What filter system to buy?

[Fairy]

Hi, at the moment I'm buying my DIY water from a company, but they raised prices and cant be arsed driving all the way to fill up my tank. Whats best to buy? bet it will save me some money long term. thanks

 

[kahoona]

I think you'll find the answer depends on how much you use and what sort of planned growth (if any) are you looking to resource for. For what its worth I use about 200-250 ltrs per day. and use a VYAIR RO200- with a 5ltr DI vessel to finish.

hope this helps.

 

[spruce]

It will also depend on your water quality and if your water supply is metered or not.

TBH I won't go for anything less that a 450GPD r/o processing into a used IBC tank. Personally I would invest in a 4040. A 275 GPD r/o just provided enough water of one in the winter and when we became 2 a few years later the upgraded 450GPD just kept up with demand in the winter.

But we were always conscious of not wasting water. So it ended up restricting our business growth as sufficient water was always a concern especially when a big commercial job was done.

 

[Fairy]

I think you'll find the answer depends on how much you use and what sort of planned growth (if any) are you looking to resource for. For what its worth I use about 200-250 ltrs per day. and use a VYAIR RO200- with a 5ltr DI vessel to finish.hope this helps.

Hi mate,

I'm using it frequently, I probably use about 100 litres a day if that.

I've got a 1000L tank where I could ''store'' the DIY water.

I'm not sure what the differences are with the cheap and more expensive filters, surely they're all made to filter the water and turn it into pure water?

I've found one for about 30 quid called the OsmoPure 50 BA, it would make 190 litres in 24 hours, I'm not sure if thats really slow or not?

 

[steve garwood]

Yes that's really slow

 

[kahoona]

It will also depend on your water quality and if your water supply is metered or not.
TBH I won't go for anything less that a 450GPD r/o processing into a used IBC tank. Personally I would invest in a 4040. A 275 GPD r/o just provided enough water of one in the winter and when we became 2 a few years later the upgraded 450GPD just kept up with demand in the winter.

But we were always conscious of not wasting water. So it ended up restricting our business growth as sufficient water was always a concern especially when a big commercial job was done.

Hi Spruce,

I have been thinking about upgrading to a 40/40 for a while now, can you recommend any?

 

[dave83]

vyair all the way, ask for sam, mention dave from suffolk recommended you.

 

[spruce]

Hi Spruce,
I have been thinking about upgrading to a 40/40 for a while now, can you recommend any?

IMHO the majority of 4040's use a 'Champ' housing, so the only difference is the membrane. Vyair use a different housing which is cheaper but last time I looked they did a good quality American made membrane.

The unit I got was from GAPS water but Daqua also sell them now at a cheaper price than I paid. Once the unit was up and running I couldn't believe the amount of water we were getting. I even reconnected up my 450GPD r/o to compare. I wish we had done this years previously. There were times when I short filled my van so son and son in law had sufficient water for their vans.

If you are on a meter then the waste water is a big consideration. Our 450GPD had an inline restrictor in the waste outlet which was 3 to 1. So for every 1 liter of pure we produced we ran 3 liters to waste using 4 liters. With the 4040 our 'sweet spot' is about 1 to 1, so every 1 liter of pure costs us 1 liter to waste using 2 liters. The system is just over 3 years old and still producing the same water quality as it did new.

ATM our water pressure is 50 psi and the tap produces 13 liters of water a minute. I opted for the HF5 membrane as I didn't add a booster pump to the system. Our tap water tds is 120ppm and the reject water is 2ppm. I use 20" prefilters, 1 sediment and 1 Fiberdyne carbon block. According to the makers the Fiberdyne c/b filter will remove the chlorine from 78,000 liters of water. So for us that means we get about 38,000 liters of pure before the filter is replaced. We find that is about every 3 months. I have a water meter on the r/o so can easily see when filter replacement is necessary.

I also chose to have clear prefilter housings. Our water has been laden with sediment and we have sometimes replaced the sediment filter once every month. I have a pressure gauge on each side of the prefilters so can see at a glance when the sediment filter needs changing by comparing both gauges. I can see the muck on the sediment filter but the gauges are the best indication.

I have made a wooden cabinet for the 4040 unit which also includes a DI vessel to polish the water off before it goes into the IBC tank. I have an electric tube heater in the bottom which is controlled by a thermostat set at 10 degrees, so I never have to worry about the r/o being damaged by frost. (I do regular checks to ensure it's working.)

TBH I don't understand how the op only uses 100 liters of water a day. That isn't a criticism, its just trying to equate using that amount of water in our business. My son works with me these days and he would get through that in a couple of hours using his backpack. Some chose to do the tops wfp and clean bottoms traditionally. That never worked for me as I'm short. As I had to carry steps or a box to reach the tops of the downstairs windows, going full wfp made sense to me as it was far quicker and less hassle.

 

[kahoona]

Cheers Dave, ill give them a call.

Spruce thanks for this info very helpful.

Fairy sorry for hijacking your thread.