Whole house RO system

Devonjevon · Apr 3, 2015

Has anyone ever seen or had experience with this.
I believe this is what a lot of LFS use when they show you how they use "tap water straight out the faucet"

Here is a link to one.
AirWaterIce - H2O Guru

Would be interesting to know the tds of the output I'm sure a DI unit will still be needed.

Seems like a waste of money. The only time a really notice my water quality is when my refrigerator water filter needs replacement. I could care less that my shower is 290 tds instead of 30. Are the spots on your dishes and car really worth the $3000 price tag?

AZDesertRat · Apr 3, 2015

Waste of money. The only water you need RO for is drinking,cooking and icemaker and of course to make DI for the reef. A $125, 75-90 GPD RO/DI with a $59 add on drinking water kit is more than enough for that. One thing highly recommended though for the whole house is a water softener, which helps your plumbing fixture life and your soap usage as well as makes a RO membrane very happy.
The water spots come from hard water, which is eliminated with the softener.

joekool · Apr 3, 2015

It was worth it to me. Until you actually have one on your house and live with it you can't possibly give an accurate response. They are especially great with well water and also good for city water. Do you know what chloramine does to you? I would choose a whole house RO any day over a softener. You wouldn't believe how nice it is to take a shower, wash your car, and everything else. I still use an additional RO DI setup for my tank though for the purest water.
A lot of LFS have 1000 gpd RO systems but a whole house RO is a different thing.

With a whole house RO you are using more water and wasting it as well. The installed system and setup will determine the amount of concentrate and permeate you make.

It would be nice if only people who actually own a whole house RO or have lived with one reply as they would be the only people to give good advice as to it being worth it.

Plan and simple answer Best water I have ever had in a house my entire life(Period).

I'm sure you get someone on here that will go on and on about it not being worth it.

thejuggernaut · Apr 3, 2015

If I ever build a new house, this will definitely be on my list. As well as a hot water return line. I don't know why all houses aren't built with a hot water return line. I bet major cities would save millions of gallons a year.

AZDesertRat · Apr 3, 2015

The hot water loop is a good idea. Usually when I see a large RO system it is set up as side stream treatment andnot whole house. You treat a portion of the total flow then blend it back together to lower but not completely eliminate the TDS. Maybein our particular case in Florida you are experiencing saltwater intrusion which is not something most users see. I would not recommend it for the average user and water treatment, operations and maintenance is my now 40 year profession.

RO water is agressive and can be worse on plumbing fixtures than hard water. We did a system for Oxnard CA where they treat a portion of thewater via membranes then blend it with other sources and it can provide up to 15 MGD. Pretty common. Did a similar system for Goodyear AZ too.

thejuggernaut · Apr 3, 2015

That's cool. I had heard before that very clean water can eat away at certain materials, because water isn't that clean in nature and tries to leach things out of the container that is holding it.

I live on the Gulf Coast in Texas and our water is pumped directly out of the Brazos River. That thing looks like the chocolate river in the Willy Wonka factory. Big settlement ponds, then pump it full of chemicals so it doesn't kill you. I'm being a little sarcastic, I'm sure there is more to it than that. I ended up running a line off my RODI system back through the ceiling to two pressurized holding tanks beside the sink and refrigerator. Hooked it up between the membrane and the DI system, with a check valve so it doesn't back flow out of the pressure tanks. It's amazing how clear ice cubes look when the water is clean. I can almost tell when it's time to change the filters by looking at my ice. Been working good. Haven't run out of drinking water since I added the second tank. Even when I run it most of the day filling my 60 gallons worth of holding tanks. Only thing I have left to add is a membrane flush kit and my entire system will be automated.

Rob Top1 · Apr 3, 2015

What is a water bill with a whole house ro unit? I'm not trying to be a naysayer and am sure my wife would love it(she's a total water snob) But with expensive water I try to limit use. I'm thrilled when my bi-monthly bill is under $275. That's almost double what I paid when I lived closer to Chicago.

Buckeye Hydro · Apr 6, 2015

joekool said:
I would choose a whole house RO any day over a softener. You wouldn't believe how nice it is to take a shower, wash your car, and everything else.

Remember that an RO system is an incredibly good water softener. "Softening" is the removal (primarily) of calcium and magnesium - the primary culprits that are "hardness." Whole house, or whole (commercial) building RO systems are just fine, as long as all fittings (even those hidden behind drywall that you didn't know were there) and fixtures (faucets, valves, etc) are compatible with the RO water. These systems typically have a large atmospheric (unpressurized) tank that floods the inlet of a re-pressurization pump with a built in pressure switch. The permeate from an RO system isn't at sufficient pressure to just feed the plumbing system as is.

As mentioned above, another approach is to use what's called a blending cartridge where a controlled proportion of the permeate is run through a cartridge where it picks up TDS (including hardness) and is then blended back into the RO water. This allows a customized level of hardness and can result in high quality tapwater that is compatible with common plumbing and fixtures.

Russ