I'm looking to buy a ro/di system. The gallon per day output doesn't matter to me. 50-150 is fine. I'm looking for suggestions for systems that do a good job of getting to 0 tds and that have reasonably priced replacement filters. Any suggestions on ones I should look at and their prices?
Ro/di recommendations
- Thread starter Recliner
- Start date
I personally have a Kent Maxxima 60gpd. Been using it for years without any issues. Does what I need but I may be upgrading soon. A lot of people highly recommend BRS units. They get great reviews here and are priced well. When I upgrade it will most likely be a 4 or 5 stage unit from BRS. The most expensive cartridge is the membrane, which depending on your tds of your water source and how much your filtering may last year or more. Filmtec is an excellent source for affordable replacement membranes. The other sediment, carbon and di are fairly cheap. Just gotta shop around and find the best deal.
I've narrowed it down...
1. Spectra pure 4 stage 90gpd refurb includes pressure gauge for $125 (plus $25 to buy a tds meter)
http://www.spectrapure.com/email/Sale.htm#RODI-90-REFURB
2. BRS 5 stage 75gpd includes pressure gauge and in line tds meter for $200
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-plus-ro-di-system-75gpd.html
3. Airwaterice 5 stage 75 gpd no pressure gauge but has tds meter $190
http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1TYPHOONIII/TYPHOON-III-AQUARIUM-RODI-75-GPD-or-100-GPD.html
Kind of leaning towards the spectapure because I've heard good things about their filter quality. What would be the downside of having 4 stage as opposed to 5 if I'm getting 0 tds with both?
1. Spectra pure 4 stage 90gpd refurb includes pressure gauge for $125 (plus $25 to buy a tds meter)
http://www.spectrapure.com/email/Sale.htm#RODI-90-REFURB
2. BRS 5 stage 75gpd includes pressure gauge and in line tds meter for $200
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-plus-ro-di-system-75gpd.html
3. Airwaterice 5 stage 75 gpd no pressure gauge but has tds meter $190
http://www.airwaterice.com/product/1TYPHOONIII/TYPHOON-III-AQUARIUM-RODI-75-GPD-or-100-GPD.html
Kind of leaning towards the spectapure because I've heard good things about their filter quality. What would be the downside of having 4 stage as opposed to 5 if I'm getting 0 tds with both?
geemanaz
AZ FRAG Club Member
I can say SpectraPure is the top of line and the refurb deal is good. I can say SpectraPure filter out do BRS and all other brands and i can stand by it
in Arizona we have high TDS from 500 to 1000 TDS and can say the filter do the job. I get about 5,000 gallon 0 TDS befor i have to replace them.Been happy with my SpectraPure 90gpd MaxCap RO/DI System past 3 years and nice that they are by me in town and that I can go to the factory and buy the filter.
in Arizona we have high TDS from 500 to 1000 TDS and can say the filter do the job. I get about 5,000 gallon 0 TDS befor i have to replace them.Been happy with my SpectraPure 90gpd MaxCap RO/DI System past 3 years and nice that they are by me in town and that I can go to the factory and buy the filter.
geemanaz
AZ FRAG Club Member
on our local cub forum in AZ member name AZDesertRat he post good info on Ro/DI and if you google AZDesertRat find his post on Reef forums
How about a little primer on RO and RO/DI units and what is good and bad.
I do not work for Spectrapure or any other RO company. I work for an environmental engineering firm and do work with RO systems as large as 15 million gallons per day though, some locally like the City of Goodyear and others out of state.
First off, not all units are the same even though they may appear identical, with RO and especially RO/DI, you really do "get what you pay for".
Spectrapure is a local company, they have been in Tempe for about 28 years and have built up a well earned reputation as being the number one manufacturer of water treatment devices in the world. You will find Spectrapure units in most of the better LFS in the country, not just in AZ.
Another interesting fact, if you drink coffee from one of those well known places we all know about, you have more than likely drank Spectrapure RO/DI water and didn't even know it!
Our water here in the Valley and the Southwest in general is extremely high in Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and very hard meaning it has lots of dissolved calcium in it. The hardness can be taken care of by a water softener, which is highly recommended by the way as it will save your plumbing fixtures, save you a ton on soaps, and make your car virtually spot free if you use the sift water to wash it. An RO membrane is a very very thin piece of plastic film with microscopic pores or holes in it that are so small they trap the dissolved solids and only allow pure water molecules to pass through. The plastic film is wound around a screen fabric and sealed in a housing so tap water under pressure enters one point and pure water exits from another point. There is also a third exit point where the dissolved solids are flushed out to keep the membrane surface clean and operable. This is the waste stream you hear so much about, more on that later.
Membranes must be protected from Suspended Solids (TSS), basically larger particles, sand, silt etc and from chlorine which can dissolve the plastic film if it comes into contact with it. To do so you use a prefilter and some carbon.
Now this is one area where Spectrapure shines over most others. You will find almost all less expensive RO and RO/DI units use less expensive higher micron rated and what is termed "nominal" rated prefilters which do not do the same job of protecting the membrane thus shortening its useful life. 1, 5 and even 10 micron nominal rated prefilters are common in the industry. Spectrapure uses what is called "absolute" rated prefilters and in low micron ratings of 0.5 and even 0.2 microns! The difference between nominal and absolute basically means a nominal filter only has to trap or filter out 60-98% of the particles it is rated for so a 10 micron nominal filter could be passing on 40% of everything including 10 microns and larger and still be considered working. An abslolute rated prefilter on the other hand traps 98% of everything including it rated size so may only pass 1-2% of anything smaller than 0.2 microns on. Huge difference in quality, membrane life and worth the extra cost.
Carbon is used mainly to remove the chlorine from tap water. It also serves to remove some of the volatile organic chemicals like pesticides, herbicides and fuel byproducts. Some cheaper units still use granular activated carbon which may only last a total of 300 gallons before complete exhaustion. Others may use multiple carbons and make it sound like you are getting something special, 5 STAGES!, 7 STAGES!, etc. In truth the number of stages doesn't mean a hill of beans...... Remember that for later.
Good units use solid extruded carbon blocks made by compressing carbon under tremendous steam pressure. Units like the Spectrapure MaxCap use a single carbon with a rating of 0.5 or 0.6 microns, near absolute, and with a capacity to treat up to 20,000 gallons of normally chlorinated tap water. 300 gallons or 20,000 gallons, you be the judge. The 20,000 gallon Matrikx+1 Chlorine Guzzler is also highly effective at chloramines but we don't have to worry about that in Arizona as I am not aware of any Utility that uses chloramines.
The RO membrane is the workhorse of the system. This is Spectrapures strong point. They are the ONLY manufacturer in the country to offer 100% individually hand tested and guaranteed better than 98% rejection rate or removal efficiency membranes in their units. The only one. The average off the shelf membrane, this includes Dow Filmtec, Applied Membranes, GE Water/Osmonics and all the others, is only 96-98% efficient at best, some never make that. They are also untested and you will never know its efficiency unless you test it yourself, and come with no written guarantee.
The difference is significant when you consider for every 2% you increase the RO membranes efficiency you DOUBLE the life of your DI resin. Resin gets expensive and doubling or more its useful life is a cost savings realized very quickly.
DI resins are not all equal. Spectrapure has a long term bench test in continous operation. They purchase resins from everywhere and test them side by side for days. weeks and months. They have the ability to make up stock water solutions duplicating some of the worst water conditions around and running it through their test bench to study the effects on membranes and resins. No one else offers this either. Their MaxCap and SilicaBuster DI resins are the results of these studies. They develop, blend and package all their own resins, nothing is shipped out as it came from the original vendor.
Put these all together and you get the Spectrapure MaxCap RO/DI. Its not just the DI reins that make it different, or the hand tested and guaranteed RO membrane, or even the combination of 0.5 micronabsolute rated prefilter and 0.5 micron 20,000 gallon carbon block, but everything as a package, unit or assembly. It hard to duplicate and it would certainly cost you more money than what you can buy it for locally.
I have used a MaxCap(2 years on a single SilicaBuster DI cartridge!!!) and now I own the MaxCap UHE ultra low waste system and there truly is no equal. I have kept log books for the last 4+ years and would be glad to share the info they contain. I used to own a Watts Premier and Typhoon III for comparisons and presently have another e-bay system so can give them all fair reviews.
How about a little primer on RO and RO/DI units and what is good and bad.
I do not work for Spectrapure or any other RO company. I work for an environmental engineering firm and do work with RO systems as large as 15 million gallons per day though, some locally like the City of Goodyear and others out of state.
First off, not all units are the same even though they may appear identical, with RO and especially RO/DI, you really do "get what you pay for".
Spectrapure is a local company, they have been in Tempe for about 28 years and have built up a well earned reputation as being the number one manufacturer of water treatment devices in the world. You will find Spectrapure units in most of the better LFS in the country, not just in AZ.
Another interesting fact, if you drink coffee from one of those well known places we all know about, you have more than likely drank Spectrapure RO/DI water and didn't even know it!
Our water here in the Valley and the Southwest in general is extremely high in Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and very hard meaning it has lots of dissolved calcium in it. The hardness can be taken care of by a water softener, which is highly recommended by the way as it will save your plumbing fixtures, save you a ton on soaps, and make your car virtually spot free if you use the sift water to wash it. An RO membrane is a very very thin piece of plastic film with microscopic pores or holes in it that are so small they trap the dissolved solids and only allow pure water molecules to pass through. The plastic film is wound around a screen fabric and sealed in a housing so tap water under pressure enters one point and pure water exits from another point. There is also a third exit point where the dissolved solids are flushed out to keep the membrane surface clean and operable. This is the waste stream you hear so much about, more on that later.
Membranes must be protected from Suspended Solids (TSS), basically larger particles, sand, silt etc and from chlorine which can dissolve the plastic film if it comes into contact with it. To do so you use a prefilter and some carbon.
Now this is one area where Spectrapure shines over most others. You will find almost all less expensive RO and RO/DI units use less expensive higher micron rated and what is termed "nominal" rated prefilters which do not do the same job of protecting the membrane thus shortening its useful life. 1, 5 and even 10 micron nominal rated prefilters are common in the industry. Spectrapure uses what is called "absolute" rated prefilters and in low micron ratings of 0.5 and even 0.2 microns! The difference between nominal and absolute basically means a nominal filter only has to trap or filter out 60-98% of the particles it is rated for so a 10 micron nominal filter could be passing on 40% of everything including 10 microns and larger and still be considered working. An abslolute rated prefilter on the other hand traps 98% of everything including it rated size so may only pass 1-2% of anything smaller than 0.2 microns on. Huge difference in quality, membrane life and worth the extra cost.
Carbon is used mainly to remove the chlorine from tap water. It also serves to remove some of the volatile organic chemicals like pesticides, herbicides and fuel byproducts. Some cheaper units still use granular activated carbon which may only last a total of 300 gallons before complete exhaustion. Others may use multiple carbons and make it sound like you are getting something special, 5 STAGES!, 7 STAGES!, etc. In truth the number of stages doesn't mean a hill of beans...... Remember that for later.
Good units use solid extruded carbon blocks made by compressing carbon under tremendous steam pressure. Units like the Spectrapure MaxCap use a single carbon with a rating of 0.5 or 0.6 microns, near absolute, and with a capacity to treat up to 20,000 gallons of normally chlorinated tap water. 300 gallons or 20,000 gallons, you be the judge. The 20,000 gallon Matrikx+1 Chlorine Guzzler is also highly effective at chloramines but we don't have to worry about that in Arizona as I am not aware of any Utility that uses chloramines.
The RO membrane is the workhorse of the system. This is Spectrapures strong point. They are the ONLY manufacturer in the country to offer 100% individually hand tested and guaranteed better than 98% rejection rate or removal efficiency membranes in their units. The only one. The average off the shelf membrane, this includes Dow Filmtec, Applied Membranes, GE Water/Osmonics and all the others, is only 96-98% efficient at best, some never make that. They are also untested and you will never know its efficiency unless you test it yourself, and come with no written guarantee.
The difference is significant when you consider for every 2% you increase the RO membranes efficiency you DOUBLE the life of your DI resin. Resin gets expensive and doubling or more its useful life is a cost savings realized very quickly.
DI resins are not all equal. Spectrapure has a long term bench test in continous operation. They purchase resins from everywhere and test them side by side for days. weeks and months. They have the ability to make up stock water solutions duplicating some of the worst water conditions around and running it through their test bench to study the effects on membranes and resins. No one else offers this either. Their MaxCap and SilicaBuster DI resins are the results of these studies. They develop, blend and package all their own resins, nothing is shipped out as it came from the original vendor.
Put these all together and you get the Spectrapure MaxCap RO/DI. Its not just the DI reins that make it different, or the hand tested and guaranteed RO membrane, or even the combination of 0.5 micronabsolute rated prefilter and 0.5 micron 20,000 gallon carbon block, but everything as a package, unit or assembly. It hard to duplicate and it would certainly cost you more money than what you can buy it for locally.
I have used a MaxCap(2 years on a single SilicaBuster DI cartridge!!!) and now I own the MaxCap UHE ultra low waste system and there truly is no equal. I have kept log books for the last 4+ years and would be glad to share the info they contain. I used to own a Watts Premier and Typhoon III for comparisons and presently have another e-bay system so can give them all fair reviews.
Recliner
Reefhappy in the local club has a Maxcap 90 and I was asking him about it during the meet at his place last month. He's not entirely pleased with it based on what he was told it should do and the price paid. I had this very model in my sights but decided to keep looking based on that being we are fairly close and on the same water supply. I'm currently using the BRS 6 stage deluxe model and have been pleased so far. The only reason I was looking to change was I've heard so much about soectraoure lately I figured it was worth looking into if I could get the same performance with a smaller unit that requires one less filter to maintain.
Previously I've used a Kent Marine Maxxima and it did amazingly well. If you kept with their cartridges they were unbelievably pricey but the results to me were worth it. I forget how many gallons I would get out of a silicamax di cartridge at 0 tds but it was several hundred. I ran an absolute rated 1 micron sediment and a .6 micron carbon block before the membrane and seas achieving a 98%+ rejection rate. Supply is usually around 75-80psi
Reefhappy in the local club has a Maxcap 90 and I was asking him about it during the meet at his place last month. He's not entirely pleased with it based on what he was told it should do and the price paid. I had this very model in my sights but decided to keep looking based on that being we are fairly close and on the same water supply. I'm currently using the BRS 6 stage deluxe model and have been pleased so far. The only reason I was looking to change was I've heard so much about soectraoure lately I figured it was worth looking into if I could get the same performance with a smaller unit that requires one less filter to maintain.
Previously I've used a Kent Marine Maxxima and it did amazingly well. If you kept with their cartridges they were unbelievably pricey but the results to me were worth it. I forget how many gallons I would get out of a silicamax di cartridge at 0 tds but it was several hundred. I ran an absolute rated 1 micron sediment and a .6 micron carbon block before the membrane and seas achieving a 98%+ rejection rate. Supply is usually around 75-80psi
Ron Reefman
Active member
I've had several brands of RO/DI over the years, mostly bought used with other equipment. The brand really doesn't make much difference. It's the quality of the filters, RO membrane and DI resin. The extra options are nice if you get them or they can easily be added on after the fact.
NTP66
New member
Personally, I have a BRS 5 Stage Plus, and have zero issues with it (my TDS is still 0 after a few months' use). If you do a search on this forum, you'll find countless others who run the BRS systems, and also recommend them - one big reason why I went this route. Great build quality, IMO, on these units, and very reasonable pricing.
If you do decide to go that route, keep checking their site for sales. I have seen this system on sale recently, and I know for a fact that they give a very nice discount during their Black Friday sale, if you plan on waiting a bit.
If you do decide to go that route, keep checking their site for sales. I have seen this system on sale recently, and I know for a fact that they give a very nice discount during their Black Friday sale, if you plan on waiting a bit.
tom obrecht
Active member
My vote...Spectrapure. You won't be disappointed!
howaboutme
Member
I have a Purely H20 Optima Vision 75 GPD, 4 stage RODI and highly recommend them. I think even AZDesertRat has mentioned them as a recommended option! 
It works great, good support and I think it may be on sale now. The key is how many microns...You should get either .5 or 1 micron filters/membranes.
It works great, good support and I think it may be on sale now. The key is how many microns...You should get either .5 or 1 micron filters/membranes.
sanababit
Active member
Don't buy a brand name, it doesn't matter, just by the correct filter depending on the stages you have, i build ro units for a living, been doing it for 21 years, brand name does not matter, i can go out and buy 3 filter canisters, one membrane canister, one refillable resin canister, tds meter, 1/4 inch hose, fittings maybe a pump and pressure switches, and a little storage tank and build my own, what i do just get the correct filters, like a 1 micron sediment, 5 micron sediment, carbon filter, a 50 or 100 gal membrane, exchange resin..
So if you find a cheap system on ebay dont hesitate to buy it as long as it has what you are looking for, like number of stages, or di filter, or pump, or tds meter, tank, etc, just make sure it comes with good filters and membrane, good luck
Sana
So if you find a cheap system on ebay dont hesitate to buy it as long as it has what you are looking for, like number of stages, or di filter, or pump, or tds meter, tank, etc, just make sure it comes with good filters and membrane, good luck
Sana
I'm going to go with the spectra pure. Probably would have gone BRS if they didn't have the factory refurb one available.
I was going to go ahead and order some spare filters for it too. I saw they have The 1.0 uM sediment and carbon block filters for $16 and the 0.5 uM for $25. Would the 0.5 save me over $9 worth by prolonging the di filter?
Besides the sediment and carbon block, what other filters should I get spares/replacements of?
I was going to go ahead and order some spare filters for it too. I saw they have The 1.0 uM sediment and carbon block filters for $16 and the 0.5 uM for $25. Would the 0.5 save me over $9 worth by prolonging the di filter?
Besides the sediment and carbon block, what other filters should I get spares/replacements of?
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