Apartment Dwellers - Where is Your RO/DI Unit?

[nickkohrn]

My aquarium is in the small room of our three-story apartment’s entrance. The only source for connections to water on the first floor is the hot water tank in the garage. So, I carry my seven-stage RO/DI unit, booster pump, and automatic flush system up the stairs, to the second-floor’s bathroom, where I connect everything to the sink’s faucet. Once I’ve filled a bucket with RO/DI water, I carry it back to the first floor, and I store it in the garage. As you can imagine, this gets tiresome as the mount that everything is attached to is large, awkward, and heavy. So, I’m looking for a better solution.

Ideally, I would like to connect it to the kitchen sink, which is on the second floor. There, I could simply fill my buckets and take them down to the garage, without the need to haul a heavy mount up and down the stairs. I’ve looked at connecting it to our washing machine connection, but there is no place to store the unit in the closet that houses our washer and dryer; the closet is large enough to house the stackable washer/dryer combination, and that’s it.

I am leaning toward using a saddle valve to connect it to the cold water line under the sink and a ball valve to turn of the flow of water when I am finished. Does this seem like an appropriate plan?

For those of you that are apartment-dwelling, how do you have your RO/DI units configured?

If you have it under your sink, what fittings did you use?

For reference, this is what I carry up and down the stairs when I need to make water. It’s quite an inconvenience.

 

[W1ngz]

punching holes in the pipes of a rental is risky. When I was renting I had something like this, which gave me a direct tap into the waterline that could be removed with no damage to the existing plumbing.

John Guest Angle Stop Valve

Why does BRS recommend this? If you constantly need to install and uninstall your RODI system up to your sinks feed lines then we highly suggest using the John Guest Angle Stop Valve. With metal connections repetitive installs and removals will not cause issues like plastic may sometimes. With...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

My cold water on my washing machine is broken so I have the rodi hooked to that faucet mounted behind the washer. Another good place is mounted under your sink. Use an adapter to use your sink faucet or replace the pipe to give yourself a second spiccet under the sink for rodi

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

punching holes in the pipes of a rental is risky. When I was renting I had something like this, which gave me a direct tap into the waterline that could be removed with no damage to the existing plumbing.

John Guest Angle Stop Valve

Why does BRS recommend this? If you constantly need to install and uninstall your RODI system up to your sinks feed lines then we highly suggest using the John Guest Angle Stop Valve. With metal connections repetitive installs and removals will not cause issues like plastic may sometimes. With...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

That's a really useful method and is not very invasive.

 

[Ky_acc]

Interested to see apartment RODI solutions, following along.

 

[Cherie cook]

My aquarium is in the small room of our three-story apartment’s entrance. The only source for connections to water on the first floor is the hot water tank in the garage. So, I carry my seven-stage RO/DI unit, booster pump, and automatic flush system up the stairs, to the second-floor’s bathroom, where I connect everything to the sink’s faucet. Once I’ve filled a bucket with RO/DI water, I carry it back to the first floor, and I store it in the garage. As you can imagine, this gets tiresome as the mount that everything is attached to is large, awkward, and heavy. So, I’m looking for a better solution.

Ideally, I would like to connect it to the kitchen sink, which is on the second floor. There, I could simply fill my buckets and take them down to the garage, without the need to haul a heavy mount up and down the stairs. I’ve looked at connecting it to our washing machine connection, but there is no place to store the unit in the closet that houses our washer and dryer; the closet is large enough to house the stackable washer/dryer combination, and that’s it.

I am leaning toward using a saddle valve to connect it to the cold water line under the sink and a ball valve to turn of the flow of water when I am finished. Does this seem like an appropriate plan?

For those of you that are apartment-dwelling, how do you have your RO/DI units configured?

If you have it under your sink, what fittings did you use?

For reference, this is what I carry up and down the stairs when I need to make water. It’s quite an inconvenience.

 

[Cherie cook]

Fortunately my rented house in the Rockies has a big back yard. You can see the continental divide way in the distance.

 

[W1ngz]

The fitting I posted would work under a toilet also to add a tap into the water line. You could use an above toilet shelf unit or a cabinet on stilts over the toilet and permanently install it there.

 

[Cherie cook]

That's a really useful method and is not very invasive.

This is cool!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Whether house or apartment, I Always recommended Laundry area. You will be guaranteed a water source and a drain for ease of ease and placement.

 

[nickkohrn]

Thank you for the information that you provided and for taking the time to share your experiences and advice.

I think that I’m going to take a look at the fitting that @W1ngz linked to because I don’t have a readily-accessible spot in the laundry area to access water and store the required equipment.