Lets See Your R/O Set-Up

[corals b 4 bills]

If you can show us pics of your R/O unit and how you have it set up, which types of filtration cartridges, and where it's located, heres mine in my garage above the utility sink, tanks on the other side of this wall.

[burris]

Why do you have your DI plumbed in front of your RO membranes?

[corals b 4 bills]

By having the Di in the middle of the run will it keep it from doing it's job? I put it there because I had an empty canister and I didn't want to buy another one just for the DI, if it won't work here I'll pick up another one.

[burris]

Yeah, you want the DI to be after the RO. The RO removes 98% of the stuff and the DI polishes off the rest. If you have it before the RO then you'll exhaust the DI quickly and RO doesn't really have a chance to help.

Filters should be setup like this: particulate -> carbon -> RO -> DI

Are you using this setup for drinking water too?

[corals b 4 bills]

No, the wife dosen't like the taste of my water so I added the last carbon filter. Thanks. I was hoping for a break down of other guys RO systems to see how there's are run, I looked at the photo gallery and there were only a few. What other filter can I put in it's place?

[burris]

Also, you should have the probes of your TDS meter on either of the DI cartridge (input on the input side of the DI, output on the output side of the DI. The output of the DI should read zero, replace it when it rises. Of course, the input may also read zero because your tap water is probably pretty good and those inline units don't have good low range resolution.

[Toddrtrex]

Mine is nice and simple, and goes under the sink when I am not making water. (( I rent my townhouse and didn't want to tap into the pipes ))

[corals b 4 bills]

Yea my TDS meter is in the correct spot it reads 18 ppm going in and 0 comming out.

[burris]

Does your tap water have 18 ppm TDS or is that after your RO?

[corals b 4 bills]

18 is whats comming out of my tap.

[Toddrtrex]

Originally posted by corals b 4 bills
18 is whats comming out of my tap.

Wow, nice water you have there. I was happy having 175 out of my tap.

[AZDesertRat]

Here is an old picture of mine. It has since been converted to a dual membrane 240 GPD system.


I have a Sears 32,000 grain water softener in the beginning.
Next is:
1. 0.2 micron ZetaZorb absolute rated pleated prefilter with 10x the surface area of a normal poly prefilter.
2. 0.5 micron Chlorine Guzzler 20,000 gallon carbon block
3. 90 GPD Select Series hand tested 98+% rejection rate RO membrane.
4. 150 GPD Select Series hand tested 98+% rejectoion rate RO membrane.
5. MaxCap DI Cartridge
6. SilicaBuster DI Cartridge

I have a 14 gallon pressure/bladder tank that stores RO only water which is used for drinking, icemaker, cooking and other home uses and also feeds back to the Dual DI system for reef water. Everything is mounted in my garage which is attached to my house andclimate controlled.

Tap water TDS averages 835, RO only TDS averages 5.3 to 6.2 and DI water stays at a true 18.2 megaohms or much less than an indicated 0 TDS for about 630 gallons per MaxCap cartridge. This is a big improvement over the 150 gallons I used to get with a normal 75 GPD Dow Filmtec RO membrane and fresh bulk DI resin. Even though the MaxCap unit comes with 2 dual inline TDS meters I use a HM Digital COM-100 handheld calibrated so it is very accurate at the low end for DI water. I have confirmed these readings with a Thornton benchtop conductivity/resistivity meter.

Inline TDS meters should be used as a guide only as they are not nearly as accurate as a handheld meter since they are not temperature compensated.

corals B 4 bills, you have several cartridges that really serve no purpose and can cut the number in half and still get just as good of water. All the prefilter and carbon block are for is to protect the RO membrane, well the carbon does also remove some volatile organics which helps the membrane and DI out a little, but you don't need nearly that many cartridges or canisters. They have almost no effect on TDS whatsoever as its the job of the RO membrane and DI resin to remove TDS. The very first prefilter should remove any TSS or suspended solids which are much larger than TDS.

[kysard1]

RO Unit
Pre carbon Canisters
RO Booster Pump
ESOV
Pressure Switch
Flush Valve
DI Unit

All for a crappy 94% Rejection Rate. Should have bought a distiller.

[lakee911]

nice setup az

[corals b 4 bills]

I heard that carbon debris and DI beads can escape from time to time thats why I have a 5 micron filter in the end just in case, which cartrige is overkill? I will be moving the Di to the end of the run when I order a single canister, I also have a hanna handheld TDS meter and it also reads the same (18) i had no idea that that was a low number, the thing that my water has is a big chlorine/chloramine smell and taste, other than that the water was rated one of the best in the country (hetch-hetchy res.).

[wife no likey]

here's a pic of mine:




using triple membranes as well as booster and permeate pumps.

I also have the booster pressure switch triggering a time delay relay that controls a three way solenoid. The brine and permeate are tee'd at the solenoid, so when the system engages, the first 70 seconds of water is flushed.

I'm getting a post-ro TDS of 2 (about 300 in) with about 1.5:1 waste/product.


Pete

[kysard1]

Pete do you have a diagram of your setup?

[wife no likey]

no diagram, but basically the waste of the first membrane feeds the second, etc.

for the solenoid, I have the product water coming in and when the coil isn't engaged the product water goes out the top of the solenoid and joins up with the waster water and goes down the drain.

when the TDR engages the coil, the water then passes through the other outlet of the solenoid.