Vertical water pumping

[beachbums05]

Anyone know the 411 on pumping some RO water from my first floor laundry room to my upstairs? The lid on the first floor is 12' and the sump under the tank is another 18" for a lift of 13'6" total. Want to supply RO to an auto top off set up.
Any help appreciated.

 

[mistacheese]

Hey BB05,
If my aging memory serves me right, a science teacher once explained that the easiest way to over come large height loss is to divide. IE run a small pump to a container and another small pump to your tank... Not ideal, but would allow you to purchase inexpensive equipment to get the job done...

 

[rstark33]

I have had the output of my RO unit go up one floor no problem. The pressure created by the height might cause a little extra waste water, but it should work fine.

 

[shrimphead]

Hey BB05,
If my aging memory serves me right, a science teacher once explained that the easiest way to over come large height loss is to divide. IE run a small pump to a container and another small pump to your tank... Not ideal, but would allow you to purchase inexpensive equipment to get the job done...

if what your saying is to pump to half the height with one pump to a container that pumps to the main tank then this wouldn't work, something would end up overflowing or running dry as you can never get 2 pumps to run at the exact same rate. it may seem like there running at the same rate but leave it a few hours and you'll see different water levels in different chambers

 

[strike2867]

1. I've seen a lot of recommendations to just use a 5 gallon bucket in order to avoid much bigger flood issues.
2. Another thing to consider is keeping the RO unit next to the tank, if someone doesn't provide a better solution.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Can't you just run the RO outlet up to the second floor? Let your home water pressure do the work.

Jeff

 

[disc1]

It depends too on your input pressure. The higher the water column that the low pressure side of the RO membrane has to push up, the more is going to go out the waste line. Eventually, it all goes and nothing goes through the membrane. You probably won't reach that height, but the loss can still be significant. Not to mention the RO will run out upstairs at a drip -drip -drip kinda pace. If you are going to run a water line up there anyways, I'm with these guys, run your supply line and put the RO unit upstairs. Mount it to the side of a rubbermaid or a big trash can in case it springs a leak.