RO/DI plumming

[tewebb]

Just picked up the Typhoon III Extreme 5 stage reef keeper system. Going to install it in a converted closet next to where my 180 ga tank will go. My question is, can it be hooked up to the water/waste lines under my house located in the crawl space? There is a cold water line and waste drain line almost right below the closet where it will be installed. How could the hook up's be done???

Tom

 

[TopNotchCorals]

Just picked up the Typhoon III Extreme 5 stage reef keeper system. Going to install it in a converted closet next to where my 180 ga tank will go. My question is, can it be hooked up to the water/waste lines under my house located in the crawl space? There is a cold water line and waste drain line almost right below the closet where it will be installed. How could the hook up's be done???

Tom

I am not sure you want to hook it up to a cold water line being the water temp has to be at a certain temp I beleive its in the 70's in order for it to produce the 150gpd it is rated for.

 

[ReeferBen]

I was under the assumption you always used the cold water lines as using the hot water line could ruin your membrane.

 

[TopNotchCorals]

I was under the assumption you always used the cold water lines as using the hot water line could ruin your membrane.

Maybe so,I know I read that the water would have to be a certain temp for it to push the rated gpd.

 

[aquafrags]

you never want to hook it up to the Hot water line, it will ruin the membrane, hook it up to the cold water line. Geeting good results
is more about pressure, than anything

 

[lvsuckerfish]

it has to play with water temp and pressure to get a good good to waste water ratio. cooler (50 degrees say) water more waste then (75 degrees) it will staill make water on the cold line you Don't not want to hook it up to the hot water line. My unit is supposed to be 1:1 I am more like 1:1.5 because the water here is cold. I can live with that. 1:5 is what kills me.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Tap the line under the house bring it into your closet with what ever method you are comfortable with then I would get a long length of the tubing forget the name but the same stuff used on the RODI and make a big coil of it fit in a 5 g bucket which should hopefully bring it close to room temp by the time it gets to the unit. Too complicated to do a hot cold mix unless you are a plumber. Just a thought
MM

 

[lvsuckerfish]

thats a good Idea I am going to try that tomorrow lol mightymouse

 

[RBursek]

Bulk Reef Supply carries "saddle valves" for drain and supply lines. RO membranes are rated at 77*F water at 60psi. anything less in any combo will lower product water and increase waste. If you have a water softner you want to use softened water not non softened. Doing the coil in a bucket does not really work even with a heater in it if you have 56* water. I mix my hot and cold water to 77* to supply my RO/DI unit.

 

[LitlBailey]

by using the soft water, wouldn't you just be forcing the RO membrane to remove the salt that the softner system puts in the water? If that's the case, then you would be shortening the life of the membrane by using soft water wouldn't you?

 

[RBursek]

These people will explain why, but Ca and Mg will coat and plug up a RO membrane before sodium ions will distroy it, the softner removes Ca and MG and replaces it with sodium ions.
RODI unit before or after water softener? - Reef Central Online Community

 

[LitlBailey]

These people will explain why, but Ca and Mg will coat and plug up a RO membrane before sodium ions will distroy it, the softner removes Ca and MG and replaces it with sodium ions.
RODI unit before or after water softener? - Reef Central Online Community

Interesting, thank you

 

[AZDesertRat]

Never try to temper or blend hot and cold water, its the quickest way to ruin a membrane there is. Use cold water only and buy a RO booster pump if production is not where you want it. The 5 gallon bucket thing has been tried thousands of times and is not cost effective. It takes too many BTU's to heat even one gallon of water one degree to make is worthwhile. The watts consumed by a heater would be tremendous compared to the gain in RO production. Plastic tubing is not a good conductor of heat and cold and soes not work well either.

Always use softened water, in fact the membrane manufacturers all recommend and suggest it. The GPD rating of a membrane is derived using softened water.

 

[Rukis]

Your clean to waste has to do more with PSI (water pressure) then water temp. Never hook up to a Hot water line, Always connect to your cold water line, most main water lines should be around room temp., just use a RO line "T" to tap into your main water line and drain line for easiest install if you already have lines ran. Most systems get 1gal clean water to 1.5gals waste, I get 1.5gal CLEAN 1gal WASTE!! I've tested it multiple times. Its all about the booster pump, not temp! increasing the pressure helps the membranes function better. My systems also back flushes for 15 seconds after each use as well to keep membranes clean. Cleaner membranes, means cleaner water! RO or RO/DI systems function better when they are ran for longer periods of time instead of more shorter running periods. Hope this helps, I would recommend my RO/DI unit rated @ 100GPD cuz it puts out more like 150-175gals in 24hours, vertex puratek RO/DI 100GPD, check it out!

 

[Rukis]

Oh and I also put control valves on a lot of my lines in case you don't run a float and/or to manually control the system....

 

[RBursek]

Aren't most 100gpd unit RO membranes only 90% efficient compared to 96-98% for lesser gpd units?

 

[AZDesertRat]

Yes, if they use the Dow Filmtec 100 GPD membrane which is not a true RO membrane but is a Nano Filter which is only 90% rejection compared to 96-98% for their 75 GPD and below.
This is not true of all membranes though and can be confusing. GE Water and Applied Membranes also sell 100 GPD RO membranes but in actual use they are identical to the Dow Filmtec 75 GPD RO membrane.
Dow tests their membranes at 77 degrees F like all manufacturers but they rate them at 50 psi pressure where GE, Applied and many others test theirs at 65 psi. If you take the charts and lay them over each other you see all of them produce 75 GPD at 50 psi, 90 GPD at 60 psi and 100 GPD at 65 psi.
Some of the ebay vendors used to advertise 110 and higher GPD systems but what they were doing was using the Dow 100 GPD nano filter and stating 110 GPD at 60 psi or 120 GPD at 65 psi which would be true but its only 90% efficient or rejection rate.

Ads can be deceiving so you really need to look closely at what you are getting not just the hype.
In the case of the Vertex units, I would stay away from them if it were me, they are a poorly thought out system with inherent problems. For one they use 120v AC power versus others which use 12 or 24v DC which is much safera around water. The ones I have seen also used cheap wire nuts to make electrical connections which would not meet any electrical codes I am aware of. They also have short membrane life since they are attempting low waste but flushing with the very same high TDS water you are trying to filter. Check with every other RO/DI vendor out there, this was tried and shelved years ago by the best in the business. If it were that easy all the vendors would be doing it.