ro/di ????

[DMBillies]

I'm running an air water ice typhoon III reefkeeper RO/DI. I also homebrew and read that you should definitely filter out the chlorine and other bad tasting chemicals out of your water. That said, it's not recommended to use RO or RO/DI water because it takes too many of the "good tasting " metals and compounds out of the water. I've used RO before because I figured getting rid of too much would be better than using unfiltered. Anyway, tonight I tried to put an outlet on my RO/DI after the the sediment filter and charcoal filters, figuring that this would give me the best of both worlds. What I did was take the line off just before the auto shut off, put in a splitter, and then put a valve after the splitter (and before the auto shut off) and a valve on the line that will be the output for the brew water. When I want brew water I just close the valve leading to the auto shut off and open the valve to the brew water line. This works fine and I get a nice steady output through the filters.

My problem is that my output water is reading a TDS of about 120, which is just slightly higher than what my tap water is reading at my sink (113). So, what gives? The water is definitely going through the three filters, shouldn't it be dropping the TDS.

Possible thoughts I had:
- Not having the RO to slow down the water, the through put is too high and I'm blowing water through the filters too fast (not filtering the water much and/or actually pushing crap through the filters).
- I funked up the installation of one or more of the sediment/charcoal filters when I changed them a week ago (even though I'm still making 0 TDS out of the RO).
- The particles pulled by the filters would not be registered by a TDS meter and therefore my TDS won't show a drop in the filtered water, but the chlorine should be getting filtered out (I dunno... it seems possible..but I'm not sure why the TDS would actually seem to go up).

In my original installation, I tried to put the output after the auto shut off, but it didn't seem to enjoy that and kept shutting off the water supply (making no water). If I should alter the installation because I will burn up my filters and/or do damage, please give me a heads up.

Thanks, in advance, for any ideas.

 

[turboex901]

brian, im not sure if you care but linus (the owner of yazoo beers) and I, had a discussion about water the other day. he explained to me that when he went to brewing school in california and apprenticed in new york the water was a little harsh, but here in nashville its great. hes played with filtering but it dumbs the taste down too much. take it for what it is i guess......... also i know chlorine gasses out after 24 hours of aeration/aging and i beleive chloramines take closer to 48. maybe you could just age the water.<~~~steve

p.s- on a sidenote, if you ever want to go with me to yazoo to hang out with linus and the yazoo crew lemme know. we usually go thursday, friday, and saturday when possible. nearly every thursday for sure though!

 

[DMBillies]

Thirsty thursday... sounds good to me!

The aging issue might be something to look into on homebrewing forums/sites. Thanks for the heads up. Any other ideas on the RO/DI unit.

 

[crumbletop]

Carbon filters add stuff back to the water, and so you get TDS from stuff coming off the carbon blocks. It is different stuff than the chlorine and chloramines that it is mainly designed to get. If you have one of those faucet or refrigerator "filters" you can measure the TDS there too. It is typically > input.

 

[DMBillies]

Well, maybe I'll just have to try to brew some beer with it and see how it turns out then. Thanks Jack.

 

[gflat65]

I was talking to the engineer at the other plant (he's been brewing for years). He mentioned that you can easily strip too much out of the water, which will effect the taste of the beer... I'll get some info from him on what he uses, etc.

 

[DMBillies]

Gary- The filters I have are a sediment (10 micron), a 5 micron charcoal and a 1 micron charcoal. I should be able to bypass the 1 micron if that's filtering too small. So, maybe you can ask him if that would be too much (or maybe someone else might have input).