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Is this brodex system worth asking price.

Reach For The Glass

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Kent
Hi guys

Been offered a brodex di / ro system with pre carbon filters, 250 ltr tank, controller, pump all sealed and caged ready to go.

Guy reckons it takes his tds from 395 to 0 ppm on board. Does this sound right?

What would you say it's worth its 3 years old.

No hose or reels included.

Thanks

 
Hi guys
Been offered a brodex di / ro system with pre carbon filters, 250 ltr tank, controller, pump all sealed and caged ready to go.

Guy reckons it takes his tds from 395 to 0 ppm on board. Does this sound right?

What would you say it's worth its 3 years old.

No hose or reels included.

Thanks
Did you ask him why he is selling it?

He probably would say that he wants something bigger.

And that's what I would say to you. A 250 liter tank is too small to get through a day's work. We find that a single operator will have a good day using 400 liters. Each of the lads had a 500 liter tank fitted to their vans so they had extra on the occassion they needed it. Once you run out of water, thats the day over with.

Another thing to bear in mind is that a 4040 membrane will cost you £250+ to replace. If the membrane is working at 90% efficiency the pure from the r/o would be at 40ppm. The resin in the di vessel will bring that down to 0, but the resin won't last long. A membrane working at that efficiency will need to be replaced. So just because he says it will bring the tds down to 0 doesn't mean the r/o is working properly.

What you have to consider when buying second hand like this is; is it worth £925 as you will need to count on having to replace the 4040 membrane and replace the resin in the di vessel. If you don't then its a bonus.

So is a second hand Brodex 250 liter system worth £925.00. Not in my books.

 
Cheers spruce.

He has just replaced the 40/40 membrane brand new.

It's a friend of mine. He has just taken it out of a 2010 berlingo he owned and bought a brand new lwb vivaro and put a 500 ltr brodex system in with flat tank. He also has to fit his carpet cleaning machine and pressure washer in the van.

So with a new 40/40 membrane is it worth 500 notes?

My concern was the 250 tank. What's that maybe 15 jobs max? Maintanance cleans.

 
Brodex parts can sourced from other supplies and 'encouraged' to fit. They used to use Shurflo pumps but now use another make with their logo all over it. The controllers can also be made to fit as Spring used to supply them. Williamson pumps supplied Brodex with Varistreams before Spring.

Other than that the tanks are pretty robust.

Sorry I didn't mean to infer that your friend was trying to hide something; so yes with membranes working correctly and the resin polishing off the remaining tds, 0 is expected.

Again, my concern is the size of the tank. A local windie had a 300 liter tank in the van and it wasn't big enough for a full day's work on his own. If the r/o, prefilters can be made into a stand alone system processing water into an IBC tank in your garage/shed, then you maybe able to top up during the day. However if its 3pm you may decide to not go back out again.

This is one way that a small tank can stifle business growth.

Whilst on the subject of Brodex's system you need either a combo fiberdyne/sediment filter or a second prefilter (first sediment and second carbon block.) Brodex only supply 1 prefilter which is a sediment filter. They believe that the chlorine in the water isn't enough to damage membranes. Every other supplier disagrees. So fitting a carbon block or fiberdyne prefilter to remove chlorine will extend the life of your membrane.

Another thing to watch is the Brodex Di vessel. They omit to fit an O ring on the riser tube that fits into the head. This omission means that not all the resin in the di vessel is utilised to polish off the water prompting early replacement. This means more resin sales.

Is the system worth £500 with a new membrane. Yes, I would say so, but the question is; is it worth buying for yourself due to the size of the tank?

Something can be a bargain, but if you can't use it then it isn't a bargain for you.

Maybe you could rob the tank of all it's fittings and buy another tank and frame and utilise all the parts.

 
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well worth £500, I started off with one of these systems, don't be put off by the 250 litre tank. I paired mine up with another white new 250 litre tank with a inch hose joining them at the bottom, both tanks have to be very similar in height ect but you will then have a 500 litre system.

 
As above a 250 litre water tank and frame will cost nearly that

Never mind pump etc etc

When the need for more water arises just buy another tank to fit along side

 
Apparently the membranes about 6 months old.

Fitted with a surflo pump.

Not sure battery wise what it requires? Leisure and scr??

It's tempting to be honest seeing as I do £15 a time filling up my 350 ltr tank once a week. So £60 a month on water I do.

I have no water meter at home either. No idea what it would cost to fill this though.

I would also be selling my brand new 350 ltr wydale tank which I could get some cash back to put towards it.

Mmm tempting.

 
if you already have a van set up then maybe not, you might be better spending your money on a home filling station. I bought a 1000 litre tank, 40/40 ro, 2 pre filters, hose, fittings, stop ****, and a transfer pump,i cant remember the price but it was sub £800. my water is 300+ and I get it down to 006 before it goes into my van tank. that way you would always have water to use and only takes a few mins to fill up. I then pass it through my resin and out the pole.

£500 is still a good price but you would have the hassle of filling up every night, which will take some time.

 
I do only do a day a week mate. It's all I need with Mrs working and my other work I have. But I do take this seriously.

I have absolutley nowhere to store water, I do have an outside tap though and no meter so this is probably better.

Currently have a 350 tank and backpack. I posted up a couple of days ago that a new pump,controller etc etc would be around the 400 mark but would still be buying water.

My only concern is that the upkeep of the unit. Resin costs, membrane costs etc is it worth it?

I have no idea how long this all lasts or costs. He said his new membrane was around £330 ?

I could go trolley and backpack but then I still have the aggro of filling up backpack and buying water.

 
This throws a whole new light on this discussion. If you only do 1 day a week then it's probably best you carry on the way you are.

An HF5 4021 membrane costs £192.00 including VAT and delivery from www.daqua.co.uk

Tulson Resin MB115 x 25 liters costs £75.00 including VAT from the same company.

Its hardly worth spending all that money for 1 day a week.

 
Don't get me wrong spruce I do alright only been going 6 weeks odd and already at my halfway target of 600 a month so hopefully I'll be at the 1200 this year.

Water wise not sure if it pays for itself. When you take membrane and resin into consideration.

 
Don't get me wrong spruce I do alright only been going 6 weeks odd and already at my halfway target of 600 a month so hopefully I'll be at the 1200 this year.
Water wise not sure if it pays for itself. When you take membrane and resin into consideration.
You know how much you pay for water.

Window cleaning off ladders could be a part time job; that's how my son started and I ended up helping him on Saturdays.

But once you go into wfp and processing your own water, then it needs to be more of a full time job.

If you are buying water commercially then they will have included the price of water in their price to you. So if you need water on a daily basis then processing it yourself is the cheapest way.

When we first started 11 years ago next month, I enquired on the price of water from a commercial window cleaning company that also sold equipment. My trailer held 375 litres and the cost was £18.00 + VAT. It was the same price if I filled up completely or only needed 200 liters to fill.

Processing my own water at home didn't cost any where near that.

In those days we were fortunate to get £6 for a 3 bed semi. So I would have to clean 4 before the water was paid for.

 
We have had a 4040 for the last 3 & 1/2 years (42 months).

The unit cost about £1000 as has 20" prefilters, a solenoid shut off valve, a purpose built cabinet with a tube heater and thermostat, inline tds meter, 6 liter di vessel and now a digital water meter.

The prefilters consist of 1 x sediment and 1 x fiberdyne carbon block filter. According to the fiberdyne specs the filter will remove chlorine from 78,000 liters of water before it needs to be replaced. We seem to reach this 78,000 liters every 3 months. As our r/o is set to a waste to pure ratio of 1 to 1 we use on average 12,000 liters of pure a month.

So every 3 months I spend £30 + VAT on prefilters. Last year and the year before we had all sorts of problems with sediment in the water, so I was replacing the sediment filter every month. So prefilters cost per year £72 + VAT for sediment and £96 + VAT for the fiberdyne carbon block = £168.00 + VAT.

This current year has seen an improvement in water quality so prefilters have cost £120.00 + VAT.

Our tap water is relatively soft at 96 - 125ppm. At 125 the r/o brings the pure down to 2ppm which is polished off by the resin in the di vessel. I'm still on the same membrane (HF5) and it is still performing exactly as it did when it was new. (The previous r/o was a 450GPD RoMan type unit and the membranes lasted me 6 years before they needed replacing.)

At 2ppm the resin in my 6 liter di vessel lasts a year. So I have only filled the di vessel 3 times since new and used 18 liters of resin. We still have 1 more fill of resin in September and then the 25 liter bag of MB115 Tulson resin is finished. It will last 4 years at £75 per bag.

At 2ppm I can clean without any issues, so I could have saved £75.00 + £65.00 for the di vessel, but I'm happy to have 0ppm of pure in my holding tank.

 
Wow cheers spruce great info mate.

I pay 4p a litre from Courtney. I have a 350 tank so

0.4 x 350 = £14 per fill.

I cleaned 10 houses the other day via back pack all first cleans aswell

5 x fronts only = 2 bay windows and front door on each.

5 x full house cleans = 2 huge houses, 3 terraced 3 bedroom houses.

I used the 350 on this lot. So I'm not sure wit regular cleans how much less ill use. But if I'm averaging 1 full up per day then £56 a month on water. So 9 months tge systems bought itself on water alone. Let alone time saved.

How long do you think my filters, membrane and resin would last doing 350 litres a week.

 
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