RO/DI install ?'s

K

Knox_Legend

New member
I recently got a new RO/DI system Typhoon III system and after trying to find a decent place to hook it up in my house it seems like my best bet would be in the garage. I don't want to put it under my bathroom sink and there is no room under the kitchen sink due to the garbage disposal in the way.

Now my question for the install is: my only place to hook it up is to tee it off of the hotwater heater "in" line. There is already a valve connected to the in line so could I cut the pipe after the valve and install some kind of other valve and fittings so I can hook up my RO/DI and if so what fitting should I look at getting to make this a smooth install?

Thanks!:beer:
 
Can't help you with that but I'm also thinking of connecting an RO/DI unit in the garage, but have no place to drain the wastewater. Do you have a drain there? How are you dealing with the wastewater?

Thanks
 
I don't have a drain in my garage either but will just buy a long enough piece of tubing that I can run it along my garage wall and out into the downspout drain from my roof which just runs out into the yard/street. Plus I may collect the waste water for watering plants and the garden.
 
Thanks for the info. I saw another thread where one poster setup an extra barrel to collect & either use or dispose of the waste water later.
 
Here is what I do.
My Typhoon is in the garage.
I have a typical garden hose spigot (faucet/hose bib or whatever you want to call it) in my garage also. I went to home depot and gathered adapters to go from the hose connection to 1/4" tubing (and to install a pressure gauge). So my input to the RO/DI comes from that. The drain goes out through another 1/4" line into the crawl space where I drain into a large garbage can and that waste water is used to water the plants outside. The RO/DI good line goes into a 20G brute can located in the garage for collection/use in my tank.
No permanent connections at all.

I also had to go into my crawl space and find the water pressure reducing valve to adjust it (turn screw clockwise in my case) to get the desired 50psi supply pressure for better performance. (it was set at like 35psi). The wife also loves the extra pressure for showers now too.
 
Thats my question though. I dont have a faucet in my garage if I did it would be as simple as getting a faucet adapter. I'm wondering about the copper fittings and connections needed to hook it up to the water "in" line on my hot water heater which is the cold line and if it will effect my hot water heater?
 
And.. Here's what I do.

I mount it under the kitchen sink. I include a 3 gallon bladder tank, an automatic cutoff switch, and two faucets. Both faucets are mounted on the sink rim.

One is always kept open. It's the air break required by law and good sense. It's where the waste goes. So whenever the RO is running a small stream issues forth from this faucet.

The other facet is the RO water. It's a typical push lever type.

We drink the RO exclusively. This allows us to avoid drinking chlorine and all the other crap municipalities think they have to put in our water. We cook with it. We rinse anything that we don't want water spots occurring on, like eye glasses. We fill our iron with it so our iron will last forever.

Meanwhile, when we feel like it, we toss a four gallon pail under the waste. This water is also about 10 times cleaner than our tap water and has no chlorine. We use that water to fill our fish pond, do our laundry, and fill our car window washers.

What does this all do besides get us delicious pure water? It exercises our RO system! It keeps the water from getting essentially stagnant. It prevents our membrane from ever drying out and being destroyed. It allows us to see -daily- how it's performing. It allows us to personally gain from the installation instead of just our fish buddies.

Oh yeah, fish! Under the sink we tee off from the top of the bladder tank a line that runs under the house all the way to the aquarium. There, a metal-less water solenoid valve controls the flow. The nice thing about this setup is that since we have a bladder tank you get a hefty stream for 2 or 3 gallons the instant you want it. Also since there is a little restriction down this long line we can still always draw a glass of water back in the kitchen.

Now if you are into DI water for your tank - I've never bothered - you would install the DI cartridges in that line to the aquarium. That way you aren't drinking DI which is not a good idea.

We typically get about 2 years on our filters and 4~5 years on our membrane.
 
Knox, Your typhoon should have come with a brass saddle valve (if it didn't just run over to home depot or whatever). Assuming your lines to the hot water heater are copper you simply use the saddle valve to tee into the inlet line to the water heater. IF you have PEX (plastic) line..good luck..find a plumber as you will typically need to splice in a short piece of copper line and then use the saddle valve. PEX requires a special crimping tool (about $60). A saddle valve will NOT work with PEX and there is almost no one that sells anything to take a 1/4" line off of PEX. Most plumbers simply splice in the short piece of copper like I said.
 
Yeah it came with the saddle valve. I was wanting to put in something a little better looking and something that can be undone or capped off if need be. I figure If i am going to poke a hole in the copper pipe I may as well get the fittings to do it right.
 
What you need is a solderless tee connector. I've seen them before and I have used them on smaller things. Never a water in line like you are asking about though.

tee_connector.jpg


They use a little rubber or plastic seal inside that when the nut is tighten it creates a seal. Maybe someone who has used them before will chime in about them, but if you do not want to hire a plumber, I would look for something along those lines..
 
I use a "Y" splitter off my laundry water hose with on/off valves. I put the waste water down the drain, where the waste of the washer goes. Simple and easy. Good luck.
 
Sounds like a solid system. I'm in the middle of thinking about putting in a RO unit for aquarium + drinking water.

kcress said:
One is always kept open. It's the air break required by law and good sense. It's where the waste goes. So whenever the RO is running a small stream issues forth from this faucet.
Click to expand...

So it's just the waste line? Why is it called an "air break" then?

Also, I'm planning on getting a system from airwaterice and keep bouncing between options. They really strongly push the systems with a "permeate pump", saying it decreases waste water by 80% and pressurizes the 3 gallon tank better. Any opinion?
 
widmer said:
Sounds like a solid system. I'm in the middle of thinking about putting in a RO unit for aquarium + drinking water.

So it's just the waste line? Why is it called an "air break" then?
Click to expand...

You cannot have any line directly tying your water to sewage plumbing. Realllllly bad things can come back and get you. (seriously get you)

This means anything like an RO has to have a disconnect between them. The waste water must go thru an air break. This physically means the water has to pass thru the air on the way to the sewer. It also means no vacuum in the potable system can draw back sewage. When people just use a saddle valve into their sewage line under a sink the air break is usually in the sink mounted faucet. So, you run three lines to your faucet. One is the RO water and the other is the waste water from the membrane delivered high-up in the faucet where it falls past a drilled hole into the third line which runs down to the sewer. I didn't like that or the noise the air-break makes so I went with the second faucet. It performed the air-break function since it's two feet from the sewer(sink bottom).

widmer said:
Also, I'm planning on getting a system from airwaterice and keep bouncing between options. They really strongly push the systems with a "permeate pump", saying it decreases waste water by 80% and pressurizes the 3 gallon tank better. Any opinion?
Click to expand...

Permeate pumps do reduce water usage a lot. They also use electricity. No power - no RO. Which might be a sad state if you have some sort of natural disaster. Also I know people have some problems with their pumps. They have a hard life.

I've used Spectrapure and really like them. They have some good app notes on their site too.
 
That's interesting about the RO waste water thing. I guess my significant other's parents aren't the law abiding citizens that I thought they were.

Airwaterice has a system where the permeate pump somehow uses pressure from the waste line to operate, it's electricity free. Something about that sounds hokey to me... I might just start with a system that doesn't have one, and see how it goes..
 
Knox_Legend said:
Now my question for the install is: my only place to hook it up is to tee it off of the hotwater heater "in" line.
Click to expand...

That's a cold water line and perfect for the RO/DI source. What you want is a saddle valve, also called a vampire tap. No soldering, pipe cutting, etc. Any of the RO/DI suppliers have them, or hit your local ACE hardware. And they look fine, can be turned off to plug the hole, etc.

Jeff
 
to the OP, where are the laundry room and are there any baths or kitchens on the opposite side of the inside garage walls?
 
kcress said:
Just because it suspends Conservation of Energy??
Click to expand...

:lol:

It says it is harnessing the pressure of the waste water to pressurize the tank. And it is generating less waste water because of this. I just worry what it means to put backpressure on the waste water. Wouldn't this cause more of the tap to be forced through the membrane, causing it to be worn out more quickly? To think of it in extreme terms, what if you simply closed off the waste water line? How much restriction on that waste water flow is too much?
 
The best thing to do is call a plumber or have a friend that knows how to "sweat" copper pipes and put a tee in for a 1\2 inck valve that you can reduce down to 1/4 inch. thiis is the safest way to make sure you can shut off that water in the future, for a person who knows what they are doing it will take less than a hour
 
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