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Storing the pure

Luke Barnard

Active member
Messages
195
Location
Yggggv
Hello all.

Been at this about 8 months now and starting to fill my days with around 10-15 houses per day (all different shapes and sizes). Currently I've got a 350 litre tank in my van which I very rarely empty on a days work except when doing lots of first cleans or nasty upvc when there's no garden tap.

I've been using two 220litre water butts for storage in the back garden and pumping to the van through a hosepipe which I run through the house (its a terrace with drive out front).

I'm starting to get sick of the hosepipe through the house for half hour a day and the kids messing with the water butts so now I'm looking for a better way of storing/transfereing the water and came up with this....

Fit a 100 Gallon (450 odd litre) potable cold water tank in the loft (the coffin type with lid, you can get them from screwfix, aswell as the existing one for the house supply) run the tube from the ro upto that with a ball valve and overflow and gravity feed from that down to a tap on the front wall of the house or even move the ro etc upto the loft with the tank and run the waste into the soil pipe.

I'm pretty sure I can make it work, just seeing if anybody has any reasons not to do it this way???

What worries me is the extra weight in the loft and if in the future I need to store more water....

Sorry for the massive post and any thoughts much appreciated.

Thanks

Luke.

 
Spread the weight on an 8x4 sheet (if you can get one up there)and put it near the wall plate.

Go for it man. Gravity is great!

 
If you have a drive then the simple solution but not the cheapest is to get a plumber to sort out an outside tap at the front of the house. Then stick a decent fast flow 4040 size ro/di auto fill system in the van.

 
Spread the weight on an 8x4 sheet (if you can get one up there)and put it near the wall plate.Go for it man. Gravity is great!
Yeah I'm pretty sure I can get it over a solid internal wall, once I find a home for all the old baby clothes! Come to think of it they probably weigh half a ton so dunno what I'm worrying about....

If you have a drive then the simple solution but not the cheapest is to get a plumber to sort out an outside tap at the front of the house. Then stick a decent fast flow 4040 size ro/di auto fill system in the van.
I'd like a 4040 in the van but trying to stick to what I can afford rite now and my 200gpd ro with a booster pump is keeping up with me atm.

Thanks both for the tips.

 
i used to help a guy out with some window cleaning when he first started his cleaning company he had a 500 tank on a office roof in a unit it had 15mm pipe running down and throu the wall with a tap on used to take almost an hour for it to transfer to van by gravity. Go the smurf route or at least outside tap and plug in to ro in van

 
Could you run a semi permanent hose through a less obtrusive part of the house? Up the wall through the loft and down the other side? Maybe with black alkathene pipe 25mm with inline pump from your drums, filling your van in moments. How long you gonna stay where you live?

 
Could you run a semi permanent hose through a less obtrusive part of the house? Up the wall through the loft and down the other side? Maybe with black alkathene pipe 25mm with inline pump from your drums, filling your van in moments. How long you gonna stay where you live?
The garden hose through house is the biggest problem so yes could go for a larger bore pipe up through the loft and keep the butts...just looked up the tank and it's £250+ so think I'll add that to the ro fund and keep saving....in the house for a while, need a few years of records? to remortgage.

 
i live in an apartment and have to hook m 4040 up to a house tap for 3 hours in evening

4040 all fittings included only cost 370 brand new

 
i live in an apartment and have to hook m 4040 up to a house tap for 3 hours in evening
4040 all fittings included only cost 370 brand new
where do you drain you waste water from the ro? Problem is my drains are all at the back of the house...

 
just onto the street lol i have the hose connection thru bottom of van so tap goes in waste comes out i have van locked so sorted but jus leae it and it runs onto the street

 
The waste is normally around 10% no more than 15% I would say.

50/50 if you don't have a high tap water tds. So 350 liters of pure = 350 liters of waste.

I think waste 'disposal' is an important consideration. An objection from a neighbour to the council or water board can cause major problems, especially if an idiot down the road calls in to report a water leak. If you aren't on a water meter then the water board will want you on one.

Our neighbour turns a blind eye to the amount of water we pump into the vans each day - the odd comment made across the fence is enough to remind us that this could be a problem at some point even although we clean their windows.This same person has no idea about the amount of waste water we generate.

A windie I know has run his 1" delivery hose under his terrace house in the air gap between the ground and his floor. He stores his water in a black IBC tank next to his outhouse at the back where he keeps his r/o. He has a sub pump in his tank with an on/off tap in the front 'garden'. He then couples another length to fill his van in the street.

Back to the 4040 idea. If you have an air gap between the floor and the ground, a plumber would probably use this to route a pipe through from the front to the back. He could run a second pipe next to it for the waste water so you can dispose of it in the back drain.

 
I think I'd get away with 350 litres of water running off my drive for about two days given my nieghbours....Unfortunately my house is on a solid slab so underfloor pipes would be a big task, do you think the waste would have enough pressure to pass back up through the loft with the feed pipe and into the drain that way?

Failing that I guess I could surface mount it in a skirting board conduit through the house....

 
50/50 if you don't have a high tap water tds. So 350 liters of pure = 350 liters of waste.
That seems really high!

How old is your RO unit and do you flush it often?

You shouldn't lose that amount of water.

 
I have a 200 gpd system ain the kitchen and a 1000l icb tank in the garden and pump the water through the house. I do use a remote control (asda) so I can stand in the front doorway and turn it on and off. Normally takes about 4 minutes to pump full 300 litres.
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I think I'd get away with 350 litres of water running off my drive for about two days given my nieghbours....Unfortunately my house is on a solid slab so underfloor pipes would be a big task, do you think the waste would have enough pressure to pass back up through the loft with the feed pipe and into the drain that way?Failing that I guess I could surface mount it in a skirting board conduit through the house....
I would consider putting the r/o upstairs in the loft and put the waste hose into a bigger diamt pipe like you would do with your washing machine drain pipe. This would need to be higher than your r/o to stop it from siphoning.

 
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That seems really high!
How old is your RO unit and do you flush it often?

You shouldn't lose that amount of water.
http://www.ro-man.com/ro-facts.html

Does reverse osmosis waste a lot of water.

  • It depends on what you mean by waste. A home RO unit uses water to clean itself and wash away impurities. It's like a lot of other water-using appliances. We use water to wash clothes, to wash dishes, to wash cars, to flush toilets. A reverse osmosis unit uses more water in its operation than you actually consume, In terms of expense, it's like a couple or three extra toilet flushes a day.


  • Membranes require a reject flow rate of at least 4-6 times the product flow rate. Normally this ratio is maintained at approximately 5:1. Therefore, a membrane rated at 10 gallons per 24 hour day should be sized with a flow restrictor of at least 50 gallons per day.
     
    Under-sizing the flow restrictor in order to run the system at higher recoveries results in premature scaling of the membrane, and shorter membrane life, and/or an increase in higher-TDS product water. Our Systems are setup to produce a 5-1 Flow rate however you can buy and 3-1 restrictor if you want to reduce the waste water.


i have an inline tds meter on my 4040. I have found that the sweet spot for me is about a 55/45 waste to pure. If I reduce the waste to any less the tds of the pure output increases.

HF5 membrane is now 2 1/2 years old. The membrane isn't flushed all that often TBH. June from GAPS Water once said that regular r/o flushing is over-rated if you aren't in a hard water area. Our TDS is 125ppm.

Previous r/o was a RoMan 450 GPD. The membranes lasted 6 years. The restrictor fitted to that r/o was a 3 to 1.

 
The waste is normally around 10% no more than 15% I would say.
Mine is about 50/50 waste to pure as well if I try push it towards more pure the readings go up as well. My membrane is only 6 months old. How on earth do you get 10% waste?

 
Regular flushing is a must.

I was told it didn't really need doing so I hardly bothered but the lads at Pure Freedom changed my mind.

To get 10 - 15% I would;

Connect my filling hose and waste hose to the back of the van,

Turn the tap on,

Turn the booster pump on,

Open the regulator fully so all water goes to waste,

Have a cup of tea,

Go back and close the valve fully till the maximum pressure has built up,

Open the valve till the pressure drops by 10 % ,

You will notice a small trickle from the waste pipe while the majority is filling your tank.

Never had a problem with my readings after following that routine and saved a lot of water.

So I might be over the 10% slightly with the 10 minute flush but the 3-4 hours filling more than makes up for it.

 
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