Wanting first RO filter - how to please!

[C Rose Cleaning Services]

So I'm now running almost 100% WFP for my upstairs work - bar flat roofs etc but that means I'm now using about 6L of resin a week with my Unger HiFlo DI filter (1 replacement bag a week - it's giving me about 450-500L of pure water per change)

I've been browsing online but am a little confused by installing an RO filter at home - obviously will save me £110 a month on resin but I'm confused how it 'works' without a van?... How do you hook it up? Does it have to be plumbed into your main water? I'm only renting so I don't want to start building it up under the sink.

What I would ideally like (if it's even possible) is to be able to just run an EZ snap or hozelock from my kitchen tap into the RO filter then back out the other end into the DI filter when I need to fill up my barrels and then unplug and put it back in the cupboard when I'm done.

Guess the burning question is, can I do this?? Or am I stuck just smashing through the Unger bags until I can build up a water butt and plumb it into the mains water?

 

[macca]

Firstly u need to find out the TDS of the tap water, which will then decide, if needed, an RO or just DI.

 

[David K]

Thats true !/emoticons/smile.png Other than that it's pretty simple. Just get an RO . Connect it to a garden hose type fitting. And in the other end another garden hose fitting which plugs in to a DI vessel and from that other end of that DI vessel ( garden too) the hose of pure run in to whatever container you got available.

I use a RO 4021 low pressure kit from Daqua , and a 11 l DI vessel . It runs forever, only changes the smaller pre-filters once in a while. . DI that type is about 330 pounds, and vessel is 70 I believe. DI comes with fittings and so the DI. You only need some hose . I would definitely do this on an outside location. If anything leaks ( believe me it will) you're screwed !

 

[spruce]

I would imagine your tap water tds is around 300 - 320 so an r/o is the way to go.

 

[TommoTrueShineWCS]

C

So...

dude, your exactly where im at. firstly, run your water through the DI as slow as possible, using the ECO-Flo insert.

give the DI unit a shake when it starts rising and you'll see a little more life come from each resin bag.

where am i going next? same questions as you...

i dont know if/how my rubber tap-to-hose can cope with extra pressure from a pumped RO filter system, but im sure its not as 'free-flow' as what we're doing with the simple yet effective unger DI unit.

now, im in a typical backward suffolk brick house with a pokey front kitchen and no hose to rear.

in this situation i can see there are probably a few ways i can increase my water production/obtain steady sources at home. ive been pondering on a few ways... one of them plumbing in a new outlet in the kitchen sink area, another, plumbing in a line from the main water tank in the loft, running the hose out the back, but have to consider winter/freezing etc with each of these being a project in itself, i may as well just get a hosetap plumbed in the back, buy a 1000 litre tank and save myself the time changing bottles/mopping a flooded kitchen floor... as the pressure around here changes so much, just slightly, that its impossible to 'time' a 25 litre bottle-fill.

collecting rainwater, this seems to be another way to increase water production, so jacking a butt up to the gutter would seems a good idea -probably not before cleaning the roof though... this water reads much lower than tap, and the humble 6L DI unit will run more water before expiring.

im going to be doing this in steps, but if you have the cash to outlay, then i would suggest going straight in for your desired setup.

my first step is to get a big tank in the garden and run a hose from DI out into the 'garden tank' probably will have to hook the line up out of the way of the kids etc, but for a few weeks only, then i will be begin building an RO rig to be housed in a small shed, next to the tank and ready for its plumbed water source. hopefully i will get the thing done quite cheap, but still effective.

my tap water comes 300-310ppm

 

[Marko067]

An RO system won't produce water as fast as just running it through DI resin so you need a method of storing your water. You then draw your pure water from wherever you've stored it when you need it.

Water butts work for many of us. These can be linked together to increase storage volume. I use a 400 ltr upright tank and have built a small cabin around it to shelter it from the weather and sunlight as you don't want your water turning green. This cabin also houses My RO, a 60w space heater for those sub zero days in winter, my trolley, charger and an l5 LPG heater for when I need it to heat my water in the winter. The RO is plumbed in with JG fittings which makes maintenance nice and quick. I can whip the RO out and have it on the garden table in less than a minute. The RO is plumbed into a garden tap with a short length of garden hose which can be removed when not in use. This too is helpful in winter as when not running the hose connecting the tap to the RO can freeze overnight. It doesn't normally freeze however, if it is running.

 

[spruce]

Setting up a reverse osmosis system looks complicated, sounds complicated but isn't complicated.

I hope Doug from Daqua doesn't mind me pinching a picture from his website.

View attachment 8195

All r/o systems work on the same basic principle. On this illustration the hose from the tap is connected onto the Hozelok coupling on the first blue prefilter. The first prefilter is a sediment prefilter and removes any sediment in the water.

The second prefilter is a carbon block filter and it removes chlorine from the water. Chlorine has to be removed as it eats membranes away.

Dechlorinated water then leaves the carbon block prefilter and goes into the reverse osmosis part of the process where the dissolved solids in the water are filtered out under pressure.

On the other end of the housing is 2 outlets. The one with the red gate valve is the waste (which must never be fully closed) and the other is the pure outlet (the outlet is in the end of the housing and looks like a nipple sticking out on Doug's photo.)

Opening the waste tap fully is done when you want to flush the membrane. It is then closed until you get a pure to reject ratio of between 50 to 50 and 60 to 40 (waste to pure).

The pure goes off to a di vessel to be polished off before going to your storage tank. We use an IBC tank and a transfer pump when we fill the van.

-

 

[David K]

Thats true !/emoticons/smile.png Other than that it's pretty simple. Just get an RO . Connect it to a garden hose type fitting. And in the other end another garden hose fitting which plugs in to a DI vessel and from that other end of that DI vessel ( garden too) the hose of pure run in to whatever container you got available.I use a RO 4021 low pressure kit from Daqua , and a 11 l DI vessel . It runs forever, only changes the smaller pre-filters once in a while. . DI that type is about 330 pounds, and vessel is 70 I believe. DI comes with fittings and so the DI. You only need some hose . I would definitely do this on an outside location. If anything leaks ( believe me it will) you're screwed !

Of course I meant RO is 330 pounds .

 

[David K]

Setting up a reverse osmosis system looks complicated, sounds complicated but isn't complicated.
I hope Doug from Daqua doesn't mind me pinching a picture from his website.

View attachment 11564

All r/o systems work on the same basic principle. On this illustration the hose from the tap is connected onto the Hozelok coupling on the first blue prefilter. The first prefilter is a sediment prefilter and removes any sediment in the water.

The second prefilter is a carbon block filter and it removes chlorine from the water. Chlorine has to be removed as it eats membranes away.

Dechlorinated water then leaves the carbon block prefilter and goes into the reverse osmosis part of the process where the dissolved solids in the water are filtered out under pressure.

On the other end of the housing is 2 outlets. The one with the red gate valve is the waste (which must never be fully closed) and the other is the pure outlet (the outlet is in the end of the housing and looks like a nipple sticking out on Doug's photo.)

Opening the waste tap fully is done when you want to flush the membrane. It is then closed until you get a pure to reject ratio of between 50 to 50 and 60 to 40 (waste to pure).

The pure goes off to a di vessel to be polished off before going to your storage tank. We use an IBC tank and a transfer pump when we fill the van.

-

That's a good unit ! Totally happy with mine ! Is yours a 4040 or 4021 ?

 

[spruce]

That's a good unit ! Totally happy with mine ! Is yours a 4040 or 4021 ?

We have a 4040.

Originally I started with a 225GPD r/o and upgraded it to a 450GPD when I replaced the membranes. The 450GPD served the 2 of us of nearly 5 years with a little planning. We then added my son in law part time and the 450GPD couldn't keep up.

It was only when I bought the 4040 that I realised how 'rationing' water had stifled our business. Even with a 4040 we had to stagger fill up times. I would fill my van in the evening, son would fill his van in the morning and son in law would fill his van at around lunch time. Sometimes SIL wanted to fill his van in the morning which created a bit of an issue.

As a single operator a 450GPD will do fine but you need to have a big storage tank as processing water is very slow, especially during the winter months when the tap water is much colder. You also need some form of auto switch off so the r/o will stop when the tank's full.

As a single operator the smallest r/o I would buy now is a 4021 which is 'half' the size of the 4040, but I would recommend a 4040. I had considered a 4021 knowing that I could upgrade it later by adding another housing and membrane. How, the expense would come when membranes needed to be replaced as a single 4021 membrane is not half the price of a 4040 membrane.

My view now is to buy a 4040. If you don't have water you can't work as water is one of the core components with wfp window cleaning.

-

 

[David K]

Deff Got a point there spruce !

Didnt realize there was such a big Diff between 4021 and 4040. Im a single operator and a rainwater harvester too in a 1000 L ibc . So plenty of water for as it rains pretty much round here (009 from roof ) . Are you harvesting ?

 

[spruce]

Deff Got a point there spruce !Didnt realize there was such a big Diff between 4021 and 4040. Im a single operator and a rainwater harvester too in a 1000 L ibc . So plenty of water for as it rains pretty much round here (009 from roof ) . Are you harvesting ?

No @David K. We had thought about it but our rainful is very inconsistant here in the North East of England.

Once I clean the gutters out of the garage roof the water I can collect from there is 2 to 4 ppm. Water off of the house roof is around 35ppm, but the roof is old concrete tiles that could do with painting/replacing to achieve a better quality of water.

Our tap water is also quite soft (99 to 125ppm) so could have gone di only to top up if we really had to. I'm not on a meter so it made sense to r/o it.

In fact the water comes out of the r/o at 2 so could clean with that, but I choose to polish it off to zero. As there were 3 of us with 3 vans it made sense to me to place the di between the r/o and our IBC tank. That meant that none of us needed a di vessel on the van.

The 4040 produces 2lpm of pure with our water pressure and no booster which is more than enough for us. We have since lost SIL who was the third van and the work he did has been past on to another young couple starting out window cleaning. They process their own water so I don't have to worry about providing water for them.

With having the r/o automated via a solenoid valve and level switch the processing of water doesn't need monitoring. Often I would come home in the afternoon and the IBC tank was full, even although SIL had taken water at lunch time.

-

 

[David K]

No @David K. We had thought about it but our rainful is very inconsistant here in the North East of England.
Once I clean the gutters out of the garage roof the water I can collect from there is 2 to 4 ppm. Water off of the house roof is around 35ppm, but the roof is old concrete tiles that could do with painting/replacing to achieve a better quality of water.

Our tap water is also quite soft (99 to 125ppm) so could have gone di only to top up if we really had to. I'm not on a meter so it made sense to r/o it.

In fact the water comes out of the r/o at 2 so could clean with that, but I choose to polish it off to zero. As there were 3 of us with 3 vans it made sense to me to place the di between the r/o and our IBC tank. That meant that none of us needed a di vessel on the van.

The 4040 produces 2lpm of pure with our water pressure and no booster which is more than enough for us. We have since lost SIL who was the third van and the work he did has been past on to another young couple starting out window cleaning. They process their own water so I don't have to worry about providing water for them.

With having the r/o automated via a solenoid valve and level switch the processing of water doesn't need monitoring. Often I would come home in the afternoon and the IBC tank was full, even although SIL had taken water at lunch time.

-

I see !:thumbsup: Thats a lot diff . Than mine 4021 , with Our pressure its about 1 min 40 sec . To make 1 liter . I know with a booster its a whole lot different . But as Said i have plenty of time to wait . Im about 60-70 % wfp . And of course if you arent on a meter and have a dirty roof ,then i Would just RO all my water . No doubt there ! /emoticons/smile.png

 

[spruce]

I see !:thumbsup: Thats a lot diff . Than mine 4021 , with Our pressure its about 1 min 40 sec . To make 1 liter . I know with a booster its a whole lot different . But as Said i have plenty of time to wait . Im about 60-70 % wfp . And of course if you arent on a meter and have a dirty roof ,then i Would just RO all my water . No doubt there ! /emoticons/smile.png

You have plenty in hand with your water production even if you didn't do any rainwater harvesting. /emoticons/smile.png

 

[David K]

Tottally !/emoticons/smile.png

 

[adamangler]

I won't read all the replies but here's how mine is setup it's very simple.

Outside tap is connected to inlet on RO.

The ro is in an outbuilding next to tap

Ro has a d.I cartridge on it so what comes out is pure.

The outlet of my ro goes direct into my vans tank to fill up.

That's it. When I get home o look how many litres I need to fill tank and put the ro on a timer overnight.

 

[KenBoon]

Thanks again for the replies!

I've bought some resin in bulk this time, and a Uni Valve to try and cut back on costs a bit.

Could anyone recommend a RO system please? I'd like to run it from our outdoor tap ideally! I'm still toying with the Water Butt idea too. I've got plenty of room in my garden. But it's been such a long time since we've had rain like most!

Thanks once again all ?

Kind Regards,

Ken