Are RODI membrane add-on kits worth it?

shadow1013

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I just picked up an RODI unit. A few different people have told me conflicting information. I got the AquaFX Barracuda Glacial which apparently has a 3/1 ration for waste water. One person told me trying to get that ration better was a waste, no pun intended, and other said if I get a second membrane added on it will bring the ration down to 1.5/1. He also said the stabilized salt rejection percentage would go up because it has to go through two membranes now. The kit will be about $60 but I want to know if it's really worth it. I'm only going to be doing 10 gallon water changes weekly so I figured I'd need to make about 20 gallons a week from ATO and water changes.
 
Dual membranes ARE NOT water savers.
If you desire faster output a dual membrane system will increase the GPD provided you have a minimum of 65 psi at the tap to operate it efficiently.
Those who claim dual membranes are water savers are kidding themselves. Think about it for a minute, you are taking the waste or concentrated brine out of the first membrane and sending it to the second. In a normal 4:1 waste ratio system that brine is already 20% to 25% higher TDS than your tap was to begin with so the second membrane already has more work to do than the first. Now you reduce the waste even further and the brine increase even more, what is going to happen? The membranes fail due to fouling or plugging and you spend money to replace them much more often than if you had just left things as they should be.

If you are considering reducing the waste ratio below the industry standard 4:1 you first need to know your tap water calcium carbonate hardness and your tap TDS. If you have hard water and normal (250 is about the national average TDS) to higher than normal TDS then forget about it. If you have softened water or a water softener then you may be able to reduce it some, still depending on the softened TDS. If you are blessed with both soft water and low TDS as a few places in the US have then you might be able to reduce it as low as 2:1 and still get reasonable membrane and DI resin lifespan.

Unless you want to make more water faster I would stick with a single 75 GPD membrane and fine tune the waste ratio using a capillary tube flow restrictor you yourself trim exactly for your own unique water conditions. You need to know what those conditions are though including water pressure, water temperature, TDS and hardness.
 
Well I was told that the 100GPD ones had a rejection rate lower than the 75GPD one.

But none the less that doesn't answer the question of if adding a second membrane is worth it or not.
 
Okay. I'm in Florida so I believe we have higher than 250 TDS. I was thinking with the second membrane you send the good water out from the first into the second and have both waste water lines come out and go together in a T connector and into the drain so only send good water into both membranes.

Dual membranes ARE NOT water savers.
If you desire faster output a dual membrane system will increase the GPD provided you have a minimum of 65 psi at the tap to operate it efficiently.
Those who claim dual membranes are water savers are kidding themselves. Think about it for a minute, you are taking the waste or concentrated brine out of the first membrane and sending it to the second. In a normal 4:1 waste ratio system that brine is already 20% to 25% higher TDS than your tap was to begin with so the second membrane already has more work to do than the first. Now you reduce the waste even further and the brine increase even more, what is going to happen? The membranes fail due to fouling or plugging and you spend money to replace them much more often than if you had just left things as they should be.

If you are considering reducing the waste ratio below the industry standard 4:1 you first need to know your tap water calcium carbonate hardness and your tap TDS. If you have hard water and normal (250 is about the national average TDS) to higher than normal TDS then forget about it. If you have softened water or a water softener then you may be able to reduce it some, still depending on the softened TDS. If you are blessed with both soft water and low TDS as a few places in the US have then you might be able to reduce it as low as 2:1 and still get reasonable membrane and DI resin lifespan.

Unless you want to make more water faster I would stick with a single 75 GPD membrane and fine tune the waste ratio using a capillary tube flow restrictor you yourself trim exactly for your own unique water conditions. You need to know what those conditions are though including water pressure, water temperature, TDS and hardness.
 
No, take a look at this link which depicts the normal dual membrane plumbing arrangement.
http://spectrapure.com/huds/DUAL.pdf

Note the black line connecting the first membrane to the second. This is the brine from the first going in to the second membrane which has been rotated end to end for simplicity. The tee connector is the two treated lines being tied together at the end of the process.

The two absolute best things you can do to improve RO membrane efficiency are softened water and a RO booster pump. Membranes love softened water, even if you have higher than normal TDS, since the softener does much of the work for the membrane, kind of like pretreatment. They also become more efficient at higher pressures so RO only TDS goes down and DI life goes up. The result is higher GPD and lower replacement costs on the DI. I run a single 75 GPD membrane on a Aquatec 8800 booster at 95-100 psi and get over 135 GPD at 99.4% rejection rate so DI lasts a long long time. I replaced a dual membrane system with this one and have better water quality and much longer DI life now. Been using the same system for over 8 years on the original membrane and booster with no issues in 560-850TDS softened Phoenix tap water making around 100 gallons a month in no less than 11 gallon batches.
 
Well I was told that the 100GPD ones had a rejection rate lower than the 75GPD one.
Back in the day, the Filmtec 100 gpd membranes were factory spec'ed at 90% rejection (they would remove about 90% of the TDS), while the 75's were rate at 96 to 98%.

Newer Filmtec 100 gpd membranes are spec'ed at 96-98%. Newer 75's are spec'ed at 97-99%

Russ
 
I just added the upgrade kit a month ago and the time I'm saving making water is awesome. Yes, I'm burning through resin faster but I don't really care. If I have an emergency and need water fast- i can. I spend less time doing a simple task.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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