4 progressively smaller filters( 10 micron down to .5 microns) and then a resin cartridge ..with 0 water waste but a TDS of 25..any thoughts on those two options? Not really urgent on this one I am in the very early planning stages...

thanks
nate

thanks

 

[rigleautomotive]

FYI,pre filters are the most common cause of slow production with RODI units and when the pre filters and carbon filters are changed often and regularly, you will get a faster production rate.

a few things need to be considered.the 150 GPD membranes will produce no more water then a 75GPD unit without a booster pump.Water pressure is just not enough to realize any benefit for that upgrade.The 75 GPD membranes are the fastest you can get away with not using a booster pump IME .

second the water production from a 75 GPD membrane will make about 50 GPD of water in thew winter months here in PA.Warmer water temps will increase production to around 60 or 65 on a good working system with clean prefilters.

third,membranes must be matched with the specific flow restrictor designed for that particular membrane.It will not function properly without the right restrictor.

I have no first hand experience with KATI ANI so I will refrain from offering advice there.25 TDS is not acceptable for top off water or salt mix water in a reef tank so I will have to not recommend doing any system that yeilds 25tds as a selling point

 

[disturbed]

+1.well spoken Dan

 

[somosomo]

Dan,

Thanks for the response and the info. I might have to look into a booster pump. I assume in the meantime that it wont hurt to run the 150gpd membrane without it but that I will just have to deal with less production??

50 GPD would be ok if I was in a situation where I could automate my water production. My situation is that I rent and cannot plumb anything into the existing pipes. So right now when I make RO water I hook my unit up to the sink with a tap adapter. Its a giant PITA-the only adapter I could find fits the bathroom sink-which clutters up the bathroom- and all the water has to be moved to another room etc.. I am basically just looking to make things happen quicker. Eventually I will be in the situation to own a home and plumb this all in , have an ATO etc..
Thinking out loud.. I guess what I should do is return my unopened 150GPD membrane and get an 75GPD so i dont need the booster pump.

I thought that 25 TDS was unacceptable..but wanted to put it out there and see what other people thought. The amount of water that RO/DI wastes bothers me alot . It is ok in the summer when I use the extra to water the garden. Right now we use the laundromat so I dont have a washer to dump the waste water in year round. Even without that the more I read about KAT/ANI I think I will deal with the nasty chemicals to get 0 waste water. I think Calfo said in his book he just uses DI water and I wonder what system he uses.

 

[rigleautomotive]

Installing a saddle valve like the ones used for a ice maker(feed for RODI) would not need to be reported to a landlord IMO,at least I know my tenants never informed me about things like this,lol and could easily be done in a inconspicuous area.When you move you just turn the petcock in all the way and remove your RODI hose and it can go largely un-noticed IMO.I do not know your living arrangements so this may not be an option.The DI "Anth" is speaking of I believe is basically a KATI ANI.which is basically several types of DI resins being implemented without the use of a membrane or RO filter.The membrane is where the waste water comes in to the picture,it functions by wasting a percentage of the polluted water(to achieve emebrane life and high quality water) where as a KATI ANI just filters it out.Then the resins need to be recharged or cleaned (so to speak)

 

[somosomo]

Dan

Saddle valve is a good and cheap idea if my housing situation would be different..my landlords wife is definitely the stick end of the operation and she is a bit intense. If she found it on one of her so-called social visits there might be trouble...although I could always ask the husband..
We are in a decent place location wise for work and other things so moving out at this point does not make sense-especially over plumbing

I am hoping to be in my own home inside of 18 months so I guess I will just have to suck it up for a while..just doing alot of reading and pre-planning ..

I think at this point I will move to a 75gpd membrane, forget the booster pump etc and try to build some wheeled ATO/storage unit so that I can make about 50 gallons at once and push it out of the bathroom to the tank and back when I need refills. Thats about two weeks of water changes and top off .

So that being said

How bad is the maint on the KAT/ANI?? anyone have any experience?

and anyone local have a combined ATO and salt mixing station for some show and tell?

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

This is the supply tube fitting that often works best when we have customers in situations like yours where you don't want to make any permanant changes to the plumbing. Would take all of about 3 minutes to install, and you then can get rid of the clutter of a faucet adapter. You could uninstall it what you move out, or just close the blue handles ball valve and walk away.

Russ

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Kati Ani units are nothing but separate bed DI resins. You can build your own, or go with a mixed bed resin like that that comes on most ROSI units. You'll get superior results with mixed bed resins.

The down side is that if you feed tap water to DI resin you will use up the capacity of the DI resin quickly. That's the reason it makes sense to feed RO water to the DI resin.

Unless you are planning on recharging your own resin, which is made easier by using separate bed resins, I'd stick with an RODI system.

Russ

 

[somosomo]

Russ,

Thanks for the input. I think down the road the KAT/ANI will be the way to go. I will just have to deal with recharging the resins

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

If you don't want to pay for the expensive acrylic tubes that are the Kati-Anu units, you can create the same thing with refillable DI cartridges. Remember that the cartridges come in 4 standard sizes:
10" x 2.5" (this is what most people would recognize as "standard"
20" x 2.5"
10" x 4.5"
20" x 4.5"

Russ